There is a constant hum at the corner of Armstrong Road and Park Avenue, not out of place among the electric and steel companies that make up the industrial side streets of Mineola. But it isn’t the sound of electric generators or the engines of machinery that can be heard above rush hour traffic. Behind an 8-foot gate sits a tiny beige cabin as unassuming as a tool shed—yet it’s the last line of defense between an invisible toxic gasoline additive, Methyl tert- butyl ether (MTBE), and the town’s drinking water supply. Within these walls a pump works day and night to strip the suspected carcinogen, a fast-moving toxin that has spread from a leaking storage tank more than a mile away, from residents’ water supply before it eventually hits the faucets of more than 8,000 homes.
