Eleven State and County officials came to Petersburgh on Tuesday, October 3 to update the public on the latest developments in the PFOA investigation in Petersburgh. About 20 citizens attended the presentation.
Groundwater Contamination
James Moras, DEC Section Chief in the Division of Environmental Remediation in Albany said his agency is trying to get its work plan finished and approved. He said he expects that to be completed within a month or so. Once that is approved, he estimated it would take about two years to finish the investigation and develop a “Proposed Remedial Action Plan,” which will recommend what action should be taken to clean up the pollution. Once completed, the Proposed Remedial Action Plan will go out for public comment, and after the Plan and the public comment on it have been thoroughly reviewed, the agency will issue a “Record of Decision,” which details what remedial actions will be undertaken to clean up the site. Once that has been issued, the cleanup can begin.
Citizens complained about this process being too slow, and DEC Region 4 Director Keith Goertz disputed that. He said, “We are not dragging our feet. The most important part of this is eliminating the pathway to exposure. We have done that. Now we are moving forward with an in-depth investigation.”
Another thing on citizens’ minds was what would happen if anything were to happen to Taconic. Who would maintain the filters on the Water District, and those on the POET systems? Goertz said, “We will.” Whether Taconic reimburses them or not, Goertz said, DEC is going to make sure the filters are maintained and the investigation and remediation continues.
Blood Testing
NYSDOH Scientist James Bowers answered questions from the public about blood testing. The most heated discussion was about arranging another local blood sampling event. Bowers said after the initial sampling events, turnout for sampling events has been very low and it has not been worthwhile to hold these events. On behalf of the C-8 Committee, Heinz Noeding insisted that a good turnout could be arranged if his group helped with publicity and outreach. Although reluctant, Bowers said he would take the idea back to his agency and continue discussions about that.
Bowers said a decision had been made to test the existing blood samples for other perflourinated compounds. These are known by their abbreviations. He mentioned a few: pfna, pfos, pfvs, and pfhpa. He said the Department will, of course, seek permission from those who had blood samples taken before testing for these other compounds.
Bowers was asked if a report is going to be issued summarizing the blood test results in Petersburgh. He said the group results are being processed at DOH now, and he hopes to release some summary information in a couple of months.
Some pressed Bowers to characterize the health risk for those with elevated levels of PFOA in their blood, but he said he could not do that. “We don’t know where the health risk lies.” He said “even at high levels we don’t see consistent outcomes.” When asked about ways to reduce PFOA levels in the blood, he said “there is no known way of accelerating the dilution of PFOA in the blood.” He said even if you drink twice as much water as you normally do, it doesn’t appreciably accelerate the half life of the chemical in your blood.
Air Deposition
Tom Gentile, DEC Chief of the Air Toxics Section of the Division of Air Resources and DEC Environmental Engineer Ben Potter gave a presentation about recent studies they have done of Taconic’s air emissions. They tested for a variety of perflourinated compounds which were identified by their abbreviations, but he also identified them as C-4, C-5, C-8, C-9, and C-11. PFOA (C-8) emissions were calculated at 3.75 grams per year, which is slightly less than the weight of a quarter. The other compounds were slightly less, in the general area of 2 to 3 grams per year. Gentile said, “These trace emissions will not cause health effects.”
Potter said the overall efficiency of the scrubber, which they call the “Fume Eliminator,” is about 90%. But he noted that the compound now being used instead of PFOA, which he identified as HFPO-DA or Gen-X, is being scrubbed out of the air emissions at a rate of greater than 99%. Emissions of that chemical were calculated to be 1.25 grams per year.
Gentile said his agency is planning to study soil samples to test the extent of air deposition of PFOA. He said studies of this kind in other states have consistently shown air deposition to be very localized, with the highest concentrations within 1000 feet of the source, so this study is likely to be focused in the immediate area of the Taconic plant.
Potter said he is available to respond if there is a strong smell in the area, to investigate what it might be. He said one call he had which smelled like burning plastic was indeed burning plastic coming from a burn barrel in somebody’s yard. He said if you smell something, call him at 518-357-2045, and he will investigate.
Fish Study
Chris Van Maaren of DEC reported on the ongoing Fish Study. He said the fish, taken from the Hoosic and Little Hoosic rivers from the area near the Taconic Plant down to an area below the Hoosick Falls landfill, were tested for 13 perflourinated compounds. He said the fish in Thayer’s Pond, next to the landfill just north of the Village, were the only ones with levels that would cause concern. Accordingly, the State issued an advisory concerning fish from Thayer’s Pond. But, of course, most local people already knew that it was a bad idea to eat fish from Thayer’s Pond, as the pond has at times turned strange colors. In the running waters of the Hoosic and Little Hoosic, Van Maaren said PFOA levels in fish flesh are generally in the single digits in parts per billion.
Van Maaren said the report on the fish study is not final yet, but it will be released to the public when it is final.
Petersburgh/Berlin Landfill
DEC Region 4 Director Keith Goertz said a leachate collection system should have been installed when the landfill was closed, but it was not. The company that closed the landfill, Energy Answers, was responsible for doing that, but for some reason they didn’t. Goertz said some correspondence has been located between DEC and Energy Answers about this. He said Energy Answers was arguing that a leachate collection system was not necessary, and DEC was saying that it was needed, but the matter was never really settled, and it was eventually forgotten.
But the Towns of Berlin and Petersburgh will now be required to put in a leachate collection system, and they are exploring whether the successor company to Energy Answers can be held responsible after all these years for the failure of Energy Answers to put one in as part of its landfill closure project. Since that time Energy Answers has been bought by a larger company called Covanta. Petersburgh Town Supervisor Alan Webster said the Town has been in communication with Covanta. He said Covanta is doing “due diligence” on the matter, and has promised to respond to the Town’s inquiries by the end of this month.
DEC Regional Chief Keith Goetz said the contaminants of concern at the landfill are limited to PFOA and PFOS. The data so far have not shown any significant concentration of any other hazardous material.
There will be further investigation of the landfill, though. DEC Regional Hazardous Waste Remediation Engineer Rick Mustico said DEC will be drilling nine more pairs of test wells (one deep, one shallow) at the landfill in November, and he expects to have an amendment to the site characterization with that data included by next spring.