Hoosick Falls residents were angered Thursday night after a meeting where the village board was scheduled to discuss a settlement agreement between the village and companies deemed responsible for contaminating local water supplies with the chemical PFOA abruptly ended.
The Hoosick Falls Armory gymnasium filled up, as it has for many recent meetings in the Rensselaer County village. Residents were eager to hear the village board discuss a revised $1.04 million settlement agreement between the village and two companies deemed responsible for polluting local water supplies, Honeywell and Saint-Gobain.
But the meeting was adjourned soon after it was started.
Village Mayor David Borge explained to the audience that a trustee was absent due to a medical emergency.
“They’re on their way to the hospital so that’s why we have done this. So the meeting is adjourned, thank you,” said Borge.
The decision did not sit well with the public. As the village board left their seats at the front of the room, the crowd challenged them to reopen the meeting for further discussion. It quickly grew into a shouting match.
Trustee Rick Didonato attempted to explain the decision to the people at the meeting, before angry residents voiced their opinion on the item that was previously scheduled to be discussed.
“His wife is in an ambulance on the way to the hospital!” shouted Didonato.
“We all vote no!” responded the crowd.
Resident Laura Peabody arrived to the meeting with her daughter and held signs protesting the settlement agreement that was initially tabled in late January amid widespread opposition.
“Look at all the people that are out here to voice their opinions and talk about this and they just walk out cowardly? Crazy! I understand that somebody is sick but there’s no reason they couldn’t have an open discussion about this. They just wasted our time, they make themselves look horrible and this is what happens. This is who we are supposed to trust in Hoosick Falls? I don’t think so,” said Peabody.
The revised agreement, released earlier this week, is still drawing heavy criticism. Former Region 2 EPA Administrator Judith Enck, a Rensselaer County resident, wrote a letter to the village saying she had “never seen a more one sided and ill advised legal agreement between a local government and large polluters…”
Resident Michele Baker said she thought the new agreement was worse than the old one.
“Shred it! Rip it up. You have a room full of people here that have great ideas. Listen to the people of Hoosick Falls and get yourself a damn good agreement to fight the toxic polluters,” said Baker.
As part of the revised agreement, the polluters would pay the village about $1.04 million to cover costs incurred by the village in responding to the PFOA contamination in the public water system, up about $153,000 from the agreement tabled in January.
The settlement would cover costs such as staffing and overtime, legal bills, an engineering consultation, and the hiring of a public relations firm when the news broke about the contaminated water.
In return, the village would not be able to sue Honeywell or Saint-Gobain for contaminating public water with PFOA.
The companies have installed a full-capacity filtration system on the village water supply and have also agreed to pay for point-of-entry treatment systems on private homes.
In January, Mayor Borge recognized the cleanup work by the companies to date and called the proposed settlement agreement “unprecedented.”
As the crowd began to clear out of the Armory building, trustee Didonato said the board hadn’t been informed of the absence until they walked in the door. He said it was a bad situation.
“All I can say is I’m sorry to our constituents that they showed up tonight and we didn’t have a vote. I hope they show up Monday night and we certainly will have a vote Monday night,” said Didonato.
The meeting was rescheduled for Monday at 6 p.m.