by Alex Brooks
At the Petersburgh Town Board meeting on Monday July 18, Supervisor Webster said there has been some seepage of water out of the closed landfill, which is at the top of Jones Hollow Road near the Berlin town line. This leachate is making its way into surface streams which carry it down into the Little Hoosic River. Initial tests of the leachate showed PFOA levels of over 4,000 parts per trillion, [private]but State officials were not ready to release confirmed figures. But the next day, on Tuesday, July 19, DEC Region 4 Director Keith Goertz called Webster and released validated numbers on the testing that they did. The leachate was found to have 4,200 parts per trillion (ppt) of PFOA in it. Samples taken from the stream below the landfill were found to have 440 ppt. Of three samples taken from the Little Hoosick River downstream of this tributary, the lowest level was 2.7 ppt and the highest was 7 ppt.
Contaminated water from the landfill has been seeping into that stream. Photo by Alex Brooks
More testing will be done, and Webster said information about this will be released as soon as he has it.
Supervisor Webster and Town Attorney Gruenberg met with officials from the Environmental Facilities Corporation, a state agency which makes loans and grants for water and infrastructure projects, seeking to understand better how to secure funding for expansion of the Water District or for drilling new wells in a location that is free of PFOA contamination. Gruenberg reported that it is a complex situation and it will probably involve several grants from different agencies, but both Gruenberg and Webster felt it was a productive meeting which helped to move the Town closer to getting the funding that it needs.
Webster said the concrete pad for the filtration system has been poured, and the filtration system is expected to be installed by the end of August. Webster said Taconic wanted to have it installed on a faster schedule, but the NYS Dept of Health had to review and approve the system being installed, which has taken some extra time.
Supervisor Webster said he and Councilman Dennis Smith met with people from Taconic to discuss turning over to Taconic the bottled water distribution so that Town officials don’t need to be involved in that on an ongoing basis.
Councilwoman Denise Church reported on a June 30 meeting with Senator Marchione and several high-ranking officials of the Cuomo administration, including Jim Malatras, the Governor’s Director of Operations. At that meeting, Malatras agreed to offer filtration systems for private wells funded by the State even if they tested below the EPA advisory of 70 parts per trillion, but Webster and Church did not yet have a procedure for signing up to have those filters installed.
Church said communication is greatly improved between Town leaders and State officials and she is optimistic that this will lead to greater responsiveness to the town’s needs.
Webster said dealing with the PFOA issue is going to take time, and much as he would like to resolve the entire thing in a month and move on, the reality is that building an enlarged, PFOA-free water system is not going to happen quickly. The immediate goal is to get filtration systems in place for all those who need it, and to keep moving forward towards a more comprehensive solution.
Photo by Doug La Rocque
Former Supervisor Siegfried Krahforst presented the Board with a plaque and award ribbon that was given by the Berlin July Fourth Parade Committee in recognition of Petersburgh’s 225th Anniversary. Petersburgh’s parade float was created by Krahforst, Neal Geary, Rolland Hewitt, Walt Walters, and Tim Church.
Supervisor Webster said he had spoken to the engineers supervising the Broken Wheel Bridge project, and he was assured that the project is on schedule and expected to be completed by the end of September.
The Town received a message from County Highway Superintendent Scott Gallerie saying the truck that he has proposed selling to the Town of Petersburgh has not been released yet, and he didn’t lay out any time frame for when it would be. He suggested the Petersburgh Town Board consider how much it would be willing to pay for the truck, which puzzled the Board because they thought it has been offered for $15,000 and they had accepted that price. Webster said he would contact County officials and try to clarify the situation.
The Board considered a resolution to lower the speed limit on Hewitt Road, Armsby Road, Lewis Hollow Road and Hill Hollow Road. They agreed that they would like to see a speed limit of 35 miles per hour on those roads. In order to be implemented, this would have to be approved by County and State officials, so the Board took no action but agreed to make the request.[/private]