Norlite plant’s toxic dust worries Cohoes neighbors
Activists, local residents raise alarm about tiny glass-like shards settling over area
One of the first things Joe Ritchie does when he walks out of his home in the morning is wipe away the green dust that accumulates overnight on the windshield of his car. He does the same thing each night.
His apartment as Saratoga Sites is next to the Norlite aggregate plant and incinerator.
"I make sure that I clean it every single day before I go inside. When I go out it's all crappy again," said Ritchie, a college student who created the group Saratoga Sites Against Norlite Emissions.
Now, he's learned the dust tover the area for years could be hazardous to his health.
On Thursday, a group of activists and local residents raised alarms about what they said is the revelation unhealthy silica quartz dust is the substance that has long coated the surrounding area with grime and raised fears about lung disease.
“The news is really unsettling,” Ritchie said of a recent analysis of the dust.
Dave Walker, a retired Columbia University geology professor, examined the powder, characterized by tiny glass-like shards that can be a respiratory irritant.
“The dust is dangerous,” he said.
It is no secret that the quartz or silica dust has come from Norlite. It has been listed for years in state safety records filed by the facility.
And some have noted that silica quartz is not uncommon in dust. The Norlite plant is also on the edge of the small city of Cohoes and sits next to a rail line. But this dust, Walker said, shows up under microscopes as volcanic glass, suggesting it came from an incinerator, rather than the general atmosphere.
Worries about the dust, which some neighbors say has been appearing for decades, have been renewed in the last year after revelations that Norlite had in 2019 and 2018 incinerated 2.4 million pounds of firefighting
foam that contained potentially toxic PFAS or per- and poly fluoroctanoic acid, a suspected carcinogen.
PFAS incineration has since been banned in New York.
Thursday’s talk also came less than two weeks after a small fire broke out but was quickly contained at the facility. Ritchie, in an earlier interview, said he believed the residents of Saratoga Sites, which is a federally subsidized housing complex, should get briefings or information about emergency or contingency plans established in the event of a larger accident at the facility.
Norlite accepts materials including hazardous wastes such as solvents that it uses to help fuel its kilns. The kilns process rock mined on-site into construction and road-building aggregate. Norlite is also paid to accept and dispose of hazardous waste.
Prince Knight, Norlite’s environmental and regulatory compliance manager, said they operate under strict emissions permits issued by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“The agencies confirm and enforce our compliance through regular inspections of our emissions-control equipment and data, which are accessible to regulatory personnel at all times. Norlite has invested heavily in state-of-the-science environmental control technology,” he wrote in an email.
While there have been worries about the smokestack emissions from the kiln, participants in Thursday conference said the dust is likely blowing from the large open-air aggregate piles of materials at the plant. Some of the piles are less than 100 feet from Saratoga Sites, they said.
Nearby resident Chris Sevinsky spoke of a woman he knew who lived 800 feet from the plant and had endured “dust storms at family picnics” for years.
She recently died of pulmonary fibrosis, but Sevinsky said it would be impossible to prove it was caused by anything from Norlite.
DEC in a prepared response said the agency will review the information from Walker. It also will deploy additional air monitoring equipment at Saratoga Sites.
Additionally, Ritchie said the state is bringing in a new onsite monitor to Norlite.
The previous DEC monitor, who had been there for years, raised eyebrows late last year when he told the City and State news site that he wasn't that concerned over the burning of PFAS chemicals. “I’ve been using that stuff on my furniture, and my car seats, and my camping equipment, since I was a kid,” he said,
Theresa Bourgeois, operations director for Cohoes, said Mayor Bill Keeler has asked why the aggregate piles aren't covered.
DEC is conducting its own dust study at the mayor's request.
Housing Authority Chairman Mark Pascale said they are working to move the approximately 70 families at Saratoga Sites to another location and have applied to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for permission to close it.
“No one should have to live there under these circumstances,” he said.