Friday April 26, 2024 
PFOA Saga No. 3 – The “Bug-Out Boogie”
As the most inept and slipshod “public health” investigation in the history of slipshod investigations, described by myself in a December 12, 2021 letter to The Honorable Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York State, as a comical, farcical and insulting clown show, comes to a close in Poestenkill, a town that mockingly calls itself “safe,” which it is if you are a polluter, and the DEC, DOH and RCHD get ready for the “Big Bug-Out,” where they pull their tent stakes and clear camp, getting out of town as quick as they can skedaddle, in the latest dose of gibberish we received from DEC on 10 December 2021, titled “Poestenkill Assessment Area, Protecting Poestenkill’s Drinking Water & Investigating Sources of PFOAs,” where we were falsely informed that the DEC and DOH, working with the Rensselaer County Department of Health (RCDOH), are providing this web site to share progress on the agencies’ efforts to ensure the protection of drinking water in Poestenkill, which is a crock given that they didn’t protect our drinking water and never intended to, in the “Summary of Private Well Test Results – Poestenkill Assessment Area,” we see repeated over and over the words “No Further Action” for properties including mine that have been adversely impacted by PFOA or PFOS through no fault of our own, other than trusting Poestenkill, Rensselaer County and the state of New York to actually do their jobs and protect our drinking water.
So what does that mean when the DEC, DOH and RCHD and Poestenkill tell those of us with contaminated wells “No Further Action?”
And the answer means exactly that – we have been abandoned and are on our own with respect to providing potable water for ourselves, don’t call back, they’re too busy, and the word “potable” means safe to drink, and despite what we have been told by the DEC and DOH and Poestenkill, that PFOA levels in Poestenkill do not pose a significant health risk, water with PFOA in it is not safe to drink, and thus is not potable.
Paul Plante, Poestenkill
Keep Opinion Pages
I recently read two Letters to the Editor saying the letter`s authors didn`t want the Opinion section included in the Advertiser. They stated that they didn`t feel the Opinion articles belonged in a local publication. I have to disagree with that. I happen to read the Opinion pages first. I noticed that usually both sides of the isle are represented in each article. I`m a Conservative but read both articles to hear both sides. The writers stated if one wants world news they can buy a major publication. The only major publication for our region is very Left leaning and one would be hard pressed to find a Conservative viewpoint in a newspaper that endorses Democratic candidates every time. The advertiser comes in my mailbox free of charge. I`m not spending money on a paper that disagrees with me politically from cover to cover. One of the authors stated that they felt the Opinion section was of little value to people who want to read local news. The advertiser has an Averill Park sports section. I don`t have any grandchildren in our school district, so I don`t read it. I certainly understand many area residents do have kids and grandkids in Averill Park schools. I guess my point is this: If you don`t like a certain section of a paper, skip over it. Maybe someone else is reading it when you`re not. Merry Christmas and may God bless every one of us.
Mark Maddalla, Averill Park