Companies responsible for leaching harmful chemicals into the Hoosick Falls water supply completed a new transmission line, bringing a permanent fresh water source to the town almost a decade after the contamination was discovered.
Saint-Gobain and Honeywell, the multinational corporations that ran the plastics factory that polluted the drinking water, have completed a new pipeline that will carry water from a new wellfield deemed to be outside the contaminated area. The pipeline is the most tangible step to improve the region’s water infrastructure under a $45 million agreement between the companies and the state that mostly included covering past costs incurred by taxpayers.
The transmission line, which cost $5.5 million, paid for by the companies and overseen by the departments of Environmental Conservation and Health, will bring fresh water to 4,500 Hoosick Falls residents, the Hochul administration announced on Monday. The cost of the project, a 6,800 foot aqueduct connecting the new site on the edge of the Hoosick River to the town’s water treatment plant, is part of a $10 million estimated budget that includes the monitoring and maintenance of the new water source and an accompanying filtration system, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation.
The town, which sits 30 miles north of Albany near the Vermont border, became one of the most glaring examples of industrial pollution and government neglect in 2015 and 2016 when then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned residents not to drink or cook with public water and declared the area a Superfund site, which allowed the state to seek remuneration from the companies responsible. Residents were living off bottled water trucked in by the thousands of gallons before the state installed temporary filters and declared the water safe to drink in March 2016.
Since then, the filters have been working to keep water flowing to public sites and private residences free of perfluorooctanoic acid at levels believed to be dangerous. The chemical, used in industrial coating in products like Teflon, was not considered a hazardous substance under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program at the time.
The remediation agreement includes $30 million for past costs incurred by the state to cleanup the site and $5 million for damages to natural resources. The companies must also continue to identify and mitigate sources of contamination.Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget proposal included $1.25 billion over 10 years for Superfund sites.
