River panel begins landfill query

DAVID HULSE
Posted 5/30/18

NARROWSBURG, NY — The Upper Delaware Council’s (UDC) Project Review Committee on May 22 approved a letter to New York State authorities formally seeking documentation of the state’s …

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River panel begins landfill query

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NARROWSBURG, NY — The Upper Delaware Council’s (UDC) Project Review Committee on May 22 approved a letter to New York State authorities formally seeking documentation of the state’s role in oversight of the 1992 closure of the former Barnes Landfill in Minisink Ford.

The letter comes by way of clarifying recent anecdotal comments of concern by UDC township delegates Fred Peckham of Hancock and Al Henry of Berlin Township, stating that tanks that collect leachate from the sealed landfill have not been pumped out and overflowing leachate is freely flowing downgrade. The landfill is upgrade of the Beaver Brook and its confluence with the Delaware River, and the Kittatinny Campground lies within that drainage area.

The apparent problem results from the expiration of escrowed landfill funding, approved in the engineered 1992 closure, which formerly paid for pumping and disposal of leachates. There is no evidence that anyone has subsequently taken responsibility for their disposal.

TRR’s April queries of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) about the issue produced a brief May statement, averring that DEC had visited the landfill in 2017 and found no overflow from the tanks at that time. Related questions were not addressed. Longtime DEC delegate to the UDC Bill Rudge has not attended council meetings since March.

Earlier this month, UDC Resource Specialist Pete Golod said he planned to query DEC and the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) about the landfill. In Rudge’s absence at the May meeting, Peckham asked DRBC delegate Peter Eschbach if his agency would respond to questions about the landfill. Eschbach said DRBC would forward any landfill queries to DEC.

After researching the history of the landfill, Golod presented a draft letter addressed to Rudge to the UDC committee on May 22.

In part he wrote, “The Upper Delaware Council (UDC) requests a written update on the status of the leachate collection, water quality monitoring, and any remediation plans. Specifically, we seek to determine when the site was last visited and inspected, and whether any environmental samples were taken for analysis (i.e. leachate run-off, soils, groundwater). If so, which constituents were the samples analyzed for and what were the results of those analyses?”

He asked about DEC sampling of adjacent water wells, the DEC’s role in the engineering of the leachate containment system and the frequency of sampling since the escrow fund ran out.

When the escrow money ran out, the issue was given to the New York State Attorney General for investigation. Golod asked if “any findings have been released in the last five years since.”

He also asked for a copy of the “DEC approved closure plan….”

Golod concluded, “The UDC believes that allowing leachate to overflow due to lack of funds without a complete understanding of its contents is unacceptable.” Further leachate evaluation and tank pumping and disposal “may” be necessary.

“Failure to do so could potentially threaten neighboring groundwater and water courses, and therefore may qualify as an emergency situation, particularly due to the proximity to the federally-designated Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River.”

“We will await a response before moving forward with ‘next steps,’” Golod said later.

Narrowsburg, udc, landfill

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