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Ithaca-SHIP.org

Information about Industrial Pollution and our Neighborhoods on Ithaca's South Hill

New Interactive Map !

WHAT'S HAPPENING ??

In a few words, not much is being done, and it's proceeding slowly. As Krisy Gashler reported on October 7, we are still waiting for approval of amendments to the 1994 "Record of Decision" on the Emerson site. The DEC's Gregg Townsend says he hopes to have the document ready for public review and comment by mid-December, with a public meeting in January.

Emerson's consultants have released the "final" "Supplemental Remedial Program / Alternatives Analysis" for the Morse. This is a large document, but it is available here for download. Their current work at the site includes "upgrades" to the "pump-and-treat" (some of us call it "suck'n'spew") remediation system, which has been in place for years but has failed to make a significant difference in toxins levels.  We still hope that some serious efforts will be made to perform more effective cleanup of this site.

The DEC has performed limited testing of homes in the Phase VI expansion area, after Emerson declined to perform the tests. They are still waiting for the test results. We received a report of tests on the EAST side of South Aurora Street, but there has been no official announcement of expansion of the testing area.

BORG WARNER CONSULTANTS POINT BLAME AT NCR, THERM

Borg Warner and their lawyers retained Roux Associates, consultants who have released an evaluation of the EPT site and surrounding areas. They look at the contents of toxins sampled from sanitary sewers at various points on the hill, and develop "Soil Vapor Signatures" which are associated with the various sites. They contend that much of the pollution found down near the bottom of the hill (North of Columbia Street and along East Spencer Street) comes from NCR and Therm, rather than from the EPT site.  Their report appears to ignore the distinction between the City's sanitary sewers and the storm sewers - the storm sewers are the ones into which Morse operations discharged toxins over the years.

The full report is over 64 MB, but it is here for download. The text section alone is here. The data tables are here.  There are no maps of the storm sewers, but these maps show the sanitary sewers and the calculated "Soil Vapor Signatures".  (The JPG files are the smallest in size. The PDF and TIF formats are much larger. The maps are 36"x24" full-size.)

EPT and Surrounding Areas: Historical Sanitary Sewers, Sample Locations
 PDF   JPG   TIF
EPT and Surrounding Areas: (Source-)Coded Historical Sanitary Sewers
 PDF   JPG   TIF
EPT and Surrounding Areas: Soil Vapor ("Signatures") and Vapor Results
 PDF   JPG   TIF

DETAILED TOXINS MAPS RELEASED

As reported in the New York Times, Walter Hang, President of Toxics Targeting, has made a combination of powerful mapping tools and his firm's toxins data available (for free) at the company web site. These maps allow detailed review of specific addresses and neighborhoods and their proximity to reported toxin sites throughout New York State. Walter and his form deserved both a "Wow!" and our thanks for making this impressive capability available.

AMBIENT AIR CONCERNS

Emerson released an update, mailed on January 18, 2008, which discusses unexpectedly high results in tests for TCE in the ambient air.  Some history of the test results recorded during Rounds I - V and discussions of variability in test results are here.  The levels of TCE in the air around us keep going up, but no significant actions have been taken to address this.