At the Tuesday meeting of the Columbia County Board Supervisors’ Public Safety Committee, a top emergency management official stated that “Based on last week's meeting [in West Ghent] I believe the State is reevaluating that decision” not to do further testing for dioxins and furans.
However, that now appears to be off the table again—as far as the State goes.
Two separate residents of Ghent have each received a version of the following email from a NYS Department of Health official, in response to their questions about whether the State was indeed re-evaluating its decision:
From: Joseph P. Crua <jpc04@health.state.ny.us>
Cc: Keith Goertz <kdgoertz@gw.dec.state.ny.us>
Thank you for your inquiry regarding the TCI fire in the Town of Ghent, Columbia County. As we stated previously, because all of the tests determined that PCBs and other contaminants are not present or present at low levels, no testing for dioxins or furans is necessary. Detectable levels of PCBs form the basis to determine the need to conduct additional tests for other potentially hazardous substances. Also, site information indicates the fire involved primarily containers of petroleum-based oil. Most of the material that burned appears to have contained no or low levels of PCBs, as confirmed by the absence of detectable levels of PCBs in 32 soot wipe samples collected near the fire and in the surrounding community. Therefore, the formation of extensive or high levels of dioxins and furans is unlikely. Any dioxins and furans formed by this fire are likely to be at the levels that would be found in many kinds of fires and do not warrant additional testing.
Regards
Joseph Crua
Joseph P. Crua, MPH
Public Health Specialist IV
Chief, Metro Section
Bureau of Environmental Exposure Investigation
New York State Department of Health
547 River Street, Room 300
Troy, New York 12180-2216
Phone: (518) 402-7880
As noted here before, on the Thursday afternoon when the TCI inferno was only just dying down, officials stated that dioxin testing was expected back in “24 hours.”
Late on Friday, it was announced that those tests had not even begun—but would start on Monday... after an anticipated downpour. But on that Monday night, it was announced that the tests were called off and had been deemed unnecessary.
