100 DAYS & COUNTING: SENATOR HOYLMAN RENEWS DEMAND THAT SENATE REPUBLICANS RELEASE DOCUMENTS ON HOOSICK FALLS WATER CONTAMINATION CRISIS
December 21, 2016
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ISSUE:
- Environment
Sen. Hoylman: The undisclosed settlement terms between the Village of Hoosick Falls and Saint-Gobain and Honeywell announced last week make it more imperative than ever that the Senate release information about the role these companies played in poisoning the water for over 10,000 New Yorkers.”
NEW YORK – State Senator Brad Hoylman (D, WFP-Manhattan), Ranking Member on the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, renewed his demand that Senate Republican leadership release documents in response to subpoenas issued to Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, Taconic Plastics and Honeywell International related to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) water contamination in New York.
Coming more than three months after first calling on his Senate colleagues to issue subpoenas and just days after the Hoosick Falls Village Board announced a draft settlement with Saint-Gobain and Honeywell – the full details of which have yet to be disclosed to the residents of Hoosick Falls – Hoylman said that the need to release information in response to the subpoenas was more important than ever.
Senator Hoylman said: “Over 100 days ago by the terms of subpoenas issued by the New York State Senate, Saint-Gobain, Taconic Plastics and Honeywell were to have handed over documents related to the water contamination crises they helped create. Yet, today we’re no closer to learning the truth of corporate involvement in the largest water contamination crisis in state history.
“The undisclosed settlement terms between the Village of Hoosick Falls and Saint-Gobain and Honeywell announced last week make it more imperative than ever that the Senate release information about the role these companies played in poisoning the water for over 10,000 New Yorkers.”
Hoylman unveiled a clock (available online here) to count the days since the subpoenas were supposed to be answered by the 3:00 pm, September 12 deadline. At 3 pm today, the clock will reach 100 days.
On October 28, in response to Republican silence, Senator Hoylman sent a letter to State Senators Thomas O’Mara (R-Big Flats), Chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee, and Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau), Chair of the Senate Health Committee demanding they produce the results of the subpoenas that their respective committees issued, pointing out that “nearly two months has passed and we still don’t know whether these companies have complied with the terms of the subpoena.”