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 The conspiracy has become a full fledge cover-up - the politics of East Fishkill all the way through Pataki to Bush. If you have fallen behind with the story of the IBM Shenandoah Groundwater Contamination Site in East Fishkill New York here is a synopsis of the last forty years. 1. IBM opened a manufacturing facility on a six hundred acre site on Route 52 in East Fishkill in 1957. The deal was brokered by a local real estate firm. At the same time New York State was preparing to construct Interstate 84 with an exit to service the site. You really need to look at the owners of the property and the deals they negotiated to run eletric power lines and natural gas lines through the properties as well as selling some lands for the highway. It would make the Disney Orlando experience look like childs play. 2. IBM contracted with an employee to operate a chip tray cleaning facility, about a mile from the main plant. The location is just off Shenandoah Road on East Hook Cross Road. The property was owned by Louis Sartori, a local carpenter. It is now owned by his daughter Carlotta Sartori Heitmann. The IBM employee who operated the facility was Jack Manne. Jack Manne denies any responsibility for the contamination and does not even recall operating the facility according to an EPA interview. Manne still owns property in East Fishkill, some forty acres off Jackson Road, along side of I84. He lives on Park Avenue New York the poor man. 3. As recorded in EPA documentation, IBM had a habit of disposing of waste chemicals by dumping them around their properties rather than paying the cost of having a waste hauler remove the chemicals. In 1980, with the formation of the EPA, IBM was given an opportunity to disclose any and all hazardous waste sites they had created. Eighty eight locations throughout the United States were identified by IBM to the EPA. Fifty four were listed as Federal Superfund Sites. Included in this list are nineteen facilities in New York State including several in Poughkeepsie and East Fishkill. IBM howevr did not disclose the location of the 7 East Hook Cross Road chip tray cleaning facility even though IBM employees had supervised the dumping of an estimated 6000 gallons of toxic chemicals at the site. The beginning of the conspiracy. 4. In 1981 residents on the north end of Shenandoah Road, close to the IBM plant, discovered the chemical tetrachlorethene PCE coming from their private wells. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation DEC investigated but could not confirm the source of the pollution even though the IBM facility is across Lime Kiln Road from these houses. IBM denied any reponsibility for the contamination but paid for the installation of filters on five of thiry houses in the area. While testing for the contamination the DEC sampled private wells along Shenandoah Road and established the southern perimiter of the testing at Griffin Lane. which is now at the north end of the current superfund site. No contamination was found by the DEC however twenty years later the four wells on Shenandoah Road, between Griffin Lane and I-84, each tested greater than 150ppb of PCE. The DEC when requested could not find the records of the 1981 testing. How convenient since the EPA stated that these wells were contaminate around 1970. Coverup. Maybe either that or total lack of competency on the part of the DEC. 5. According to eye witnesses IBM employees, IBM employees had been dumping fiftyfive gallon drums of toxic chemicals into a swampy area on the southeast corner of the plant,between I-84 and Gate 5 for many years. Note the DEC has never found this dump site - at least that they admit to. A second site, a swampy area along Lime Kiln Road, between gates 3 and 5 was found to have been used as a dump site. Truck loads of this contaminated soil was removed in the 1980s and used to fill in property on both sides of route 52 near Schuler Road. When the dumping was discovered in 1988 Town of East Fishkill officals, the DEC, and the Dutchess county health department along with IBM downplayed the severity of the situation. Some of the contaminated soil was given as a gift by IBM to fill in property on Route 52 where a daycare center was constructed. If you are not aware of it dumps of contaminated soil from the IBM East Fishkill facility were found in the Wiccoppee Landfill as well as the Bailey's Landfill near the Taconic and I84. And these are the ones that were found. In 2001 more dumps of contaminated soil were discovered thiry miles away in a landfill in Amenia. Truely a coverup. 6. The six hundred acre Hudson Valley Research Park, purchased from IBM by New York State Governor Pataki in 1998, is so contaminated with toxic chemicals that the ground water cannot even be used for the current chip tray cleaning process within the facility. Needless to say the water is not fit to drink. So why did Pataki arrange to buy this known brownfield from IBM and take the property off the tax roles of East Fishkill. Perhaps it is the same reason a four lane bridge was built to replace the perfectly good two lane bridge over I84 at Lime Kiln Road. The thirty million dollar bridge replacement was to be the terminus of County IBM Route 11 which would have connected the IBM facility in Pougkeepsie with the IBM Facility in East Fishkill. Certain retired IBM managers who happened to be in local, county and state political positions arranged for the bridge building but were unable to have the IBM highway built. In 2002 these same officials with the help of Pataki, have arranged for a water pipe to carry 2 to 4 million gallons of Hudson River Water to the East Fishkill plant. While sold to the community as a water system for everyone along the route it was always intended for the sole use of IBM. The water can't be chlorornated since it is used in the chip making process and therefore cannot be used for any household purpose such as drinking or bathing. The cost to the taxpayer 46 million dollars. 23 million to increase the capacity of the Poughkeepsie water system and 23 million at current estimates to build the pipeline. Did we mention that the project to build County IBM Route 11 was put on the backburner, The project was not rejected by the county and can at any time be reinstituted and built at taxpayers expense. Also one might ask why the Governor's Annual Pollution Prevention award was given to the largest poluter in Dutchess County and the sixth worst pollutter in New York State? IBM East Fishkill releases as stack emmisions some 300,000 pounds on toxic chemicals annually of which 45,000 pounds is PCE. They also dump millions of gallons of waste into the Gildersleeve Creek a tributary of the Fishkill Creek. East Fishkill a great place to live - just do not drink the water and do not breathe the air. 7. In April of 2000 PCE contamination was discovered in four wells on Seymour Lane. The DEC and the NYS Department of Health blamed the contamination on the residents, even going so far as to indicated that it was leaching from the graves in the Bethel Baptist Church Cemetary! This is no joke. The DOH supervisor stated this after she found out that the people who operated a tree trimming business on Shenandoah Road did not use chemicals in their work. She also discovered that the closest Dry Cleaning establishment was five miles away and while IBM is just down the street and had already been indentified sine 1981 to have pollotted the area whit these chemicals she could not relate this to her investigation. She was not alone, the Director of the Dutchess County Environmental Management Commission questioned one resident about the contents of some empty five gallon latex driveway sealer cans which he kept around to use when weeding his gardens. They go a long way to protect IBM. Some six weeks later critical levels of contamination were found on Burbank Road requiring the DEC to request assistance from the Emergency Response Team of the EPA. Note the residents were not informed of the emergency for more than a week after it was known to State, County, and local officials. 8. What is next? In December 2002 the EPA discovered that the chemical TCE found in many of the wells of the IBM Shenandoah Contamination site and a breakdown product of the main contaminate PCE can be 65 times more lethal than originally determined. They have found that it will leach through the soil and into the foundation of the houses in the area. So much for quaility of life in East Fishkill. Thank you IBM. Thank you dedicated IBM employees who saved your employer a few bucks in recycle costs while destroying our neighborhood. 9. IBM was under contract with the EPA to have a workplan for the replacement community water system by 12-31-02. Guess the residents have been sold out. Again! Seems that since IBM did nothing and I mean nothing for the first six months of the one year contract period they were given a three month extension by the EPA. If you have a chance go to the Town Hall or the Library and try to find the IBM monthly reports on their progress. Even the librarians can't have no idea how to locate them. Additionally each of the twelve volumes in the library are in need of care. The looseleaf folders fall apart whenever you take them from the shelf. Think anyone realy cares? To make the point the EPA website presented the Toxic Release Inventory reports as a single report for the period 1988 until the current year - 1998. However when this thing broke in East Fishkill with IBM the EPA website dropped all history an now only provides limited reporting on air and water emmissions. Why. Big Blue does not want the black eye they deserve for what they have done. If anyone out in cyberspace can identify the employees of IBM East Fishkill responsible for the contamination and the past and current coverup of that activity please notify us at our e-mail address. The EPA has the names but has classified them as confidential business information and refuses to release them. Created by: SHENANDOAH WEBMASTER |