Residents of the small town of Hoosick Falls in upstate New York are trying to cope with a polluted water supply. While Governor Andrew Cuomo has finally taken steps this week to address the issue, villagers say they first discovered the problem a year and a half ago, and every level of government failed to properly respond for months. Zack Fink filed the following report.
Since last November, the residents of the tiny upstate village of Hoosick Falls have been using bottled water for drinking and cooking after contamination was discovered in its local water supply. But some residents had sounded a warning bell to state and local officials that went unanswered more than a year earlier.
Today, residents now stock up on water at the local supermarket, where it's provided at no cost to the roughly 3,500 residents.
Hoosick Falls is located about 30 miles from the state Capitol, not far from the Vermont border in rural Rensselaer County.
Recent concerns about the water began with Michael Hickey, a lifelong resident. In February of 2013, Michael's father, John, died of kidney cancer.
Since a factory was built on McCaffery street in the village nearly 50 years ago, there had been talk of elevated levels of cancer in the village. The rumor was that there was something in the water.
Getting no cooperation initially from the Hoosick Falls mayor, Hickey decided to test the water himself. In late summer 2014, he found something.
"Two weeks later, the samples came back, and sure enough, we were positive," Hickey said.
There were positive readings for a hazardous chemical known as PFOA. The federal guideline for it in 2014 was less than 400 parts per trillion. One of Michael's samples was more than 150 parts above that. He began working with Albany attorney David Engel, whose firm practices environmental law.
"PFOA is an extraordinarily persistent chemical," Engel said. "It does not break down in the environment. Doesn't biodegrade. Once it is in the environment, it is going to stay there. It's going to move around because it's highly soluable."
According to the state, one of the sources of contamination is the Saint Gobain plant, which manufactures plastics, and other chemicals, including PFOA.
Saint Gobain is a French company that traces its origins back to 1665, during the reign of King Louis XIV. It was originally a producer of glass but later branched out into other materials.
The company acquired the Hoosick Falls facility in 1999. The main drinking water well for the village is located just 400 yards from the plant, and the company's own well tests in the summer of 2015 revealed hightened levels of PFOA, including one well that was dug adjacent to the plant where the level of PFOA in the water was 18,000 parts per trillion, 45 times higher than the recommended level.
"The longterm exposure is what has been shown to be toxic with this chemical. So even with low levels, if you had a long-term exposure, you are more likely to have health effects with it," said Dr. Marcus Martinez, a family practician and a cancer survivor himself.
Martinez says PFOA has been shown to cause higher levels of testicular cancer, thyroid disease and kidney cancer, which is what claimed the life of John Hickey.
"Certainly, if you just look at our area over the last 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, we certainly seem to have a high incidence of cancers of all types. They seem to be higher than what you would expect," Martinez said.
Engel contacted Saint Gobain in October of 2015, and after a meeting, the company agreed to begin paying for bottled water for all residents of Hoosick Falls. A month later, the EPA wrote a letter to Hoosick Falls Mayor David Borge recommending "an alternate drinking water source" for all residents. On November 29, the bottled water program was put into place.
But in December, the State Health Department issued a fact sheet telling residents that "health effects are not expected to occur from normal use of the water." The state said this depsite its own tests that showed PFOA levels for at least four water wells in the 600s parts per trillion, well over the EPA guideline of 400 parts.
"That was a conclusion that we thought was categorically incorrect and inappropriate," Engel said. "And that was in December, and since that time, thankfully, the Department of Health seems to have modified its view."
State officials maintain that long-term health studies haven't yet been completed. It was not until January 27 of this year that the state Department of Environmental Protection and state health officials finally issued emergency regulations.
"Today, Governor Cuomo directed the DEC and DOH to come up with a series of actions to restore the public's confidence on Hoosick Falls," said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos.
It was at this same press conference last month that Health Commissioner Howard Zucker claimed the state was first alerted to the contamination problem only six months ago, even though records show his department was informed as early as November 2014, and multiple times since then.
"Six months ago, we were approached by the community. We started to measure the levels," Zucker said.
Some local residents were not eager to go public with the water contamination story, worried that their property values could plunge and the factory could leave, costing them jobs.
And any concerns people might have had about the water story getting out have actually come to fruition. For example, banks have stopped lending, so people who may want to buy in this town can no longer get a mortgage."
Responding to fears about the local economy and home values, the state has deployed representatives from the Department of Financial Services to the village this week to meet with residents. And last Friday, after students at the local high school held a forum and press conference to discuss the water contamination issue, they asked Governor Andrew Cuomo to make plans for a brand new water supply. Anna Wysocki, 17, was one of the leading student voices.
"It's unsettling, to say the least," Wyspclo. "A lot of my friends and I who live in the village - over half the kids at Hoosick Falls Central High School live in the village - and it's definitely been like, 'What? We've been drinking poison water all of our lives?'"
A few hours after the student press conference, the governor's office responded, saying it would install water flitration systems for roughly 1,500 homes in Hoosick Falls. This comes on top of the longterm carbon filtration system Saint Gobain had already promised to provide. Cuomo also said the state would begin planning for an entirely new source of fresh drinking water.
State officials were in Hoosick Falls this past weekend, offering blood tests to concerned residents. The governor has been asked about the state response several times this month.
"The environmental agencies, particularly on the federal side, are now re-evaluating what are the acceptable levels and what chemicals should be tested for and what chemicals should regulated," Cuomo said.
However, the governor has also shown signs of not being totally up to speed on the issue.
Cuomo: I just don't know the facts. Now, you get a lot of suggestions that there is something in the water. That complaint is a growing complaint.
Reporter: I think these were tests by the DOH that confirmed there was PFOA in the water.
Reporter: The initial tests were 14 months ago, actually.
Cuomo: Yeah, and you are saying the tests showed an issue?
Q: They showed PFOA, which is the chemical in question here, had a concentration in some cases above 400 parts per trillion, which is the EPA threshold.
Cuomo: Well, those would, we need to know the facts, and I don't know those as the facts.
For Michael Hickey and those who've lost loved ones, the response from the state is welcome, even if their initial concerns to local officials went unheeded.
"You know, we are seeing response now. But we are also a year and a half later from the confirmation of what we actually had here. So that was a little bit of the discouraging part of what we had here," Hickey said.