Environment DEC
From the November 2008 issue
Pollution Being Reduced at Sites In and Near NYC
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has taken steps designed to tighten controls on odor-generating processes at the sewage-sludge pelletization plant owned by New York Organic Fertilizer Company (NYOFCo), located at Hunts Point in the Bronx. DEC issued an amended solid-waste permit that requires NYOFCo to install an air-pressure alarm to help keep odors from escaping the plant; undertake several maintenance measures to prevent odors; prevent excessive buildup of unprocessed sludge in the plant, and pay the costs for an independent "odor response monitor."
In addition, DEC soon will initiate a proposed modification to the solid-waste permit to require more specific odor monitoring and control measures. NYOFCo can agree to these new provisions or challenge them in an administrative proceeding.
Finally, as part of the renewal of the plant's air permit under the federal Clean Air Act, DEC intends to establish new conditions for air- pollution stack testing and air-pollution equipment maintenance. The proposed air-pollution permit renewal will be published for public review and comments this fall.
MGPs and Gas Storage Facilities
Foam is sprayed to keep noxious odors from spreading into the neighborhood at this Bay Shore clean-up site.
One year after dramatically expanding the number of contaminated, former utility sites in New York City and Long Island that are under state cleanup oversight, DEC successfully added 40 former manufactured-gas plants (MGP) and gas storage facilities to the state's remediation programs since 2007. Twenty-four of these now have work plans or site-investigation plans in place. They and other MGP-related sites were contaminated during the early 1800s to the mid-1900s when utility companies opened facilities around the state to convert coal and petroleum to a gas used for cooking and heating.
DEC has developed one of the most aggressive MGP cleanup initiatives in the country, with 247 sites across the state identified to date. Consolidated Edison (ConEd) and National Grid (formerly Keyspan) have identified and are working with DEC on 90 sites in New York City and Long Island. Investigations and cleanups are now complete at 10 of those sites.
The Sag Harbor Hortonsphere has since been removed in preparation for remediation work that will begin soon.
Large amounts of previously undetected liquid waste, known as coal tar, often leaked into soils beneath manufacturing and storage sites. In some cases, they developed into contaminated underground plumes, thousands of feet long. Lesser amounts of tar sometimes escaped from "gas holders," facilities where the gas was stored for local distribution. High-pressure, elevated spherical gas tanks known as "Hortonspheres" also were used to store gas. Although the Hortonspheres have not been identified as sources of significant MGP-related contamination, they are the subject of DEC-required investigations, along with other illuminating gas plants.
In 2007 and 2008, DEC and Keyspan entered into agreements requiring the cleanup of 29 MGP sites and 11 Hortonsphere/gas-illuminating plant sites in New York City and in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The agreements included compliance timetables, and National Grid has been moving ahead as scheduled since the agreements were reached.
