The Rensselear County legislature is scheduled to take action on Tuesday on a measure related to a facility across the Hudson River in Albany County that burned U.S. Department of Defense firefighting foam.
The Norlite facility in Cohoes was contracted by the Defense Department to incinerate the foam, laden with toxic PFAS compounds. Burning is currently on hold as the state Department of Environmental Conservation is reviewing regulatory compliance and working with the U.S. EPA and Norlite to monitor what comes out of the smokestacks there.
The local legislation to be considered Tuesday would ask the DEC to install air-monitoring devices along the Hudson River and near the Tomhannock Reservoir.
Republican Rensselaer County Legislature Chair Mike Stammel, who also serves as Mayor of the City of Rensselaer, spoke with WAMC about his concern over the potential contamination of the county’s drinking water.
