NY Friends of Clean Air and Water: Help Needed in Endicott and Downstream (Susquehanna): DEADLINE FRIDAY!

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Thank you for your interest in protecting the water quality of Endicott and downstream!

Concerned Citizens of Endicott is a very small group, and we are operating without any NGO support. We have a small team of about a dozen people who have been very active, and another 10 or so informants and helpers, who for various reasons, cannot go on the record.

Concerned Citizens of Endicott have identified major concerns with the i3 Electronics SPDES permit, which is essentially a license to pollute.

Major concerns:

Transparency: A new business was created in 2011: commercial waste processing in downtown Endicott, but the DEC kept it a secret until 2013, when some citizens started smelling something foul (both figuratively and literally) and started making FOILs.
The operator created this new business with unique and substantial community impacts, clearly within the purview of local land-use authority (village, town, and county planning/zoning), but also kept it a secret.
Potential threats to water quality and quantity in the Village of Endicott and downstream.
Essentially no DEC oversight. Everything is "self monitoring" and "self reporting". No checking by NYS DEC.
NO fines, and NO violations from DEC, despite numerous spills
Truck traffic = ~250 trucks/week, trucks lack HAZMAT placards,
foul, noxious odors
potential health impacts
Numerous Process Questions, including NO NOTICE from NYSDEC for the 2011 Pilot, NO SEQR review, NO Environmental Impact Statement, despite major changes in the permit conditions,
and apparently NO CONTROLS: The operator has accepted numerous waste streams which are OUTSIDE the scope of their original SPDES permit (processing wastes relating to manufacture of circuit boards), and also outside the scope of the 2011 Pilot.

Here's how to make a comment to NYS DEC in re: i3 Electronics SPDES permit, which is a license to pollute the Susquehanna River in Endicott. Deadline is Friday, 9/30, 5pm!!!

SAMPLE LETTER

TO: DEPPermitting@dec.ny.gov
CC: Teresa.Diehsner@dec.ny.gov
CC: ConcernedCitizensOfEndicott@gmail.com

Subject: Comment on SPDES NY#0003808

My name is --------------. I live in --------------.

I care about the Susquehanna River because -----------.
(ideas: fishing, recreation, people living downstream, clean drinking water, etc)

With regards to the i3 Electronics SPDES permit, I am concerned about ------------.
(ideas: truck traffic, water quality impacts, odor, hazardous waste concerns, trucks should have Hazmat markings, flooding concerns, insufficient testing protocol, "self-monitoring program", no DEC oversight, aging facility, storm sewer use/leakage into old village dump site, health of the fish/river, human health impacts, etc)

I therefore join with Concerned Citizens of Endicott (CCoE) and respectfully request:

1: NYS DEC reclassify this permit modification as a Type-I SEQR action, perform a full environmental review, including an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

2: NYS DEC perform an audit of this facility over the last 10 years; identify and list all permit violations, leaks and spills, and the operators response; the operator's character and financial ability to maintain the facility; and investigate the operator for their acceptance of waste streams which are both

a) outside what is contemplated in their existing permit (manufacture of circuit boards) and/or

b) outside the scope of the 2011 Pilot (including Reverse Osmosis Concentrate, Pharmaceutical Waste, Sanitary Sewage, Medical Waste, and/or waste from the Oil and Gas industry).

3: Issue a moratorium on the importation of all offsite waste streams until

a) the EIS is completed

b) An integrity study of the plant is performed, including assessment of secondary containment, condition of plants, valves, pipes, etc.

c) An integrity study of the storm sewer network is completed, with particular focus to flooding issues, and possible leakage at the site of the old village dump,

d) and until the DEC gets notification from the Village of Endicott, Town of Union, and Broome County Zoning and Planning boards that this new business activity is a permitted use, or show that a Special Use Permit has been obtained.

Best Regards,
(your name)