Request That Former Sperry Remington Site in Elmira, NY Be Comprehensively Cleaned Up as a Class 1 Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Site

April 30, 2018

Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

Greetings:

It has now been more than 20 years since high-level toxic pollution was discovered to have migrated nearly 1,000 feet from the former Sperry Remington factory site to Miller Pond in Elmira, NY. Yet, the full scope of that contaminated property's public health and environmental hazards has neither been fully investigated and delineated nor cleaned up in strict compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements.

The delay in achieving comprehensive clean up is unacceptable given that Elmira High School at 777 South Main Street is built directly on the contaminated site and a responsible party is required to clean it up. In addition, a residential neighborhood adjoining the former factory site has yet to be investigated for toxic pollution threats.

I write respectfully to request that you immediately require all of the toxic site concerns associated with this former manufacturing facility to be consolidated into a single site that is given a Class 1 Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Site designation: "Causing or presenting an imminent danger of causing irreversible or irreparable damage to the public health or the environment -- immediate action required."

If the responsible party does not agree to resolve this problem without further delay, New York should do so with the assistance of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and seek clean up reimbursement from the responsible party or its insurers.

As you will see from the excerpted information that I provide below for your review, it is inconceivable that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) which constitute hazardous waste and other contaminants which exceed clean up requirements have been identified under the Elmira High School's football field, but have yet to be removed.

A wide variety of PCBs, toxic metals and potential cancer-causing agents also have been identified above clean up requirements under widespread areas of the school grounds and in contaminated groundwater. Those wastes also have yet to be removed.

See: Government Data Documenting Environmental Health Concerns at Elmira High School

For all these reasons, I request that urgent action be immediately undertaken to make sure that members of the school community as well as the public at-large cannot come into contact with any documented toxic pollution at the site involving contaminated dirt, indoor or outdoor air pollution, tainted groundwater or surface water or any other medium.

The sources of toxic pollution must be removed so that the school, nearby residential homes and the surrounding environment can be fully protected from contamination hazards. It is equally imperative that any residual pollution which cannot be removed must not recontaminate areas that are cleaned up.

With due respect, these common-sense safeguards obviously should have been undertaken decades ago. New York's on-going failure to clean up this site on a comprehensive basis underscores the need for a dramatic changes to the state's toxic clean up program.

First, any toxic site which is deemed to pose public health or environmental hazards due to regulatory exceedances must be cleaned up according to all applicable regulatory requirements within five years. If responsible parties cannot fulfill that obligation, the site must be designated a Class 1 site: Causing or presenting an imminent danger of causing irreversible or irreparable damage to the public health or the environment -- immediate action required. Urgent action must be undertaken by state and federal environmental authorities to resolve those concerns.

Second, New York State must have sufficient toxic site and spill remediation funds to clean up "orphan sites" in timely fashion when responsible parties do not fulfill their "polluter pays" obligations.

In conclusion, toxic clean up delays stretching over literally decades must no longer be tolerated. "Justice delayed is justice denied." Toxic polluters must not be allowed to evade their clean up responsibilities at the former Sperry Remington site or similar contaminated sites all over New York. State environmental authorities must strictly enforce New York's toxic clean up regulatory requirements or the legal protections are meaningless.

I trust that you will find my request to be self-explanatory, but please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.

Thank you for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Walter Hang