Environmental Hazards

The air at a North Bronx school may have been contaminated by dangerous chemicals for as long as 20 years.

Officials closed the Bronx New School at 3200 Jerome Ave. after repeated air monitoring tests since January revealed unsafe levels of several toxic chemicals, especially trichloroethylene (TCE), which is a possible carcinogen.

BAY SHORE - GLANCING out her home-office window here in 1999, Janine C. DiNatale was puzzled to see a stranger setting up a table on the sidewalk. She went outside and saw two other men, who were wearing hoods and full-body protective gear and were probing the ground.

State regulators will require Honeywell International to conduct a $448 million cleanup of Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, one of the nation's most polluted bodies of water, according to people who have seen the plan, which is to be announced today.

In gas leaks, state often decides not to tell

The bulldozers working at the corner service station caught Jason Hill's eye on a hot August morning in 1995. So did the truck that said "New York State Department of Environmental Conservation" in green lettering on the doors.

For years, the Hills had wondered why their washing machine smelled faintly of gasoline, and why they would get headaches and feel dizzy whenever they took a shower. And they didn't understand why their allergist couldn't find the cause for 11-year-old Jeanine Hill's chronic sinus infection.

In backyards Islandwide, the nightmare next door
Neighbor's buried oil tank threatens their lives, home.
Neighbor's buried oil tank elicits unfriendly feelings

THE BERGMANNS didn't strike oil; oil struck them -- and hasn't stopped.