Progress Difficult On PFOA Issue In Petersburgh
by Alex Brooks
Petersburgh Supervisor Peter Schaaphok gave an update on the Town administration’s efforts to deal with the PFOA situation at the Petersburgh Town Board meeting on April 18. He said work on the filtration systems on individual homes are “on hold” because the DEC is changing its specifications on the carbon used in the filters. Contractors are waiting for information from DEC about what charcoal filters to use.
[private]He said there have been some meetings with Taconic and contractors who could supply a carbon filter for the Water District, but Schaaphok said the cost estimates they have received so far have been very high, and they are continuing to look for suppliers. When asked what “very high” means, Schaaphok said over a million dollars. One resident attending the meeting said if that is the cost, Taconic should pay it. Schaaphok said they can’t.
This question, however, has time to be resolved, because apparently the race at the moment is to get a temporary filter put on the Water District system.
Water Superintendent Ben Krahforst said he has met with Taconic about vendors of temporary filtration systems. He guessed that it might take about two months or so to get a temporary filtration system installed.
Both Supervisor Schaaphok and Water Superintendent Krahforst said they have had trouble getting state officials to respond, and both were frustrated with what they felt was a lack of urgency on the part of State agencies. They both said that the government agency that has been most responsive to the situation is Rensselaer County. Supervisor Schaaphok said Rensselaer County mapping staff are working on a new map to present in geographical form the data that has been gathered on PFOA levels in the Town. He said some of the data has been surprising, with some higher levels up in the hills and neighboring properties with very different readings. He said he hopes the new map will be released very soon. The County’s latest results released April 15 showed 94 samples have been taken in 78 homes. Seven samples were above 1000 parts per trillion, 19 samples were between 101 and 1000 parts per trillion, 17 samples were between 20 and 100 ppt, 20 were below 20 ppt, and 31 were non-detect. 50 more samples have been submitted to the lab but results for these have not yet been received.
In the meanwhile, Ben Krahforst has made some progress in lowering PFOA in the Water District. He said a leak in the system has been found and fixed. It had been leaking 10,000 gallons per day. He thanked the technician from Rural Water who helped him find the leak, and the Town Highway Department for helping to fix it. Having fixed that, it is now more feasible to use Well 5 to supply most of the water.
Krahforst said Well 5 and Well 6 are drawing from the same water source, and Well 5 alone draws more water than that source can supply. Krahforst said he has been drawing most of the Water District’s water from Well 5, and using Well #2 much less, because the PFOA level in Well 2 water has tested as high as 120 parts per trillion, while Well 5 water has tested pretty consistently at around 40 ppt. The problem is that Well 5 runs dry if it is run continuously, and if it sucks in air, it messes up the control systems. He said he is continuing to research what the next move should be.
Inventeam Presents
The meeting began with a presentation by the Berlin High School “inventeam,” which is working on a “biomedical device” which will allow a disabled person to throw something (like a ball) and retrieve it.
The device has three parts – a control module which mounts on a wheelchair, a “lever launch” which throws things, and a motorized chassis with a robotic arm, which retrieves the thing that was thrown. The team consists of ten girls from all levels of the high school, from Freshmen to Seniors. They have divided themselves up into smaller teams that work on designing and building subsystems that will be a part of the finished device.
The girls demonstrated how some of these subsystems work. They did not all work flawlessly. Technology teacher Dawn Wetmore, who leads the team, said the girls have two months to get their device to work flawlessly before they have to take it to MIT and demonstrate how it works.
Wetmore said the team is doing some fundraising, and asked if the town Board could provide some funding to help with the expenses of taking the team to MIT. The team got a round of applause from everyone at the meeting, and Supervisor Peter Schaaphok said he thought some money could be found to contribute to their trip expenses.
Highway
Highway Superintendent Rob Cottrell said a lot of roads were damaged by the heavy rains this month, and his crew have been working as fast as they can to fix them all. He thanked the residents for their patience. Cottrell said he is short a truck now because the Mack was sent out to have a new box put on it, and they installed the wrong size box. The mistake will be fixed, and the correct box will be put on, but Cottrell guessed it would take another two months to get that truck back. Meanwhile, the County truck which the Town is trying to purchase is still not available. Cottrell said he is hoping to arrange to get a loaner truck from the County while he is waiting.
Cottrell said The town’s CHIPS money has been increased by $18,000. The Town will get $112,000 this year. He is planning paving projects on upper Potter Hill road, lower Lewis Hollow Road, and Church Hollow Road.
The Town opened bids for mowing of Town properties and cemeteries, but one of the bids was significantly over budget and the other was unclear about the pricing, so the Board rejected both and asked for new bids to be submitted by May 2.
Broken Wheel Bridge To Go Forward
The Board agreed to enter into agreements with Bette and Cring Construction to build the Broken Wheel Bridge, and with Greenman Pederson to supervise the work, and construction is expected to begin very soon. The contract documents specify October 2016 as the completion date for the bridge.
Appointments
The Board approved Rob Cottrell’s appointment of James Morgan as Deputy Highway Superintendent, and appointed Tim Allen to another term on the Board of Assessment Review. Supervisor Schaaphok appointed Nancy Burstein as Town Historian.
Support For Building Department
Town building official Dave Miller made two requests of the Board. One was for a software package for handling building permits and code enforcement business. Supervisor Schaaphok agree to meet with Williamson in the next two weeks to learn about the municipal software that they offer. Miller’s other request was to get an intern, or a Deputy, who can start working with him and learn the job, because Miller said he does not intend to stay in this position after the end of 2017.[/private]