Dan Lamb Speaks About TCE Pollution

10/29/2012 (Updated 11:09:41 PM)

A speaker for the Center for Public Environmental Oversight was in Binghamton today speaking about TCE pollution.

Joining him was Congressional Candidate Dan Lamb.  Some of the focal points of today's update on vapor intrusion investigation include finding better ways of notifying people and getting New York's standards up to date.

According to Lenny Siegel from Environmental Oversight, Endicott was one of the largest vapor intrusion response sights in the United States, and that the way Endicott handled the situation was appropriate.  They used a blanket approach, so instead of testing every home they installed mitigation units to protect people.

"Potential buyers know that there's contamination coming into your house from under ground caused by IBM by some other polluter there's an immediate and catastrophic impact on your property values. But what we found where I come from it's the best way to sustain property value is to go in find the problem and clean it up," said Siegel.

"We've come a long way in the last ten years, when we first discovered the extent to this contamination.  A 300 acre plume under the Village of Endicott.  There was a lot of fear, a lot concern at that time, now the homes are being re-mediated they have the fan systems ventilating the homes," said Lamb.

According to Siegel some studies have shown TCE exposure to pregnant women can cause cardiac birth defects.