Green Blog: Recycling Plant Fire Unnerves a New York Town

After a fire burned through a recycling plant for electrical equipment two weeks ago in Columbia County, N.Y., the environmental tests that followed were alone cause for anxiety among residents.

State and federal officials tested for polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, as well as lead, chromium and volatile organic compounds at the plant, operated by TCI in West Ghent, N.Y., as concern rose about the toxic chemicals that might have been spread by smoke and soot over farms and homes.

The cause of the fire, which occurred on Aug. 1 and 2, is still under investigation.

As they prepare to begin cleaning up the site on Monday, state environmental officials are emphasizing that testing has turned up very low levels of toxic contamination, which seems to have been contained in the building that burned, sparing surrounding areas.

?Everything we have so far looks very favorable,? said Keith Goertz, a regional spill engineer with the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

State health officials say the fire posed ?no threat to public health? because tests outside the site did not detect the PCBs, the toxic chemicals of most concern. They said PCBs were found mostly at low levels among the transformers, oil containers and electrical equipment managed by TCI.

PCBs, which have been linked to cancer and the impairment of immune and reproductive functions, among other problems, were widely used for electrical insulation but were banned in the 1970s by the federal government. They are still present in old equipment like lighting fixtures as well as transformers of the sort processed by TCI.

Since the fire, residents and local officials have been seeking reassurance that they are safe from exposure to pollutants. On Thursday night, around 300 people attended a meeting with local and state agencies in West Ghent to express their worries and to request additional testing.

?I certainly trust the state and federal agencies, but I absolutely understand the concerns of people,? said Didi Barrett, the New York State assemblywoman who organized the meeting. ?One of the issues that remains for me is, what happens to the soil? There are a lot of organic farms in the area. It?s just hard to imagine there?s no impact.?

Local officials attributed some of the anxiety to what they said were their own faulty communications, including the lack of an emergency system that would have allowed them to issue a mass alert asking people to stay indoors and close their windows so they would not breathe in the outdoor air while the fire was raging during the night.

?When that happened, we dropped the ball,? said Robin Andrews, a local supervisor who is running for the New York State Senate this year. ?We?ll correct that part. We were lucky that nothing terrible happened.?

But she expressed some frustration with state officials? communications after the fire as well. ?The state needs to be responsive to what people are asking,? she said. ?They heard that loud and clear.?

To that end, officials at the state Department of Environmental Conservation say they plan to post updates about the cleanup and the department?s findings at the agency?s Web site. After the debris is cleared, an environmental investigation will follow, with more testing of soil and groundwater, they added.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=fabc53aefe7dd83d7aca016d5ac1aa29

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