CNY ecoBlog

TCE testing has just mushroomed across the state as the DEC revisits hazardous waste sites looking for toxic soil gas. Here’s an example from today’s Press & Sun-Bulletin, TCE hunt expands in city:

BINGHAMTON —The long, slow search for hazardous chemicals under a neighborhood on the north side of Binghamton literally broke new ground this [...]

EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data is now available for 2005 (and previous years as always). The website includes links to the data, and a link to TRI Explorer, EPA’s electronic tool for data analysis.

Links:

EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Site

2005 TRI Public Data Release

Use the TRI Explorer to find out who’s been releasing toxins [...]

Containing “traces of mercury, cadmium, fire retardant and up to five pounds of lead”, computers are one of the “biggest sources of hazardous waste in the country”. The New York Times reports on the various ways different companies are approaching this waste disposal problem:
With the rate of obsolescence accelerating – most organizations now consider [...]

Here is a recent research paper on Sediment Remediation that may broaden our outlook on future and current remediation projects (such as the Onondoga Lake cleanup) even if its not specific to Central New York per se: Importance of Implementation and Residual Risk Analyses in Sediment Remediation; Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 2006; Vol. 2(1):59-65.

Contaminated soil from a former Endicott Johnson site was removed by IBM and dumped in two fill areas of a wilderness tract known as “The Glen” in the Town of Union.

Scientists will continue to tap Superfund money to sample air from about 130 properties in Endicott and the Town of Union this winter as they continue a search for toxic vapors.

So far, the state has spent about $2.2 million testing air in Endicott area homes for solvents such as trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE). That [...]

The Cayuga County Blog has been posting extensively on the proposed Scepter landfill in the town of Seneca Falls raising concerns specifically about its proximity to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. The landfill will be used as waste-disposal site for ash and aluminum salt cakes, a byproduct of its aluminum processing recycling facility. [...]

New regulatory requirements for environmental site assessments go into effect today that are designed to increase liability protections for brownfield cleanup and reuse. These additional protections will hopefully promote further community investment and brownfield redevelopment.

The Environmental Protection Agency published a final rule setting federal standards for the conduct of all appropriate inquiries. The rule [...]