Hickey Testifies Before Congressional Subcommittee
By Doug La Rocque
“ It was gratifying to be able to tell my story and that of Hoosick Falls to these members of Congress.”
Those are Hoosick Falls resident Michael Hickey’s comments about his testimony last Wednesday, September 18, before the House of Representative’s Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee hearing in regard to the Trump Administration’s actions as they relate to the Federal Clean Water Act. The subcommittee invited Mr. Hickey to testify as he is credited with having discovered the elevated levels of PFOA in the Village of Hoosick Falls’ drinking water supply.
His testimony followed three hours of comments before the committee by David Ross, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water. Mr. Hickey tells The Eastwick Press, he found it “disheartening” that Mr. Ross would or could not commit as to when the EPA might set Maximum Contaminate Levels (MCL) for such proven carcinogens as PFOA and PFOS.
Mr. Hickey was introduced to the subcommittee by Congressman Antonio Delgado, who said “When Michael’s father passed away from cancer, he began to look into connections between cancer and the chemicals used in a local manufacturing facility where his father worked.
This would eventually lead to the discovery that there was a higher incidence of illnesses related to PFAS chemicals, and extremely unsafe levels of these chemicals in the village of Hoosick Falls as well as the village of Petersburgh’s drinking water. But Michael’s advocacy did not stop there—he turned the memory of his father into a force for good and non-stop public advocacy.
Since 2013, Michael has been leading the charge to increase transparency and accountability for PFAS chemicals at the local, state, and federal level. And his work led to New York State designating the Village as a Superfund site, and the EPA declaring one of the manufacturing facilities in Hoosick Falls a Superfund site.
Michael’s groundbreaking advocacy has contributed immensely to our understanding of PFAS contamination in New York, and it is largely due to him that the community has received funding for blood testing, remediation, and is no longer drinking the water that was poisoning them.”
In his comments to the committee, Representative Delgado was also critical about the EPA’s lack of action on MCL’s, and referencing Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, said “these are real lives, real people, and not just numbers.” On Tuesday, September 24, Mr. Delgado called for the inclusion of strong PFAS provisions in the final National Defense Authorization Act Conference Report amid ongoing House and Senate negotiations.
It was also an emotional day for Mr. Hickey, as the testimony came just one day after the anniversary of his father’s passing.