Superfund status
Former dry cleaning site left vacant for past four years being considered
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. » A former dry cleaning site that’s been vacant for four years may soon become part of the state’s Superfund program.
Villlage officials and residents were told at a recent meeting with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Conservation the status would move forward plans to clean up the former Rickett’s Dry Cleaning, which closed in 2013.
Don Graham, on-scene coordinator of the site for EPA, said the EPA had been “surprised” by its initial findings, saying that, even though there were traces of chemicals used in Rickett’s facility, no air contamination was found in any of the 50 homes tested.
“We don’t have enough information yet, so DEC will be doing systematic testing at the site and the downgrading from it,” Graham said.
In August 2016, the EPA was asked by the DEC to conduct an environmental assessment of the site and what’s known as a “Vapor Intrusion Sampling test.”
The results of those tests, which included testing of air quality in 50 nearby homes, revealed no contamination from the polluted groundwater traveling from the 1.4-acre Rickett’s site. Mayor John Romano said state environmental investigators will conduct a second random testing of three or four homes to verify the earlier findings. The mayor also said that the EPA will be removing some materials from the site before the project is turned over to the DEC.
Chemicals found in the groundwater at the site included chloroform, TCE, PCE, vinyl chloride, benzene, and naphthalene. However, Rickett’s has been closed since 2013 and, according to Graham, the most dangerous chemicals – which are known human carcinogens – were not used during Rickett’s last years of operation.
Graham said the site was “very contaminated” and the cost of cleanup would probably by between $2 million and $3 million and take two to three years to complete.
Village Board member Shawn Raymond said he thinks the “outcome at the Rickett’s site is better than we could hope for, and it appears the DEC will be taking the lead.
“It hasn’t been entirely ruled out, as far as I am aware, that the owner’s might engage in the Brownfields process,” Raymond said. “If they decide not, then it would go into the superfund system, which could take a number of years.”
Village Board member Noah Shaw said he is confident that the village will “continue to press the EPA and DEC to work quickly to determine whether the site will be classified as a superfund or otherwise deemed eligible as a brownfield.”
He added that the site has significant potential, given its size and location and the faster it can be remediated and redeveloped, the better for the people of Ballston Spa.
DEC officials were not available to comment on the timeframe on when Rickett’s would officially become part of the Superfund program.