By Tracy Frisch
Clean Air Action Network of Glens Falls (CAAN) is working with the grassroots group, The Fort Stops PFAS, to tackle a new threat which would have disastrous consequences for the Upper Hudson Valley. A corporation called ESMI/Clean Earth is requesting a research (RD&D) permit from DEC to do a huge PFAS contaminated soil remediation experiment. PFAS “forever chemicals” are carcinogenic and are linked to variety of other serious health effects, including fatty liver disease, reproductive problems, immune system effects, and endocrine disruption. There is no safe level of PFAS exposure.
Under this research permit, Clean Earth would truck in 5,000 tons of PFAS contaminated soil from an undisclosed location. We suspect the soil would come from a military base, since https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yNrOKvM7Q7XKX4w5TEcutRQpmGWRmitd/view?usp=share_link (make a hyperlink with text that’s in bold) Clean Earth is one of a number of corporations that signed a contract with the Pentagon Clean Earth claims that it won’t decide where the soil is coming from until it receives the permit. It also has not told DEC the concentration or types of PFAS in the soil or what type of soil (i.e., sandy, silty, clay, high or low in organic matter). Yet this info is highly relevant for evaluating the permit application.
Clean Earth would heat treat the soil and incinerate the PFAS in its underwhelming pole barn facility in the village of Fort Edward near the Hudson River.
A cover story of the January 2026 Colorado School of Mines magazine https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zyxZJbJfK0n-12N9ZInZ4dY80jRSL9Nb/view?usp=share_link warns that “airborne byproducts of PFAS destruction” have the potential to be just as problematic as the “forever chemicals” from which they are derived. Clean Earth would try to destroy whatever PFAS it is able to remove from the soil in a thermal oxidizer, but according to its permit application, it would not attain a hot enough temperature to destroy the extremely strong carbon-fluorine bonds that are found in PFAS compounds.
The new Cumulative Impacts Law should prevent this project from getting permitted, but DEC has not yet been promulgated regulations. Fort Edward is already an overburdened community, heavily impacted by PCBs from General Electric, which dumped 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River and gave away untold amounts mixed with oil to spray on dirt roads and vacant lots.
This toxic experiment would threaten the health of Upper Hudson residents for decades to come. The Disadvantaged Communities (DAC) downwind of Fort Edward (Hudson Falls and part of the city of Glens Falls) would be in the path of these toxic air emissions, according to the company’s air modeling.
While the remediation of PFAS-contaminated soil is essential, remediation must never pollute any more communities and ecosystems. Furthermore, we do not believe that Clean Earth has the capacity or track record to remediate PFAS-contaminated soil safely, without toxic releases into the environment.
Earthjustice submitted legal-technical comments to DEC on behalf of CAAN and more than 70 organizations, from local to national, that signed on. ZWNY and some of its member groups signed on. Hundreds of area residents also wrote comments to DEC opposing the project. We don’t anticipate a decision from DEC for many months. I WILL INCLUDE A LINK TO THE COMMENTS.
In Nov. 2024, DEC denied permits to Saratoga Biochar, which would have been the largest sewage sludge biochar plant in the U.S. CAAN was ably represented by Earthjustice.
Like the Clean Earth project, Saratoga Biochar would have trucked in thousands of tons of sewage sludge (which is contaminated with PFAS) from outside of our area. Our technical expert found that the facility would not have been able to destroy the PFAS in the sludge. Air emissions would have polluted Disadvantaged Communities downwind. It took CAAN and Not Moreau several years to defeat the project, which was slated to be built across the Hudson River from Fort Edward and Hudson Falls.
If your community is threatened by a risky project that could release PFAS, you are not alone. We can offer help and referrals for technical assistance. There are knowledgeable experts and seasoned grassroots leaders who can lend a hand. Through the PFAS Free NY Coalition, several of us in the environmental movement are organizing a statewide network of PFAS contaminated communities. By working together, we can win many of these battles! Contact Tracy Frisch, CAAN, 518-692-8242 landline or tracy.frisch@gmail.com
Leave a Reply