The Village of Hoosick Falls, New York is expected consider a $255,000 Interim Settlement Agreement with Saint-Gobain and Honeywell, related to PFOA water contamination in a special meeting Wednesday night.
Mayor Rob Allen says the agreement includes $185,000 for past costs the Rensselaer County village took on as a result of the contamination and $70,000 in anticipated costs related to the operation and maintenance of a water filtration system for the current fiscal year.
"This agreement is another small but important step forward as we work to make the Village whole," Allen said in a statement. "Not only does this reimburse the Village for more of the previous financial burden it had to bear, but it also addresses anticipated costs related to the daily costs of operating the filtration system, something the Village began taking on when the system came online in late 2016. Most importantly, we still maintain our legal rights; in short, the Village’s costs are covered and the Village maintains its claims for damages against the companies."
PFOA has been linked to ill health effects including cancer.
"There is still more work and more investigation that needs to be done to understand the full extent of the PFOA contamination," Allen said. One major part of the Village's long term recovery will be the release of DEC's Alternate Water Supply Study anticipated in July. This report will list out all of the available options for the Village's long term water supply. "This is a big part of understanding where Hoosick Falls will be with water five, fifty, and a hundred years from now."
The Board of Trustees meeting is set for 6 p.m. at the village’s municipal building.
