Town and village deal with soil contamination

NORTH EAST — An executive session started the town of North East’s special joint meeting with the village of Millerton Thursday, Jan. 7.

“I’ve spoken with [Town Engineer] Ray Jurkowski and [Village Attorney] Michele [Haab], and our collective suggestion is that we go immediately into executive session to deal with issues with contamination,� Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky said. “There are valid grounds ... that are potentially a matter of prosecution and a possible future of litigation if it’s exposed to the public, as it could put people in peril.�

Both village and town board members agreed, and by 7:10 p.m. (the meeting began at 7 p.m.) they had exited the board room, moving upstairs to meet privately for the executive session.

The regular meeting resumed one hour later, at 8:04 p.m., once the executive session ended and all of the board members returned to the main meeting space.

“The issue at hand is that we have contaminated soils on the South Center Street water line,� Jurkowski said, explaining the matter to the public-at-large. “Part of an excavation taking place by village crews found contaminated soil based on visual and smell. Then two loads were taken off site, to Northeast Muffler, and then the owner smelled the odor and said he didn’t want any more. From that point the materials that were excavated were stockpiled and numbered and we notified the DEC [Department of Environmental Conservation] and they visited the site.�

In addition to the soil at the muffler shop, there is still soil at the original site. That soil borders the town’s highway garage on South Center Street and sits in a heap measuring roughly 4 feet high and 150 feet long. A new 10-inch water main was installed in that location before the soil was discovered to be contaminated; that main serves as a big loop running through the village, and services lines feeding out onto the rest of the water district.

One concern was whether the contamination made its way into the stream, although there was no evidence supporting such a theory. The engineer said it was recommended that plastic be placed over the contaminated soil and that it be tested, which it was. The soil was found to have petroleum in it, though not at high enough a level to prevent it from going back into the trench.

“It needs to be disposed of,� he said. “But it’s at the level of non-hazardous waste.�

Still, Jurkowski said, it’s excess material that has to be removed and the town’s haulers are looking at bringing it to an Albany landfill. The town received three bids to do so, ranging from $42 per ton to $48 per ton. The board approved the move, accepting the lowest bid from Pure Earth Disposal Group; it’s hoping to complete the removal by sometime this week. As part of the process the town will need to provide a report to the DEC, as well as manifests for the removal and disposal of the materials, to get closure of the spill.

Neither the town nor the village know the origins of the petroleum, nor are they going to attempt to find it out.

“It’s up to the DEC to do what they would like to do,� Jurkowski said.

“We do not know the source,� Mayor John Scutieri said. “That’s something we’ll just have to learn [when it’s discovered in the future].�

It was stated, however, that the petroleum was believed to have been derived from a gasoline product.