A 57-acre site along the Mohawk River near Schenectady, N.Y., is the future home of a new casino, hotels, apartments and shopping centers. Renderings of the project include elegant glass buildings and plush green lawns. Unfortunately, the site’s history of manufacturing train parts and turbine engines dating back to the 1800s has brought the construction project to a halt. The site is now in the middle of a multi-million dollar cleanup to remove a number of harmful substances, including arsenic, mercury, lead, petroleum byproducts and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In Niskayuna, N.Y., a landfill on GE Global Research’s 525-acre campus contains more than 112 tons of hazardous waste, including VOCs. From the 1940s to the 1970s, metals, ash residue and VOCs were dumped in the landfill. State environmental agencies are recommending monitoring and excavating the site to prevent any further contamination.
