EPA partners with GE to clean up contaminated water at New York landfill site

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has signed an agreement with the General Electric Company (GE) and chemicals manufacturer SI Group to clean up the Dewey Loeffel Landfill site in New York, which contains contaminated ground water and liquid leaching.

As per the agreement, GE and SI will oversee the collection and removal of the contaminated liquid from the site, which has the potential to seep into several nearby drinking water wells..

The agreement also requires the companies to build a treatment plant adjacent to the landfill to address potential threats from the contaminated ground water and community concerns about trucking the contaminated liquid off-site.

EPA regional administrator Judith Enck said the agency has determined that treating the contaminated ground water and liquid at the site is an effective way to protect people’s drinking water wells while the EPA investigation of the site continues.

"The treatment system that will be constructed near the landfill will alleviate the impacts of the hundreds of truck trips needed to dispose of the waste off-site," Enck said.

From 1952 until 1968, the site was used for the disposal of an estimated 46,000 tonnes of waste materials generated by several Capital District companies.