by Alex Brooks
DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said at the State Senate Hearing held at the Hoosick Falls Central School High School auditorium that the State has spent $25 million already responding to the PFOA crisis and expects over the next ten years to spend another 50 million. He said his goal is to make the polluters pay the entire (projected) cost of $75 million, but he added that he expects EPA to reimburse New York State for any part of it that is not paid by the polluters.[private]Seggos was very critical of EPA, saying they “made the situation worse by failing to regulate PFOA for 15 years, changing their recommendation for how to handle PFOA contamination, and offering guidance from EPA Region 2 that conflicted with the guidance from EPA headquarters.”
EPA did not send anyone to the Senate Hearing, so they could not respond right away and in person, but they have responded in interviews in the media, and there is a low-level war of words going on between EPA and the two New York State agencies involved, DEC and DOH.
Seggos said he was proud of his agency’s aggressive response to the PFOA crisis: New York became the first state in the nation to regulate PFOA as a hazardous substance; declared a State Superfund site; placed Saint-Gobain and Honeywell under consent orders to investigate and remediate the contamination; and installed more than 830 treatment systems on private homes – which he said had never been done at this scale, this fast, anywhere before.
Seggos assured the public that his agency will maintain these systems – “We are committed to supporting and maintaining these POET systems until the risk of PFOA contamination has been abated and treatment is no longer needed.” He promised a comprehensive solution: “Once our investigation is complete, we will issue a binding decision that will establish a comprehensive remedy to clean-up the Hoosick Falls area. This will also require the responsible companies to fund long-term drinking water solutions, both for residents on the village water supply and those on private wells, among other things.”
Hoosick Falls Mayor David Borge described the many twists and turns of his journey from the first approach of Michael Hickey sharing his findings to the long process of getting up to speed on the danger of PFOA to negotiations with Saint-Gobain for investigation of groundwater and filtration of drinking water. He described his and the Village Board’s “confusion, frustration, and alarm” when EPA issued a statement to the press urging residents not to drink the water, contradicting the guidance that the Village had been receiving from the NYS Dept. of Health for a year and a quarter. He offered his thanks to local residents for their patience and support “as we struggled to respond to this crisis.” He said he hopes a guidance document can be developed for other communities who may face a similar situation, to help them respond as quickly and effectively as possible.
Hoosick Supervisor Mark Surdam, whose testimony followed Mayor Borge, strongly defended Borge. He said Borge and the Village Board were “extremely proactive in gathering information, contacting authorities who oversee water systems, and sharing information with local residents. Surdam said, “The Village is blessed to have the leadership of Mayor Borge.” He talked with admiration of Borge’s dedication and the enormous amount of time he put into working on this crisis, most of it uncompensated.
Surdam said he believes there was a genuine disagreement between the State DOH and the USEPA. The Village and Town were actively working with DOH and had been for well over a year when EPA came in and changed the guidance. Surdam suggests that the two agencies should really work out their differences so that local officials aren’t caught in the middle. He said the EPA intervention brought a great deal of fear to the community and resulted in a lot of mistrust of the Mayor and the Village Board being generated.[/private]