Press Release, September 15, 2020
Nearly all lithium-ion batteries contain PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances)
Press Conference
Wednesday, September 16 at Noon
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Meeting ID: 828 0856 8353
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US Meeting ID: 828 0856 8353
Currently the air permit granted by NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for the SungEel facility on March 30, 2020 has been put on hold while the matter of the presence of PFAS (first revealed by the NoBurnBroome – NBB – Science team) in some of the batteries was investigated.
At a press conference to be held via Zoom on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 at 12 noon, the NBB Science team will reveal that nearly ALL of these batteries contain PFAS and will call on the DEC to revoke SungEel’s Air permit.
According to Paul Connett, “The presence of these PFAS has been hidden in plain sight. It is time to make this information visible to the public and to the media.”
John Ruspantini added, “We wondered why DEC would not formally address our concerns regarding the fact that nearly all these batteries contain PVDF; this important revelation should derail this Albany-driven project.”
The NBB Science team’s discovery came about as they were preparing their response to a long letter sent to them by Tom Elter of the DEC. According to Paul Connett, “We were shocked how dismissive this letter was of our concerns. It puzzles us how the DEC can still claim that this facility poses little health threat to the local community even as they admit they do not understand the chemistry involved in this process. On this matter we have done our homework and they haven’t.”
George Fiedler added that, “The DEC appears to show no sense of embarrassment about using the slenderest of databases provided to them by SungEel to predict this plant’s annual emissions. Everything was based on single measurements which have no statistical validity One test on one day for an incomplete list of pollutants after over 10 years of operation! No professional should accept such inadequate data as the basis for any judgment on safety.”
John Ruspantini added, “The community of Endicott, who have already experienced serious health problems from previous industrial pollution deserve better than this. It is time for Governor Cuomo to address our concerns personally instead of letting lower level bureaucrats take the flack.”
At the same press conference the No Burn Broome science team will issue a response to the long letter Tom Elter (of the NYSDEC) sent to John Ruspantini on August 1, 2020.
Promoters of the SungEel project are claiming that this DEC letter has taken care of all of No Burn Broome’s concerns and that this facility poses no health threat to local residents. Nothing could be further from the truth. The NBB response sets out to put the record straight.
NoBurnBroome 