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Toxics Targeting in the News

West Court cleanup: Comment deadline is Sunday

The deadline for public comment on the coal tar cleanup at the NYSEG Ithaca Court Street site is this Sunday, Sept. 30.

Little time remains for residents to read the plan and submit their thoughts on the cleanup and remediation process that could occur as early as January 2008.

Letter asks state for more TCE tests at elementary

ITHACA — The state should conduct additional testing for TCE and other toxic chemicals at South Hill Elementary School, according to a letter signed by a coalition of parents, citizens and elected officials.

The letter is being sent today to the New York State Department of Health. It demands additional indoor air testing in classrooms as soon as the heating season begins because trapped air holds in more toxins.

Emerson: TCE at school from old NCR factory




ITHACA — Low levels of TCE contamination found at South Hill Elementary School likely came from a sewer line from the old National Cash Register factory, rather than from Emerson Power Transmission, according to a Wednesday press release from Emerson.

Grannis plans cleanup of old gas plants

State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Alexander "Pete" Grannis plans to "crack the whip" on investigation and cleanup of dozens of languishing toxic gas-plant sites on Long Island and around the state, enlisting regional DEC offices to attack the problem, he said in an interview.

Grannis, a former state assemblyman with a track record of aggressive environmental work, acknowledged that historically the DEC hasn't acted quickly enough to make sure the sites get cleaned up. He was named to the post in April by Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Field work begins on South Hill Monday




ITHACA — Many South Hill residents on Monday will begin to see the latest round of field work associated with the environmental contamination in their neighborhood.

Wells near gas plant closed

Drinking water found contaminated with Freon 12;
problem not linked to toxic leaks at MGP site

State health officials and consultants at a public meeting last week were quick to note that two public drinking water wells a stone's throw from a highly toxic utility gas-plant site in Hempstead are not contaminated with waste from the plant's toxins. Even under the worst of circumstances, contamination won't reach the 500-foot-plus deep wells for 16 to 175 years, they said.

KeySpan seeks to ease fears over gas plant

KeySpan Corp., the owner of more than two dozen former utility gas-plant sites on Long Island, yesterday sought to allay concerns about one of the largest sites as community members prepare to meet about it in Hempstead next week. The Hempstead manufactured natural gas plant, located off of Intersection and North
Franklin Streets, has spawned a nearly 4,000-foot by 600-foot plume from the 7.5 acre site, a recently released report said.

KeySpan plans a meeting on the final remediation report at Adelphi University on June 28 at 7 p.m., in the University Center rooms 202 and 203.

Toxic plume linked to gas plant

Report for KeySpan, owner of Hempstead facility, finds possible exposure paths but no imminent threats

A former utility gas-plant site in Hempstead once classified by the state as requiring "no further action" has spawned a nearly 4,000-foot plume of toxic material and could present exposure pathways to people at or near the site, according to a recently released report.

Test Case in Charges That Gas Stations Imperil Water

PLAINVIEW, N.Y., May 21 — When Paul Granger, the water district superintendent here, came to work one morning in 2000, he spotted a rig test-drilling for pollution at a gasoline station across the road from two wells that pump up to 1.7 million gallons of drinking water a day.

He expressed concern that pollution might be threatening the water supply, and eventually his district sued three filling stations, affiliated with Exxon, Shell and Gulf.

As the trial in that case opened in Garden City on Monday, the nation’s water supply industry and major oil companies were watching closely.

The outcome of the case could set a national precedent on who will pay the estimated tens of billions of dollars to clean up contamination caused by MTBE, a potentially carcinogenic fuel additive, now widely banned, that seeped into the ground as gasoline leaked from fuel storage tanks across the country.

Hinchey backs TCE testing at Wallace site





ITHACA — Congressman Maurice Hinchey has thrown his support behind state Department of Environmental Conservation efforts to test for trichloroethylene contamination at the former Wallace Industries and Morse Industrial
Corporation sites in Ithaca.

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