Source: http://www.wwnytv.com, May 13, 2016
Ground contamination created by the old New York Air Brake decades ago will be cleaned up.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation made the announcement Friday.
The DEC said soils and sediment along the bank of Kelsey Creek at the North Watertown Cemetery will be removed.
The ground is contaminated with low levels of metals and PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, which cause cancer.
A contractor will remove the material as part of the cleanup of the former New York Air Brake Company, a state Superfund site.
The DEC said the soil will be cleaned so no restrictions on activities will be necessary.
The area will be restored to preserve the flood storage capacity of the affected portion of Kelsey Creek and to restore the vegetative communities and the land uses within the North Watertown Cemetery, said the DEC.
The agency said SPX Corporation has agreed to undertake this $1.5 million cleanup effort, which is expected to take approximately six months to complete.
The findings of a ten-year evaluation of the surface water, sediments and soil along Kelsey Creek, as reported in the Final Ten Year Review Off-Site Investigation Report dated September 12, 2014, identified the existence of PCB-contaminated soil and sediment in the vicinity of the North Watertown Cemetery.
The creek drained the landfill the Air Brake used.
In 1988, General Signal – which then owned Airbrake – admitted to dumping toxic chemicals in the landfill.
That triggered more than 10 years of testing and a state cleanup.
All along, DEC officials have said the site was properly cleaned up in the 1990s.
The contaminants had been deposited there from the New York Air Brake site when Kelsey Creek meandered through the cemetery in the past.
Over a period of many years, the stream was filled and relocated to its current location leaving the historic deposits of PCB and metal contamination covered in place, the DEC said.
Kelsey Creek at the North Watertown Cemetery is identified as Operable Unit 3 of the New York Air Brake Company State Superfund Site.
Operable Unit 1 includes the former buildings, storage areas, and landfills associated with the operations to manufacture air brakes for rail cars.
Operable Unit 2 is the on-site and off-site soil vapor intrusion investigation and mitigation.