At a Thursday press conference, officials sought to reassure an anxious Columbia County public about the intense fires and explosions which leveled the warehouse of waste handler TCI. Among those reassurances: that the U.S. EPA and New York State DEC were testing the Ghent site and other areas for toxic releases such as dioxins.
The results should be back “within 24 hours,” the County’s director of emergency management said at the time. Multiple publications, for example The Berkshire Eagle, reported that these would be available before this week’s close of business: “Tests results for dioxin, a potential byproduct of the burning, are expected by Friday.” (The Eagle added that “a Massachusetts response team, whose members donned protective suits, fanned out in parts of Southern Berkshire County to test soil and air”).
But more than 24 hours have come and gone, with no new test results forthcoming.
Late Friday, the County emergency management office released the statement that “State officials have confirmed that testing for Dioxins will begin on Monday for the TCI incident.” In other words, these highly-anticipated test results of tests could not have arrived Friday, because evidently the testing has not even begun yet.
This may be a simple case of miscommunication, or possibly the two officials are referring to two different sets of tests. But it again leaves open the question: How were celebratory announcements made that no PCBs were detected, if these tests are ongoing? The seeming confusion may be explainable, but it the meantime it can only further any doubts in residents’ minds about whether they are getting the full story.
Whether warranted or not, adding to such public concerns is the refreshingly frank statement from a representative of the Columbia County Sheriff's Department that the County “does not have a precise accounting of the types and quantities of chemicals and substances at TCI,” and that records of storage at TCI are two years old. Nevertheless, “state health department officials do not think the dioxin testing is necessary.” This nonpartisan website, which tracks public data about facilities like TCI’s, says that “the last inspection” of their Falls Industrial Road site “took place 489 days ago.”
Meanwhile, the T-U’s County source also conveys that “state officials believe it is unnecessary to test milk and other farm produce and products in the region.”
Again, the obvious question arises: If officials are still trying to determine what chemicals and materials were onsite, how can the State make such premature assessments of the extent and necessity of testing? The T-U article concludes with the warning that “results from dioxin and dibenzofuran tests can take weeks.”
Despite these generalized reassurances of low- or no-risk, the County and State Department of Health would appear to be taking in other respects a “better safe than sorry” approach in issuing advisories for how to remove any soot and ash deposits around people’s homes, on their cars, on air conditioners, in their gardens and pools, and on pets. (The advisories conclude, again in the absence of test results, that wells and other drinking water supplies ought to be safe.)
Now, companies like TCI which handle delicate or hazardous materials are required by law to submit “manifests” of their delivery and shipping activity. After obtaining information on how to search the NYS DEC’s (well-hidden and password-protected) database of these manifests via the agency’s Deb Aldrich, and conducting an initial review, this site spoke with Bob Schick of the agency on Friday afternoon.
Mr. Schick acknowledged the same thing which my initial review noted—that the State’s electronic records of TCI manifests do not seem to include any documents since a flurry activity in late February and early March of this year. During a three-week period, these records indicate the company made or received multiple shipments of PCBs in both liquid and solid form. This could mean one of several things:
(1) Ideally, that TCI stopped shipping or accepting PCBs in March;
(2) Less ideally, that TCI stopped reporting such activities to DEC in March; or,
(3) that DEC may be behind in scanning more recent hard-copy shipping manifests submitted by TCI since March for inclusion in their online database.
Mr. Schick confirmed that DEC itself is now in the process of determining whether there are any post-March records somewhere in their possession. This site has sent DEC a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, also pursuant to the Federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, for any and all records documenting what TCI of NY has stored or managed in Ghent during this calendar year. More to come on that.
