Dioxin Dorms Blog :: SUNY New Paltz

ONE OF the ways I dug out the story of the SUNY New Paltz PCBs and dioxin situation was by using the Freedom of Information Law, known to its fans, devotees and detractors as the FOIL. For years, I filed these requests with many different state and federal agencies, received permission to see and copy documents, and gradually over many seasons put the story of what happened together.

This past June, I put in my first FOIL request to SUNY New Paltz in some years, after hearing that workers were quietly removing dust from radiators in the contaminated dormitories. This occurred after I included that very dust on top of a list of places that needed to be sampled.

I also learned that the college was doing the work without protective clothing or respirators. So I requested data on the radiator cleanup project in an effort to document on paper what I could — and while I was at it, asked for past records of heat system and exhaust vent system testing. Heat and exhaust vent systems were two of the primary ways that toxins spread through the dormitories, according to state records that I had previously obtained under the FOIL.

In particular, I requested “Any and all records of environmental samples and analysis for PCBs or dioxins/furans taken from the heating units of Bliss Residence Hall taken from 2004 through 2007.”

In a reply from Shelly A. Wright dated July 30, 2007, [that link is a PDF of the document] I was told that no such records exist. Ms. Wright is the college’s records access officer, who stands between the public and any documents that may exist. Every state agency must have one.

I also requested “Identical records that may exist for Capen, Gage and Scudder residence halls for the identical time frame,” and again was told that no such records exist.

This indicates that in the three years prior to the dust removal project, no tests had been run on the heating units. In other words, the janitors had no idea what they were handling. I chose from 2004 forward because that was the date of my last round of independent testing that included radiators and vents in two buildings — and I wanted to see if any project to confirm my findings had been initiated, or confirm that it had not.

And I requested, “Records and results of any and all PCB, dioxin/furan testing or sampling done on the exhaust ventilation ducts in Bliss, Capen, Gage or Scudder residence hall between January 1995 and June 2007.”

I chose 1995 as my starting point because I published my first articles about my earlier round of independent testing the year before, and wanted to see if the college had made any effort to follow up that work.

I got my answer: no such records exist.

As for the dust removal from the heating units (the existence of which project I confirmed with the New York State Department of Health in a conversation the first week of July), I got my answer: no environmental precautions were taken, and nearly no records were kept.

This helps confirm that the “safety” of the New Paltz dorms is largely a matter of faith and belief, not a matter of science. If my kid were in one of those buildings, that would not be enough.

But more disturbing is the issue of whether removing the dust from the heating units was an effort to destroy the evidence of contamination, should I happen to go in one night and take more samples on my own, or should students win the right to have an environmental contractor take the samples more legitimately. We don’t have an answer for that, but at this point, can we afford to give the college the benefit of the doubt?

And how, I wonder, does a campus get the privilege of avoiding federal regulations on the handling of PCB wastes by having janitors handle potentially contamianted dust without proper protection, and putting it in the normal solid waste stream rather than treating it as toxic waste?

These and other questions have made the dioxin and PCB situation at New Paltz what it is. The college has in the past faced substantial fines for its misdeeds with toxins.

You will hear over and over again how many test results exist — but what you will never hear from an administrator is where data does not exist, and that is the essence of the crisis.

Картиниикони

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