Earlier this year, the Village of Hoosick Falls turned on the tap for a new water supply following decades of contamination caused by local manufacturers. But, a neighboring town is asking why they don’t have clean water yet.
“We are absolutely ecstatic for Hoosick Falls,” Ira Share said. “The question that's always been asked in Petersburgh is, what about our water supply?”
Ira Share and his wife Kathy live in Petersburgh. It’s about a mile away from the Taconic plastics manufacturing facility, the company responsible for contamination in the town of nearly 1,400. Petersburgh is 12 miles from Hoosick Falls.
PFAS chemicals, including Perfluorooctanoic Acid or PFOA, Perfluoroheptanoic acid (PFHpA), Perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) were discovered in the town’s water system in 2016, shortly after the discovery of similar chemicals in Hoosick Falls. PFAS chemicals — including PFOA— are used in a number of applications. The compounds have not been used at Taconic since the early 2000’s. But the chemicals, which can cause ill-health effects including cancer, are persistent in the environment. The town’s soil, surface water, and groundwater around the Taconic Plastics facility is impacted.
PFOA levels in the groundwater exceed the state’s drinking water standards of 10-parts-per-trillion, ranging upwards of 1,000-parts-per-trillion, before treatment.
Share, whose water is non-detect, says Petersburgh hasn’t seen the successful clean up that other communities nearby and across the nation have received.
“Petersburgh has kind of always been the little town 12 miles away from Hoosick Falls,” Share said. “When this story broke in Hoosick Falls, they set up a command center down there. They pulled resources from all over New York State. They had, it looked like they were staging a war down there it was. It was unbelievable. And then there's little old Petersburg, and we've kind of felt that we're kind of that little quiet town that gets mentioned once in a while, but we have the same issues, just on a smaller scale, as far as our population.”
In 2021, Taconic agreed to pay a more than $23 million settlement to the town. The town also sued several other chemical manufacturers including 3M and DuPont Co. in 2022. The DEC says it has executed a consent order with Taconic that requires the polluter to perform the remedial investigation and undertake various remedial actions that the DEC determines necessary under state oversight.
PFAS tests are run on a monthly basis, according to the town’s website. Granular activated carbon and point-of-entry filtration systems are used throughout the town, by both the town and on private residences.
Ian Beilby is the Section Chief DEC Division of Environmental Remediation. Beilby says such an investigation can take several more years.
“We're currently working in the remedial investigation phase. The remedial investigation is a very broad term that covers lots of potential actions for both investigation and implementation of interim measures to, you know, physically go out and clean things up, or put systems on water supplies and make sure that people's water is clean.”
Beilby says the DEC and Department of Health are continuing to evaluate exposure pathways and take action to prevent further exposure. He says following the remedial investigation, a feasibility study will occur.
“The cleanup phase, the levels of the contaminant in Petersburgh are, I think, like we mentioned in the background, materials in groundwater, the levels often exceed the safe the drinking water standard, which is 10 parts per trillion. We see levels a little below that to a couple hundred, sometimes 1000 parts per trillion. But it's hit and miss where we see that in the groundwater. The soil is kind of a similar story. We don't have specific standards for soil. We kind of have cleanup guidelines, and so depending on where you sample, you may or may not exceed those guidelines beyond the facility, primarily on the facility, we would expect to exceed the soil cleanup guidelines.”
Part of the remedial study includes the study of fish and agricultural products. An upcoming geophysical and new bedrock monitoring wells are also being used in the investigation. The Petersburgh/Berlin landfill is also being investigated as a potential state superfund site.
Further, fish in Thayers Pond, located in the Village of Hoosick Falls, show elevated levels of PFOS. The Health Department recommends anglers practice "catch and release” only from Thayers Pond until further notice.
PFAS contamination has been found in several New York communities including Poestenkill, Newburgh, and Bennington, Vermont.
Rob Hayes is the director of Clean Water at Environmental Advocates NY. In an interview with WAMC about changing federal regulations for water, he said while the community of Petersburgh has rallied together over the last decade, “there’s more advocacy to be done.”
“So that agencies like the State Department of Health and Department of Environmental Conservation continue to move aggressively to hold polluters accountable and continue cleanup efforts that are still underway,” Hayes said.
In a email, Taconic says “it does not comment to press regarding its remediation work.”
