GUILDERLAND — The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation has reclassified a 10-acre landfill at the defunct Army depot in Guilderland Center. The site had been classified as a “significant threat to public health or environment” and now is classified as being “properly closed” but requiring “continued management.”

The United States Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for cleaning up the toxic waste found at the former depot. This is the second site in two months, out of nine that were initially deemed hazardous, that is being closed; the other is a burn-pit area.

The landfill has been capped, the site can be used only for industrial purposes, and, according to DEC documents, groundwater use on site is prohibited; the groundwater will be monitored until standards are met for vinyl chloride, trichloroethene, and cis-1,2-dichloroethene.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vinyl chloride affects the liver, central nervous system, respiratory system, and lymphatic system;  trichloroethene affects the eyes, skin, respiratory system, heart, liver, kidneys, and central nervous system; and  cis-1,2-dichloroethene affects the central nervous system and liver.

Asked what would happen if the annual groundwater tests at the now-capped landfill indicated problems, Gregory Goepfert told The Enterprise the Army Corps would be responsible for any clean-up.

For 15 years, Goepfert has been the project manager of the Army Corps’ cleanup project at the depot. He estimated for The Enterprise that the federal government has spent $4 million on testing, defining, monitoring, capping, and cleaning up the nine sites at the old depot considered a risk to human health and labeled as Areas of Concern, or AOCs.

Eight areas of concerns, encompassing about 650 acres were found on the property now occupied by the Northeastern Industrial Park; a ninth AOC was designated on a 40-acre tract nearby and is privately owned.

“The landfill has been properly capped and covered, so people will not come into contact with contamination at the site,” the state’s Department of Health said in an email, responding to questions from The Enterprise.

“In addition, the site is completely fenced and guarded, restricting public access.  People are not drinking the contaminated water because landfill groundwater contamination does not spread off-site from the industrial park; it is served by public water, and there is a restriction on the use of groundwater at the site.”

The health department went on to explain that volatile organic compounds like those found at the old Army depot, if they are in the groundwater, “may move into the soil vapor (air spaces within the soil) which in turn may move into overlying buildings and affect the indoor air quality. This process, which is similar to the movement of radon gas from the sub-surface into the indoor air of buildings, is referred to as soil vapor intrusion.

“The potential exists for the inhalation of site contaminants due to soil vapor intrusion for any future on-site development near the landfill area.  The remedial actions include provisions for the evaluation of the potential for vapor intrusion at any structures constructed near the landfill in the future.  In addition, these actions limit the use of the industrial park to industrial use and prevents the construction of buildings over the landfill cap.”

Depot history

The depot was used by the Army from the 1941 to the 1969, during World War II and the Korean War. Some of the debris left by the Army was hazardous. The Black Creek, which feeds the Watervliet Reservoir, Guilderland’s major source of drinking water, was used to drain the depot.

The property was sold to the town of Guilderland Urban Renewal Agency in 1969, which leased the land to the Galesi Group. Galesi’s Northeastern Industrial Park has operated on the land since 1969 and leases space and buildings to various tenants.

About 95 percent of the tenants leased space for storage of goods, according to DEC documents, while about 5 percent manufactured in their leased space. Galesi took ownership of the property in 1993.

The burn pit

At a meeting in December, Goepfert announced no further action was needed in AOC 3, a burn pit area, which the Corps had cleaned up and monitored.

At that meeting, Ted Ausfeld, a long-time member of an advisory board meant to guide the cleanup process asked: What if future property owners are not aware of dangers from remaining vapors?

Goepfert had said, on the one hand, that the only remaining risk would be “soil vapor intrusion” into a future building constructed in the area identified as having the highest soil gas concentrations. Such areas lie on property now owned by the Northeastern Industrial Park and the Guilderland School District. (See Dec. 22, 2016 story at AltamontEnterprise.com).

Both the school district and the industrial park, Goepfert said, had “been notified of the need to assess site conditions if a future building is planned.”

On the other hand, Goepfert said that the Army Corps “will not implement land-use controls nor conduct any future monitoring. All existing monitoring wells associated with AOC 3 will be properly closed.”

When Ausfeld asked about the discrepancy, Goepfert said, “The Corps doesn’t implement land-use control; the property owner does.”

A second question was raised by Neil Sanders, the assistant superintendent for business for the Guilderland School District. In 2002, as the school district prepared to build a new bus garage, on seven acres it had purchased for a dollar from the industrial park, the construction work unearthed some Army debris. The Army Corps paid about half-a-million dollars to clean it up.

Sanders said the school district was concerned about any future risks and asked, “What can you provide going forward?”

After the meeting, Goepfert told The Enterprise, in response to Sanders’s concerns, “Five years down the road, under our current policies, for vapor intrusion for a building that does not exist today, we would not shoulder that burden.”

He also said of Sanders, “We have a public process where he gets to voice his concerns…I will discuss it with my team...I haven’t really answered him,” said Goepfert.

The public comment period closed on Monday, Jan. 31.

Last week, Goepfert told The Enterprise that he would “provide a detailed response” to Ausefled’s question and, on Sanders’s question, he said, “I am pursuing clarification through the chain of command.”