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EPA Funds Help Town of Fort Edward Fight Local Pollution

Release Date: 10/10/2007
Contact Information: Kris Skopeck (518) 747-4389, [email protected]

(New York, N.Y.) Efforts by the Town of Fort Edward to reduce pollution got a boost today as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg presented Fort Edward’s town officials and members of its Citizen Advisory Committee with a $90,000 Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) grant. EPA’s CARE program supports communities in creating and using collaborative partnerships to identify sources of pollution and reduce human exposure.

“This organization has a solid history of ensuring that the community’s needs have been front and center throughout its interactions with EPA on the Hudson River PCBs Superfund project,” said Steinberg. “Now they plan to expand their scope to look at a broad range of environmental challenges.”

The town created the Fort Edward Citizen’s Advisory Committee to represent local needs related to the Hudson River PCBs Superfund project. Now, the group will form a CARE subcommittee and expand its membership to include more residents, businesses and institutions. The subcommittee will use the EPA funding to identify and prioritize environmental issues facing the former industrial stronghold, which now has a shrinking manufacturing sector surrounded by agricultural lands and working farms. The grant will also be used to form collaborative partnerships with other entities in order to spread resources most effectively. EPA will provide technical assistance and support throughout the process, but it is wholly up to the community partners to decide which environmental issues are most critical and develop partnerships with the aim of improving overall environmental health.

Issues that the subcommittee with consider include:

• Contaminated ground water emanating from three municipal landfills and other sources.
• Ground and surface water impacts from animal waste and agricultural use of pesticides.
• Emerging environmental problems as result of planned transportation projects in the area.