GUILDERLAND — The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation is in the process of trying to get the Galesi Group to remove construction and demolition debris from a wetland at the Northeastern Industrial Park, according to DEC spokesman Rick Georgeson.

Dumping in wetlands is illegal.

The problem was noted over six years ago in a letter written by a DEC biologist.

The industrial park wetland, labeled V-19, is of particular concern because it is next to the Black Creek, which feeds into the Watervliet Reservoir, Guilderland’s major source of drinking water.

In the 1940’s, the Army owned the land in Guilderland occupied by the industrial park today. The Army diverted the Black Creek into two halves and sent waste from its depot into the creek or buried it on site.

The Army Corps of Engineers is now charged with mitigating contaminants caused by the Army’s use of the former depot. It has defined nine areas of concern, sites it considers a risk to human health.

The construction and demolition landfill, in a marshy area adjacent to the Black Creek, is labeled Area of Concern 4. But the Army says it did not use this site; it has sprung up since the takeover of the land by the Galesi Group in 1969.

Gregory Goepfert, the project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, told The Enterprise last week, "That’s not our stuff at AOC 4...In July of this summer, we presented the results of the sampling we took there."
The sampling showed the materials were not related to the Department of Defense, he said. "We tested the areas we thought might be. We didn’t get anything hazardous," he said.
Georgeson at the DEC confirmed, "Galesi is responsible for the cleanup; that is correct."
"We’ve been going back and forth with Galesi," Georgeson told The Enterprise on Monday. "They did remove some solid waste from there...plastic debris."

The Enterprise called David Buicko, chief operating officer of the industrial park on Tuesday, to ask what materials had been dumped in the wetlands, when and by whom, and if any of the materials were hazardous wastes; The Enterprise also wanted to know what materials have already been removed and when remaining materials will be removed.
"I’m not the one actively working with the DEC," said Buicko. He declined to put The Enterprise in touch with someone who is.
First, Buicko said the debris was left by the Army. Told that both Goepfert and Georgeson said that was not the case, Buicko said he has been with the Galesi Group since 1982 and the dumping was prior to that "to the best of my knowledge."
Buicko also said, "From our standpoint, we have a great relationship with Region 4 [of the DEC] and we’ll work with them to do what it takes to mitigate...Our side of the story is the same as the DEC’s."

Impact on Black Creek"
The material that remains in the wetland or the 100-foot buffer area, Georgeson said, is "inert C and D material," such as concrete or rebar. The waste is not hazardous, he said, and, were it not dumped in a wetland, it would not be illegal.
"We don’t believe there’s anything toxic or hazardous," he said. "We don’t feel there’s been any impact on the Black Creek."

Members of the Restoration Advisory Board, largely made up of local citizens meant to advise the Army Corps in the depot cleanup, have expressed other sentiments.

Over three years ago, in 2002, board members contended that the industrial park should not be allowed to put construction debris close to the Black Creek and the marshy area that feeds it, especially given the possibility of movement of debris from contaminated areas.

This fall, Thadeus Ausfeld, who co-chairs the board and who also runs Guilderland's water plant, told The Enterprise that he had seen the construction and demolition landfill on an earlier visit to the industrial park but the Restoration Advisory Board has not been allowed to visit recently.
"I would like to show the Restoration Advisory Board the landfill," he said. "They should judge if it’s the Northeastern Industrial Park or the Army," he said of the dumping.

When The Enterprise asked Buicko about the reasons for not allowing the Restoration Advisory Board to visit Area of Concern 4, Buicko declined commenting on the record.

Ausfeld referred to cleanup work that is now underway at another area of concern, on land owned by Joan Burns. (See related story.) Initially, it was believed materials buried by the Army on Burns’s land were not hazardous, but tests proved otherwise, so funding for cleanup was secured from the federal government. The Army has few records of what was dumped where at the depot.
"The Army Corps should dig test pits," said Ausfeld of the wetland dumping site. "That’s what we did on Mrs. Burns’s property. We showed them where to dig. That’s the fair way to do it."
Ausfeld concluded, "I prefer being the one to show the Army Corps. They’re supposed to be giving an honest approach to fixing up the AOC’s. This is one area they’re not doing because they don’t feel its them."

No enforcement yet

The Enterprise began inquiring about the dump site in July, after which the DEC performed an inspection.

The Enterprise submitted a request under the state’s Freedom Of Information Law and obtained a copy of a file titled "Wetland Violations — Albany V-19 Galesi."

The file contains a draft of a 1998 investigation report on wetlands at the Northeastern Industrial Park.

The park currently owns 559 acres of the 650 once occupied by an Army depot, states the report.
It describes a construction and demolition landfill in Area of Concern 4, saying, "The area for the wetland survey included AOC 4, the property immediately surrounding the landfill on all sides, and extending east to the main channel of the Black Creek."
A DEC freshwater wetlands map from 1985 "shows a small portion of the Black Creek wetland system (V-19) intersects the western half of AOC 4W," states the report, referring to the area surveyed for wetlands around AOC 4.
The report defines the wetlands as Class I, indicating they "provide important wetland functions and protection of the wetlands is of concern" due to "significant benefits" that include "flood storage protection, sediment and nutrient retention, and very high habitat value."
The file also contains a June 22, 1999 letter from Karl E. Parker, senior wildlife biologist with the DEC’s Region 4. He writes that, in the course of his field work on state-regulated wetland V-19 he "observed apparent freshwater wetland and solid waste violations at the Northeastern Industrial Park in the site of the area labeled ‘Construction and Demolition Landfill’ on figure 1-2 [see map] of the Investigative Report." Parker goes on, "This Department has notified the landowner of the alleged violation and will be pursuing this matter further."

Parker told The Enterprise that he could not answer questions about his letter or his findings, that all questions must go through Georgeson.

In July, The Enterprise had also asked Heather Bishop about the dumping; Bishop represents the DEC on the Restoration Advisory Board. She, too, referred the matter to Georgeson.

In a series of calls over the last four-and-a-half months, Georgeson said he was attempting to get answers about what had been dumped in the V-19 wetland, what action had been taken for cleanup, and what harm may have been caused.
Asked this week if the DEC had the power to insist on cleanup of the wetlands, Georgeson replied, "Yes, we do...At this point, there’s been no formal enforcement. They’ve been cooperative, so we’ve been holding off."

When The Enterprise pointed out that Parker’s letter about the dumping had been written over six years ago, Georgeson said, "Our inspection this summer found they had removed plastic solid waste left from a client. I believe they were trying to find a use for it...They're working on removing the rest right now; they told us that last week...Our enforcement coordinator has been talking to someone at Galesi...We’ve been waiting for final confirmation that the material has been removed and then we’ll schedule a follow-up inspection."