Fort Edward waste management company seeking permit to destroy PFAs

FORT EDWARD, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A waste management company in Fort Edward submitted a permit to destroy PFAs contaminated soil at their facility, Clean Earth. Some residents have shared concerns about the effects of polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAs, in their neighborhoods ahead of Wednesday's public information hearing.

At Clean Earth, about 800 tons of soil are decontaminated every day that they are operating.

“We have one input: its contaminated soil and we have two outputs: clean soil and clean air and we think that'll work very effectively for PFAs the science shows that," said David Dunlap, Vice President of Government Affairs with Enviri Corporation.

At Clean Earth, they work to decontaminate soil. Soon, Dunlap said their team is hoping to add a new contaminant to their research -- PFAs. PFAs are also known as forever chemicals that have been linked to cancer. Dunlap said PFAs are unfortunately prevalent in most everyday objects.

“In talking about PFAs, its a problem for almost everybody, if we look for it you'll find it," said Dunlap. "Every state, every municipality, every village, there's a PFAs issue that you’re going to have to deal with."

That's why their next mission is to analyze and decontaminate PFAs in soil. Clean Earth has submitted a request for a permit to handle 5,000 tons of PFAs contaminated soil for a two week period.

"It'll show how much PFAS was in the soil, it'll show how clean the soil was after we treated it," said Dunlap.

Clean Earth Technical Director Rob Martin said the process is not as long and complicated as some people may think. Martin walked NEWS10's Vanessa Blasi through the entire process. The first step is to weigh the soil that comes in on a scale and process it in the soil storage unit.

"Inside the building, we take and we pre-process the material. So we will amend it with limestone dust to help control moisture," said Martin. "The lower the moisture of the content the more energy will go specifically to boiling the contaminants."

Then the soil goes through the thermal desorption unit.

“Post the material being processed inside of the soil storage unit, its fed by conveyers into the rotary kiln which is the cylindrical structure you see in front of you,” said Martin. " 

The heat from the rotary kiln removes the contaminated particles by evaporating them, not burning them -- similar to a clothes dryer. Martin said the process inside the rotary kiln takes about 8 to 15 minutes.

“The soils are entered into that process where it is actually tumble and heated, very similar to how your clothes dryer tumbles or heats your clothes to desorp or drive off moisture. This process desorps or drives off the contaminants that are in the soil," said Martin.

The soil is then rehydrated and ends up in large piles outside the facility. From there, Martin said there are even more steps to ensure the evaporated air is decontaminated, using a thermal oxidizer.

"Take in and heat those contaminates to the point where we degrade the bonds between the elements that make up the contaminant," said Martin.

Martin said occasionally, residents have reported seeing smoke coming out of the machines. He described that this is not smoke, instead it is water vapor that appears based on the atmospheric conditions -- similar to when one's breath shows when it's cold out.

Despite the process, some residents like Angela Presley still shared concerns about PFAs being brought into her neighborhood.

"The thermal desorption method is pretty well researched," said Presley, who also leads the health care related accelerator programs for Dartmouth College. "But what is less well known is what happens to that PFAs after it is removed. We know it doesn't just disappear magically that's not how science works."

Presley is part of a group of more than 50 people who are against this permit proposal. The group of Facebook is called The Fort Stop PFAs.

“As a research person myself, I can sympathize that research totally needs to be done here it's just not responsible to do it at field scale in a residential area, it should be done by scientists in a lab," said Presley.

A public information meeting was held at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Dunlap encouraged any residents with concerns to attend. Dunlap said he's unsure when the state will approve or disapprove the permit. For more information, visit the Clean Earth website.

"Everybody has to deal with this [PFAs] and we have to find an effective way but also one that doesn't break the bank and so this facility, we believe is ideal to do that," said Dunlap.