Northrop, Navy Face $585 Million Cleanup Tab on Dirty N.Y. Water

Cleaning up polluted groundwater at a pair of Long Island Superfund sites where Northrop Grumman Corp. once made military aircraft would have an estimated $585 million price tag, according to a revised New York state proposal announced May 23.

The proposed cleanup plan for the massive plume of polluted groundwater is the latest development in a long-running controversy over contamination from the Bethpage, N.Y., sites, which has generated lawsuits and political attention. The groundwater plume poses risks to nearby drinking water systems on Long Island, where 2.6 million people depend on a sole-source aquifer.

The plume, discovered ...