by Bea Peterson
Saint Gobain Undertaking Soil And Water Testing
At the Hoosick Falls Village Board meeting on Tuesday, July 14, Mayor David Borge stated that since November 2014 the Village has taken a steady approach to a pilot study of Perfluorooctanic Acid (PFOA) in the water supply. “There is a filter system that will remove the PFOA,” he said. The filters last from 10 to 12 months. Total cost to install the filtering system is estimated to be $2.2 million. “An accurate engineering report is critical,” Borge added. New York State has a current budget of $200 million to help with these costs. The MRB Group is pursuing state and federal grants on behalf of the Village. “New York State is testing water samples for us,” said Borge. “Rensselaer County is establishing a grid, and we have an advisory group working on this.”
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Mayor Borge made it clear that from the beginning Saint Gobain Performance Plastics has been working with the Village on this problem. He then introduced Phil Guy. Guy said he is the Business Manager for Saint-Gobain in Hoosick Falls. He has worked for the company for 22 years. “Saint-Gobain is very committed to this community, and we are committed to do the right thing” he said. “We have great people that work here and we are committed to their health and safety.” He added that Saint-Gobain has been in business for 350 years. “We have been here a long time and we are here to stay,” he said, adding that an addition is being built to expand its business in the building on Liberty Street.
Guy said Saint-Gobain has a genuine concern for the environment and has been working with government agencies on the PFOA problem. In response to a question from the floor Guy stated that Saint-Gobain hasn’t released PFOAs from its stacks since 2003.
Guy introduced representatives from T.C. Male Associates that were with him. With a map of the McCaffrey Street plant and text they explained the scope of work Saint-Gobain is undertaking. They will install five monitoring well clusters, one shallow aquifer and 1 lower aquifer well in each cluster. There will be two up gradient wells at the northern property line and three down gradient wells at the southern/southeastern property line. Shallow soil samples will be collected at each well location.
Soil samples will be analyzed for PFOA. There will be two groundwater sampling events one and two months apart.
The third step will be to evaluate groundwater flow, both vertical and horizontal and, with transducers, provide continuous measurement of groundwater levels. Finally, seasonal variables and the influence of well field operations will be assessed. The entire process will take six months or more.
Mayor Borge noted that from the beginning Saint-Gobain and the Village have shared information. “We now understand how to stop it (getting into the water supply). “Saint-Gobain has stepped forward to do this study and some of the information gathered may help other locations,” he concluded.
American House
Mayor Borge said an engineer has looked at the American House and has determined it must come down. “The owner of record is in Las Vegas and we have received no response from him,” said Borge. The estimated cost for demolition is $100,000. Mayor Borge added that the matter will be pursued legally, but it takes time. For the moment the building is safe for passersby.
Woods Brook
The first order of business at the meeting was a Public Hearing on the Woods Brook Flood Mitigation Study. The Hearing was open for the length of the meeting and there was no comment from the public.
The proposal for the study will be submitted this month by Barton & Loguidice, D.P.C. for a Community Development Block Grant. The grant awards will be announced in December. If the grant application is successful, then the study will be conducted from January to May 2016 and another application will be submitted for a CDBG Public Infrastructure Grant for the actual work. That grant would be awarded in December 2016 and the work on Woods Brook itself would take place from 2017, possibly into 2020, depending on the results of the original study.
Stop Signs
The Board approved a request for four way stop signs at Fourth and Hoosick Streets and Third and Center Streets. Trustee Bob Downing recommended the “temporary” stop signs that were put on Abbott and adjoining Streets during the Route 22 construction be removed. It will be looked into.
Code Enforcement
Building Inspector Mark Surdam noted 37 violations in his report. He issued three building permits and made 17 inspections. He said considerable time is involved with responding to complaints. In his report Police Chief Robert Ashe said that the Department has been working with Code Enforcement in support of the point system used under the Village’s Nuisance Law. For example, he said, one house has now accumulated 18 points and the landlord has been notified.
Cruiser Bid
A bid of $407 from Doug Marpe for the old police cruiser was accepted.
The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence in memory of Greg Morin.[/private]