Crews will soon begin to clean up material that was dumped at a Central Islip property.

The mounds of construction debris at the site on Sage Street currently stand about 20 to 25 feet high. An estimated 25,000 to 35,000 tons of materials will need to be removed.

Some of the contaminated fill from the property will go to the 110 Sand Company in Melville under a plan approved by the state. Other construction debris will be trucked to the Hubbard Sand and Gravel Corp. in Bay Shore. Most of the fill will be shipped to Pennsylvania.

The Sage Street property is one four illegal dumping locations discovered in and around the Town of Islip. An attorney for the company that owns the 1-acre property says they are victims of the illegal dumping.

Environmentalists say more needs to be done to prevent illegal dumping from happening again. "We've got this backwards here on Long Island," says Adrienne Esposito, of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "Illegal dumping of toxic waste needs to be considered a crime. It threatens public health, it threatens the quality of drinking water, devalues our homes and yet it's treated too casually. We have to get our priorities straight."

The cleanup was initially scheduled to begin this week, but the necessary equipment was not available. A coordinator for the company that is performing the cleanup says operations could begin as soon as next week.