Two More Superfund Sites Coming, New Sites Being Investigated
by Alex Brooks
A meeting was held on June 19 to report on the progress of various ongoing investigations in Hoosick Falls. [Private]DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos opened the meeting, held at the Hoosick Falls Central School Auditorium, by saying the Hoosick Falls investigation is “the most significant undertaking this Department has ever had.” He said New York has invested $25 million so far, and they are a long way from done.
Mike Ryan, Assistant Director of the NYS Division of Environmental Remediation, gave an overview of the Superfund process and said Saint-Gobain’s Liberty Street site and Honeywell’s John Street site will be nominated for State Superfund designation, but Honeywell’s River Road site will not be recommended for such designation, as testing “does not indicate it is a source of contamination.”
In addition to these four primary sites, several other sites in Hoosick Falls will also be investigated. The Hoosick Falls landfill is under investigation, and field work has commenced there. The former Oak Mitsui site on First Street will also be investigated. Ryan said a consent order with Oak Mitsui is pending.
In addition, test results reported from groundwater sampling at the two Saint-Gobain sites was significantly higher than any that have been reported previously. At the McCaffrey Street site, the average level of groundwater samples was 7,686 parts per trillion (ppt), and the highest sample was 130,000 ppt.
At Liberty Street, the average of the groundwater samples was 6,671 ppt, and the highest was 48,000 ppt.
Around the John Street site, Honeywell tested for VOCs in a number of the neighboring houses. They had access agreement to 19 homes, and found that some kind of mitigation was needed in nine of them. Mostly this was concentrations of VOCs under the slab, which need to be vented to the outdoors.
Both Honeywell and Saint-Gobain had representatives at this meeting, who assured the audience that they are committed to cleaning up their sites.
John Morris of Honeywell said his company has a number of “legacy sites” where there is contamination, and he assured the public his company has a “robust capability” to deal with them. He stressed the “firm commitment of our company to do what’s right.”
Mike Ryan of DEC said, “We’re committed to being here until we have addressed all of the issues.”
Alternative Water Source
James Moras, Section chief at the Division of Environmental Remediation, reported on his agency’s progress looking for alternative water sources that do not contain PFOA. He said they began looking for alternative water sources in February of 2016. The first three sites they tried did not produce enough water, but the fourth was promising, so they drilled a 10” well at that location and tested how much it could produce. He said that well could supply about half the water needed for the Village. Water from that well has no PFOA in it, but one of the smaller test wells around it, used to test the extent of the water available, was found to have 2 to 3 parts per trillion of PFOA in it. That well is about 450 feet away from the main well.
Moras said his agency is continuing to work on a feasibility study seeking alternative sources of water, which they hope to complete by the fall of 2017.
At the conclusion of the presentation, former EPA Region 4 Chief Judith Enck stepped up to comment. She said until that evening, the highest groundwater concentration we had heard about was 18,000 ppt. She said she found it very troubling to be dealing now with concentrations of 48,000 ppt and even 130,000 ppt. She said, “We are going to be dealing with this for decades.” [/Private]