EPA reviews Cortese dump

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

NARROWSBURG, NY — Although the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pulled 5,000 drums of hazardous waste out of the Cortese Landfill in 1998, residual contaminants continue to taint groundwater flow through the site.

The infamous landfill received industrial wastes for a six-month period in 1973, including paint thinners, sludge, solvents, dyes, waste oil and other petroleum products according to the Operation and Maintenance Plan prepared by Waste Management, Inc. of Hampton, New Hampshire.

In 1998, a synthetic cap was placed over the landfill to prevent the contents from mixing with snow and rainfall. Water samples from Narrowsburg’s three municipal wells have not detected contaminants from the site since the installation of the cap.

Still, given that water is constantly flowing about 20 feet below the earth’s surface, the EPA continues to experiment with new ways of reducing contaminants that reach the Delaware River.

After groundwater flows through the landfill, it travels in a natural plume that degrades contaminants dramatically before reaching the Delaware, which is only 400 feet southwest of the site, EPA Cortese Landfill Project Manager Mark Granger said. Over the next several months, the EPA will set out to further secure the environment with a two-phase project.

First, an extraction well will be drilled in order to monitor sub-surface water. Then, water samples will be injected with iron powder, which will hopefully attack the activity of any contaminants.

Scientists from Golder Associates will be conducting the pilot tests, and if they detect a response, they will continue to introduce iron to further degrade contaminants before they reach the river.

“This is really a positive step in groundwater control. We’re very excited to be at this point in the project,” Granger said.