The EPA contractor SKEO Solutions has completed its report on the need for technical assistance for the Hoosick Falls community regarding the PFOA assessment and cleanup. Project Manager Kirby Webster handed out copies of the 12 page report at the Hoosick Town Board meeting on September 10.
Webster met with about 20 people from the community who responded to her outreach efforts last Spring, and summarized in the report the concerns and suggestions that were expressed in those meetings. The report’s recommendations include setting up a community group to be an advocate for and educator of the community, and providing regular information updates about the progress of the assessment and cleanup, and elaborating the significance to the community, especially concerning public health.
The report mentioned a few specific areas where more information should be provided. The first is to help the community understand the decision-making process regarding provision of an alternative future water supply. It said, “There is clear community interest, and an expectation that an alternative water supply will be provided.” The second is helping the community understand how the many government agencies working on PFOA issues in town sort out their roles and responsibilities. The third is to provide more information about the potential health impacts of PFOA exposure, and of elevated PFOA levels in the blood. The final one was to provide information and guidance about how safe it is to grow food in back-yard gardens.
The report is available at the EPA web site and at the Town of Hoosick web site.
NYSDEC Assistant Commissioner Sean Mahar and NYSDOH Assistant Commissioner Gary Holmes were present at the Hoosick Town Board meeting to make presentation on plans for implementing the recommendations of the technical assistance report.
Mahar presented a draft of plans for setting up a community group to lead community advocacy and education efforts. It proposed hiring a third-party facilitator selected by DEC to set up and guide the group in recruiting members, creating bylaws, and defining responsibilities and procedures. The draft said people who are interested in serving on this body will submit resumes to the facilitator, and be appointed by the Town and Village Boards in consultation with the involved agencies and the facilitator.
Mahar noted that less than two dozen people participated in the Technical Assistance Needs Assessment despite extensive outreach seeking community input, and he hopes the community group that he is working to set up will broaden community participation and “enhance public dialogue,” as well as serving as a conduit to get information out to the community. He said this community group will not include the Petersburgh situation, but will be focused only on the assessment and cleanup in Hoosick. He noted that there is already an active community group in Petersburgh.
When Mahar took questions, a couple of members of the audience said they thought elected officials should not be on the committee. Town Supervisor Mark Surdam asked why not, and there was some discussion back and forth about this. Mahar said the community group proposal will be open for comments and DEC will be glad to hear from anybody in the community who has opinions about how the group should be set up. He said they will be setting up an e-mail address for this purpose, but was not ready to announce the address.
Dr. David Bond, the leader of a group at Bennington College that has been working on PFOA issues, criticized the slow and bureaucratic process. “This is a roundabout way of doing what we proposed months ago,” he said. Mahar said he is reacting immediately to the Technical Assistance report, and he had made a decision that the September meeting was a better time to launch this initiative than the summer when people may be away or distracted by vacations and summer activities.
Gary Homes presented a conceptual plan for a website, to be created, hosted, and managed by NYSDOH, that would bring together all information about the PFOA situation in one place. The Technical Assistance report recommended that such a site be provided.
The design features five buttons across the page, dividing all the information presented into five general subject areas. He said the web site is still being developed, but he hopes it will provide a central place for finding information on PFOA issues, where the latest updates can be posted on a timely basis.