NASSAU–The federal government is stepping in and recognizing an environmental disaster that has impacted residents in this Rensselaer County village for decades and continues to threaten communities downstream along the Valatie Kill in Columbia County.
A 60-day public comment period began Thursday for residents to weigh in on the Dewey Loeffel toxic waste dump. Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency told a crowd of local residents Thursday that the EPA will add the site to the National Priorities List, which would make the closed dump and Nassau Lake, where chemicals from the dump have been found, a federal Superfund site. This would allow the EPA to put pressure on G.E., Schenectady Chemical and Bendix– the latter two firms now under different ownership– to fund further remediation. Read more…