A critical part of the pollution of New York’s waterways has been overlooked for years, according to a new report by River Watch New York.
The organization released a report focused on leachate, a toxic liquid made of contaminants that forms when rainfall builds up in landfills. Leachate contains a variety of materials that include plastics, pesticides, toxic metals, and PFAS, better known as forever chemicals. The study found that a loophole in how leachate is treated is allowing millions of gallons of the toxic liquid to get dumped in New York’s waterways every year.
Report author Jen Epstein says that includes rivers and lakes that serve as drinking water sources.
“What you have is that this leachate is being collected in order to protect waters around landfills, but then it’s being disposed of in sewage plants that are dumping it back into waters elsewhere,” she said.
This report mentions four waterways that it says received an estimated 80% of the state’s leachate. They include Lake Ontario with 87.5 million gallons per year, the Hudson River with 73.2 million gallons per year, the Niagara River with 61.2 million gallons per year and the Mohawk River with 49.3 million gallons per year.
“You’ll see in there some case studies of chemicals that have been banned or phased out of use because these risks are known,” Epstein said. “But they’re still showing up in this leachate.”
River Watch Executive Director Rebecca Martin is pushing the state Department of Environmental Conservation to do more with their ongoing proposal to update regulations and ensure better treatment and disposal of leachates.
“The regulation is not written in a way that addresses the problem holistically,” she said. “Exempting inactive landfills that are collecting leachate is a case in point, and that really has to change”
Public comment on that DEC proposal to address and help stop contaminants from making their way into waterways is open until Sept. 9.