Hoosick Blame Game
State and federal officials are pointing fingers at each other over the Hoosick Falls mess — and it looks like they’re both right.
Both sides played the blame game at last week’s long-delayed legislative hearing on contamination of the upstate town’s groundwater by the chemical PFOA, thanks to its past use in making Teflon at a local plant.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency “shifted” its position “repeatedly,” complained state health czar Howard Zucker. He demanded “less confusion” from the EPA.
But in written testimony sent to the hearing, EPA official Judith Enck said her agency “delegated primary responsibility” to the state. She later told reporters that Albany had chosen to adopt a more lenient standard for water safety.
Furious (and scared) residents want to know why both the feds and state officials let them drink their water despite having reason to question its safety.
One local, Michael Hickey, said it was a snap to find the red flags. “It was a five-minute Google search,” he said. “All I typed in was Teflon and cancer, because that’s what was in the factory.”
Hickey’s dad, who’d worked at the factory, died of cancer. Afterward, the son hired a lab that in 2014 found his water had high levels of PFOA.
Yet officials kept on telling folks not to worry. Not until last November did the feds even “recommend” using alternate sources of water for drinking and cooking.
On Jan. 27, Gov. Cuomo finally deemed PFOA a “hazardous substance” and announced plans to address the crisis.
Is there a better example of incompetence? As Hickey quickly discovered, the links between PFOA and diseases like cancer have been known for years. There’s a reason manufacturers stopped making it.
The EPA itself issued a “health advisory” against short-term exposure to PFOA above 400 parts per trillion in 2009. Yet it had no such warning at all for long-term exposure until May, when it set the bar at just 70 ppt.
And New York’s environmental agency ignored even the short-term warning, allowing up to 50,000 ppt. (Tests showed Hoosick Falls’ water had more than 600 ppt.)
The feds’ dithering doesn’t excuse Albany’s recklessness. Remember, this is the same governor who banned fracking as a risk to public health, even though research proves it isn’t.
Seems tiny Hoosick Falls, with all of 3,500 residents, just doesn’t have the kind of clout as folks like Robert Kennedy and the enviro-radicals who pushed the fracking ban.
True, no one can know the extent of the damage PFOA has caused in Hoosick — and elsewhere. Even now, Zucker says exposure doesn’t necessarily indicate long-term health consequences.
But residents fear not only for their health, but for their property values and even their jobs. Having officials pass the buck does little to help.