Troy water supply faces potential contamination threat
By: Carlsy Ybanez
Business Manager
The Village of Hoosick Falls has been deciding on a new reservoir to draw water from ever since the contamination and pollution of their water supplies caused devastating effects on the commmunity, however, the Tomhannock Reservoir, which was originally an option, may not be anymore.
There is a current risk of pollution by PFOA and PFOS in the Tomhannock Reservoir which supplies water to a large portion of Rensselaer County, and the city of Troy. This is in connection with a current lawsuit filed against Norlite, a construction material company, based in Cohoes, NY.
Norlite is currently addressing the alleged issue of undisclosed burning of hazardous PFOA and PFOS conatining firefighter foam in their kiln. There is a possibility of this air pollution precipitating down into nearby water supplies.
According to various sources, including Times Union, “PFOA and PFOS, or Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances have been known to cause serious health effects in people exposed through their water supplies.”
According to the CDC, “It can remain in the body for long periods of time. In [test animals] with large amounts, it can affect growth, development, reproduction and injure the liver.”
These statements show how serious this situation may be for local residents near the plant.
This lawsuit has piqued the interest of local assemblyman, Jonathan T. McDonald.
He discussed the progress of the lawsuit, the status of the company and the precautions being taken for the potential problem.
McDonald admitted to “not being directly involved with the process,” and was instead more involved on the legislative actions being taken to prevent similar incidents and risks of possible contaminations of water supplies in the future.
“There was still no reply from Norlite on exactly how much of the PFOA and PFOS material they burned from 2018 to present, but we have requested them to disclose and they will oblige on exactly how much they burned,” Mcdonald said.
McDonald said it has not been determined yet who is at fault.
“The reality is this: PFOS materials were not classified as hazardous waste, and therefore [Norlite] was not required to report that they were incinerating it, and [as for who’s at fault,] that is a determination to be made at the federal level,” Mcdonald said. “But we are not trying to be alarmists and are not trying to be nonchalant, we are trying to get the information on the situation to make determinations [on what to do next.]”
Mcdonald said although they are still waiting on the federal decision, what matters to him is getting the information out there.
“This isn’t, to me, about finger pointing – this substance, although not [directly] classified as hazardous, we know has large potential to cause serious health risks, and that is why I put in a bill that prohibits incineration of these types of substances across all of New York State,” he said.
Mcdonald talked more in depth about the legislation.
“I introduced legislation, as of last night, that will prohibit the incineration of PFOS materials in all of NYS, and my goal is to get that passed very soon, before the next legislative session,” Mcdonald said. “The hope is to let the science determine the proper disposal,” he continued. “As of now I don’t know if Norlite is going to be fined, since this is an unregulated item, we don’t know if they actually violated any laws yet,” he said. “This is yet to be made clear.”
McDonald said there are some things students can do to help the situation.
“Well, you can start by getting everyone to start reaching out to your state legislators, to support the bill that myself and Senator Breslin introduced,” he said. “If we can actuate this, we can reduce the risk – we actually reduce the risk by a 100%.”
Ten Hudson Valley Community College students shared their thoughts and willingness to support the bill. All ten agreed to show support and would petition for the bill to be passed.
“As a chemistry student, this incident informs me how differently I want my generation to cope with similar situations, and this is a step forward,” said Omsaloma Ayoub, a biological science student.”
Ayoub compared the situation to that of a similar one introduced by the book “The Falls.”
“Socioeconomic differences shouldn’t affect how we prioritize the solving of these types of problems, and how quickly these types of incidents have been swept under the rug in the past is unacceptable,” said Ayoub.
The Hudsonian reached out to Norlite who has yet to reply. However, it’s relieving to know that there have been plans to prevent and stop similar situations like this in the future.
The trial’s conclusion will finalize who’s to blame, and what contribution they will have to make sure that possible contaminated water supplies stays safe and clean for the residents it provides water for. This is especially important for culinary businesses around the area.
Nine out of ten Hudson Valley Community College students insisted they would not live anywhere with a threat of contamination.
Hein Kim, Biological Science, admitted that she has faced this problem before, and said that there is no reason to panic and be inclined to move just because of it.
However, there are also other repercussions the threat of water contamination has. Water is crucial in almost everything we do, especially cooking – with this in mind, the Hudson Valley Community College students believed that they would rather eat at home than eat anywhere in the city of Troy to prevent risk of being contaminated.
Some said they would never eat in Troy, altogether, just because of that possibility. This would do great damage to Troy’s economical status, especially for businesses in the culinary field.
Two out of ten student’s said that they would even transfer out of Hudson Valley Community College if the threat were to become a reality.
Of course, these questions were from a theoretical standpoint. This was not to alarm students, but just to gain their opinion if it were to get to that point.