WHAT FOLLOWS IS A REAL-LIFE STORY OF THE PERSISTENCE OF PUBLIC CORRUPTION IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE PUBLIC'S HEALTH THAT WAS BURIED IN 2016, AND NOW HAS BEEN REVIVED
With the advent of the Corona Virus, and all the hysteria associated with it in the corrupt state of New York, which as this series of essays by a former associate level public health engineer in New York clearly demonstrates, has a "health" department one would expect to find in some third-world country like Haiti, this thread has become more relevant in terms of helping to understand why, despite having on paper a well-designed public health maintenance system, we really are so ill prepared in the corrupt state of New York, where the governor is clearly in a state of panic, to deal with this outbreak without inducing a state of panic, as governor Andrew Cuomo has done, in the populace at large.
THE TALK-1300 REPORT
Re: THE TALK-1300 REPORT
PRESS RELEASE
"Hoosick Falls Next Flint Michigan Thanks To Cuomo And Cronies?"
January 26, 2016
Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin (R,C,I-Schaghticoke) today criticized the New York State Department of Health's (DOH) handling of the water contamination issue in Hoosick Falls.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) previously set much more stringent requirements for the amount of PFOA allowed in drinking water than DOH.
PFOA is a toxic chemical used in non-stick cookware.
DOH, which previously denied that the water posed a threat to residents, reversed its stance earlier this month and cautioned residents against drinking or cooking with the water.
Dr. Howard Zucker, Commissioner of DOH, testified yesterday about the situation.
"This is a serious situation that affects thousands of residents in Hoosick Falls," McLaughlin said.
"We need to know why state and federal regulations were so far apart, and Dr. Zucker has an obligation to provide us an explanation."
"Epitomizing the Cuomo Administration's lack of transparency and accountability, he dodged questions about the situation at yesterday's budget hearing and had his staff shield him from an onslaught of reporters after his testimony ended."
"Dr. Zucker's actions were shameful and denigrating to the residents still struggling to access clean drinking water in Hoosick Falls."
The EPA is currently considering establishing the Hoosick Falls area as a Superfund site, which would require the company responsible for the bulk of the pollution to fund an extensive clean-up.
"Right now the EPA is conducting an investigation to determine the source of the contamination and how widespread it actually is," McLaughlin said.
"Before we learn the results of the investigation, it would be premature of me to support or oppose a Superfund designation."
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Steven- ... ory/67720/
"Hoosick Falls Next Flint Michigan Thanks To Cuomo And Cronies?"
January 26, 2016
Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin (R,C,I-Schaghticoke) today criticized the New York State Department of Health's (DOH) handling of the water contamination issue in Hoosick Falls.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) previously set much more stringent requirements for the amount of PFOA allowed in drinking water than DOH.
PFOA is a toxic chemical used in non-stick cookware.
DOH, which previously denied that the water posed a threat to residents, reversed its stance earlier this month and cautioned residents against drinking or cooking with the water.
Dr. Howard Zucker, Commissioner of DOH, testified yesterday about the situation.
"This is a serious situation that affects thousands of residents in Hoosick Falls," McLaughlin said.
"We need to know why state and federal regulations were so far apart, and Dr. Zucker has an obligation to provide us an explanation."
"Epitomizing the Cuomo Administration's lack of transparency and accountability, he dodged questions about the situation at yesterday's budget hearing and had his staff shield him from an onslaught of reporters after his testimony ended."
"Dr. Zucker's actions were shameful and denigrating to the residents still struggling to access clean drinking water in Hoosick Falls."
The EPA is currently considering establishing the Hoosick Falls area as a Superfund site, which would require the company responsible for the bulk of the pollution to fund an extensive clean-up.
"Right now the EPA is conducting an investigation to determine the source of the contamination and how widespread it actually is," McLaughlin said.
"Before we learn the results of the investigation, it would be premature of me to support or oppose a Superfund designation."
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Steven- ... ory/67720/
Re: THE TALK-1300 REPORT
DATE: 4 February 2016
TO: Chris Churchill, Albany, New York Times Union
In your article "Churchill: Worried about the future in Hoosick Falls" published Saturday, January 30, 2016, you pose the following rhetorical question, to wit: Is it any wonder that so many Americans have lost faith in government?
And of course, looking at history in Rensselaer County specifically, and New York state generally, the answer is clearly no, it is no wonder so many Americans have lost faith in government.
With respect to your recent story referenced above, if one were to look for a classic textbook case of denial of honest services causing harm to the public at large, one could not find a better example than what is going on right now in Hoosick Falls in Rensselaer County in upstate New York, which is known as a "Cauldron of Corruption" where the culture of corruption grows like barnacles on a boat bottom.
As you and your paper note, we have a lot of hand-wringing going on now, and famous people like Erin Brockovich coming on the scene to get their names in the papers and their faces on TV, and U.S. senator Charley Schumer also gets to get his name in the papers and his face on TV, but the truth of the matter is that this groundwater contamination problem in Hoosick Falls specifically, and in Rensselaer County generally, has been known about by public officials since at least 1986, when the now-defunct Capital Land magazine appeared on newsstands with a blaring front-page headline that read "DON'T DRINK THE WATER!"
1986, Chris.
Think about that for a moment, how long this cover-up of groundwater contamination problems in Rensselaer County has been going on, and who has been involved in that cover-up, starting with your own newspaper.
Go back to 10 January 1988 and the story "Developers see a zealot in new county health officer" by Laurie Anderson in the Times Union, wherein was stated "Plante is involved in several fierce feuds with developers, the most public of which involves Anderson, who is attempting to rally the county legislature, Buono, and the state Health Department to make Plante more compliant."
As you bemoan these groundwater contamination issues in Hoosick Falls today, Chris, meditate for a moment on that phrase "to make Plante more compliant."
As a wordsmith, I trust you know what the word "compliant" means when it is applied to someone like myself whose duty it was as the "new county health officer" to protect the groundwater for the people of Hoosick Falls and Rensselaer County.
"Compliant" means willing to turn one's back and look the other way, doesn't it?
"Compliant" in someone whose duty it was to enforce the Public Health Law in the Rensselaer County Health District means "sleazy" and "untrustworthy," does it not?
But in the political context, "compliant" means politically reliable, willing to accept bribes and look the other way, which I was not, and so I had to go.
I had to go because on October 11, 1988, and Fred LeBrun will clearly recall this, as he was vilifying me in your paper at that time, I had the temerity to tell John Buono, the Rensselaer County Executive in writing that as the Director of the Environmental Health Division, it was my responsibility to certify on behalf of Rensselaer County the integrity of the Code Enforcement Programs to the State of New York for the purpose of payment of our State operating funds, and I had reached a juncture where such certification by myself was no longer feasible.
I informed John Buono in that writing that my certification of the operations of the Environmental Health Division of the Rensselaer County Health Department was as a licensed professional, and that my conduct was governed by Part 29 of the Codes of the Education Department which set forth the actions deemed to constitute unprofessional conduct on the part of licensed individuals in Rensselaer County and New York state.
I informed John Buono on that date that section 29.1(b)(6) of those rules defined unprofessional conduct as "willfully making or filing a false report, or failing to file a report required by law or by the Education Department, or willfully impeding or obstructing such filing, or inducing another person to do so."
I told John Buono in that writing that I could no longer vouch for the integrity of the Environmental Health Division programs and would not place my professional standing in jeopardy by doing so.
In that writing, I told John Buono that it was my professional opinion stated in writing to him that the programs I was responsible for had been very seriously undermined and compromised.
I told him that as my internal investigation proceeded, the probability of actions for damages against the Department increased, due to errors of omission and commission of former engineers and the Public Health Director.
I told John Buono that as the Public Health Law required me to conduct investigations into incidents involving public health nuisance or hazard, I found myself in the course of such investigation returning to the files of the Rensselaer County Health Department where I kept finding consistent violation of code on the part of County staff.
For that, as your paper gleefully reported, I was declared to be mentally ill by John Buono, I was locked out of my office, my investigation files of groundwater contamination in Rensselaer County, including Hoosick Falls, were systematically destroyed, and I was fired.
And now, all these years later, the Times Union is fretting about the groundwater contamination problems in Hoosick Falls that it helped to create back in 1988.
So Chris, is it any wonder that so many Americans have lost faith in government?
Think about it.
Sincerely,
Paul R. Plante, P.E.
TO: Chris Churchill, Albany, New York Times Union
In your article "Churchill: Worried about the future in Hoosick Falls" published Saturday, January 30, 2016, you pose the following rhetorical question, to wit: Is it any wonder that so many Americans have lost faith in government?
And of course, looking at history in Rensselaer County specifically, and New York state generally, the answer is clearly no, it is no wonder so many Americans have lost faith in government.
With respect to your recent story referenced above, if one were to look for a classic textbook case of denial of honest services causing harm to the public at large, one could not find a better example than what is going on right now in Hoosick Falls in Rensselaer County in upstate New York, which is known as a "Cauldron of Corruption" where the culture of corruption grows like barnacles on a boat bottom.
As you and your paper note, we have a lot of hand-wringing going on now, and famous people like Erin Brockovich coming on the scene to get their names in the papers and their faces on TV, and U.S. senator Charley Schumer also gets to get his name in the papers and his face on TV, but the truth of the matter is that this groundwater contamination problem in Hoosick Falls specifically, and in Rensselaer County generally, has been known about by public officials since at least 1986, when the now-defunct Capital Land magazine appeared on newsstands with a blaring front-page headline that read "DON'T DRINK THE WATER!"
1986, Chris.
Think about that for a moment, how long this cover-up of groundwater contamination problems in Rensselaer County has been going on, and who has been involved in that cover-up, starting with your own newspaper.
Go back to 10 January 1988 and the story "Developers see a zealot in new county health officer" by Laurie Anderson in the Times Union, wherein was stated "Plante is involved in several fierce feuds with developers, the most public of which involves Anderson, who is attempting to rally the county legislature, Buono, and the state Health Department to make Plante more compliant."
As you bemoan these groundwater contamination issues in Hoosick Falls today, Chris, meditate for a moment on that phrase "to make Plante more compliant."
As a wordsmith, I trust you know what the word "compliant" means when it is applied to someone like myself whose duty it was as the "new county health officer" to protect the groundwater for the people of Hoosick Falls and Rensselaer County.
"Compliant" means willing to turn one's back and look the other way, doesn't it?
"Compliant" in someone whose duty it was to enforce the Public Health Law in the Rensselaer County Health District means "sleazy" and "untrustworthy," does it not?
But in the political context, "compliant" means politically reliable, willing to accept bribes and look the other way, which I was not, and so I had to go.
I had to go because on October 11, 1988, and Fred LeBrun will clearly recall this, as he was vilifying me in your paper at that time, I had the temerity to tell John Buono, the Rensselaer County Executive in writing that as the Director of the Environmental Health Division, it was my responsibility to certify on behalf of Rensselaer County the integrity of the Code Enforcement Programs to the State of New York for the purpose of payment of our State operating funds, and I had reached a juncture where such certification by myself was no longer feasible.
I informed John Buono in that writing that my certification of the operations of the Environmental Health Division of the Rensselaer County Health Department was as a licensed professional, and that my conduct was governed by Part 29 of the Codes of the Education Department which set forth the actions deemed to constitute unprofessional conduct on the part of licensed individuals in Rensselaer County and New York state.
I informed John Buono on that date that section 29.1(b)(6) of those rules defined unprofessional conduct as "willfully making or filing a false report, or failing to file a report required by law or by the Education Department, or willfully impeding or obstructing such filing, or inducing another person to do so."
I told John Buono in that writing that I could no longer vouch for the integrity of the Environmental Health Division programs and would not place my professional standing in jeopardy by doing so.
In that writing, I told John Buono that it was my professional opinion stated in writing to him that the programs I was responsible for had been very seriously undermined and compromised.
I told him that as my internal investigation proceeded, the probability of actions for damages against the Department increased, due to errors of omission and commission of former engineers and the Public Health Director.
I told John Buono that as the Public Health Law required me to conduct investigations into incidents involving public health nuisance or hazard, I found myself in the course of such investigation returning to the files of the Rensselaer County Health Department where I kept finding consistent violation of code on the part of County staff.
For that, as your paper gleefully reported, I was declared to be mentally ill by John Buono, I was locked out of my office, my investigation files of groundwater contamination in Rensselaer County, including Hoosick Falls, were systematically destroyed, and I was fired.
And now, all these years later, the Times Union is fretting about the groundwater contamination problems in Hoosick Falls that it helped to create back in 1988.
So Chris, is it any wonder that so many Americans have lost faith in government?
Think about it.
Sincerely,
Paul R. Plante, P.E.
Re: THE TALK-1300 REPORT
TALK RADIO 1300
"Opinion: T-Spin: The feds screwed up Hoosick Falls"
Jim Franco
February 17, 2016 11:30 pm
My guess is that in about a decade, Hoosick Falls will be a ghost town.
Think about it.
If you are looking for a house, one of the first things you do is go online and find something that has the amenities you want and/or need and is within your price range.
After bookmarking the house(s), you Google the community where they are located.
When you Google Hoosick Falls, though, you don’t get “quiet village” or “bucolic countryside” or “just minutes from Vermont.”
Instead, you get things like “don’t drink the water,” and “high rates of cancer” and “public not informed.”
Google will show you both descriptions of the sleepy little town, but nobody’s first thought about Hoosick Falls is how nice it would be to live in a Norman Rockwell painting.
And Google lasts forever.
With nobody moving in, and more and more people moving out, it’s destined to be a ghost town like the mining villages in Colorado.
Honestly, who can blame a prospective homeowner?
Even if the state follows through and guarantees the water is clean and safe, if I were buying a home, I certainly would not take a chance.
I don’t think I am alone in thinking the government doesn’t do anything right.
It’s the government’s fault, after all, that Hoosick is in the jam it’s in.
Sure, the factories where the PFOA came from have operated out of Hoosick for decades, and they most certainly polluted the water supply.
But the operative words there are “for decades,” and nobody is really sure when PFOA made its way into the water system.
The town and village, just like municipalities across the state, test the water on an annual basis and report the findings to the residents in an Annual Water Quality Report.
Testing for PFOA is not one of the chemicals municipalities look for because it’s still unregulated, at least according to the two agencies that regulate chemicals – the state Department of Health and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
As we all know, resident Michael Hickey took it upon himself to test for PFOA in the summer of 2014.
It was right around the time a class action lawsuit against DuPont was heating up in Ohio for contaminating the water.
He brought his results to the village, who brought them to the Rensselaer County Health Department who brought them to the state Department of Health.
I’m not 100 percent sure of the chain of possession, but that’s basically how it went.
The village didn’t know what to do with the findings and neither did the county since neither one of them can or should regulate chemicals in drinking water or any place else.
It’s just not their thing.
So, the head of Environmental Health at the RCDOH, Rich Elder, was working with the state to first determine the exact amount of PFOA in the water, find a way to filter it out and then find and stop the source of the contamination.
In the meantime, the public well with the largest presence of PFOA was taken off line as a precaution.
The EPA was informed sometime around the same time the state found out but the notice went to Washington rather than the regional office so that agency was largely out of the loop.
Which wasn’t a bad thing.
The locals were getting a handle on things and, despite the reports that everything was done undercover, residents were in the loop.
PFOA was discussed at board meetings and was included in the annual water report.
I guess not many pay attention to such things.
Then, at the end of 2015, a sensational story ran about out of control cancer rates – based on a doctor’s observation with no scientific data to back it up – and cover-ups.
Judith Enck, head of the EPA in Region 2, rode in on her white horse and arbitrarily declared that residents shouldn’t drink the water or use water while cooking.
Bathing in it, so long as it was a short shower, was OK.
(The EPA then arbitrarily lowered the acceptable recommendations of PFOA from 400 parts per trillion to 100 ppt.)
And then everyone in went into full-blown panic mode.
Rare is there an evening newscast that doesn’t have a reporter standing in front of a camera telling us you will die if you drink Hoosick Falls water, and they invariably find someone to blame the water for that hangnail they got in 1985.
A Google search will find all those reports in seconds.
Banks stopped lending money to people who want to buy a house anywhere in Hoosick Falls.
Lawyers are circling like buzzards looking to sign people up in a class action lawsuit, and politicians, of course, are grandstanding and pointing fingers.
Wait until the blood test results come back.
It’s almost a guarantee everyone in the village has PFOA in their system.
According to a number of studies, more than 97 percent of all living creatures on the planet – including polar bears – have some PFOA in their systems.
But, I have yet to find anything that states how much is bad for you, though, and I have yet to find any studies that clearly finds how much PFOA causes cancer or any other disease – which might be the reason it is still an unregulated chemical.
To the state’s credit – and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s too – it is doing what it can to ease the community’s fears.
It is spending $10 million on filtration systems for individual homeowners, is helping with financial concerns and is exploring new sources of water for the village.
To conclude, though, I don’t mean to minimize the situation in Hoosick.
I’m glad I don’t live there and I’m glad I don’t have family there.
I’m pretty sure PFOA isn’t good for you.
But a lot of things aren’t.
It’s a matter of how bad it is for you that nobody knows.
I have to wonder how many Hoosick Falls there are across the county.
My guess is there are a ton of them, municipalities should take note and start filtering the water or run the risk of being a ghost town.
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/t ... ment-14205
"Opinion: T-Spin: The feds screwed up Hoosick Falls"
Jim Franco
February 17, 2016 11:30 pm
My guess is that in about a decade, Hoosick Falls will be a ghost town.
Think about it.
If you are looking for a house, one of the first things you do is go online and find something that has the amenities you want and/or need and is within your price range.
After bookmarking the house(s), you Google the community where they are located.
When you Google Hoosick Falls, though, you don’t get “quiet village” or “bucolic countryside” or “just minutes from Vermont.”
Instead, you get things like “don’t drink the water,” and “high rates of cancer” and “public not informed.”
Google will show you both descriptions of the sleepy little town, but nobody’s first thought about Hoosick Falls is how nice it would be to live in a Norman Rockwell painting.
And Google lasts forever.
With nobody moving in, and more and more people moving out, it’s destined to be a ghost town like the mining villages in Colorado.
Honestly, who can blame a prospective homeowner?
Even if the state follows through and guarantees the water is clean and safe, if I were buying a home, I certainly would not take a chance.
I don’t think I am alone in thinking the government doesn’t do anything right.
It’s the government’s fault, after all, that Hoosick is in the jam it’s in.
Sure, the factories where the PFOA came from have operated out of Hoosick for decades, and they most certainly polluted the water supply.
But the operative words there are “for decades,” and nobody is really sure when PFOA made its way into the water system.
The town and village, just like municipalities across the state, test the water on an annual basis and report the findings to the residents in an Annual Water Quality Report.
Testing for PFOA is not one of the chemicals municipalities look for because it’s still unregulated, at least according to the two agencies that regulate chemicals – the state Department of Health and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
As we all know, resident Michael Hickey took it upon himself to test for PFOA in the summer of 2014.
It was right around the time a class action lawsuit against DuPont was heating up in Ohio for contaminating the water.
He brought his results to the village, who brought them to the Rensselaer County Health Department who brought them to the state Department of Health.
I’m not 100 percent sure of the chain of possession, but that’s basically how it went.
The village didn’t know what to do with the findings and neither did the county since neither one of them can or should regulate chemicals in drinking water or any place else.
It’s just not their thing.
So, the head of Environmental Health at the RCDOH, Rich Elder, was working with the state to first determine the exact amount of PFOA in the water, find a way to filter it out and then find and stop the source of the contamination.
In the meantime, the public well with the largest presence of PFOA was taken off line as a precaution.
The EPA was informed sometime around the same time the state found out but the notice went to Washington rather than the regional office so that agency was largely out of the loop.
Which wasn’t a bad thing.
The locals were getting a handle on things and, despite the reports that everything was done undercover, residents were in the loop.
PFOA was discussed at board meetings and was included in the annual water report.
I guess not many pay attention to such things.
Then, at the end of 2015, a sensational story ran about out of control cancer rates – based on a doctor’s observation with no scientific data to back it up – and cover-ups.
Judith Enck, head of the EPA in Region 2, rode in on her white horse and arbitrarily declared that residents shouldn’t drink the water or use water while cooking.
Bathing in it, so long as it was a short shower, was OK.
(The EPA then arbitrarily lowered the acceptable recommendations of PFOA from 400 parts per trillion to 100 ppt.)
And then everyone in went into full-blown panic mode.
Rare is there an evening newscast that doesn’t have a reporter standing in front of a camera telling us you will die if you drink Hoosick Falls water, and they invariably find someone to blame the water for that hangnail they got in 1985.
A Google search will find all those reports in seconds.
Banks stopped lending money to people who want to buy a house anywhere in Hoosick Falls.
Lawyers are circling like buzzards looking to sign people up in a class action lawsuit, and politicians, of course, are grandstanding and pointing fingers.
Wait until the blood test results come back.
It’s almost a guarantee everyone in the village has PFOA in their system.
According to a number of studies, more than 97 percent of all living creatures on the planet – including polar bears – have some PFOA in their systems.
But, I have yet to find anything that states how much is bad for you, though, and I have yet to find any studies that clearly finds how much PFOA causes cancer or any other disease – which might be the reason it is still an unregulated chemical.
To the state’s credit – and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s too – it is doing what it can to ease the community’s fears.
It is spending $10 million on filtration systems for individual homeowners, is helping with financial concerns and is exploring new sources of water for the village.
To conclude, though, I don’t mean to minimize the situation in Hoosick.
I’m glad I don’t live there and I’m glad I don’t have family there.
I’m pretty sure PFOA isn’t good for you.
But a lot of things aren’t.
It’s a matter of how bad it is for you that nobody knows.
I have to wonder how many Hoosick Falls there are across the county.
My guess is there are a ton of them, municipalities should take note and start filtering the water or run the risk of being a ghost town.
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/t ... ment-14205
Re: THE TALK-1300 REPORT
TALK RADIO 1300 on February 27, 2016:
In the 1998 American drama film A Civil Action directed by Steven Zaillian, John Travolta played plaintiff's attorney Jan Schlichtmann and Robert Duvall was for the defense.
That drama film, of course, was based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Harr, and both the book and the film were based on a true story of a court case about environmental pollution that took place in Woburn, Massachusetts, in the 1980s.
That movie and court case revolved around the issue of trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent, and its contamination of a local aquifer.
In that case, a lawsuit was filed over industrial operations that appeared to have caused fatal cases of leukemia and cancer, as well as a wide variety of other health problems, among the citizens of the town.
In that movie, John Travolta portrayed Jan Schlichtmann, a cocky and successful Boston attorney who zipped around town in his Porsche.
In this movie about the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco, we have real-life movie star Erin Brockovich, a famed whistleblower and consumer advocate who works with Weitz & Luxenberg, zipping through Hoosick Falls in a one-day whirlwind tour, and then stating in a news release:
"Enough is enough."
"The negligent acts of these companies have resulted in a public health crisis."
"The last thing people should be worrying about is whether the water they give to their children is dangerous."
What great lines those will be in our movie to come.
Going back to A Civil Matter, in that movie, Schlichtmann and his small firm of personal injury lawyers were asked by Woburn resident Anne Anderson (Kathleen Quinlan) to take legal action against those responsible.
In our movie about the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco, we have, according to intrepid Times Union reporter Brendan J. Lyons in the February 25, 2016 news story "Class-action lawsuit filed over Hoosick Falls water pollution - Federal complaint targets Saint-Gobain and Honeywell," the powerful NYC law firm Weitz & Luxenberg which began aggressively pursuing the case two months ago, around the time a Times Union story revealed state Health Department and village officials were still telling residents the water was safe to drink despite contrary warnings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In our movie, we have Robin Greenwald, head of Weitz & Luxenberg's Environmental and Consumer Protection Unit saying "Residents of Hoosick Falls have been drinking PFOA-laced water for far too long," and "This lawsuit is the first step toward ensuring that those responsible are held accountable for the numerous ways they have injured the community and compensate residents for past, present and future harm."
Now, for our American drama movie about the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco, those are some great lines.
Plenty of drama there, alright.
But is what she is saying true?
If in fact this lawsuit is the first step toward ensuring that those responsible are held accountable for the numerous ways they have injured the community, then why are so many names and agencies missing from the list of defendants?
Why are only Honeywell and St. Gobain listed?
According to the Times Union, the filing lists claims for negligence, private nuisance, trespassing and liability for abnormally dangerous activity.
But what about the denial of honest services by Rensselaer County government that caused this groundwater contamination fiasco to occur?
Why are we hearing no mention of that?
Why is that denial of honest services which caused this groundwater contamination fiasco being overlooked by Robin Greenwald, head of Weitz & Luxenberg's Environmental and Consumer Protection Unit?
It's not because Weitz & Luxenberg are unaware of that denial of honest services, because they are aware of it.
So why are they pretending it never happened?
Because it is not important?
Or is it because it is inconvenient?
Will we find out at the end of the movie?
Or will we be left in suspense.
Stay tuned, more to come so don't touch your radio dial.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/c ... ment-13957
In the 1998 American drama film A Civil Action directed by Steven Zaillian, John Travolta played plaintiff's attorney Jan Schlichtmann and Robert Duvall was for the defense.
That drama film, of course, was based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Harr, and both the book and the film were based on a true story of a court case about environmental pollution that took place in Woburn, Massachusetts, in the 1980s.
That movie and court case revolved around the issue of trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent, and its contamination of a local aquifer.
In that case, a lawsuit was filed over industrial operations that appeared to have caused fatal cases of leukemia and cancer, as well as a wide variety of other health problems, among the citizens of the town.
In that movie, John Travolta portrayed Jan Schlichtmann, a cocky and successful Boston attorney who zipped around town in his Porsche.
In this movie about the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco, we have real-life movie star Erin Brockovich, a famed whistleblower and consumer advocate who works with Weitz & Luxenberg, zipping through Hoosick Falls in a one-day whirlwind tour, and then stating in a news release:
"Enough is enough."
"The negligent acts of these companies have resulted in a public health crisis."
"The last thing people should be worrying about is whether the water they give to their children is dangerous."
What great lines those will be in our movie to come.
Going back to A Civil Matter, in that movie, Schlichtmann and his small firm of personal injury lawyers were asked by Woburn resident Anne Anderson (Kathleen Quinlan) to take legal action against those responsible.
In our movie about the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco, we have, according to intrepid Times Union reporter Brendan J. Lyons in the February 25, 2016 news story "Class-action lawsuit filed over Hoosick Falls water pollution - Federal complaint targets Saint-Gobain and Honeywell," the powerful NYC law firm Weitz & Luxenberg which began aggressively pursuing the case two months ago, around the time a Times Union story revealed state Health Department and village officials were still telling residents the water was safe to drink despite contrary warnings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In our movie, we have Robin Greenwald, head of Weitz & Luxenberg's Environmental and Consumer Protection Unit saying "Residents of Hoosick Falls have been drinking PFOA-laced water for far too long," and "This lawsuit is the first step toward ensuring that those responsible are held accountable for the numerous ways they have injured the community and compensate residents for past, present and future harm."
Now, for our American drama movie about the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco, those are some great lines.
Plenty of drama there, alright.
But is what she is saying true?
If in fact this lawsuit is the first step toward ensuring that those responsible are held accountable for the numerous ways they have injured the community, then why are so many names and agencies missing from the list of defendants?
Why are only Honeywell and St. Gobain listed?
According to the Times Union, the filing lists claims for negligence, private nuisance, trespassing and liability for abnormally dangerous activity.
But what about the denial of honest services by Rensselaer County government that caused this groundwater contamination fiasco to occur?
Why are we hearing no mention of that?
Why is that denial of honest services which caused this groundwater contamination fiasco being overlooked by Robin Greenwald, head of Weitz & Luxenberg's Environmental and Consumer Protection Unit?
It's not because Weitz & Luxenberg are unaware of that denial of honest services, because they are aware of it.
So why are they pretending it never happened?
Because it is not important?
Or is it because it is inconvenient?
Will we find out at the end of the movie?
Or will we be left in suspense.
Stay tuned, more to come so don't touch your radio dial.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/c ... ment-13957
Re: THE TALK-1300 REPORT
TALK RADIO 1300 on February 27, 2016 at 2:39 pm:
First of all, before I go on, I have to say at this juncture in my education campaign in here that as all the half-truths and misinformation and distortions of fact concerning this groundwater contamination fiasco in Hoosick Falls continue to swirl around us like a maelstrom in the local media, that I am very thankful that this news outlet has not opted to join in the high-speed cover-up of the gross negligence of the Rensselaer County Department of Health, the NYS Dept. of Health and the corrupt NYSDEC, which should be called the Department of Environmental Destruction, and even the vaunted EPA under the tutelage of famed political fundraiser Judith Enck of Poestenkill, N.Y. in Rensselaer County, which has allowed this travesty to happen.
The news media are not reporting facts.
The news media are distorting facts to give people in Rensselaer County a very false picture of what has been going on behind the scenes which has resulted in this groundwater contamination problem in Hoosick Falls which never should have occurred if the regulatory system to protect public health in this state and Rensselaer County were not so badly broken.
With respect to that regulatory system, in 1946, by vote of the people of Rensselaer County and pursuant to the NYS Public Health Law, Rensselaer County became a Health District, a fact reflected in the Rensselaer County Charter enacted in 1971.
Of direct importance to this discussion of who is really responsible for the gross negligence which has resulted in this groundwater contamination fiasco, Section 17.00 of LOCAL LAW NO. 2, 1971, A LOCAL LAW ADOPTING A COUNTY CHARTER FOR THE COUNTY OF RENSSELAER IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THE MUNICIPAL HOME RULE LAW OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, entitled Article 17 Intermunicipal Relations, Section 17.00 Local Government Functions; Facilities and Powers Not Transferred, Altered or Impaired, provided as follows:
No function, facility, duty or power of any city, town, village, school district or other district is transferred, altered or impaired by this Charter.
end quote
Simply stated, when the Rensselaer County Charter was adopted by the people of Rensselaer County circa 1971, NO function, facility, duty or power of the Rensselaer County Health District created by the people of Rensselaer County in 1946 was transferred, altered or impaired by the Rensselaer County Charter.
What that means in simple terms is that Andy Cuomo, and Charley Schumer have no authority, jurisdiction or discretion in the Rensselaer County Health District, where the Village of Hoosick Falls and its groundwater contamination problems are located.
Having no authority, jurisdiction or discretion, neither Cuomo nor Schumer should be advocating in the media, as they have been doing, for a cover-up of who really has been negligent here, and how that negligence has been allowed to happen by the state of New York.
As to Andy Cuomo, who sees himself not as a mere governor, but as an emperor in the mold of Augustus Caesar of Rome who rules by edict, as opposed to rule of law, his actual job is described for him by the people of New York in §3 of ARTICLE IV of THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK As Revised with Amendments adopted by the Constitutional Convention of 1938 and Approved by Vote of the People on November 8, 1938 and Amendments subsequently adopted by the Legislature and Approved by Vote of the People As Amended and in Force Since January 1, 2014 as follows:
The governor shall expedite all such measures as may be resolved upon by the legislature, and shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed.
end quote
Such a simple job the people of NYS have given to Andy Cuomo, and as simple as it seems, it still apparently was too much for Andy to comprehend, as is very evident from the political dog-and-pony show, and all the finger-pointing and fact-distorting going on in connection with this Hoosick Falls fiasco.
Had Andy expedited all such measures as may be resolved upon by the legislature, which includes the NYS Public Health Law and NYS Environmental Conservation Law Article 17, 71 and 72, and had Andy taken care that the laws of NYS were faithfully executed, what a different world it would be in Rensselaer County and Hoosick Falls today.
But Andy did not take care that the laws of NYS were faithfully executed, as is evidenced by this statement from the DEC website: Commissioner Martens has also streamlined agency processes to further Governor Cuomo's efforts to grow jobs and support sustainable economic growth.
Commissioner Martens did not streamline agency processes to further Governor Cuomo's efforts to grow jobs and support sustainable economic growth.
Commissioner Martens gutted agency processes to further Governor Cuomo's efforts to grow jobs and support sustainable economic growth.
De-regulation by every other name.
N.Y. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION LAW § 8-0101, entitled Purpose, states as follows:
It is the purpose of this act to declare a state policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and enhance human and community resources; and to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems, natural, human and community resources important to the people of the state.
end quote
That section of NYS law exists because in 1969, when king Andy was 12 years old, and I was in Viet Nam where I voted by absentee ballot, the people of New York state, myself among them, voted to amend ARTICLE XIV of the New York State Constitution as follows to deal with the stain of the industrial era which we were all well aware of in the 1960s, when the surface waters of this area were open, running sewers:
Conservation
Protection of natural resources; development of agricultural lands
§4. The policy of the state shall be to conserve and protect its natural resources and scenic beauty and encourage the development and improvement of its agricultural lands for the production of food and other agricultural products.
The legislature, in implementing this policy, shall include adequate provision for the abatement of air and water pollution and of excessive and unnecessary noise, the protection of agricultural lands, wetlands and shorelines, and the development and regulation of water resources.
end quote
Focus on those words for a moment: The legislature, in implementing this policy, shall include adequate provision for the abatement of air and water pollution.
That is thirty-five (35) years ago now that we, the people, told our legislature through our Constitution, the law of the land in NYS, that we wanted water pollution in NYS abated, and 35 years later, despite that, we have the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco and the mother of all cover-ups on-going by the Cuomo administration.
How can that be happening when in N.Y. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION LAW § 8-0103, entitled Legislative findings and declaration, the NYS legislature finds and declares that:
1. The maintenance of a quality environment for the people of this state that at all times is healthful and pleasing to the senses and intellect of man now and in the future is a matter of statewide concern.
2. Every citizen has a responsibility to contribute to the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the environment.
end quotes
If the maintenance of a quality environment for the people of this state that at all times is healthful and pleasing to the senses and intellect of man now and in the future is a matter of statewide concern, and if every citizen, which would include Andy Cuomo, has a responsibility to contribute to the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the environment, how come in 2016 we have the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco?
Who has dropped the ball, and more importantly, why was the ball dropped?
Was that ball dropped because NYSDEC Commissioner Martens gutted agency processes to further Governor Cuomo's efforts to grow jobs and support sustainable economic growth in NYS?
Due to the efficacy of this high-speed cover-up now on-going in the media, that is an answer we are never likely to get, and if we don't, this nightmare of groundwater contamination in Rensselaer County is never going to end, and we will all be living in one huge superfund site from one end of the county to the other as if we were living in some corrupt third-world hellhole, instead of a county in the United States of America, a supposed advanced nation on the face of the earth which is becoming a banana republic before our eyes.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/w ... documents/
First of all, before I go on, I have to say at this juncture in my education campaign in here that as all the half-truths and misinformation and distortions of fact concerning this groundwater contamination fiasco in Hoosick Falls continue to swirl around us like a maelstrom in the local media, that I am very thankful that this news outlet has not opted to join in the high-speed cover-up of the gross negligence of the Rensselaer County Department of Health, the NYS Dept. of Health and the corrupt NYSDEC, which should be called the Department of Environmental Destruction, and even the vaunted EPA under the tutelage of famed political fundraiser Judith Enck of Poestenkill, N.Y. in Rensselaer County, which has allowed this travesty to happen.
The news media are not reporting facts.
The news media are distorting facts to give people in Rensselaer County a very false picture of what has been going on behind the scenes which has resulted in this groundwater contamination problem in Hoosick Falls which never should have occurred if the regulatory system to protect public health in this state and Rensselaer County were not so badly broken.
With respect to that regulatory system, in 1946, by vote of the people of Rensselaer County and pursuant to the NYS Public Health Law, Rensselaer County became a Health District, a fact reflected in the Rensselaer County Charter enacted in 1971.
Of direct importance to this discussion of who is really responsible for the gross negligence which has resulted in this groundwater contamination fiasco, Section 17.00 of LOCAL LAW NO. 2, 1971, A LOCAL LAW ADOPTING A COUNTY CHARTER FOR THE COUNTY OF RENSSELAER IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THE MUNICIPAL HOME RULE LAW OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, entitled Article 17 Intermunicipal Relations, Section 17.00 Local Government Functions; Facilities and Powers Not Transferred, Altered or Impaired, provided as follows:
No function, facility, duty or power of any city, town, village, school district or other district is transferred, altered or impaired by this Charter.
end quote
Simply stated, when the Rensselaer County Charter was adopted by the people of Rensselaer County circa 1971, NO function, facility, duty or power of the Rensselaer County Health District created by the people of Rensselaer County in 1946 was transferred, altered or impaired by the Rensselaer County Charter.
What that means in simple terms is that Andy Cuomo, and Charley Schumer have no authority, jurisdiction or discretion in the Rensselaer County Health District, where the Village of Hoosick Falls and its groundwater contamination problems are located.
Having no authority, jurisdiction or discretion, neither Cuomo nor Schumer should be advocating in the media, as they have been doing, for a cover-up of who really has been negligent here, and how that negligence has been allowed to happen by the state of New York.
As to Andy Cuomo, who sees himself not as a mere governor, but as an emperor in the mold of Augustus Caesar of Rome who rules by edict, as opposed to rule of law, his actual job is described for him by the people of New York in §3 of ARTICLE IV of THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK As Revised with Amendments adopted by the Constitutional Convention of 1938 and Approved by Vote of the People on November 8, 1938 and Amendments subsequently adopted by the Legislature and Approved by Vote of the People As Amended and in Force Since January 1, 2014 as follows:
The governor shall expedite all such measures as may be resolved upon by the legislature, and shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed.
end quote
Such a simple job the people of NYS have given to Andy Cuomo, and as simple as it seems, it still apparently was too much for Andy to comprehend, as is very evident from the political dog-and-pony show, and all the finger-pointing and fact-distorting going on in connection with this Hoosick Falls fiasco.
Had Andy expedited all such measures as may be resolved upon by the legislature, which includes the NYS Public Health Law and NYS Environmental Conservation Law Article 17, 71 and 72, and had Andy taken care that the laws of NYS were faithfully executed, what a different world it would be in Rensselaer County and Hoosick Falls today.
But Andy did not take care that the laws of NYS were faithfully executed, as is evidenced by this statement from the DEC website: Commissioner Martens has also streamlined agency processes to further Governor Cuomo's efforts to grow jobs and support sustainable economic growth.
Commissioner Martens did not streamline agency processes to further Governor Cuomo's efforts to grow jobs and support sustainable economic growth.
Commissioner Martens gutted agency processes to further Governor Cuomo's efforts to grow jobs and support sustainable economic growth.
De-regulation by every other name.
N.Y. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION LAW § 8-0101, entitled Purpose, states as follows:
It is the purpose of this act to declare a state policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and enhance human and community resources; and to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems, natural, human and community resources important to the people of the state.
end quote
That section of NYS law exists because in 1969, when king Andy was 12 years old, and I was in Viet Nam where I voted by absentee ballot, the people of New York state, myself among them, voted to amend ARTICLE XIV of the New York State Constitution as follows to deal with the stain of the industrial era which we were all well aware of in the 1960s, when the surface waters of this area were open, running sewers:
Conservation
Protection of natural resources; development of agricultural lands
§4. The policy of the state shall be to conserve and protect its natural resources and scenic beauty and encourage the development and improvement of its agricultural lands for the production of food and other agricultural products.
The legislature, in implementing this policy, shall include adequate provision for the abatement of air and water pollution and of excessive and unnecessary noise, the protection of agricultural lands, wetlands and shorelines, and the development and regulation of water resources.
end quote
Focus on those words for a moment: The legislature, in implementing this policy, shall include adequate provision for the abatement of air and water pollution.
That is thirty-five (35) years ago now that we, the people, told our legislature through our Constitution, the law of the land in NYS, that we wanted water pollution in NYS abated, and 35 years later, despite that, we have the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco and the mother of all cover-ups on-going by the Cuomo administration.
How can that be happening when in N.Y. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION LAW § 8-0103, entitled Legislative findings and declaration, the NYS legislature finds and declares that:
1. The maintenance of a quality environment for the people of this state that at all times is healthful and pleasing to the senses and intellect of man now and in the future is a matter of statewide concern.
2. Every citizen has a responsibility to contribute to the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the environment.
end quotes
If the maintenance of a quality environment for the people of this state that at all times is healthful and pleasing to the senses and intellect of man now and in the future is a matter of statewide concern, and if every citizen, which would include Andy Cuomo, has a responsibility to contribute to the preservation and enhancement of the quality of the environment, how come in 2016 we have the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco?
Who has dropped the ball, and more importantly, why was the ball dropped?
Was that ball dropped because NYSDEC Commissioner Martens gutted agency processes to further Governor Cuomo's efforts to grow jobs and support sustainable economic growth in NYS?
Due to the efficacy of this high-speed cover-up now on-going in the media, that is an answer we are never likely to get, and if we don't, this nightmare of groundwater contamination in Rensselaer County is never going to end, and we will all be living in one huge superfund site from one end of the county to the other as if we were living in some corrupt third-world hellhole, instead of a county in the United States of America, a supposed advanced nation on the face of the earth which is becoming a banana republic before our eyes.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/w ... documents/
Re: THE TALK-1300 REPORT
TALK RADIO 1300 on February 29, 2016:
What Robin Greenwald, head of Weitz & Luxenberg's Environmental and Consumer Protection Unit and real-life movie star Erin Brockovich, a famed whistleblower and consumer advocate who works with Weitz & Luxenberg, are doing here, of course, and quite effectively so, is tainting the jury pool by trying their case in the media before it ever goes to trial in a time-honored lawyerly tradition, if they can get away with it, which they seem to be doing quite handily here, as the local media laps up their every word without question, like a tame kitten lapping choice cream.
OMG, it must be true that the negligent acts of these companies have resulted in a public health crisis because that is Erin Brockovich saying it, and there was a movie about her, so it has to be true, because someone famous enough to have a movie made about them would not feed us falsehoods and misinformation or deflect our attention away from who else was grossly negligent here.
And that takes us, of course, right back to that bug-a-boo of honest services.
Were we really entitled to honest services from anybody here, or is that just a quaint notion on my part, because I am old and therefore, by definition, totally clueless and out of touch with reality as the younger, more modern people in this state see it?
Let's take a look, and let us start right below here, as we try to unravel this mystery before us of who is responsible for anything here in this Cauldron of Corruption where the culture of corruption grows like barnacles on a boat bottom:
A DESCRIPTION OF NEW YORK STATE'S CONTINUING PLANNING PROCESS FOR WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PREPARED PURSUANT TO P.L. 92-500: 40 CFR PART 130
SEPTEMBER 1985
DIVISION OF WATER DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION
BACKGROUND
Federal regulations (40 CFR 130) prescribe that each State establish and maintain a Continuing Planning Process (CPP) required under section 303(e) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, P.L 92-500, and its amendment, P.L. 95-217.
end quote
Well, how about that now; September 1985.
To put that into context, barely half a year later, the now-defunct Capital Land magazine would be hitting the news stands in Rensselaer County emblazoned in capital letters with the title "DON'T DRINK THE WATER," and containing therein a story about chemical contamination in Schodack, N.Y., then-Rensselaer County Executive John L. Buono's home town, caused by Storonske Cooperage, which I believe is one of Rensselaer County's famous superfund sites.
Because of this article, Buono would be publicly embarrassed, and as a result, he would cause to be hired an associate level public health engineer to restore integrity to the water quality protection programs of the RCHD.
Three years later, we would see TV Channel 13 news reporter Bill Lampden standing outside the Rensselaer County Office Building telling us that that same associate public health engineer was going to be fired by Buono because the engineer would not lie to the people of Rensselaer County about water quality in the county.
Getting back to the 1985 NYSDEC CPP document, however, and the lingering question of who is responsible for what in this Cauldron of Corruption where nobody seems to be responsible for anything at all, we have:
New York's original CPP was written and subsequently approved by the EPA in 1973.
Since then it has been updated twice.
However, those revisions discussed in large part what the State was doing at particular points in time and consequently were quickly outdated.
This description is written in a more dynamic form describing how key processes are employed rather than what specifically is being done.
All key process descriptions required under Federal regulations are explicitly included in this document.
Additionally, other key process descriptions not Federally required have also been included because they are integral components of our water quality management decision-making process (e.g., Management Planning, Public Participation, Groundwater Management, et al.)
The Division of Water, within the Department of Environmental Conservation, has overall responsibility for water quality management in the State.
end quotes
Focus on those words "Groundwater Management" as you ponder the question of who really has been negligent here in Hoosick Falls.
And as always, stay tuned, because there is much more to come in connection with this on-going drama.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/c ... ment-13979
What Robin Greenwald, head of Weitz & Luxenberg's Environmental and Consumer Protection Unit and real-life movie star Erin Brockovich, a famed whistleblower and consumer advocate who works with Weitz & Luxenberg, are doing here, of course, and quite effectively so, is tainting the jury pool by trying their case in the media before it ever goes to trial in a time-honored lawyerly tradition, if they can get away with it, which they seem to be doing quite handily here, as the local media laps up their every word without question, like a tame kitten lapping choice cream.
OMG, it must be true that the negligent acts of these companies have resulted in a public health crisis because that is Erin Brockovich saying it, and there was a movie about her, so it has to be true, because someone famous enough to have a movie made about them would not feed us falsehoods and misinformation or deflect our attention away from who else was grossly negligent here.
And that takes us, of course, right back to that bug-a-boo of honest services.
Were we really entitled to honest services from anybody here, or is that just a quaint notion on my part, because I am old and therefore, by definition, totally clueless and out of touch with reality as the younger, more modern people in this state see it?
Let's take a look, and let us start right below here, as we try to unravel this mystery before us of who is responsible for anything here in this Cauldron of Corruption where the culture of corruption grows like barnacles on a boat bottom:
A DESCRIPTION OF NEW YORK STATE'S CONTINUING PLANNING PROCESS FOR WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PREPARED PURSUANT TO P.L. 92-500: 40 CFR PART 130
SEPTEMBER 1985
DIVISION OF WATER DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION
BACKGROUND
Federal regulations (40 CFR 130) prescribe that each State establish and maintain a Continuing Planning Process (CPP) required under section 303(e) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, P.L 92-500, and its amendment, P.L. 95-217.
end quote
Well, how about that now; September 1985.
To put that into context, barely half a year later, the now-defunct Capital Land magazine would be hitting the news stands in Rensselaer County emblazoned in capital letters with the title "DON'T DRINK THE WATER," and containing therein a story about chemical contamination in Schodack, N.Y., then-Rensselaer County Executive John L. Buono's home town, caused by Storonske Cooperage, which I believe is one of Rensselaer County's famous superfund sites.
Because of this article, Buono would be publicly embarrassed, and as a result, he would cause to be hired an associate level public health engineer to restore integrity to the water quality protection programs of the RCHD.
Three years later, we would see TV Channel 13 news reporter Bill Lampden standing outside the Rensselaer County Office Building telling us that that same associate public health engineer was going to be fired by Buono because the engineer would not lie to the people of Rensselaer County about water quality in the county.
Getting back to the 1985 NYSDEC CPP document, however, and the lingering question of who is responsible for what in this Cauldron of Corruption where nobody seems to be responsible for anything at all, we have:
New York's original CPP was written and subsequently approved by the EPA in 1973.
Since then it has been updated twice.
However, those revisions discussed in large part what the State was doing at particular points in time and consequently were quickly outdated.
This description is written in a more dynamic form describing how key processes are employed rather than what specifically is being done.
All key process descriptions required under Federal regulations are explicitly included in this document.
Additionally, other key process descriptions not Federally required have also been included because they are integral components of our water quality management decision-making process (e.g., Management Planning, Public Participation, Groundwater Management, et al.)
The Division of Water, within the Department of Environmental Conservation, has overall responsibility for water quality management in the State.
end quotes
Focus on those words "Groundwater Management" as you ponder the question of who really has been negligent here in Hoosick Falls.
And as always, stay tuned, because there is much more to come in connection with this on-going drama.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/c ... ment-13979
Re: THE TALK-1300 REPORT
TALK RADIO 1300 on February 29, 2016 at 1:57 pm:
While the Public Health Groundwater Protection Program in the State of New York and Rensselaer County operates like something you would expect to find in some corrupt, third-world hellhole where human life was held to be valueless, on paper, there is described a system intended to be free of politics with accountability and responsibility of each element of the public health delivery system clearly spelled out, much like a military chain of command.
It was so that they could have that accountability for their health and well-being in the hands of true professionals free from political influence that the people of Rensselaer County voted in 1946 to create the county into a health district with responsibility for their health in the hands of a medical doctor as commissioner of health for the District responsible to the people through the provisions of the New York State PHL, the state sanitary code and the county sanitary code.
That was after suffering a period of waterborne illnesses in Troy that carried off thousands in the early-1900s.
At one time, that was schoolboy knowledge required of those of us who were being educated in this county after WWII so that we could be responsible citizens in this county.
Civics taught us a sense of place, a sense that we were a part of something, and that if we valued it, we had to work to sustain it, as nothing in a civilized society comes from nowhere for free.
Civilization only works if it is of value to everyone, and that begins with public health, which is something ancient societies were well aware of, with their elaborate systems to provide potable water to their citizen bodies to keep them strong and healthy, which is one of the most basic things there is to civilization.
Or so I was taught when young.
Because the people of Rensselaer County were sick and tired of dying from polluted water, in 1949, the RCHD established a Division of Environmental Hygiene headed up by a NYS licensed professional engineer.
With respect to responsibility and accountability, on July 1, 1961, then-Rensselaer County Commissioner H. Jackson Davis, M.D., Dr.P.H. forwarded to the Honorable Board of Supervisors, Rensselaer County Courthouse, Troy, New York an official RCHD document published by the NYSDOH entitled Water Resources in Rensselaer County wherein these specific duties of the RCHD Division of Environmental Hygiene were spelled out in relevant part under the heading "Inspection, regulation, consultation, reports, education" as follows: a. WATER SUPPLY CONTROL Municipal water supplies.
That is an indication of how long protection of public water supplies in the Rensselaer County Health District reliant on groundwater has been a matter of professional concern to associate public health engineers in the Rensselaer County Health District.
With respect to that title of public health engineer, it is important to note that it is defined in the Codes of the State of New York at 10 NYCRR 11.100 as "The term public health engineer shall mean a person who applies engineering principles for the detection, evaluation, control and management of those factors in the environment which influence the public's health."
To an associate public health engineer, a position which requires extensive and broad knowledge of public health engineering, factors in the environment which influence the public's health include chemical contamination of groundwater supplies such as what occurred in Hoosick Falls recently.
In the 1961 Water Resources in Rensselaer County published by the NYSDOH in 1961, with respect to public water supplies, it was stated thusly:
Public Water Supplies
All 22 public water supplies, and seven bottled spring water supplies are under the routine supervision of the Rensselaer County Health Department.
The supervision includes enforcement of Chapter V of the State Sanitary Code, inspections and recommendations, review and approval of plans, collection and interpretation of water samples, review of monthly operation reports, special investigations and assistance to operators, testimony before the State Water Resources Commission, and training of water plant operators.
Under "Water Resources," that report stated "Water is a major natural resource which is essential to life."
"Its proper control and most efficient utilization in the best interest of man is necessary to progress."
"To realize the beneficial uses of water and to control water quality, careful planning and administration of existing water resources are required."
end quotes
There, clearly defined by the NYSDOH in 1961 are the honest services from the RCHD we citizens alive then, and yes, I was one of them, had an intangible right of in an unbroken chain from the NYS Constitution through the NYSPHL and Sanitary Code to we, the people of Rensselaer County.
Had we not been stripped and deprived of, and denied those honest services in 1978, when the RCHD was made political, instead of professional, and in 1988 when then-Rensselaer County Executive John L. Buono had the Rensselaer County Associate Public Health Engineer locked out of his office in the Rensselaer County Office Building because he would not falsify documents for Buono, this Hoosick Falls fiasco should never have happened.
It could only have happened because the public health programs in the Rensselaer County Health District have been severely compromised by political meddling.
Enough is enough!
It is past time for this political meddling to end in the RCHD, and to return it to a professional level instead with accountability to the people of the county, instead of to the political structure of the county, where the county executive translates the phrase "serves at the pleasure of" with respect to the county health commissioner to mean the county health commissioner and RCHD are there to give pleasure to the county executive, which gives us a political hack-o-cracy in this county as opposed to the professional health department our county charter guarantees us that is supposed to be free of the political influence of the Rensselaer County Executive.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/w ... documents/
While the Public Health Groundwater Protection Program in the State of New York and Rensselaer County operates like something you would expect to find in some corrupt, third-world hellhole where human life was held to be valueless, on paper, there is described a system intended to be free of politics with accountability and responsibility of each element of the public health delivery system clearly spelled out, much like a military chain of command.
It was so that they could have that accountability for their health and well-being in the hands of true professionals free from political influence that the people of Rensselaer County voted in 1946 to create the county into a health district with responsibility for their health in the hands of a medical doctor as commissioner of health for the District responsible to the people through the provisions of the New York State PHL, the state sanitary code and the county sanitary code.
That was after suffering a period of waterborne illnesses in Troy that carried off thousands in the early-1900s.
At one time, that was schoolboy knowledge required of those of us who were being educated in this county after WWII so that we could be responsible citizens in this county.
Civics taught us a sense of place, a sense that we were a part of something, and that if we valued it, we had to work to sustain it, as nothing in a civilized society comes from nowhere for free.
Civilization only works if it is of value to everyone, and that begins with public health, which is something ancient societies were well aware of, with their elaborate systems to provide potable water to their citizen bodies to keep them strong and healthy, which is one of the most basic things there is to civilization.
Or so I was taught when young.
Because the people of Rensselaer County were sick and tired of dying from polluted water, in 1949, the RCHD established a Division of Environmental Hygiene headed up by a NYS licensed professional engineer.
With respect to responsibility and accountability, on July 1, 1961, then-Rensselaer County Commissioner H. Jackson Davis, M.D., Dr.P.H. forwarded to the Honorable Board of Supervisors, Rensselaer County Courthouse, Troy, New York an official RCHD document published by the NYSDOH entitled Water Resources in Rensselaer County wherein these specific duties of the RCHD Division of Environmental Hygiene were spelled out in relevant part under the heading "Inspection, regulation, consultation, reports, education" as follows: a. WATER SUPPLY CONTROL Municipal water supplies.
That is an indication of how long protection of public water supplies in the Rensselaer County Health District reliant on groundwater has been a matter of professional concern to associate public health engineers in the Rensselaer County Health District.
With respect to that title of public health engineer, it is important to note that it is defined in the Codes of the State of New York at 10 NYCRR 11.100 as "The term public health engineer shall mean a person who applies engineering principles for the detection, evaluation, control and management of those factors in the environment which influence the public's health."
To an associate public health engineer, a position which requires extensive and broad knowledge of public health engineering, factors in the environment which influence the public's health include chemical contamination of groundwater supplies such as what occurred in Hoosick Falls recently.
In the 1961 Water Resources in Rensselaer County published by the NYSDOH in 1961, with respect to public water supplies, it was stated thusly:
Public Water Supplies
All 22 public water supplies, and seven bottled spring water supplies are under the routine supervision of the Rensselaer County Health Department.
The supervision includes enforcement of Chapter V of the State Sanitary Code, inspections and recommendations, review and approval of plans, collection and interpretation of water samples, review of monthly operation reports, special investigations and assistance to operators, testimony before the State Water Resources Commission, and training of water plant operators.
Under "Water Resources," that report stated "Water is a major natural resource which is essential to life."
"Its proper control and most efficient utilization in the best interest of man is necessary to progress."
"To realize the beneficial uses of water and to control water quality, careful planning and administration of existing water resources are required."
end quotes
There, clearly defined by the NYSDOH in 1961 are the honest services from the RCHD we citizens alive then, and yes, I was one of them, had an intangible right of in an unbroken chain from the NYS Constitution through the NYSPHL and Sanitary Code to we, the people of Rensselaer County.
Had we not been stripped and deprived of, and denied those honest services in 1978, when the RCHD was made political, instead of professional, and in 1988 when then-Rensselaer County Executive John L. Buono had the Rensselaer County Associate Public Health Engineer locked out of his office in the Rensselaer County Office Building because he would not falsify documents for Buono, this Hoosick Falls fiasco should never have happened.
It could only have happened because the public health programs in the Rensselaer County Health District have been severely compromised by political meddling.
Enough is enough!
It is past time for this political meddling to end in the RCHD, and to return it to a professional level instead with accountability to the people of the county, instead of to the political structure of the county, where the county executive translates the phrase "serves at the pleasure of" with respect to the county health commissioner to mean the county health commissioner and RCHD are there to give pleasure to the county executive, which gives us a political hack-o-cracy in this county as opposed to the professional health department our county charter guarantees us that is supposed to be free of the political influence of the Rensselaer County Executive.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/w ... documents/
Re: THE TALK-1300 REPORT
TALK RADIO 1300 on February 29, 2016:
Now, with respect to the honest services we in Rensselaer County have a right to with respect to protection of our groundwater resources, it is important to note that while certain Federal regulations (40 CFR 130) prescribe that each State establish and maintain a Continuing Planning Process (CPP) required under section 303(e) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, P.L 92-500, and its amendment, P.L. 95-217, which gives the Division of Water within the Department of Environmental Conservation overall responsibility for water quality management in the State, specific authority over drinking water remains the responsibility of the NYS Department of Health, and by extension, the RCHD, as is clearly stated in the NEW YORK STATE PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY PROTECTION PROGRAM General Authority, which provides the following guidance vital to understanding who dropped the ball here, and how this fiasco was allowed to happen, who knew what and when:
The public expects and deserves a safe and adequate supply of drinking water.
To meet these expectations, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1974 (since amended in 1986 and 1996) to provide national standards for drinking water.
The SDWA provides funding for state agencies to implement and enforce these national standards.
To retain primacy a state must adopt drinking water quality standards that are at least as stringent as the National Primacy Drinking Water Regulations.
In addition, there are state requirements regarding facility operations, design and construction, emergency response, source protection, public notification, and realty subdivision and individual water and wastewater facilities.
The department's authority to assure the safety of drinking water stems from the Public Health Law; Sections 201 (1), 201 (1)(1), 225 (5), 1100-1107, and 1120 and Chapter 413 of the Laws of 1996 (Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act) as well as the federal Safe Drinking Water Act for which the department has primacy for implementation and enforcement.
end quote
Now with respect to this political hoo-hah we are getting from the office of NYS governor Andy Cuomo as to who is responsible for the safety of our drinking water, the answer is not Judith Enck of the USEPA.
Judith Enck of the USEPA is not responsible for assuring the safety of our drinking water in the Rensselaer County Health District; the NYS DOH has primacy for implementation and enforcement, which means New York state has adopted drinking water quality standards that are at least as stringent as the National Primacy Drinking Water Regulations.
Those Water Quality Regulations are found at Title 6 NYCRR Chapter X, Parts 700-705, where in PART 702 Derivation and Use of Standards and Guidance Values it is stated under 702.2 Standards and Guidance Values For Protection of Human Health and Sources of Potable Water Supplies that (a) Standards and guidance values for protection of the best usage as a source of potable water supply shall protect human health and drinking water sources and are referred to as health (water source) values.
It is an axiom in public health engineering that to protect human health, you do not let people drink water contaminated with chemicals which are man-made, and thus, not naturally occurring in groundwater.
Unfortunately, in Rensselaer County that public health axiom lost out to power politics, where money and political power are deemed more important than preserving the public's health.
And now we have the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco.
Go figure.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/c ... ment-13957
Now, with respect to the honest services we in Rensselaer County have a right to with respect to protection of our groundwater resources, it is important to note that while certain Federal regulations (40 CFR 130) prescribe that each State establish and maintain a Continuing Planning Process (CPP) required under section 303(e) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, P.L 92-500, and its amendment, P.L. 95-217, which gives the Division of Water within the Department of Environmental Conservation overall responsibility for water quality management in the State, specific authority over drinking water remains the responsibility of the NYS Department of Health, and by extension, the RCHD, as is clearly stated in the NEW YORK STATE PUBLIC WATER SUPPLY PROTECTION PROGRAM General Authority, which provides the following guidance vital to understanding who dropped the ball here, and how this fiasco was allowed to happen, who knew what and when:
The public expects and deserves a safe and adequate supply of drinking water.
To meet these expectations, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1974 (since amended in 1986 and 1996) to provide national standards for drinking water.
The SDWA provides funding for state agencies to implement and enforce these national standards.
To retain primacy a state must adopt drinking water quality standards that are at least as stringent as the National Primacy Drinking Water Regulations.
In addition, there are state requirements regarding facility operations, design and construction, emergency response, source protection, public notification, and realty subdivision and individual water and wastewater facilities.
The department's authority to assure the safety of drinking water stems from the Public Health Law; Sections 201 (1), 201 (1)(1), 225 (5), 1100-1107, and 1120 and Chapter 413 of the Laws of 1996 (Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act) as well as the federal Safe Drinking Water Act for which the department has primacy for implementation and enforcement.
end quote
Now with respect to this political hoo-hah we are getting from the office of NYS governor Andy Cuomo as to who is responsible for the safety of our drinking water, the answer is not Judith Enck of the USEPA.
Judith Enck of the USEPA is not responsible for assuring the safety of our drinking water in the Rensselaer County Health District; the NYS DOH has primacy for implementation and enforcement, which means New York state has adopted drinking water quality standards that are at least as stringent as the National Primacy Drinking Water Regulations.
Those Water Quality Regulations are found at Title 6 NYCRR Chapter X, Parts 700-705, where in PART 702 Derivation and Use of Standards and Guidance Values it is stated under 702.2 Standards and Guidance Values For Protection of Human Health and Sources of Potable Water Supplies that (a) Standards and guidance values for protection of the best usage as a source of potable water supply shall protect human health and drinking water sources and are referred to as health (water source) values.
It is an axiom in public health engineering that to protect human health, you do not let people drink water contaminated with chemicals which are man-made, and thus, not naturally occurring in groundwater.
Unfortunately, in Rensselaer County that public health axiom lost out to power politics, where money and political power are deemed more important than preserving the public's health.
And now we have the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco.
Go figure.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
http://www.talk1300report.com/2016/02/c ... ment-13957
Re: THE TALK-1300 REPORT
TALK RADIO 1300 on February 29, 2016 at 6:23 pm:
While the 1998 movie A Civil Action directed by Steven Zaillian was classified as American drama film, our movie of the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco is more likely to be classified as high farce, a clown show, something like a modern-day version of Blazing Saddles crossed with the Three Stooges become public health regulators in NYS.
Speaking of that clown show, in the NEWS 10 ABC article "State officials respond to NEWS10 questions about Hoosick Falls water contamination" by Lindsay Nielsen published February 26, 2016, where NEWS10 ABC spoke face-to-face with state officials to get questions answered about the water contamination in Hoosick Falls, we have one of those clowns, or stooges, namely New York State Director of State Operations Jim Malatras, telling us "Just so we're clear, we followed the EPA standard," and "The village followed the EPA standard."
In that article, Malatras placed the blame on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is a patently ridiculous statement.
And then we have the second clown, or stooge, NYS Dept. of Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker telling us, "Well, you know we were working together always to look at whatever concerns there are in the community, and so that was the first part, and in an effort to look at any chemical, any substance, you remember this was an unregulated substance."
Dr. Zucker, who comes across in this fiasco as a total incompetent, albeit with a nice smile, is being exceedingly disingenuous with us here, as can be seen from a further review of the 1985 NYSDEC CPP document, wherein is stated under the heading WATER QUALITY STANDARDS AND CLASSIFICATIONS, that "The New York Water Quality Standards are the foundation for the state's water pollution control and water quality protection efforts."
"The Standards provide the specific criteria for the management and protection of New York's waters."
"Both surface and groundwater standards are developed in accord with State administrative practices, including public hearing."
"They are approved by the State Environmental Board prior to filing as Regulation with the Secretary of State."
"Toxic and certain non-conventional pollutants are a much more complex issue."
"Hundreds of thousands of organic and inorganic potentially toxic chemicals exist today."
"To evaluate candidates for regulation through standard setting, the Environmental Conservation Department has established an interagency ambient water quality standards program."
"The Division of Water first develops candidate substances for a toxicity review."
"It's determined whether the compound is widely encountered in the State through review of discharge permit data and other sources."
"Human health and aquatic toxicity scientists in State agencies review the literature to determine availability of toxic effect data."
"Protocol for the development of numerical values have been developed through the standards setting process."
"The literature on a compound is reviewed against the protocol to determine whether enough information is available to propose a value for the compound under scrutiny."
"The toxic concerns of issue covered by the protocol for public health include carcinogens, poisons and palatability."
"Once a preliminary determination has been made that a high confidence value can be proposed, it is placed onto the agenda of a scientific review group from outside of State government, made up of experts in human health and aquatic toxicity."
"After their review, the substance is placed onto the agenda for inclusion as a standard with the next update of the water quality regulations."
end quotes
Clearly, the regulation of PFOA in NYS is a New York state responsibility, not an EPA responsibility.
In support of that assertion, under the heading Groundwater Standards and Classifications (6 NYCRR Part 703) in the NYSDEC CPP from 1985, we have:
"Groundwater standards and classifications provide enforceable targets for management of quality in that they prescribe the best usage of the groundwater in any particular locality and the maximum allowable concentrations of various pollutants in the groundwater according to the intended best usage."
"These standards and classifications are adopted pursuant to the Environmental Conservation Law, sections 17-0301 and 17-0809."
"There are currently no federal requirements for the development of groundwater standards and classifications."
"Effective September 1, 1978, the Department revised its regulations entitled Groundwater Classifications, Quality Standards, and Effluent Standards and/or Limitations for the purpose of preventing pollution of groundwaters and protection of the groundwaters for use as potable water."
"All fresh groundwaters in the state are classified as GA reflecting the policy that the best usage of fresh groundwater in the state is for sources of drinking water."
"Numerical standards for Class GA groundwaters are identified for over 75 pollutants, including various metals, chloride, foaming agents, nitrate, pH, numerous pesticides and some organic solvents."
"As in the case of Surface Water Standards, the Department's ambient water quality standards program proposes revised and new values for inclusion in updating of these standards."
"Effluent limitations are also identified for a similar list of substances and are applicable to all point sources of pollution."
"In addition, no discharge is allowed which would preclude the best use of Class GA waters."
end quotes
No discharge is allowed which would preclude the best use of Class GA waters, which is for drinking water for humans.
That is a New York state responsibility, not a responsibility of Judith Enck at the USEPA.
Why the fumblers and bumblers in the Cuomo administration do not know any of this so far remains a mystery.
As to PFOA, and the smiling Dr. Zucker being disingenuous with us, in March 2014, the USEPA put out a bulletin entitled Emerging Contaminants - Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) where they informed us, and presumably Dr. Zucker, that PFOA is readily absorbed after oral exposure and accumulate primarily in the serum, kidney and liver.
According to the EPA bulletin, an "emerging contaminant" is a chemical or material that is characterized by a perceived, potential, or real threat to human health or the environment or by a lack of published health standards.
That is 2014.
In 2014, the EPA advised us that the toxicity, mobility and bioaccumulation potential of PFOS and PFOA pose potential adverse effects for the environment and human health.
In response to the question "Are there any federal and state guidelines and health standards for PFOS and PFOA?," we were advised in 2014 by the EPA that in January 2009, the EPA's Office of Water established a provisional health advisory (PHA) of 0.4 micrograms per liter for PFOA to assess the potential risk from short-term exposure of these chemicals through drinking water.
According to the EPA, PHAs reflect reasonable, health-based hazard concentrations above which action should be taken to reduce exposure to unregulated contaminants in drinking water (EPA 2009d, 2013a).
The smiling Dr. Zucker, who only seems competent to carry Andy Cuomo's coat at Andy's press conferences, seems to interpret all of that as PFOA being "unregulated," and therefore, not a problem, when the EPA is telling us otherwise, as can be seen from the following:
"Various states have established drinking water and groundwater guidelines, including the following:"
"Minnesota has established a chronic health risk limit of 0.3 micrograms per liter for PFOS and PFOA in drinking water (MDH 2011)."
"New Jersey has established a preliminary health-based guidance value of 0.04 micrograms per liter for PFOA in drinking water (NJDEP 2013)."
"North Carolina has established an interim maximum allowable concentration (IMAC) of 2 micrograms per liter for PFOA in groundwater (NCDENR 2006)."
"In 2010, the North Carolina Secretary's Science Advisory Board (NCSAB) on Toxic Air Pollutants recommended that the IMAC be reduced to 1 microgram per liter based on a review of the toxicological literature and discussions with scientists conducting research on the health effects associated with exposure to PFOA."
end quotes
That begs the question of why NYS has done nothing with regard to PFOA.
In that 2014 EPA bulletin, we are told that the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has not established a minimal risk level (MRL) for PFOS or PFOA because when the draft toxicological profile was published, human studies were insufficient to determine with a sufficient degree of certainty that the effects are either exposure-related or adverse (ATSDR 2009).
The 2014 EPA bulletin concluded by informing us that PFOS and PFOA were included on the third drinking water contaminant candidate list, which is a list of unregulated contaminants that are known to, or anticipated to, occur in public water systems and may require regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act (EPA 2009a).
That is not quite the same thing as telling us that PFOA is unregulated and we shouldn't worry about it.
Far from it, actually.
Too bad for our sakes and that of our grandchildren that Dr. Zucker is not aware of any of that.
Too bad indeed.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
While the 1998 movie A Civil Action directed by Steven Zaillian was classified as American drama film, our movie of the Hoosick Falls groundwater contamination fiasco is more likely to be classified as high farce, a clown show, something like a modern-day version of Blazing Saddles crossed with the Three Stooges become public health regulators in NYS.
Speaking of that clown show, in the NEWS 10 ABC article "State officials respond to NEWS10 questions about Hoosick Falls water contamination" by Lindsay Nielsen published February 26, 2016, where NEWS10 ABC spoke face-to-face with state officials to get questions answered about the water contamination in Hoosick Falls, we have one of those clowns, or stooges, namely New York State Director of State Operations Jim Malatras, telling us "Just so we're clear, we followed the EPA standard," and "The village followed the EPA standard."
In that article, Malatras placed the blame on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is a patently ridiculous statement.
And then we have the second clown, or stooge, NYS Dept. of Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker telling us, "Well, you know we were working together always to look at whatever concerns there are in the community, and so that was the first part, and in an effort to look at any chemical, any substance, you remember this was an unregulated substance."
Dr. Zucker, who comes across in this fiasco as a total incompetent, albeit with a nice smile, is being exceedingly disingenuous with us here, as can be seen from a further review of the 1985 NYSDEC CPP document, wherein is stated under the heading WATER QUALITY STANDARDS AND CLASSIFICATIONS, that "The New York Water Quality Standards are the foundation for the state's water pollution control and water quality protection efforts."
"The Standards provide the specific criteria for the management and protection of New York's waters."
"Both surface and groundwater standards are developed in accord with State administrative practices, including public hearing."
"They are approved by the State Environmental Board prior to filing as Regulation with the Secretary of State."
"Toxic and certain non-conventional pollutants are a much more complex issue."
"Hundreds of thousands of organic and inorganic potentially toxic chemicals exist today."
"To evaluate candidates for regulation through standard setting, the Environmental Conservation Department has established an interagency ambient water quality standards program."
"The Division of Water first develops candidate substances for a toxicity review."
"It's determined whether the compound is widely encountered in the State through review of discharge permit data and other sources."
"Human health and aquatic toxicity scientists in State agencies review the literature to determine availability of toxic effect data."
"Protocol for the development of numerical values have been developed through the standards setting process."
"The literature on a compound is reviewed against the protocol to determine whether enough information is available to propose a value for the compound under scrutiny."
"The toxic concerns of issue covered by the protocol for public health include carcinogens, poisons and palatability."
"Once a preliminary determination has been made that a high confidence value can be proposed, it is placed onto the agenda of a scientific review group from outside of State government, made up of experts in human health and aquatic toxicity."
"After their review, the substance is placed onto the agenda for inclusion as a standard with the next update of the water quality regulations."
end quotes
Clearly, the regulation of PFOA in NYS is a New York state responsibility, not an EPA responsibility.
In support of that assertion, under the heading Groundwater Standards and Classifications (6 NYCRR Part 703) in the NYSDEC CPP from 1985, we have:
"Groundwater standards and classifications provide enforceable targets for management of quality in that they prescribe the best usage of the groundwater in any particular locality and the maximum allowable concentrations of various pollutants in the groundwater according to the intended best usage."
"These standards and classifications are adopted pursuant to the Environmental Conservation Law, sections 17-0301 and 17-0809."
"There are currently no federal requirements for the development of groundwater standards and classifications."
"Effective September 1, 1978, the Department revised its regulations entitled Groundwater Classifications, Quality Standards, and Effluent Standards and/or Limitations for the purpose of preventing pollution of groundwaters and protection of the groundwaters for use as potable water."
"All fresh groundwaters in the state are classified as GA reflecting the policy that the best usage of fresh groundwater in the state is for sources of drinking water."
"Numerical standards for Class GA groundwaters are identified for over 75 pollutants, including various metals, chloride, foaming agents, nitrate, pH, numerous pesticides and some organic solvents."
"As in the case of Surface Water Standards, the Department's ambient water quality standards program proposes revised and new values for inclusion in updating of these standards."
"Effluent limitations are also identified for a similar list of substances and are applicable to all point sources of pollution."
"In addition, no discharge is allowed which would preclude the best use of Class GA waters."
end quotes
No discharge is allowed which would preclude the best use of Class GA waters, which is for drinking water for humans.
That is a New York state responsibility, not a responsibility of Judith Enck at the USEPA.
Why the fumblers and bumblers in the Cuomo administration do not know any of this so far remains a mystery.
As to PFOA, and the smiling Dr. Zucker being disingenuous with us, in March 2014, the USEPA put out a bulletin entitled Emerging Contaminants - Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) and Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) where they informed us, and presumably Dr. Zucker, that PFOA is readily absorbed after oral exposure and accumulate primarily in the serum, kidney and liver.
According to the EPA bulletin, an "emerging contaminant" is a chemical or material that is characterized by a perceived, potential, or real threat to human health or the environment or by a lack of published health standards.
That is 2014.
In 2014, the EPA advised us that the toxicity, mobility and bioaccumulation potential of PFOS and PFOA pose potential adverse effects for the environment and human health.
In response to the question "Are there any federal and state guidelines and health standards for PFOS and PFOA?," we were advised in 2014 by the EPA that in January 2009, the EPA's Office of Water established a provisional health advisory (PHA) of 0.4 micrograms per liter for PFOA to assess the potential risk from short-term exposure of these chemicals through drinking water.
According to the EPA, PHAs reflect reasonable, health-based hazard concentrations above which action should be taken to reduce exposure to unregulated contaminants in drinking water (EPA 2009d, 2013a).
The smiling Dr. Zucker, who only seems competent to carry Andy Cuomo's coat at Andy's press conferences, seems to interpret all of that as PFOA being "unregulated," and therefore, not a problem, when the EPA is telling us otherwise, as can be seen from the following:
"Various states have established drinking water and groundwater guidelines, including the following:"
"Minnesota has established a chronic health risk limit of 0.3 micrograms per liter for PFOS and PFOA in drinking water (MDH 2011)."
"New Jersey has established a preliminary health-based guidance value of 0.04 micrograms per liter for PFOA in drinking water (NJDEP 2013)."
"North Carolina has established an interim maximum allowable concentration (IMAC) of 2 micrograms per liter for PFOA in groundwater (NCDENR 2006)."
"In 2010, the North Carolina Secretary's Science Advisory Board (NCSAB) on Toxic Air Pollutants recommended that the IMAC be reduced to 1 microgram per liter based on a review of the toxicological literature and discussions with scientists conducting research on the health effects associated with exposure to PFOA."
end quotes
That begs the question of why NYS has done nothing with regard to PFOA.
In that 2014 EPA bulletin, we are told that the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has not established a minimal risk level (MRL) for PFOS or PFOA because when the draft toxicological profile was published, human studies were insufficient to determine with a sufficient degree of certainty that the effects are either exposure-related or adverse (ATSDR 2009).
The 2014 EPA bulletin concluded by informing us that PFOS and PFOA were included on the third drinking water contaminant candidate list, which is a list of unregulated contaminants that are known to, or anticipated to, occur in public water systems and may require regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act (EPA 2009a).
That is not quite the same thing as telling us that PFOA is unregulated and we shouldn't worry about it.
Far from it, actually.
Too bad for our sakes and that of our grandchildren that Dr. Zucker is not aware of any of that.
Too bad indeed.
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE