Utility marks end of gas plant cleanup
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Central Hudson and city officials on Thursday heralded the completed work to remediate a former gas manufacturing site by entombing contaminants in a concrete-like container along the Rondout Creek.
Mayor Steve Noble said during a Thursday press conference that the $20 million, yearlong project helped resolve environmental problems that impacted the creek.
“This really was a site that had a very long legacy here in Kingston, and it was one that was somewhat hidden,” Noble said. “There was a very active facility just on the other side of it, so most people didn’t know that this site existed. But Central Hudson did, and what’s really important to me is that they didn’t forget about it.”
Wayne Mancroni, environmental affairs manager for Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp., said 30,000 cubic yards of material were taken out of the creek and from the 1.7-acre property at the south end of North Street.
“The contaminants were the byproducts of producing gas before there was natural gas,” he said. “... It was a very dirty gas, so we would try to purify it and put it through these beds of activated wood chips and things of that nature, [and] the material that came out of it would be a liquidy, gooey substance called coal tar.”
The state Department of Environmental Conservation says the site was used as a manufactured gas plant from the 1890s until 1958 and since has become a natural gas regulator station.
“There was no longer a need for these plants, so they started getting mothballed, but in the ’50s ... the requirement for the contaminants left behind [was to] dig a hole and bury them,” Mancroni said.
The remediation work included making the container at least 27 feet deep in some locations.
“It like a concrete slurry ... but it’s not concrete like you’d think of for a building foundation,” Mancroni said. “It sequesters the [contamination] in the ground and holds it here so it can’t go anywhere. ... It’s a concrete grave that will never move.”