Politicians visit site of pollution in Nassau
Added contamination needs to be addressed, two congressmen say
Word of new contamination connected to Dewey Loeffel landfill draws congressmen’s attention.
Town Supervisor David Fleming stood in front of the Dewey Loeffel Superfund Site. Behind him was a sign that read “Danger! Hazardous Waste!”
More than 46,000 tons of industrial hazardous waste, including solvents, waste oils, PCBS, sludge and solids, were dumped there, Fleming said. And for decades Nassau residents have dealt with its effects — unsafe drinking water and health problems, including cancer clusters, Fleming said.
“Tragic,” said U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, who visited the site with fellow Rep. Antonio Delgado on Friday, just a few weeks after the Environmental Protection Agency notified the town that there is now another site, believed to be related to the Loeffel site, testing positive for contamination.
“The latest contamination has provided an opportunity where we can sit down at the table and talk about the reality and how we can serve the people that we are here to serve,” Delgado said. “It’s about protecting public health.”
Fleming received notification by the EPA Regional Administrator on March 14 that more contamination was found at the Loeffel property at 5525 County Route 203. The discovery included a buried 10,000-gallon chemical tank, as well as a Pcbtainted pond and trichloroethylene (TCE), a human carcinogen, in ground water.
According to town assessment records, the 8.8acre property near Sweets Crossing Road includes the Loeffel home, which is owned by Carol Loeffel, the 79-year-old daughterin-law of Dewey Loeffel.
Fleming said the newly found contamination several miles south of the landfill is believed to be related to Loeffel operations decades ago — perhaps as a staging area for trucks.
The town immediately began notifying residents who may be affected and providing bottled water, Fleming said. Fleming said he himself went from house to house knocking on doors.
He said his heart sank telling people. Some said they were horrified, others said “here we go again.”
Twenty-six private wells were tested in the area for new contamination, and the preliminary results found none have dangerous levels of chemicals such as PCB. Three wells were found to have TCE present, but levels were low enough for safe human consumption.
Fleming said the EPA is continuing its investigation into the extent of contamination, and results from the well tests still need to be finalized.
Unfortunately this is not new to residents.
“We’ve been living with this for an entire generation,” Fleming said.
The approximately 19-acre Loeffel landfill off Mead Road is was used as a dump in the 1950s and 1960s, much of it hazardous waste carried in by haulers for several firms including General Electric Co., Bendix Corporation, which is now Honeywell, and Schenectady Chemicals, which is now SI Group. The materials were dumped into a lagoon, an oil pit and drum burial area, according to the EPA.
The dump, which had no liner, allowing chemicals to leak into the ground unchecked, has been a persistent environmental headache. Its cleanup was first ordered by the state in 1968 to be done by Loeffel.
After a dozen fruitless years, the state took over the project in 1980 after striking a deal with GE, which paid $30 million to handle all cleanup costs. Part of that money paid for the cap placed over the Loeffel dump in 1984.
“It’s like putting Band -Aids on bullet wounds,” Fleming said. “They thought if they capped the landfill it would be fine but its still leaking chemicals.”
The EPA assumed control and installed a treatment system for rainwater passing into the ground and through the dump. Many millions of dollars have been spent by the state and federal government on the landfill but it has been proven time and time again that more needs to be done to solve this decades-old issue.
“This is environmental injustice of a blatant kind in a very small rural township,” Tonko said. “People should not be asked to live in this kind of stressful situation. The pollution of the past needs to be addressed.”