The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that cleanup work will begin this summer to address soil and sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at the Dewey Loeffel Landfill Superfund site in the town of Nassau, N.Y. The General Electric Company (GE) will remove contaminated soil and sediment, replace it with clean backfill, restore the stream channel, and re-plant trees and shrubs. The work will begin this summer and will be completed this fall.
“Superfund is at the very core of EPA’s mission and this important cleanup work will address one potential source of contamination at the Dewey Loeffel site,” said EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez. “EPA is working closely with the community and is expanding its efforts to involve stakeholders as we advance this cleanup forward working closely with our state and local government partners.”
EPA will hold a public information session on July 17 in Nassau to provide an overview of the recently completed field investigation activities and the upcoming cleanup. EPA will also discuss the opportunity for the formation of a community advisory group (CAG) for the site. A CAG is made up of members of the community and is designed to serve as the focal point for the exchange of information among the local community and EPA, the state regulatory agency, and other pertinent federal agencies involved in cleanup of the Superfund site.
A public information session will begin at 6:00 p.m., with a formal presentation beginning at 7:00 p.m. Members of the project team will be available to answer questions about current and planned project activities.
Public Information Session:
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Open House: 6 – 7 p.m., Presentation: 7 p.m.
St. Mary’s Church
Parish Hall (behind the church)
26 Church Street, Nassau, N.Y.
Background:
The stream to be addressed, technically known as Tributary T11A, is a 1,900-foot stream which flows into the Valatie Kill. The sediment and adjacent shoreline soil of Tributary T11A is contaminated with elevated levels of PCBs, which serve as a potential ongoing source of contamination to downstream areas, such as Nassau Lake. In September 2017, the EPA, working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), reached an agreement with GE to conduct the T11A cleanup.
Between 1952 and 1968, an estimated 46,000 tons of industrial waste material generated by several Capital District companies was sent to the Dewey Loeffel Landfill site. The waste included industrial solvents, waste oil, PCBs, scrap materials, sludge and solids. From 1980 until the site was added to the federal Superfund list in 2011, numerous investigations and cleanup actions were performed at the site by GE and the NYSDEC. The cleanup work in Tributary T11A is an immediate action that is being taken to address contaminated soil and sediment in the tributary while the EPA’s long-term comprehensive study of the site continues.
For more information about the Dewey Loeffel Landfill Superfund Site, please visit www.epa.gov/superfund/dewey-loeffel-landfill.
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