By Alex Brooks
A very small amount of a chemical called PFBA (Perflourobutanoic Acid) was found in the water between the first GAC (Granulated Activated Carbon) filter and the second. The Village water system has two GAC filters, and the water goes through first one and then the other before going out to the distribution system. After going through the second GAC filter, the finished water was non-detect for all harmful contaminants.
The water that has been through the first filter but has not yet gone through the second filter is called “midfluent.” That water was found to have between 6 and 7 parts per trillion of PFBA in it. This is barely above the detection limit for testing of this chemical, which is about 5 parts per trillion.
PFBA is a C-4 chain chemical with a half-life of 3 days (as opposed to PFOA, which has a half-life of 3 years). There is only one state that has a PFBA drinking water advisory level. That is Minnesota, and their limit of what is acceptable in drinking water is 7,000 parts per trillion, according to Mayor Robert Allen.
Allen said the State is continuing to explore what this means and the focus of the research is to make a decision about how soon the carbon filters in the treatment system need to be replaced. New Village Highway Garage The new Village highway garage has been through many initial designs and Mayor Allen said, “each one feels like an improvement over the previous one.” He said the design will soon be finalized and he expects it to go out to bid soon, aiming for groundbreaking in the spring. The administration is hoping to have the new facility finished by early fall.
The building will be built next to the existing facility (on the side closer to the Village) and the existing garage will remain where it is, to be used for storage. The new facility includes five bays with large doors, offices, a men’s locker room and a unisex bathroom, a break room and a training room, as well as a loft area for extra storage. It will be set back from the road enough to have a diagonally set line of parking between the building and the road, so there will be adequate parking if larger meetings are held there, or for sporting events held at the ballfields across the road.
A proposal for engineering services to finish design of the building was approved by the Board at its February 13 meeting. The Board also approved a 2-month lease of an excavator so that the Village crew could do preliminary site work and excavation for the building.
FEMA Rejection
FEMA has officially responded to an appeal from New York State about having a disaster declaration for the July rainstorm and flooding, which took out many homes and businesses along the path of Woods Brook in the Village. The answer is no, and that seems to be the final answer.
Mayor Allen said he spoke to Rensselaer County Acting Bureau of Public Safety Director Ray Davis and he suggested helping those impacted by the storm to access SBA loans to repair their properties. These are loans which must be paid back, but they carry low interest rates and they may be available to both residents and businesses damaged by the July floods when regular bank loans are not. Allen said he is trying to get people out to Hoosick Falls to help people apply for these loans around February 20, 21, and 22. The SBA people typically are on site 9 am to 6 pm, but Allen said he is trying to arrange some evening hours as well. Check the Village web site for details concerning place and time.
Allen also said his highest priority as Mayor is to move forward with the Woods Brook Targeted Buy-Out program. He hopes to finalize the details of this program and be sitting down within weeks with property owners whose property was damaged by the July floods to explain all the details of the program to them. He cautions that “there is a lot that has to happen” to get this process moving, and “purchasing houses never goes as fast as we want,” but he also pledges his best effort to move the program forward as quickly as possible, and stresses that he wants to complete the bulk of the buyouts in Spring and Summer.