ITHACA -- Documents recently filed at the Tompkins County Public Library indicate that Emerson Power Transmission is adding two groundwater monitoring wells to the initially planned seven when construction begins next week.
ITHACA -- The public will have two opportunities to learn more about testing and investigations concerning environmental pollutants from the Emerson Power Transmission site on Thursday.
ITHACA -- The Department of Environmental Conservation has reclassified the Emerson Power Transmission factory cleanup site as a 'significant threat to the environment.'
The DEC changed the site from a Class 4 -- a site that has been properly closed but requires continued maintenance and/or monitoring -- to a Class 2.
ITHACA -- Reclassification of the Emerson Power Transmission site on South Hill is imminent, according to state officials, but the impact of the change on investigations into pollution sources at the plant is expected to be minimal.
ITHACA -- Seven more homes downhill from the former Morse Chain plant will be included in testing for airborne chemicals, according to a spokesperson for Emerson Power Transmission.
The case of chemical pollution from the former Morse Chain plant above the City of Ithaca's South Hill neighborhood is anything but closed.
State conservation officials need to recognize the gravity of this problem, raise the priority of cleaning the area and provide residents with a clear plan of action -- including a timeline.
About 17 years ago, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation identified pollution problems at the old Morse Chain plant, which today is owned by Emerson Power Transmission.
ITHACA -- Another possible source of contamination has been found on the site of the former Morse Chain plant.
Fifty-five-gallon drum barrels labeled as containers for methyl chloroform, a form of tricholorethane or TCE, are
rusted out and littering the hillside below Emerson Power Transmission, which bought the property in 1983.
ITHACA -- An air of cautious optimism has settled on South Hill after some residents received results of home air pollution tests.
The homes are all in an area potentially affected by pollution from the former Morse Chain factory on Danby Road and were tested by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, starting in September.
Of the 44 homes where air was analyzed, about a dozen received letters detailing the DEC findings, according to Mary Jane Peachey, Region 7 engineer for the DEC.
