NDCA

Statewide group forming to stop toxic vapors

By Jay Gallagher
Gannett News Service

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ALBANY — About 20 activists concerned about the hazards of toxic vapors seeping into homes and schools are forming a statewide group to pressure New York to do more to take care of the problem.

The activists from Ontario, Broome, Tompkins, Dutchess and Niagara counties — as well as other parts of the state — want state officials to do more to try to detect hazards, and then take steps to take care of them.

“When you don’t test, you don’t know if wells are contaminated,” said Debra Hall of a Dutchess County group called Hopewell Junction Citizens for Clean Water. “If you test, you will find. If you find, you can fix.”

“We need to organize and create a collaboration,” added Mike Barry of Victor, Ontario County, whose home has been measured as having high levels of vapors from trichloroethylene, or TCE.

TCE, a solvent often used to clean tools, may cause cancer or other serious ailments in people exposed to high enough levels.

TCE and PCE, a dry-cleaning agent, are the two most common chemicals that cause potentially harmful vapors.

In Broome County, subterranean plumes of TCE are leaching from industrial sites and forming gases affecting nearby structures. So far, the problem, called vapor intrusion, has been documented in about 700 properties. That number is growing as state and environmental officials continue to test suspect sites.

The largest site is Endicott, where TCE vapors from the former IBM plant on North Street are affecting more than 480 properties to the south. Neighborhoods are also affected in Hillcrest, Vestal and Union.

The group decided to work on an agenda to present at next year’s legislative session, which begins Jan. 9.

While dangers from contaminated soil and water are well-known, the health risks from relatively small amounts of vapors, which can seep into buildings through slabs and foundations, have been identified only in the past few years.

‘We’re still learning. It’s an evolving area,” said Dale Desnoyers, director of environmental remediation for the state Department of Environmental Conservation. “It’s certainly a concern and certainly something we’re taking very seriously and very aggressively at the department.”

He said the state started looking more closely at the dangers of vapors in 1999, and realized that they were more dangerous than previously thought.

“The science has changed,” he said. “We used to think it took higher concentrations at shallow depths to have an unacceptable impact. Now we realize it can be lesser concentrations at greater depths.”

He said about five yeas ago the state identified 421 hazardous-waste sites that had already been treated that needed more work to handle the vapor threat. Evaluations on how to handle 350 of the sites is under way.