by Alex Brooks
Ian Beilby, Section Chief of the Special Projects Bureau of the Division of Environmental Remediation at NYS DEC, and DEC Engineering Geologist Barbara Firebaugh spoke to the Board about the investigation they are beginning into possible PFOA dump sites in the Hoosick Falls area. Bailey said Firebaugh was recently hired by DEC after she spent 8 years managing remedial investigations of DEC superfund sites for a private contractor, and he has assigned her to lead this investigation. Firebaugh said in 2016 when DEC was holding office hours at the Armory, a number of people came in and told them things about rumored dump sites and the history of various sites in town. DEC took notes from these conversations and compiled a list of possible sites to investigate. There were also some phone calls to DEC and letters to the Governor’s office that mentioned more potentially contaminated sites. Ultimately, there were about sixty sites reported to be possibly contaminated, and DEC is now undertaking an investigation to determine whether they are in fact contaminated.
Firebaugh said DEC has sent out 46 letters asking private landowners for permission to take samples on their land. She said they have received a response from about half of those landowners and she said there has been a lot of positive response. She said they will be taking soil samples, groundwater samples, and surface water samples at all of the sites where they are granted permission to enter, and they will test them for a list of 21 fluorinated compounds including PFOA and PFOS. The focus will be on PFOA and related compounds rather than any other toxics, but Firebaugh said DEC’s standard procedure is to test about 10% of the samples they take for a full range of possible toxic contaminants.
Firebaugh said she hopes to get started taking samples by the end of August, and to finish the investigation by the end of the year, but she said it will probably take some time after that to complete the report and get it ready for public release.
Hoosick resident Kevin Allard asked what happens if a homeowner agrees to have his property sampled and it is found to be contaminated. Beilby said DEC finds many innocent owners – “it happens all the time.” He said there are many instances of landowners who were found to have no knowledge of the contamination of their property, whose properties were cleaned up and the State paid for it. However, he was giving no blanket assurances and he said when contamination is found the State does an investigation to determine who is responsible for it.
Mountain View Way
Stacy Parker spoke to the Board on behalf of herself and others who live on Mountain View Way, some of whom were also in attendance at this meeting. The homeowners association there has asked the Town to take over Mountain View Way as a Town Road, and if that is not possible, they have asserted a right to have the Town dedicate a certain proportion of their taxes to maintenance of their road. Town Attorney Jonathan Schopf said he had written a memo to the Town Board on this subject and he said he would be glad to send a copy of it to the homeowners association as long as the Town Board agreed to share it.
Schopf said the law they had cited about sharing tax revenue for maintenance of a private road is part of a section about a very specific situation involving an eminent domain proceeding to cure a landlocked property problem, and is not applicable to the Mountain View Way situation. He said the Town has a procedure for taking over a private road, and it would require bringing the road up to specifications written in a 1990 Town law on this topic. Parker said she would like to see Schopf’s memo, and the Board was agreeable to sharing it, and Schopf said he would e-mail it to her.
Highway
Highway Superintendent Bill Shiland said the Town Highway crew made repairs on the Cottrell Road which were acceptable to DOT bridge inspectors, and the bridge was re-opened on the last day of July. The bridge is now just one lane, and is posted for 15 tons maximum load. Shiland said it will be inspected every year from now on, and it is likely to need more repairs and have further restrictions put on it if it is not replaced. He said, “We’ll be fighting this until we get a new bridge.”
The Town Board approved new lights for the Town Garage, accepting a proposal from Integra LED to install new, more efficient and brighter lighting. The cost of the work was $14,472, but a rebate of $2,100 is offered, so the net cost is about $12,372. The new lights are expected to save about $1,310 annually in electricity cost, so the investment pays for itself in about 10 years. Shiland said many of the ballasts for the old lights need to be replaced, so something has to be done, “or it’s going to be very dark down there by winter.”
Deputy Supervisor Eric Sheffer said the Town has received two proposals for a changeover to LED lighting, and this was the better of the two, and he felt because of problems with the current lighting, it is a good moment to go for the LED lighting.
Shiland also said his crew had begun ditching on Fox Hollow Road, which would be welcome news to the residents of that road, who have been coming to Town Board meetings since winter asking for improvements to be made.
Sewer Problem at Pool
Supervisor Mark Surdam was not able to attend this meeting, but his report said he has been continuing to work on the sewer line at the pool that has been repeatedly clogging up. Surdam said Bill Shiland and the highway crew replaced about 20 feet of drain pipe “out past the diving board.” The Town is waiting for a determination from LaBerge engineers about the cause of the problem and how to solve it, but it seems to be the combination of a section of deteriorated pipe that was not replaced during the bath house renovations and the new low-flow toilets. The Board approved payment to All Out Waste of its bill for $1,640 for jetting out the line. Surdam, in his report, thanked All Out Waste for their quick response and for “going out of their way to help us through this mess.”
Surdam also said there are some problems with the paint on the floors of the bath house and he will be meeting with a representative from Benjamin Moore Paint after the pool season is over to try to resolve those issues. The Board is also looking at plans to do more concrete work in the pool area after the pool season is over.
Solar Law Hearing
At its workshop last month, the Board agreed on a final version of the regulations on solar installations, and at this meeting it scheduled a Public Hearing on that law for Monday September 10 at 6:30 pm. The law is available for public inspection at the Town Clerk’s office.
In other news:
• Town Clerk Holli Cross said Key Bank has been charging the Town fees for online access, and there have been other frustrations with Key Bank. Cross said she is looking at options for other banks who might be able to handle the Town’s banking.
• Supervisor Surdam said he attended the GAR closeout meeting now that the revaluation project is complete. He said the people from GAR said doing this project in Hoosick was one of their best project experiences, and they felt everyone was courteous and respectful throughout the process. Town Attorney Schopf remarked that there is less litigation coming out of the revaluation than he expected.