The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is investigating an aluminum salt spill at the village of Catskill’s water treatment facility. The DEC says about 1,500 gallons of alum leaked from a broken pipe on Sunday resulting in a fish kill in the Potic Creek in the town of Coxsackie. WAMC’s Jim Levulis spoke with Sean Mahar, DEC’s Executive Deputy Commissioner.
Mahar: So there was a broken pipe as part of their facility which caused the release of approximately 1,500 gallons of aluminum salts or alum. This is a common water treatment chemical that's used as part of the process. And that caused the discharge into their lagoons, which eventually flowed into the Potic Creek. And some neighbors alerted us to a fish kill and foamy water over the weekend. So our environmental conservation police officers and expert spill response staff responded immediately to the scene. Evaluated with the village engineers what was going on, put a stop to the leak. And now we're just continuing to monitor for the after effects of that release. Flows yesterday [August 7] have diminished. Well they've eliminated from the plant into the Potic Creek right now. And the water flow seemed to be returning to normal in the creek as well. And we're monitoring for any residual fish kills that may be associated with this.
Levulis: So that broken pipe has been fixed?
Mahar: The broken pipe is in the process of being fixed. The flow to that pipe has been shut off. And additional alum is being contained on the plant site right now and not being released to the creek. So we've been able to stop the release to the creek. And now we're focused on just monitoring the after effects and ensure that the pipe has replaced and fixed so that this doesn't happen again.
Levulis: How long do you expect that monitoring to continue?
Mahar: We'll be there over the next few days. We do have DEC fish and wildlife professionals on the scene today just monitoring the creek conditions. If any residents in the nearby Potic Creek area find any dead fish, please do alert DEC so that we can continue just to monitor how far downstream the impacts may be going from. But we don't anticipate this to be a long duration event.
Levulis: Is there any danger to human health, larger environmental health? Obviously, you mentioned there was a fish kill, but any current danger?
Mahar: No, no current danger. Obviously, we encourage people to exercise caution in the area of the Potic Creek around the wastewater treatment plan. It's not heavily used, which is good. But again, if people see dead fish in the area, please report that to DEC just for our tracking purposes. And we'll continue to keep all residents updated as conditions improve in the creek.
Levulis: Is there any way to measure or estimate how many fish were killed?
Mahar: Our staff are working on that now as they collect any additional dead fish that they find. We can provide that additional updates as our investigations progress. But this investigation is still very much ongoing right now as we get to the bottom of exactly what happened to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again.
Levulis: You mentioned that investigation. Any expected, would it be fines or citations or anything involving the Village of Catskill’s water treatment facility?
Mahar: That is all part of the investigation right now, Jim and obviously as we receive additional updates and that investigation concludes we'll follow up with any and all appropriate enforcement action that needs to be taken. Our first and foremost priority in these situations is obviously ensuring that the discharge stops and the impacts in the environment sees and we monitor for those impacts after and then hold the facility accountable for any violations that we find during the course of the investigation.
