[CPEO-BIF] Explaining vapor intrusion differences in NY

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

State health official explains cleanup rules

East Fishkill installation decision was matter of cost, group is told

BY TOM WILBER
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (NY)

ENDICOTT -- It's cheaper to install ventilation systems to keep
subterranean pollution from entering homes than to monitor air inside
them, a state health official told a community group Tuesday. 

That's why the federal government is installing systems to rid East
Fishkill homes from traces of the same type of pollution being monitored
in buildings in Endicott. 

"It's for cost reasons, not public health reasons," said Gary Litwin,
director of the state Department of Health's Bureau of Environmental
Exposure Investigation. "They don't want to be there year after year
monitoring." 

Litwin addressed about two dozen community and environmental advocates
at the meeting in Endicott on Tuesday evening. He was responding to
questions about why the federal Environmental Protection Agency, in
charge of addressing pollution from trichloroethylene (TCE) in East
Fishkill, is installing systems when it detects any amount of the
solvent entering buildings. In Endicott, state guidelines allow up to 5
micrograms of TCE per cubic meter of air. 

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.pressconnects.com/today/news/stories/ne021605s148668.shtml


-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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