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Cleanup of stream from Dewey Loeffel Superfund site to begin
Kenneth C. Crowe II is reporting for the Times Union 10 months after telling the town it would clean up a stream polluted by PCB runoff from the Dewey Loeffel Landfill Superfund site, federal officials will update residents July 17, on the work scheduled to be finished by the fall. Nassau Supervisor David Fleming said he was recently briefed by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 2 Administrator Pete Lopez and EPA regional staff on the work to be done this summer to remove the soil and sediment along a 1,900-foot-long tributary. That tributary is contaminated with PCBs, a suspected carcinogen, and it flows into theValatie Kill, a protected trout stream, which empties into Kinderhook Lake in Columbia County, south of the Superfund site. The General Electric Co. will remove the contaminated soil and sediments and replace the materials with clean backfill, restore the stream channel and plant trees and shrubs. The cost of the project will be paid by GE and other companies responsible for the pollution. In addition to providing an update on the work during the community information meeting, EPA representatives will discuss a plan to create a community advisory group for the site. The advisory group would draw its members from the community, and serve as the focal point for the exchange of information among the local community and the EPA. Dewey Loeffel was declared a federal Superfund site in 2011. The community information meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Tue., Jul. 17, with an open forum followed by a presentation on the cleanup at 7 p.m. The meeting will be held in St. Mary’s Church Parish Hall, 26 Church St., Nassau. Read the full story in the Times Union.