Cleaning up a 37-year-old mess

Cortese Landfill in Narrowsburg still on EPA list

By FRITZ MAYER

NARROWSBURG, NY — The first time Mark Granger came to Narrowsburg was in 1994. PowerPoint presentations were not available to him at the time, and Granger, a remedial project manager with the US Environmental Protection Agency, flipped through transparencies on an overhead projector to explain how the Cortese Landfill was going to be cleaned.

At the time, EPA believed that 5,300 drums of toxic waste could be removed from the site, along with 50 dump trucks full of contaminated soil, and after about 14 years, natural processes would render the water beneath the site once again fit for drinking.

But at a public meeting at the Tusten Town Hall on August 23, Granger explained that the contamination at the site was more extensive than the EPA had first estimated, and if left to natural forces to finish the cleanup, the water underground would not be potable again for perhaps 150 years. EPA doesn’t want to wait that long.

The landfill was open from 1970 through 1981, and accepted mostly municipal solid waste. But for a six-month period in 1973, toxic waste was taken in. According to EPA documents, the materials “apparently included drums containing paint thinners and sludge, solvents, dyes, waste oil and petroleum products.”

Some of the contaminants migrated more than 20 feet down into the water table, and remain there today, fouling ground water as it moves beneath the site before migrating into the Upper Delaware River. The dumping in 1973, Granger said, “was not illegal, but perhaps ill-advised.” That’s especially true given the economics of the venture. Granger said the owner of the landfill received about $3 per barrel of waste. For 5,300 barrels, that comes to $15,900.

Granger was unsure about the cost of the cleanup so far, but he said it was “many millions.” The cost of the next phase of the proposed cleanup will be $8.3 million.

On the bright side for taxpayers, no public money has been spent, or will be used in the future. The cost is borne by a group of entities the EPA calls potentially responsible parties (PRP). These are mostly businesses that generated the waste, transported it or owned the landfill. There are 28 PRPs, including some prominent companies, such as E.I Dupont Company and Consolidated Edison, which provides electricity to New York City. The Town of Tusten is also a PRP because in 1973 it purchased from owner John Cortese a 1.5 acre section of the site, which totals about 5.3 acres. Tusten, however, has been able to fulfill its responsibilities in the matter by providing in-kind services, such as cutting the grass.

The EPA’s preferred method of cleanup is called air sparging with soil vapor extraction (ASSVE). This involves drilling down to the sand and gravel in the water table, and pumping air into it. The bubbles then migrate up through the table, carrying contamination with them. When the bubbles reach the soil above the water table, the water turns to vapor, which is then sucked out of the ground and passed through carbon filters. The contaminants remain on the filters and the vapor is released into the atmosphere.

This method would cost $8.2 million and would be ongoing for seven years. EPA estimates that the water beneath the site would be potable in about 15 years.

Granger said there would be numerous pipes, perhaps as many as 100, sticking into the ground at the site, and they would all be connected to a central building where the pumping and filtering would occur. Some of the 15 residents at the meeting, raised concerns about possible noise, but Granger said that could be mitigated with soundproofing measures that would be built in during the design phase of the project.

According to EPA documents, there is no danger to the Narrowsburg water supply because the groundwater at the site flows away from the town wells. Further, as the groundwater leaves the site, it is quickly diluted to the point that contaminants are at acceptable levels once the water reaches the river.