Cohoes mayor wants to tax Norlite plant

Others at workshop want to find way to close business

Mayor Bill Keeler wants to tax the hazardous wastes that are incinerated at Norlite’s aggregate plant here, but some people think the facility should simply be closed.

That is easier said than done, said Keeler, who presided over a public workshop Tuesday on a plan to impose a 4 percent tax on the money that Norlite gets for accepting and incinerating hazardous wastes that power its kiln.

“You just have to take the big step and close the plant,” said Dave Publow, of Troy. Publow said he’s making a documentary film about the plant and has encountered numerous neighbors of the plant with respiratory problems they suspect are related to emissions from Norlite.

“It doesn’t solve the problem,” Joe Ritchie said of a new tax. Ritchie lives in the subsidized Saratoga Sites housing complex next to the plant and has long worried about the health impacts.

But closing down a going business that has been in place for decades isn’t that simple and may not be something the city can do, responded Keeler.

“If you think the mayor of the city can throw a switch and put them out of business, I think you are mistaken,” said Keeler.

“I don’t know if we have the ability to put them out of business. I don’t think that’s a municipal call,” said City Council member Chris Briggs, whose ward includes the plant.

He agrees with the proposal for a tax, as well as closer oversight and monitoring of emissions and pollutants from the plant, which Keeler also wants.

Tuesday’s discussion stemmed from a plan that Keeler released earlier in the month calling for a 4 percent assessment on hazardous waste brought to the plant.

It isn’t yet clear how much that would generate.

The proposed tax comes just after the state passed a law that essentially banned the incineration of potentially toxic firefighting foam at Norlite.

Keeler said revelations over the winter that 2.5 million pounds of aqueous film forming foam had been incinerated there in 2018 and 2019 had posed heavy costs to the city in terms of time, effort and other expenses in dealing with fallout from the news.

AFFF contains PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds. Known as “forever chemicals” for their strong molecular bonds and slowness to decompose, they have raised health concerns.

PFAS are associated with illnesses such as thyroid disorders, cancers and other ailments, mostly in people where the public water supplies have been contaminated. Most Americans are believed to have at least some minimal amount of PFAS in their bloodstreams, since the chemical, which is also used in non-stick surfaces like Teflon, is ubiquitous.

While mostly associated with tainted water, the worries here have focused largely on emissions from the AFFF’S incineration.

Norlite stopped the incineration in 2020. And prior to the state ban, Cohoes imposed a municipal moratorium on AFFF burning.

The facility is the only one in New York, and one of just a handful nationwide, that had incinerated the foam.

Still, the company has permits to incinerate a variety of hazardous materials other than AFFF to power its kiln.

The kiln processes shale rock that is mined there into aggregate, or raw material for roads and construction projects.

According to 2018 and 2019 state records, solvents, oil and latex-based paints, jet fuel, ink, paint solvent, acetone and diesel are among the hazardous materials that are incinerated there.

In addition to Tuesday’s discussion, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the city will also host a virtual public information session at 6 p.m. on Wednesday to discuss issues related to the air pollution control emissions testing and shale mining at the Norlite facility.

To join the virtual session online go to https://on.ny.gov/norlite129webex and click “Join”; the event number is 178 272 7974 and the password is C6jammqeg38.