What We’ve Been Doing
Recent Activities
In January of 2020 we worked with the organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) to take and test water samples near the landfill for cancer-causing PFOA’s. Positive readings were obtained in all three locations.
Therefore it is likely that the wastewater collected on the site of the landfill (leachate) contains even greater concentrations of PFOAs. This could be significant for the Hudson Valley as millions of gallons of this leachate is directly dumped into the Hudson River at the Albany wastewater treatment plant. We shared this information and PEER’s report with the DEC and the NYS Department of Health (DOH). REC has requested that DEC test the leachate to determine if this operation is creating a threat to people downstream from Albany.
REC recently learned DEC requested and received PFAS chemicals test results from the Dunn Landfill which were taken a few days after our press conference in March. The readings of these tests were showed significantly high levels of PFAS chemicals. We understand that these tests were of the leachate collected at the landfill. We were extremely concerned about the level of these readings and the fact that they were not disclosed to the public, we sent a letter to Commissioner Basil Seggos of the NYSDEC on October 31, 2020 requesting that he disclose the results of these tests to the public along with what actions his Department is taking as a result. As of November 27, 2020 we have received no reply. The letter can be seen on this website under Dunn Landfill in the Mission Statement section.
In April of 2020, we issued a news release addressing the potential danger of the continued operation of this landfill in relation to COVID-19. Chronic exposure to fine particulates, including those from diesel exhaust, is associated with a higher risk of mortality from COVID-19 < https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/covid-pm/home>
In July of 2020 REC joined The Hudson Mohawk Environmental Action Network, a consortium of grassroots activist groups in the New York State Capital Region addressing local and regional environmental justice concerns in a quest for systematic solutions.(www.hmean.org).