40 Yrs after clean-up, Rensselaer dump still polluting

40 Years After Closure, Rensselaer Dump Still Polluting

Submitted by Dan Hendrick on Thu, 2009-02-19 15:22.

A toxic dump site in Rensselaer County is still wreaking havoc on the local environment, four decades after it was closed.

Valatie Kill is one of the bodies of water affected by the PCB contamination.Local officials in the town of Nassau said they are alarmed at the high level of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, that are being found in fish near the Dewey Loeffel site, according to the Times Union. The fish were sampled in Nassau Lake and Valatie Kill.

Since 1979, the Department of Environmental Conservation has monitored the 16-acre dump site off Mead Road, which operated from 1952 to 1970. The state Superfund site contains twice the volume of industrial pollutants found at the Love Canal toxic waste site in Niagara Falls.

The Citizens' Environmental Coalition has long advocated for a more stringent cleanup, but state officials say there are too many such sites around New York and not enough money to clean them and dispose of the contaminants.


Dan Hendrick's blog

http://www.nylcv.org/ecopoliticsdaily/20090219_40_years_after_closure_rensselaer_dump_still_polluting