Elmira Star-Gazette
- Southport resident Joann Siedman has documents showing contaminants from a former industrial site have been seeping into her neighborhood.
- State environmental officials confirm lingering pollutants from the nearby Elmira High School property have leached into Coldbrook Creek and spread downstream.
- Environmental consultant Walter Hang said documented levels of toxins are shockingly high and wrote a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul demanding immediate state action to clean up the area.
Joann Siedman has lived in the same house in the Town of Southport for 25 years, and for much of that time, she’s been aware of potential pollution issues in her residential neighborhood.
Siedman’s property on Raecrest Circle is bordered by a narrow stream known as Coldbrook Creek. The creek also flows past Elmira High School, which sits on a former longtime industrial site where lingering toxic chemicals have been well documented.
Siedman has even gotten letters from consultants who worked on the Elmira High School cleanup advising her not to let children or pets play in or near the creek, and to limit exposure to the soil in that area due to the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other contaminants.
While state agencies say the Coldbrook Creek investigation is still active, Siedman said nothing has ever been done to remediate her property or those of dozens of nearby residents, and when she saw a recent Star-Gazette story about another former industrial site in the Town of Big Flats, she decided maybe it was time to speak louder.
“I just want answers — with action,” Siedman said. “I’m getting nothing. I’ve known all along we had issues.”
A longstanding concern over industrial contamination
Siedman has evidence to back up her worries over exposure to dangerous pollutants, including letters from Geosyntec Consultants, a Minnesota-based firm that worked with Unisys — the successor to Remington Rand, one of the last major industrial users of the site — in conjunction with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health.
In addition, Siedman’s longtime partner contracted colon cancer, and the couple had to euthanize one of their dogs after it developed pancreatic cancer.
While Siedman can’t say for sure the cancers were caused by lingering contamination, she believes there’s no doubt pollutants from the former industrial site have migrated into her neighborhood via Coldbrook Creek.
“Concentrations of PCBs and some metals (cadmium, chromium, copper and nickel) were detected at concentrations that exceeded the residential SCO (soil cleanup objectives) in soil collected from zero to 2 inches below the ground surface,” Geosyntec Consultants wrote in a letter to Siedman dated June 25, 2020.
“All parties are committed to working cooperatively to ensure the area is properly evaluated and that any necessary cleanup measures are taken,” the letter stated.
Despite that assurance, Siedman said no cleanup has ever taken place.
Siedman said DEC even advised her not to remove two trees that had fallen on her property, and instead sent people in hazmat suits to remove them.
“I want to know why my property has never been cleaned up by the corporate polluters that accepted responsibility for contaminating it,” Siedman said. “It is outrageous that they get away with this while my family’s health is threatened.”
Southport resident gets support in battle over pollution concerns
After reading about a coalition of Big Flats residents and business owners who are pushing for the state to address fears over lingering contamination at the former Agway fertilizer plant, Siedman reached out to environmental consultant Walter Hang, who is also working with the Big Flats group.
Hang, who founded Ithaca-based Toxics Targeting and now runs Environmental Health Research Group, said he was shocked when he looked at the level of contaminants documented when testing was done on Siedman’s property.
“We’ve never had a situation like this where there were high levels of contamination and zero cleanup. It’s mind-boggling,” he said. “We don’t know how big the problem is.
“DEC has been sitting on this information for years and years. There are extraordinarily high levels of toxins,” Hang said. “PCBs, cadmium, chromium at almost four times the allowable amount. It’s all got to go.”
Based on documents in Siedman’s possession, Hang said there are 32 properties in her neighborhood that were included in an “overbank floodplain soil sampling” investigation along Coldbrook Creek, and that excessive levels of pollutants were detected on at least four of those parcels.
Chemung County official who lives in affected neighborhood supports investigation
One of Siedman’s neighbors is Chemung County legislator Rodney Strange, who lives next door to her Raecrest Circle property.
Strange, who has lived in that neighborhood his entire life, said he is well aware of contamination concerns, adding testing on his property a few years ago indicated the level of toxins was low and no remediation was needed.
But Strange said that wasn’t always the case.
“We definitely had a much higher level back in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s when the creek would overflow onto our property. My dad used to plant a garden on that exact property that they tested and was flooded repeatedly,” he said.
“I can’t prove anything, but five members of my immediate family developed cancer starting in the early ’80s and they all ate vegetables off that property for many years,” Strange said.
Even though the levels of toxic chemicals on his property are now low, Strange believes it’s very likely Siedman and other neighbors could still have elevated levels. That possibility needs to be investigated, Strange said.
“I believe that in places like Joann’s they should do a cleanup if the levels are elevated. The residents need to have confidence that there is no toxic waste on their property,” he said. “This is the responsibility of the DEC to make right. This has gone on for way to long and it needs to be remedied now.”
Extensive testing conducted Notre Dame High School
Coldbrook Creek also flows past Notre Dame High School, but so far, school officials say their campus hasn’t been affected by contamination that may have seeped into nearby residential neighborhoods.
“We have DEC come every year. They do extensive testing,” said Notre Dame Chief Financial Officer Dave Agan. “We haven’t had any negative results.”
Notre Dame, which serves students in grades 7 through 12, has a student population of about 240.
“We try to keep our kids as safe as possible so we’re proactive about it,” Agan said.
Click here to read a DEC fact sheet about the Elmira High School property, including the impact of lingering contamination on Coldbrook Creek.
State agencies say they are working on solutions
While Siedman and others feel state agencies haven’t done anything to address concerns over industrial contamination being spread by Coldbrook Creek, DEC argues that’s not the case.
For the last several years, DEC and the state Department of Health have been overseeing an investigation into contamination issues by the responsible party (Unisys) and presented findings to property owners in the affected areas.
DEC also acknowledged claims Siedman made about the fallen trees and said that circumstance was handled quickly and properly.
“In response, two trees were removed, and subsurface soil samples were collected and analyzed for COPCs (compounds of potential concern) and compared to Residential Soil Clean-up Objectives,” the agency said in a statement. “Results exceeded residential SCOs for metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Results were provided to the homeowner.”
To prevent exposure to those toxins, DEC staff placed a demarcation layer consisting of geotextile fabric at the bottom of the root ball area prior to restoration. The soil exposed by the downed trees is no longer accessible and does not present a human health concern, the agency said.
The investigation into contamination along Coldbrook Creek is ongoing and will eventually result in remediation of the problem, DEC said.
In the meantime, DEC requested an Interim Site Management Plan (ISMP) to manage all areas of the Off-site Coldbrook Creek Remedial Investigation that contain exceedances of the applicable Soil Cleanup Objectives.
“The ISMP will contain provisions such as periodic inspection protocols and an excavation work plan to ensure that the areas are being appropriately inspected and managed,” the DEC statement said. “Once the investigation is complete, DEC will evaluate cleanup alternatives and implement a cleanup program for the creek and impacted areas adjacent to the creek.”
The state Health Department has also been monitoring the situation and making sure residents know what precautions to take to limit exposure to toxins.
It will ultimately be up to the responsible party to make sure contamination is properly cleaned up, the Health Department said.
The Unisys Corporation is responsible for helping property owners manage any contamination that may be present, and they are currently evaluating longer-term actions to manage and remediate site-related contamination in Coldbrook Creek and the adjacent flood plain,” an agency spokesperson said.More What’s next for Agway? Citizen coalition renews push for cleanup of Big Flats factory siteMore: Is the legacy of TCE pollution leading to Parkinson’s in Ithaca, other NY communities?
Where the Southport contamination issue goes from here
While DEC and the Health Department await more test results, Hang is going right to the top.
As he did with the Big Flats Agway situation, Hang wrote a scathing letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, demanding she direct the agencies to immediately address contamination issues along Coldbrook Creek, calling the levels of toxins detected to be “stunningly high,” and stating the data should have set off immediate alarms.
For her part, Siedman is not relieved to hear the state is still working on the contamination issue.
She’s angry nothing was done sooner.
“This should have been done when the pollution problems were first discovered,” she said. “I can’t believe that everything I worked for my whole life is threatened by Gov. Hochul’s refusal to bring polluters to justice. Even worse, many of my friends and neighbors face the same terrible situation.”
