The anatomy of a perfect cover-up, people, this is how easy public health protection is swept away and kept away from a people who don’t know or don’t care about the law and how it is supposed to safeguard them.
Take heed – our polluted present may be your contaminated future, and once polluted or contaminated, groundwater can stay that way for longer then you are able to go without water:
22 April 2017
New York State Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin
LOB 533
Albany, NY 12248
RE: Hoosick Falls; who did know what, and when did they know it?
Dear Mr. Assemblyman McLaughlin:
With respect to the rhetorical question of who knew what and when in connection with the Hoosick Falls PFOA debacle which was raised by yourself in your recent political flier sent out at taxpayer expense to the residents of Rensselaer County wherein you tout all that you say you have done for the people of Rensselaer County in terms of that fiasco, including allegedly questioning how the Department of Health handled the water crisis, which was poorly; and allegedly demanding an investigation into how the governor’s administration dealt with the situation, when the governor’s administration had no role to play in the matter, it having absolutely no expertise or qualifications when it comes to protecting public health in New York, as well as being a demand you as a legislative branch member had no Constitutional authority or jurisdiction to make in the first place, since it is the voters and not yourself who hold the Governor to account; and finally, allegedly holding state officials accountable for their handling of the water crisis at bi-partisan legislative hearings which seemed to hold no one in a position of responsibility accountable in any way, since they are all still there where they were before, unlike Flint, Michigan, where criminal charges have been filed, as they should have been here, the answer to your rhetorical question is that pretty much everybody in a circle from New York City to Montreal and Boston to Buffalo, or even Chicago and points west who was alive back in 1988 knew, and that would include then-New York State Governor Mario Cuomo, then-New York State Health Commissioner Dr. David Axelrod, the New York State Education Department Office of Professional Discipline, the New York State Attorney General, the Rensselaer County District Attorney, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, the New York State Environmental Conservation Commissioner, the New York Times, the Albany Times Union, the Troy Record, the Schenectady Gazette, New York State Senator Joseph Bruno, New York State Assemblyman Pat Casale, Rensselaer County Legislator Marilyn Douglas, Rensselaer County Legislator Tommy Cholakis, Rensselaer County Legislator Daniel Ashley, Judith Enck, and the people of the village of Hoosick Falls, and the town of Hoosick Falls, to name some of the more pertinent and relevant ones.
They all knew, Mr. Assemblyman, and rhetorically speaking, how could they not have known, when it was common news all along?
More specifically, how was it at all possible that the people of Hoosick Falls in 1988, the parents and grandparents of those children ingesting the PFOA, did not know they were being stripped of public health protection as well as being denied and deprived of the honest services of an associate public health engineer by Rensselaer County, when it was they themselves who clamored in a televised public hearing held in Hoosick Falls at the County Building by Rensselaer County legislators Marilyn Douglas, Daniel Ashley and Tommy Cholakis to have the Rensselaer County associate public health engineer kept out of the town of Hoosick and the village of Hoosick Falls?
In that very real sense, Mr. Assemblyman, it is those people themselves who share a great deal of the responsibility here, for it was they who set the wheels in motion by keeping the Public Health Law and sanitary code out of Hoosick Falls under a distinct threat of violence which was memorialized as a part of the public record in connection with this matter in an October 12, 1988 memorandum from then-Rensselaer County Public Health Director Kenneth Van Praag to then-Rensselaer County Executive John L. Buono, RE: Director of Environmental Health Paul Plante, where Mr. Van Praag informed Mr. Buono thusly:
As you are aware, the Rensselaer County Department of Health has been endeavoring to do what it is required to do in terms of regulating and enforcing the wide range of state and county sanitary codes designed to protect the public’s health and safety.
It should be noted that the New York State Health Department has commended and upheld the judgments exercised by the Director while dealing with the difficult regulatory functions relating to this program.
The stress, however, on this department and upon its director, Paul Plante, has reached a point where I believe that the orderly administration of the division is seriously impacted given the highly charged atmosphere which exists today.
Of greater concern, however, is the effect of this atmosphere on Paul Plante personally.
I am concerned for Paul Plante’s health, both physically and emotionally, and I cannot help but feel that there has to be some effect on his everyday activities as they relate to his family and his personal life.
There are several situations which have contributed to this perception:
1. The recently concluded legislative hearings which appeared to be conducted in a highly charged atmosphere and carefully orchestrated so as not to allow input from the Director of Environmental Health.
2. Charges by Mrs. Douglas characterizing health department personnel in conducting their responsibilities reminiscent of that which took place in “Nazi”-like Germany.
3, The “HANGING IN EFFIGY” of Paul Plante, which appeared on the front pages of the Times Record, and which occurred outside the East Greenbush Town Hall at a time when the legislature held its hearing at that location.
It is my understanding that there were no comments from any of the elected officials decrying that type behavior.
4. Similar actions at the hearing in Hoosick Falls.
Again, absent any comment by the Legislature, one cannot help but feel that they condone that type of activity.
end quotes
And yes, Mr. Assemblyman, not only did they condone that overt tone of menace and threat, they actively encouraged it, especially in Hoosick Falls, where in front of several witnesses, I was told I would be lucky if I got out of Hoosick Falls alive, and if I was smart, I would never come back.
So there is some more responsibility apportioned where it should be, although none of those people ever were held to account, nor would they ever be.
And how could Governor Mario Cuomo and Health Commissioner Dr. David Axelrod not know on January 10, 1988 that there were some very serious problems in Rensselaer County, and by extension Hoosick Falls, with regard to public health protection, when the Albany, New York Times Union newspaper, the newspaper of record for New York’s capital of Albany, ran a story by Laurie Anderson entitled “Developers see a zealot in new county health officer” wherein was stated as follows:
Plante is the focus of a political controversy fueled by the Democratic majority in the county legislature, including chairman Joseph Manupella, who said he’s concerned many developers may not be getting a fair shake and may start looking outside the county.
Plante contended that, unlike some of his predecessors, he knows the regulations well and will not bend the state health laws.
He contended some developers are upset because they are no longer “free and loose” to do what they want in Rensselaer County.
Plante is involved in several fierce feuds with developers, the most public of which involves Anderson, who is attempting to rally the county legislature, Buono, and the state Health Department to make Plante more compliant.
end quotes
Now, Mr. Assemblyman, as a legislator, you are a wordsmith, so as you read that last sentence, which was right there in the Albany Times Union for all to see, starting with Dr. Axelrod, as I personally made sure his office had a copy, how many different meanings for the phrase “make Plante more complaint” come to mind?
How many different ways can that sentence be interpreted given that my job duties as Rensselaer County Associate Public Health Engineer included as follows:
This is a professional position involving responsibility for the planning, direction and supervision of the environmental health program of the Rensselaer County Department of Health.
The work involves providing advice and guidance to local officials and the general public in regard to environmental health problems and the measures necessary for improvements and compliance with legal requirements.
An incumbent provides leadership in the promotion of public health through application of environmental practices.
In addition, an employee is responsible for the enforcement of the provisions of the Public Health Law and local and State Sanitary Codes in relation to environmental matters.
(emphasis added)
Isn’t the only interpretation possible that this developer was attempting to rally the state Health Department to make me turn my back and look the other way just as the state Health Department itself was doing?
In the light of official findings of Dr. Axelrod himself in March of 1989 that Rensselaer County did not follow its own code and policy guidance , and the administration of Rensselaer County public health programs had been conducted with inadequate written procedures and policies, and the rules and regulations regarding the practice of engineering appear to have been violated, resulting in a loss of public health protection for the people of Rensselaer County, and the State Department of Health, which has broad supervisory responsibility over local health units, did not provide appropriate oversight to identify the deficiencies which had occurred, so that, clearly in the words of Dr. Axelrod himself in 1989, based on an extensive and intensive investigation of the Rensselaer County Department of Health conducted by myself as a New York State licensed professional engineer, since 1978, eleven (11) years earlier, the New York State Department of Health “failed to identify the extent to which the County programs were deviating from its own standards,” can there be any doubt whatsoever that in January of 1988, this developer Anderson was attempting to rally the New York State Department of Health to make me turn my back on my duties in Rensselaer County, and Hoosick Falls, as well?
And that answer, Mr. Assemblyman, is no, there can be no doubt, just as there is no doubt today that after 1989, that equation never changed, and hence, as a direct result of years of depraved indifference and a callous disregard for human life coupled with intentional negligence and the intentional denial of honest services by the State of New York and County of Rensselaer going back in an unbroken chain to 1978, we have the Hoosick Falls PFOA debacle, just as we have groundwater problems in Poestenkill, in the vicinity of the Algonquin Middle School, near the site of the closed garbage transfer station where DEC was allowing the dumping of cleaning fluids and medical waste and dirty diapers and tons of garbage on bare ground over porous shale rock, and the Storonske Cooperage scandal in Schodack, where the Rensselaer County Department of Health and the DEC were turning their backs while a pregnant woman in that vicinity was drinking water laced with several chemical contaminants; and who knows what else, starting with the Rensselaer County Department of Health, the New York State Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation whose regulatory insufficiency and turning its back is directly responsible for the PCB’s it allowed GE to dump in the upper Hudson River with its blessing, lest it be perceived as being not business friendly.
As to harmful substances being introduced to the environment in Hoosick Falls coupled with the need to be “business-friendly,” to see that all in action, all we need do is turn to the New York Times article “A COPPER SPILL KILLS THOUSANDS OF FISH UPSTATE” by Josh Barbanel, Special to the New York Times, published July 27, 1983, where we find as follows:
HOOSICK FALLS, N.Y., July 26— A copper compound of mysterious origin spilled into the Hoosic River here over the weekend and killed as many as 100,000 fish, environmental officials said today.
Along six miles of river bank, white suckers and minnows and brown and rainbow trout rotted in the sun as environmental officials searched for clues to identify the polluter.
”It killed everything, there is nothing living there,” said Richard Moses, a truck farmer who lives next to the river and first reported the mishap at dawn on Saturday.
”I could see the water was a blueish green color and I looked on the bank and there were fish dead or in the process of dying.”
The fish kill extended from the Shop Bridge in Hoosick Falls, an aging industrial village of 6,000 about 30 miles northeast of Albany, down a winding course to the Eagle Bridge six miles to the north.
As environmental officials took water samples at industrial sites along the river today, they discovered a second spill – one of greenish fluid – flowing into the river.
”There aren’t any fish left to kill,” said John McLean, an environmental conservation officer.
Environmental officials found a high concentration of copper in water samples taken shortly after the first dead fish were found.
Over the weekend the officials issued recommendations that people not bathe in the river, nor eat the dead fish.
However, they said copper posed no danger to drinking water and was quickly diluted in the fast-flowing river.
Donald Bogardus, the Mayor of Hoosick Falls, said: ”The river has been quite polluted for some years.”
The source of the copper spill remained unsolved.
Officials worked on the theory that it originated at an Oak Mitsui Inc. plant in Hoosick Falls.
The plant, a joint venture of Oak Industries and a Japanese company – Mitsui Mining and Smelting – manufactures coppercoated circuit boards for the electronic industry.
Late in the day, by using a red dye, officials determined that the second spill came from a village sewage-treatment plant that had malfunctioned and was disgorging raw sewage into the river.
The officials said it was possible that the copper compound had been dumped into the sewer system, rather than into the Mitsui treatment system.
Mr. McLean said the company was checking to see if it had a ”bad employee.”
Oak Industries is the largest employer in Hoosick Falls, with 600 employees at eight plants.
It was a major factor in a revival that has rejuvenated the village after decades of decline.
”If Oak goes out of Hoosick Falls, there will be nothing left,” said Ronald Burch, one of 140 employees at Oak Mitsui.
end quotes
That last sentence explains it all, of course, why all the back-turning by state and county officials was going on so long – if we enforce the regulations here, the industries will simply move somewhere else where there are no regulations.
And that is all the way back in 1983.
And all of this intentional negligence and depraved indifference and callous disregard for human health and intentional denial of honest services, which at that time had been going on since the 1970s has continued in an unbroken chain since then, which contention is backed up by literally over a thousand pages of unrefuted sworn testimony in the files of the New York State Department of Health, the New York State Attorney General, itself very adept at covering up negligence by the State of New York through the use of intimidation, coercion, fraud and deliberate false statements, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Rensselaer County Clerk.
So that should serve to give you a much better understanding of who really did know what and when they knew about it, and what they should have done with the knowledge if they were responsible public officials, as opposed to tractable and compliant public officials who know how to turn the blind eye to preserve their jobs and their pensions.
Respectfully,
Paul R. Plante, NYSPE
CC: New York State Senator Kathleen A. Marchione
Room 917, LOB
Albany, NY 12247
