Old Hurley Landfill Declared Superfund Site - by Maya Schubert/Kingston Wire

The town’s former landfill has been designated a New York State Superfund site due to contamination from the toxins PFOA and PFOS, the state Department of Environmental Conservation announced this week.

The “Class 02” classification, which grants the town access to over $1 million in state funds to investigate and clean up the mess, follows ongoing efforts by the town to resolve DEC violations at the disused landfill at 1035 Dug Hill Rd.

“We were expecting this,” said town Supervisor Melinda McKnight of the classification. “It means we are eligible for funding.”

According to the DEC notice, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) were detected in the landfill’s groundwater monitoring wells, leachate collection tank, in surface water and sediment samples adjacent to the landfill and in private drinking water wells downhill from the landfill. 

“Additional investigation is needed to define the nature and extent of site-related contamination; to evaluate associated human exposure pathways; and to determine the appropriate actions to prevent and mitigate potential exposures,” the report reads.

As a Class 2 Superfund site, the landfill is considered by the DEC “a significant threat to public health and/or the environment.” The department will further investigate and find cleanup options going forward.

The report states that leachate began leaking from the site around the time of the landfill’s closure in the 1990s, and a collection system was built shortly afterwards. The contaminants found in the water collected in 1991, the report says, were common to landfill leachate and did not contain PFOS.

In 2013, engineering firm Crawford and Associates, on behalf of the town, submitted a request to the DEC asking if annual monitoring could be reduced to every two years, citing data of the last 20 or so years since the collection system was built that showed a mostly downward trend in the contaminant level. A DEC representative asked to meet with the town to discuss the request, but never followed up. According to the report, water monitoring for contaminants at the landfill then halted from 2013-2021 “for unknown reasons.”

The DEC’s own monitoring detected PFOS in the landfill in 2018. The department issued a violation notice on January 6, 2022, alleging the town’s failure to prevent waste leachate leaks and responsibly monitor and maintain the landfill. In 2022, the town resumed monitoring the water with Crawford and Associates and made several repairs to the collection system.

The highest level of PFOS found during the DEC’s initial assessment was 330 nanograms (ng) per liter, 33 times the New York State Department of Health’s maximum contaminant level of 10 ng/L. However, according to New York State’s May 2021 Inactive Landfill Initiative “… the presence of PFOS compounds in groundwater at inactive landfill facilities is relatively common,” and in 2020, 77 percent of the 262 landfills investigated by the DEC were found to have excess levels of PFOS.

The DEC has installed Point of Entry Treatment systems designed to filter out contaminants on the private wells contaminated by the toxins, The agency also supplied bottled water to the residents.

“Residents are urged to contact NYS DEC with any questions or concerns they may have regarding the potential impact on their property,” said McKnight, adding that under the DEC’s Order of Consent, the town itself has limited interactions with the affected residents.

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