This week ended the 60-day comment period for the EPA's proposal to designate the Dewey Loeffel Landfill as a federal Superfund site. According to The Troy Record, the vast majority of comments were strongly in support of adding the contaminated Rensselaer County site to the Superfund's National Priorities list. Lawmakers, residents and environmental advocates have been working towards securing federal Superfund resources and assistance the site for several years. The Dewey Loeffel landfill was used as a waste oil dump for 16 years.

The state ordered General Electric, the landfill's biggest customer, to cap the site in 1984, after its use as a toxic waste oil dump from 1952 to 1968. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has monitored the site since 1979.

In addition to the on site pollution, there is a widely held suspicion that contaminated water has been leaking through the fissures in the bedrock underneath the landfill, making its way into nearby Valatie Kill and Nassau Lake. The state has spent millions of dollars on remediating these water bodies, but they still suffer from high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

In public comments to the EPA, members of United Neighbors Concerned About General Electric & Dewey Loeffel Landfill (UNCAGED) strongly supported the proposal, saying that people are still fishing at Nearby Nassau lake despite a decades-long ban on eating fish from its polluted waters. Members of UNCAGED are asking the EPA to include the fish consumption at Nassau Lake as a factor in evaluation its level of danger to people and the environment.

The DEC will determine if the site will be added to the National Priorities list, based on the level of public support.