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Expert: Toxic waste could be a huge problem in Horseheads district
Horseheads school officials say potential problem being taken seriously
HORSEHEADS - The head of an Ithaca environmental firm is keeping pressure on the Horseheads Central School District to address a long-forgotten toxic waste site on school property.
But school district officials say they are taking every necessary step to find out if there is any health threat from the site, and some nearby residents are wondering what all the fuss is about.
Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting Inc., uncovered information about a 3-acre former dump site while doing research on the Horseheads Schlumberger project.
Hang sent a letter to the school district to alert them to the presence of the site, located near the high school athletic fields.
School officials promptly hired a Syracuse environmental consultant to assess the site - officially known as Kentucky Avenue Satellite No. 18 - and that consultant gave a preliminary report at the Oct. 8 school board meeting.
But the consultant didn't seem to recognize the potential risks of the site, Hang said in a follow-up letter.
"I attended the Horseheads Central School District Board of Education meeting last week and was dismayed by the presentation of the board's environmental consultant," Hang wrote. "He implied that the toxic chemicals reported at the site were 'low-level' and associated with petroleum runoff from the parking lot. He failed to address the reported presence of DDT, Chlordane, mercury, chlorinated solvents, polychlorinated biphenyls and a broad range of human cancer-causing polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons."
The consultant also failed to address the potential environmental and public health threats to the adjoining athletic fields posed by contaminated dust emissions, groundwater contamination, surface runoff and soil gas vapor intrusion, Hang stated.
District responds
But Horseheads School Superintendent Ralph Marino said the district plans a thorough investigation, and has already committed up to $38,500 to make sure there are no health or safety concerns associated with the dump site.
"We are receiving good information and advice from the DEC, our architect and environmental engineer. We are proceeding thoroughly and methodically to ensure nothing is missed," Marino said. "Right now, we are awaiting the results of soil samples from the perimeter of the site that is identified in the EPA and DEC reports. We should have the results next week and are planning another update to the board on Oct. 22."
A profile sheet on file with the DEC indicates the waste site was a small landfill or dump in the early 1960s. The site eventually was covered with clean fill before being converted to athletic fields.
The Environmental Protection Agency investigated the site in 1986, and their findings indicated there was no danger from that location, said Bart Putzig, DEC regional remediation engineer.
"Other data we could get on the site suggest they were dismissed in 1994 by EPA. Our position is they remain very low-priority sites, and that earlier testing ruled them out as a source of contamination," Putzig said. "Their findings, from what I've read, do not elevate the site at all from the DEC perspective."
Neighbors not worried
Some residents who live close to the Horseheads school property are also skeptical that there is any danger from a long-abandoned dump.
"I've lived here all my life. I remember it used to be a big field and a swamp. Other than that, I never saw anything," said Ed Frycek of Carroll Street. "I don't have any concerns. I don't know why they are making a big deal about it now. It's been there for 45 years."
Retired Chemung County Judge William Danaher, who lives on Steuben Street, right next to the Horseheads athletic fields, said his family used to own most of the school property when it was part of their farm.
The family sold the property to the school district in 1962, said Danaher, who does remember a small dump site just beyond his family's farm.
But the site was not a place where industrial waste was dumped, he said.
"When I was young, there was a small dump through that area. I think it was just a place where people left stuff," Danaher said. "No family death has ever been traced to that. I'm not worried."
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Toxic waste an even bigger problem in Horseheads, expert testifies
Toxic waste lies underneath much of Horseheads, Elmira Heights and the Newtown Creek watershed and allows vapors to enter homes, Walter Hang of Toxics Targeting in Ithaca said Thursday.
Hang notified the Horseheads Village Board about the estimated 7,680-acre area in an e-mail he sent Thursday.
Hang included U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund records as well as state Department of Environmental Conservation reports.
The polluted area is known to the EPA as the Kentucky Avenue Wellfield, named for an Elmira Water Board well at Kentucky Avenue in Elmira Heights.
That well was closed in 1980 after the soil underneath was found to be contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE).
The EPA record states the well was added back to the public water supply after water treatment facilities were constructed in 1997. The same record says the Elmira Water Board doesn't use that pump to supply residents.
The EPA began investigating whether homes might be affected by vapors coming from the soil in February 2007, according to the agency's records.
Hang said EPA officials told him they have inspected about a dozen homes, with homeowner permission.
"It is my understanding that access was denied by most homeowners," Hang said in his e-mail to the village.
EPA records state that two homes needed modifications to deal with toxic vapors.
In September, Hang notified the Horseheads Central School District about contamination under the high school athletic fields.
He got his information from EPA and DEC reports for a Superfund site called Kentucky Avenue Wellfield Satellite No. 18 by the EPA.
The coordinates listed in the reports are by the outfield fence, and the DEC report said the site was on the southwest portion of the athletic fields.
However, a consultant hired by the school district to investigate the issue said the site was actually farther west, at the bus fueling station.
Scott Nostrand, chief of the environmental division of Barton and Loguidice, a Syracuse-based civil engineering firm, told the school board at a meeting Thursday night that he looked at a 1986 EPA soil and sediment study of the site to make that determination.
"This was back in 1986," Nostrand said. "They didn't have geographic information systems and global positioning systems coordinate locators," Nostrand said.
Nostrand used aerial photography from 1955 to 1995 and data from the 1986 EPA study to determine the site's location.
His firm collected soil samples from the athletic fields Thursday and said test results would be given to the district in about a week.
During the meeting, Hang told this newspaper that the proximity of that site and another site on Thorne Street, called Satellite No. 8, are still causes for concern.
"When you have that uncovered waste material, it blows away. ... This is a classic model for how the pollution migrates.
"It's in ground water that's moving southeast. Well, if it moves southeast from that site, it's going to wind up on the athletic field."
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Residents threaten lawsuit over Schlumberger project in Horseheads
A group of Chemung County residents is preparing to sue the Village of Horseheads, if necessary, to prevent the proposed Schlumberger project from proceeding without an environmental impact statement.
"I'm in discussions with other larger environmental groups to help bring additional legal action if it's required," said Helen Slottje, 42, of Ithaca, the lawyer representing the residents.
Horseheads Mayor Donald Ziegler said he had not yet seen the letter but had heard about it. He declined to comment on the matter Wednesday.
In a letter sent Wednesday to the village board, Slottje accused the board of failure to comply with state law in its handling of the proposed Schlumberger gas drilling support facility planned for 90 acres the company owns at The Center at Horseheads industrial park.
The letter requested that the board revisit the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) it completed at Tuesday's meeting and make a finding of "significant environmental impact" for the project.
The board voted unanimously Tuesday against that finding. In doing so, the board allowed the project to go forward without an environmental impact statement.
The letter also asked the board to direct the village code enforcement officer to issue a stop-work order and a cease-and-desist order for an 8.8-acre site in use by Schlumberger as a temporary facility.
"If they want to have this temporary occupation, that in and of itself requires a review that has not been undertaken," Slottje said.
The letter accused the board of failing to take the "hard look" required by law as it performed the SEQR at Tuesday's meeting.
It also accused the board of violating or undermining the State Environmental Quality Review Act by doing the following:
- Allowing Schlumberger to begin construction in May without a building permit or environmental review.
- Issuing a temporary building permit for the construction July 7 without an environmental review.
- Failing to include road work and rail work in the SEQR it conducted Tuesday.
The letter lays the foundation for future legal action because state law requires litigants to exhaust administrative remedies before filing a lawsuit against a municipal body.
Slottje says she represents a group of around 15 county residents and said that maybe 10 of the
residents live in Horseheads.
"The group is sort of evolving and changes all the time," Slottje said. "We're sort of very much a grassroots, people coming together."
She said the residents don't have a name for their group, but that they need to start thinking of one.
"We spend our time trying to address our concerns, and not on things like coming up with a name yet," Slottje said.
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Review reveals Schlumberger project comes with environmental risks
HORSEHEADS -- Village officials acknowledged Wednesday what Horseheads residents have suspected all along -- that a proposed Schlumberger Technology Corp. project has the potential for adverse environmental impact.
The Board of Trustees conducted the first phase of a long-anticipated State Environmental Quality Review process Wednesday afternoon on Schlumberger's proposal to locate a natural gas drilling services facility in The Center at Horseheads industrial park.
By going through a required checklist, trustees agreed there was the potential for major impact on surface water or ground water quality, drainage, air quality, non-threatened wildlife species and public health and safety.
Consultant Ron Sherman of MRB Group, who is working for the village, pointed out in each case there was only the potential for serious impact, particularly during the construction phase, and that solutions are available for each issue identified.
That will be the subject of the next phase of the review, which will involve a more specific discussion of each identified issue and possible remedies.
The board scheduled that meeting for Oct. 6, and the real work will take place at that time, said Mayor Don Zeigler.
"The next step will be to talk about mitigating response, whether it's wildlife habitat or water runoff. Is it a potential problem and how can they find ways to mitigate the problem," Zeigler said. "That's when we will talk about what we learned about traffic, and how many trucks are really coming in and out a day. We have details and we have facts.
"These are facts people want to hear, and it will all be on the table next Tuesday," Zeigler said. "We're constantly learning. Each board member has questions they will ask."
Residents who attended were not allowed to comment at Wednesday's meeting, but trustees will hold another public hearing on Schlumberger site plans Oct. 8. Officials will solicit comments from residents at that time.
Depending on the outcome of the Oct. 6 review, the village could require Schlumberger to prepare a more extensive environmental impact statement.
The main concern Zeigler said he has heard from residents involves drilling, which is not an issue because there will be no drilling on site.
But Zeigler said there are legitimate concerns and, even though the company promises 400 new jobs, the board will not just rubberstamp the Schlumberger project.
Schlumberger plans to store chemicals used in the natural gas drilling process on site, along with some explosives and small amounts of radioactive materials at the proposed location.
"My top concern is groundwater and runoff. I've done a ton of educating," Zeigler said. "There's also traffic and future expansion. What else is coming in? It's an old industrial site in an old village and they are trying to do a modern project. There are many things I'm looking at. If it does work out, a lot of good things can happen."
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Toxic dump found under Horseheads High sports fields
In this view looking southeast from Thorne Street Park in Horseheads, football players warm up before practice behind the baseball field Thursday at Horseheads High School. The field sits atop a former landfill.
Horseheads school officials are searching for answers after learning this week that part of the high school property sits on an old toxic waste dumpsite.
But state environmental officials say the presence of the site is not cause for immediate concern.
The issue was raised in a letter to the school district from Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting Inc., an Ithaca environmental firm.
Hang was doing research on the proposed Schlumberger site in the village of Horseheads when he stumbled across an unexpected find -- the presence of a three-acre hazardous substance waste disposal site that lies underneath the high school sports fields.
A profile sheet on file with the state Department of Environmental Conservation indicates the waste site is located in the southwest portion of the Horseheads High School athletic fields and was a small landfill or dump in the early 1960s.
The site was eventually covered with clean fill before being converted to athletic fields.
Hang said he is alarmed by some of the chemicals that linger somewhere underground there.
"When you look at the substances that were disposed, it's really troubling because you have old pesticides like DDT, mercury, toluene and a whole variety of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons," Hang said.
"These are very toxic chemicals that are in cigarette smoke and they cause lung cancer.
"That was a site that was very polluted with toxic chemicals, but for some unknown reason they determined that material did not constitute hazardous waste," he said.
"When the original state Superfund was adopted, this site and maybe a thousand others did not qualify for available cleanup dollars. For some reason, it just was not determined to be hazardous waste that could tap into the dedicated fund."
Report raises questions
There is a small wetland near the western boundary of the property and beyond that is Thorne Street Park, which belongs to the Village of Horseheads.
The history of the site in question is unclear, and Mayor Don Zeigler said he was not aware of any former toxic dump in that area before Hang raised the issue.
Nor were school officials aware, but now they are trying to find out more about the dumpsite before deciding the next step.
"We're still investigating the matter. We take it very seriously. We are working with DEC," said Horseheads School Superintendent Ralph Marino.
"We are still looking for someone to tell us where it is. We're asking for the coordinates of it. It's been reconfigured a lot since 1964. We'll rely on DEC to provide us that information. We want to get the information from them."
In the meantime, parents and students shouldn't be alarmed until the school district can pin down more specific information, Marino said.
"We really want to know the location of it. There may be a building on it," he said. "We need to verify that. Someone needs to produce something. Three acres is a large piece of land. And it's been developed over the years."
DEC responds
The state is aware of the site but has not pursued remediation for several reasons, said Bart Putzig, DEC regional remediation engineer.
Initially, no funding was in place to investigate and clean up sites like this, Putzig said.
Now that money is available for these projects, it's a matter of prioritizing, and it's a long list, he said.
"It's now part of a group of potential sites to be investigated by DEC. There are 42 in our region. We are looking at them on a prioritized basis," Putzig said.
"This is a lower priority site. The data we have in front of us don't show a significant threat. The contaminants shown here are not very mobile. There's not great concern in terms of exposure issues at this point in time.
"If I don't have any more data than this, than there are other places where we need to spend our funds."
More serious contamination areas are located south of the high school location, such as the old Kentucky Avenue wellfield sites in Horseheads and Elmira Heights, Putzig said.
But DEC's own fact sheet indicates the threat of direct contact at the high school site because it is an athletic field.
That report was prepared in 1994 and the file was never updated, Putzig said. The Environmental Protection Agency might have more information about it, he said.
DEC reviews the hazardous substance site list regularly and will address the Horseheads location if any circumstances change, he said.
But in his letter to the school district, Hang urges that school officials demand remedial action be taken as soon as possible.
"This issue was recognized years ago and this site was investigated around 1994. So there is no reason why this site, based on available data, shouldn't have been investigated and cleaned up, given that it's at a school where young children could be threatened," Hang said.
"I mean frankly, it's shocking. Normally, this should have been a top priority."
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