GUILDERLAND — With the United States Army Corps of Engineers report half-a-year away, a final generic environmental impact statement for the Northeastern Industrial Park was given to the town on Tuesday night.

The industrial park is located on property that was once used as an Army depot; toxic wastes were buried there.

The Restoration Advisory Board, made up mostly of local residents working with the Army Corps on cleanup, met on May 24 in Guilderland to discuss what has been done to the areas of concern, those deemed a risk to human health, and what it plans to do next.

Several people on the advisory board were concerned that the town board would accept a final impact statement from the industrial park without further public discussion or recommendations from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Supervisor Kenneth Runion told The Enterprise that this is untrue and additional public comments will be included in the final impact statement after it is reviewed.

Charles Rielly, co-chair of the Restoration Advisory Board, personally delivered a letter to board member David Bosworth, stating that he was not given adequate notice of Tuesday’s presentation.

On Tuesday night, Kathy Simmons, representing the Northeastern Industrial Park, along with David Buicko, chief operating officer of the industrial park, both presented the board with the impact statement.
Currently the impact statement addresses 73 comments considered to be "substantial," Simmons said, and she also provided CD’s of the impact statement for the town’s website.

Representatives from the industrial park will be back at the June 20 town board meeting.

Runion said that more comments will be added to the final generic environmental impact statement and that the board will review the Army Corps’ findings at the end of the year.
"My main concern is the drinking water of Guilderland. The Black Creek is right there," Rielly said at the May 24 RAB meeting.

Thadeus Ausfeld, the town’s chief water plant operator and other co-chair of the Restoration Advisory Board, is also very concerned with the town’s drinking water.
"I am sure you are aware the Watervliet Reservoir is being overloaded with plant, industrial, municipal, and residential organic and inorganic pollutants," Ausfeld wrote in a letter sent to town board members. "Organics are being generated in the Bozen Kill by the Village of Altamont. Additionally, organics are being generated in the Normans Kill by Princetown, Rotterdam, and Duanesburg. One Black Creek generator is the Northeast Industrial Park."
Ausfeld urged board members to wait for the Army Corps of Engineers’ report in the fall, saying in his letter, "It would be wise to wait until after their meeting before approving the Northeastern Industrial Park Generic Environmental Impact Statement."

The Normans Kill, Bozen Kill, and Black Creek are all tributaries of the Watervliet Reservoir, which supplies water for both Guilderland and the city of Watervliet, which owns the reservoir, located in Western Guilderland. The reservoir and part of its watershed run through a former section of the Pine Bush. The rest of the 113-square-mile watershed is a mix of forest and farmland.

When the industrial park was owned by the United States government as an army depot, industrial waste was disposed of into the Black Creek for many years.

The government is now finishing a $650,000 clean-up of land outside the industrial park, west of Depot Road, now owned by Joan Burns. Work is set to resume in early July with a target completion date of December, 2006.

Ausfeld warned board members in his letter that there is no watershed protection plan for the Watervliet Reservoir.