More than a decade since PFAS was first detected in tap water in the Village of Hoosick Falls, the Rensselaer County community today is celebrating a new municipal water supply. PFAS contamination has been linked to ill-health effects including cancer.
The pollution crisis kicked off a national response to so-called emerging contaminants in drinking water.
Rob Allen was elected mayor in 2017. Prior to his election, Allen, while working as a music teacher, became an advocate for clean drinking water in his community – often attending village board meetings and public forums to urge leaders to seek environmental justice.
As he prepares to leave office after not seeking re-election this month, Allen spoke with WAMC's Lucas Willard about his tenure, when Hoosick Falls was at the center of a national reckoning over PFAS chemicals.
Mayor-elect Dan Schuttig, a village trustee, replaces Allen Tuesday after this month’s election victory.
Well, I am excited, ecstatic, relieved that we were going to get this new water source not just completed, but turned on before I hand over the reins to the new mayor. I'm so grateful for our village board, the trustees who have served me over the past eight years, our attorneys, in particular, our environmental attorney, David Engel, who, even before he came on to represent the village environmentally, was working on behalf of the community. It just shows that there's a lot of great people who have been around the situation who really have a special place in their heart for Hoosick Falls and its people. So, after this very, very long journey that we've been on, we are finally going to be turning on our new water source this evening, while also maintaining the GAC filtration system as part of our permanent water infrastructure. This is what the village has been advocating for, for years. It was what the companies initially fought against. But fortunately, the state agencies, in particular, DEC, listened to the villages, desires its citizens and its experts, and that is why they made the demand that this was the remedy, and tonight, that remedy goes live.
So how did the village work with state agencies like the DEC and the DOH to help identify the new water source? What were some of your concerns and the village board's concerns over locating a new water supply?
Well, I will say that DEC and DOH, they have a lot of specific approaches to handling contamination and remediation efforts, but I also do want to say that our situation was unique in a lot of different ways, and I was glad for DEC and DOH to really listen to us, point out the uniqueness of this. And in a sense, sometimes think outside the box. There were a lot of different possibilities for local water sources that the state explored, and between connecting to the Tomhannock, which is, you know, 12 to 14 miles away, and it has a pretty significant elevation change, connecting to a couple local municipalities, finding a new ground and water source – I think even doing nothing is one of those kind of standard options that was obviously never going to be a thing that would work for us – but they went over all those possibilities, and investigated them, flush them out, and we as a village, with our experts, environmental and attorneys and engineers, really, really pushed for what we knew our community needed. We needed to make sure, without a doubt, that our water source was as clean as it could be, that we had filtration because we have been exposed, many of us, over decades, to PFAS in our drinking water, and we know through the work of the Department of Health that that PFAS has been clearing out of our systems, which is really good and really important. But we knew that for our community, it was essential that we didn't just have a new water source, but we had the backup of the GAC filtration system, and after a lot of years of planning, looking into options, making the choice, and then the companies really diving in getting the work done, Honeywell, I think, took the lead on that and brought in a couple of really incredible people to get the job done in an efficient and quick way. Here we are tonight. It wasn't my idea for it to be the last day of my mayorship to have this big event and turn it on, but that's just kind of where the schedule ended up. So, I'm very glad to do that.
I do want to ask about that timeline, because you began as an advocate. You were elected mayor in 2017 and now it's eight years later, and you're on your last day and the new water supply is being turned on. How are you feeling today, looking back on the last, not only eight years, but the time before that, the past decade of community concerns related to Hoosick Falls drinking water?
I'm just so exceedingly proud of what we all have been able to accomplish. It's just a just icing on the cake to be able to have this event happen during my time as mayor. A lot of mayors and other elected officials put a lot of the work in for years and years, and they have to wait a couple more years to kind of see it come to fruition. But for me, personally, and for my family, who has sacrificed so much through all this to be able to celebrate this on the same you know, last night as mayor slash first day, I'm going to be back to just being a normal person and a normal husband and normal father. It's just really a great situation. And again, I'm so grateful for all of the people who are involved and the love and support that this community has offered.
This took a long time. So, do you have any advice for your…the officials who will be following you in village office?
Well, I'm glad that the next mayor is currently a trustee, so he's really on top of things. He knows what's going on and, you know, my goal has always been to get this distraction past us so that we can move forward. It's been great that we have been able to move forward on a lot of other fronts, while tackling the water situation. I'm very excited for the next mayor and the next board. I know that we have a grant award that's going to be coming through for four-and-a-half million dollars’ worth of projects in the downtown, which is going to be an enormous boost into our village. Hoosick Falls is in a fantastic, unprecedented place, and I'm just so excited for what is coming next for the village.
Quickly, how has the community grown or changed over the years since you first saw the concerns emerge about the drinking water to now, where the village really became sort of a national model with how to address emerging contaminants?
Well, it's funny, because on the one hand, there have been a lot of individuals who have really stepped up on a regional, national level to advocate for legislation and awareness and drinking water quality and things of that nature, which has been fantastic. I think the community as a whole, you know, we really just kind of got tired of having to hear about the water situation because it was basically a decade-long, and a lot of us knew that many of the new sources were just covering the story, and it kind of led to people just associating the village of Hoosick Falls with the issue of contamination. But in reality, we all know that this is a tightly knit community. It's resilient, it comes together, it works hard. And what I would encourage any community who has to go through this to do is take it slow and deliberately, find experts who know what they're talking about, and lean on them and just make sure that the community is informed and they know what's going on, so that everyone can move forward on it together. That was the formula we used here in the Village of Hoosick Falls, and as you're going to see tonight, it worked really well.
And what's next for you, Rob, are you just going to go back to only being a teacher?
Not only am I only going to be a teacher, but I am looking forward to only being a teacher. You know, my family, my four kids, and in particular, my wife, Heather, they've had to endure eight years of me being distracted and having to think about other things and weighed down by all the various things going on, sometimes having to leave at a moment's notice to handle whatever situation has come up. I'm just looking forward to being around them and getting us back to some semblance of normalcy where it's not an evening where I have to go to a three-hour meeting or have to get called out. I'm just going to be there and be around. I'm just so looking forward to that time.
So, no future political plans as of right now.
No. My political plans are to nap more and garden more.
Well, Rob, thank you so much for taking the time and best of luck and congratulations.
Thank you very much.
