Source: http://www.timesunion.com, October 18, 2017
By: Brian Nearing
The state is moving ahead with plans to clean up the badly polluted site of a long-abandoned dry-cleaning business in Colonie.
Plans for the former Damshire Cleaners, at 1205 Central Ave., call for removal of potentially cancer-causing dry cleaning chemicals from underground that are moving toward nearby homes and businesses, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
DEC has found a low risk of toxic vapors rising out of the ground in nearby properties.
That would be done through a process called “air sparging,” in which air would be pumped into an underground plume of pollution that is moving toward neighbors. As the air rises through the ground, it would absorb toxic chemicals as part of the vapors, which could then be vacuumed up at the surface for safe disposal, according to DEC.
Property owner Ninamarie Crisafulli said Wednesday that she had not been informed of the state’s plan, although she agreed in 2013 to allow DEC to have access to the property.
DEC intends to pursue Crisafulli to pay for the cleanup, which the agency estimates could cost $641,000. Otherwise, the projected would be funded by the state Superfund program, with work expected to begin in 2019.
On Wednesday, Crisafulli said she cannot afford to pay for the work, noting the pollution was present long before she bought the property in 2007 from the dry cleaner’s landlord.  Crisafulli added that the landlord never revealed the potential pollution issue before the sale, which also was not part of the property record and title search done by her lawyer.
She said she has asked the state Attorney General’s office to absolve her of legal liability for the problem. Under state law, the current owner of a polluted property is liable for pollution, even if the new owner had nothing to do with creating the problem.
Damshire closed in 2001 when owner Paul Dambrowski went bankrupt after a $775,000 DEC fine for repeated pollution violations that stemmed from antiquated machinery leaking dry-cleaning solvents. It is these chemicals, which are likely carcinogenic, that DEC believes is causing the plume.
Crisafulli said she knew nothing of that history when she bought the property in 2007 from the late Charles Yund, who was Dambrowski’s landlord. In 2001, the state obtained judgment against Damshire for the unpaid environmental fine. That judgment remains unpaid, according to the state Attorney General’s office.
In 2015, DEC determined that the property was polluted with unsafe levels of a dry-cleaning solvent — tetrachloroethene (PCE) — and its byproducts, trichloroethene (TCE) and dichloroethene (DCE) in groundwater and soil at the former cleaners, according to a DEC notice issued this week.
Exposure to PCE likely increases cancer risk, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Primary effects from chronic, long-term inhalation exposure are neurological, including impaired cognitive and motor neurobehavioral performance, according to EPA.
PCE exposure may also “cause adverse effects in the kidney, liver, immune system and hematologic system, and on development and reproduction,” according to the EPA.