Highway Garage Linked to New York Water Problems

By: Nathan Lamb

The State of New York is considering several fixes for contaminated wells near a highway maintenance garage in the town of East Fishkill, according to this story from the Poughkeepsie Journal.

The problem of unsafe levels of sodium and chloride in groundwater near the garage was discovered in 1995, and the state has funded bottled water and testing for some of the garage neighbors since then.
  
The State Department of Transportation (DOT) has released a draft proposal that outlined several possible fixes, including installing new wells for seven of the neighbors, relocating the garage's salt storage facility, or installing a reserve-osmosis system to treat the water. Adding new well fields was another possibility.

DOT representatives held a special meeting to outline those measures for the residents and get feedback.

Road salt has been a concern for environmental officials in recent years due to its impact on aquatic life and drinking water. A report from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services cautions that chloride is toxic to aquatic life and impacts vegetation—adding it’s completely soluble, very mobile and there’s no natural process that removes it from the environment.

That same report says sodium can be a problematic drinking water contaminant for people on low-sodium diets.  

East Fishkill is a town of roughly 29,000 people, approximately 70 miles north of New York City.

Fuel Contamination Suspected Near Former Garage

By: Nathan Lamb


Environmental officials are investigating whether fuel contaminants have spread from a defunct service garage to neighboring residential properties in the city of Rockland, Maine.

According to an article in the Bangor Daily News, the garage closed in 2006, and soil contamination from fuel leaks was discovered a couple of years later, when the underground gasoline tanks were removed.
The company commissioned tests in 2009, which indicated that the underground leak had spread to a neighboring parcel that’s home to an apartment building. Contaminants were also found near the property line of another parcel with a single-family home.

A Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) spokesperson credited the company with carrying out necessary remediation by removing contaminated soil from the garage site, but termed testing for the neighboring parcels inadequate.

A bankruptcy filing from the company had put the investigation on hold, but the Maine DEP is looking to resolve the uncertainty by underwriting $10,000 to $20,000 of air, soil and groundwater testing with funds from a state gasoline tax.

The neighborhood receives drinking water through a regional company, but the Maine DEP considers petroleum contamination a health hazard and regulates cleanups to minimize the risk to public health.

The garage building is currently vacant, and the DEP spokesperson said removal of the structure would require additional cleanup to protect the construction workers.