NYFalls.com Talk

Roughly half of the demolished brick from the Ithaca Gun factory will have to be trucked off-site, but because of barium, not lead.

The unexpected high readings for barium throughout the building mean that 40-50 percent of the debris will be taken away, increasing the cost of the demolition by "several hundred thousand dollars," Peter Grevelding, senior vice president of Developers & Professional Services at engineering firm O'Brien & Gere, told members of the Ithaca Gun Community Advisory Group Monday night.

The scene enclosed by the chain link and barbed wire fence surrounding the 2.1 acre property at 121-125 Lake Street represents your typical demolition site – save for a few transformers leaking dielectric fluid, federally-mandated aerosol lead monitors stationed around the perimeter and signs that read: [e]“Danger: Asbestos, Cancer and Lung Disease Hazard. Authorized Personnel Only."[/e]

More than two years after receiving a demolition order from the U.S. Department of Environmental Conservation, demolition of the 125 year old, condemned and dilapidated factory that formerly housed the Ithaca Gun Company is finally nearing completion. Although most long-term residents of Tompkins County are thrilled to see the neighborhood blight demolished — it had become a store-house for graffiti as a significant fire hazard –– the demolition has raised concerns over the management of on-site toxins, the products of over 100 years of firearm production and testing.

Prior to a $4.8 million remediation effort led by the Environmental Protection Agency between 2002 and 2004 with Superfund resources, these contaminants included lead levels as high as 215,000 parts per million (500 times the recommended level), as well as asbestos, arsenic, mercury and uranium, The Sun reported in 2007. However,[e]the EPA’s clean-up was incomplete, and subsequent soil testing revealed residual lead-contaminated areas[/e], trichloroethylene contamination, as well as toluene levels at over 1000 times the recommended value.

Walter Hang, president of the Ithaca-based company Toxics Targeting, which specializes in mapping environmental hazards throughout New York State for potential property owners, believes that the current demolition and redevelopment plans do not adequately address the remaining high levels of contamination. He considers the project severely under-funded, under-planned and an overall deficient environmental remediation effort, in addition to posing a significant threat to public health. He has called the poject, “a wholly inadequate cleanup.”