A citizen-led conference this weekend will cover potential cleanup options for a challenging Superfund site in Rensselaer County.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is still determining what to do with the Dewey Loeffel Landfill – a contaminated toxic waste dump that has created problems for the residents of Nassau and the surrounding area for decades.
The landfill has been the subject of attempts to contain pollution before – a cap has been placed on top and a processing facility is pulling toxins from groundwater. Last year, work began to begin removing contaminated sediment for a tributary leading away from the site.
But town leaders want to see more remediation. Nassau Town Supervisor David Fleming…
“We have the opportunity to make a real difference. I will not accept, nor will my community accept, band-aids on bullet wounds, as we’ve described the remediation efforts at the site for the last 40 years. We need a complete and comprehensive remediation of an extremely dangerous site in the Capital Region,” said Fleming.
The citizen-advocacy group called UNCAGED is holding a conference Saturday intended to start conversation about ways to clean up the former landfill contaminated with 46,000 tons of toxic waste.
UNCAGED member and engineer-by-trade Dan Spilman said several companies will provide information about different clean-up technologies.
“And the goal is to be able to educate the public and our community leaders, our elected officials, on options so hopefully we can push successfully to get some real remediation done,” said Spilman.
As EPA begins to develop a remediation plan, Spilman wants to build momentum among both new and longtime residents.
“Sitting idle and quiet will mean that probably the lowest price tag option will be pursued on the remediation, which means you might have a mess on your hands for many generations, so the whole push here is to educate people, to get ‘em active, and hopefully have enough of ‘em make enough noise that real action will happen this time through,” said Spilman.
Former Region 2 EPA Administrator Judith Enck says the Dewey Loeffel Landfill is one of the most difficult Superfund sites in the region.
“So the fundamental question for EPA: is do you dig up all of that material and bring it to a commercial hazardous waste disposal site, or do you find a way to cap and contain the waste? And there are well-informed, valid perspectives on both sides of whether you dig up or just let it stay there. And that’s why this conference which, actually, is citizen-led, is so important, is to look at innovative cleanup technologies that might be able to be used at this site,” said Enck.
The drawback is nobody from EPA will be at the conference due to the partial federal government shutdown.
“All of the day-to-day work at EPA, everything from air monitoring, to drinking water, to science, to enforcement, comes to a screeching halt,” said Enck.
The UNCAGED conference on the Dewey Loeffel Superfund site is scheduled for January 5th from 9:30 am to 5 p.m. at the Comfort Inn & Suites off I-90 Exit 10 in Castleton.
