Emilia Teasdale is reporting in The Columbia Paper the Columbia County Environmental Management Council reported earlier this summer that tests on treated water from the Dewey Loeffel Superfund site did not reveal the presence of hazardous chemicals in local waterways. The EMC noted that while few sites were sampled, there was no evidence of contaminants in the water or sediment samples collected in the county. Treated water from the Rensselaer County site continues to be released into the Valatie Kill, which runs through the northern part of the county and empties into Kinderhook Lake. The report was presented to county Board of Supervisors Chairman Pat Grattan in June after the EMC reviewed the results of Environmental Protection Agency tests and toured the treatment plant at the site. The report stressed the county must continue to monitor the ongoing clean-up efforts at Dewey Loeffel. “As you are aware, the treatment plant is an interim step designed to prevent the chemical plume from the...site from spreading any further. The plan for ‘complete’ site cleanup and remediation is being developed by [the] EPA, and the entire Superfund cleanup process will take several more years,” the report noted. Dewey Loeffel was a dumping ground for toxic industrial waste by General Electric and other companies from 1952 until 1968, when the state ordered the site closed. The EPA continues to oversee operations at the treatment plant and to test the water. While work to clean the water continues, cleanup of the actual Superfund site will take many more years. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.