by Alex Brooks
At the direction of Governor Cuomo, the Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health reached an agreement with Taconic Plastics, Inc. to install a carbon water filtration system for the Town of Petersburgh water supply to address perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contamination, the agencies announced today. [private]
After initial tests by the state detected PFOA levels in the Town water supply just below the EPA guidance levels, DEC and DOH took immediate action to work with the Town, Rensselaer County and company to address the contamination and began supplying bottled water to all town residents. As subsequent tests have detected PFOA levels just above the EPA guidance levels, all parties agree that a carbon system is necessary.
DEC Acting Commissioner Basil Seggos said, “Through the Governor’s leadership, we have secured this commitment from Taconic plastics to install a carbon filtration system that would provide clean drinking water to residents in Petersburgh. We will continue to work quickly to conduct further tests to determine the extent of contamination in the Town, and develop necessary actions to address the contamination.”
NYS Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said, “We are working aggressively to resolve this issue and ensure a long-term solution for the residents of Petersburgh. We will continue to test water samples and provide residents with the most up-to-date information, as we move towards a carbon filtration system for the Town’s water supply.”
Planning on the filtration system will begin immediately and Taconic has agreed to pay for the planning, installation and maintenance of the system. While the installation of the treatment system advances, free bottled water will continue to be provided to residents, and residents on the Town’s water supply are reminded to refrain from drinking or cooking with the Town water.
Petersburgh Supervisor Peter Schaaphok said that The Rensselaer County Department of Health had collected 60 samples by March 7, including 44 private wells in the vicinity of Taconic, and the New York State DEC and DOH had collected many more samples. The results from most of these samples had not yet been released by the time this newspaper went to press, and many of the samples were still being processed at labs.
Schaaphok said he is planning to hold a public meeting with County and State officials who can tell the public exactly what has been learned in the past few weeks of water testing in Petersburgh as soon as the results from all these tests are available.
Initial results released by Rensselaer County on Friday March 4 showed these results:
Petersburg Water District well #2, which is a very deep (450 feet) well which supplies most of the water for the Water District returned a result of 130 parts per trillion (ppt). Well #6, which is shallower and produces less water, had 42 ppt in the water. A test of water in the Water District’s distribution system showed a level of 98 ppt.
The County released test results for only two private wells, which were at 53 ppt and 51 ppt. The exact location of these private wells was not disclosed – they were said to be within a half mile of the Taconic plant.
The County has been testing all public water systems in the County, and they released the results of their testing of the Berlin water system. Berlin North well had 12 ppt, Berlin South well had 15 ppt, and Berlin West well had 12 ppt.
It is difficult to determine what might be a safe level of PFOA in water. There is no regulatory standard either nationally or in New York. The only guidance on the national level is a health advisory from EPA saying that water with 400 parts per trillion or more in it is not good to drink. The Regional EPA has recommended, in response to the current crisis, that any water with 100 parts per trillion or more not be used for drinking or cooking. But given all the uncertainty about how toxic or carcinogenic this material may be, people may not know how to react if concentrations less than 100 ppt are found in their drinking water. Vermont has set a drinking water standard of 20 parts per trillion, and New Jersey has set a drinking water standard of 40 parts per trillion. Clearly more research is needed about what dose of PFOA is likely to be harmful to your health and what level of PFOA in the water can be considered safe. But until we have a better understanding of that, State, County and local officials are going have to come up with a practical standard for how low is low enough.[/private]