Tracy Bouvette spent decades looking for his dream retirement property. He found it on John Joy Road on the Saugerties border in 2017.
“It’s magical up here. Just really lovely,” Bouvette said.
By July 2019, construction on Bouvette’s home was almost finished. The final step was digging a well. Two weeks later, the State Department of Environmental Conservation tested his well’s water.
The results showed that Bouvette’s well water was contaminated. The DEC determined that dozens of households within a half mile east and southeast of the now-closed Saugerties Town Landfill—a state Superfund site, where substantial amounts of hazardous waste were dumped—had elevated levels of “forever chemicals” in their private wells.
Those contaminants included PFAS compounds such as PFOA and PFOS, as well as 1,4-dioxane. Their concentrations in the water adjacent to the Saugerties landfill exceeded levels considered safe for drinking and cooking. Manufacturers have used those chemicals for decades in common items such as nonstick pans, cosmetics, food packaging, and fire extinguishing materials.
A growing body of research has connected exposure to these types of chemicals to a range of health concerns, including certain cancers, weakened immune response, elevated cholesterol levels, and developmental problems in children.
Often called “forever chemicals,” PFAS persist in the environment because their molecular bonds break down at an exceptionally slow rate. As a result, they have spread widely through soil and water systems worldwide and are now detectable in the bloodstream of nearly all Americans.
In 2019, the DEC began distributing bottled water to homeowners with contaminated water in the John Joy Road area while they studied a more permanent solution. Today 62 homes still receive bottled water.
Four eligible households declined the state’s offer of what officials call an “alternative water supply.”
After a career as an environmental consultant on large water projects, Bouvette, 68, had planned to spend his retirement painting, a lifelong passion. Instead, he found himself writing and distributing newsletters to his Saugerties neighbors explaining why they cannot drink the water from their kitchen faucets.
Several residents said they were grateful for the bottled water but remain uneasy about continuing to use well water for bathing and cleaning.
Dean Aronson, 73, lives in the neighborhood and questioned whether showering is safe.
“I worry about some of these chemicals getting into our body transdermally,” he said.
Aronson installed his own “fairly expensive” filtration system.
“It’s supposed to take out a lot of the PFAS and PFOS. But it’s the dioxane that will not get filtered out,” he said.
Peggy Krom said she worries about the exposure her daughter and two grandchildren — who share her well — may have had before the contamination was identified.
“How long were they drinking the water that was contaminated?” said Krom, 74. “What’s it going to do to them long-term? Sometimes you gotta wonder.”
The Origins of “Forever Chemicals”
PFOS and PFOA were developed after World War II by chemical companies such as 3M and DuPont. By bonding carbon and fluorine, manufacturers created substances resistant to heat, grease, stains, and water.
The chemicals were a boon throughout the 20th century for companies that made nonstick cookware, carpeting, waterproof clothing, cosmetics, food packaging, firefighting foam, and industrial applications. Research and consumer pushback over the past decade has led to an increasing number of bans on the use of PFAS in commercial products. Still, thousands of PFAS compounds exist.
Their durability—the same quality that made them commercially attractive—also makes them persistent and damaging. They break down extremely slowly in soil, water, and the human body.
According to Saugerties Supervisor Fred Costello, the chemicals found at the Saugerties landfill were tied to iron-processing operations in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. Barrels gradually deteriorated, allowing contaminants to leach into groundwater.
“That activity was lawful at the time,” Costello said. “The problem with them is they don’t decay organically, and that leaves them in the environment where they’re everywhere, quite frankly.”
By 2024, the DEC had sampled groundwater at hundreds of closed landfill sites statewide and found elevated levels of PFOA and PFOS at what it described as “a substantial share” of them.
The issue extends beyond Saugerties. In Hurley, which borders the town, a separate landfill had also been contaminated. The state provided two homeowners there with carbon filtration systems.
“PFOS is such a stable compound that unless you have a high intensity furnace, you can’t break it down,” said Michael Boms, a chemist and Hurley’s town supervisor. “You’ve got to filter it out.”
Boms said the contamination in Hurley stemmed from “the residue of barrels of solvents dumped there legally by local industries in the 1970s.” Discarded Styrofoam products compounded the problem.
“Part of the problem seems to be that these things are kind of new or newly recognized as being toxic or dangerous,” Boms said. “Since then, more has been learned about the health risks posed by these chemicals.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exposure to PFAS may increase the risk of kidney, testicular, and prostate cancer; decreased fertility; pregnancy-induced hypertension; developmental delays in children; and interference with hormones and the immune system.
The DEC is investigating options to remediate the contaminated wells near the Saugerties landfill. A long-awaited report is expected later this year.
In the meantime, residents said communication from the DEC and the town has been limited.
“People are getting more anxious,” Bouvette said.
Last week, he sent out another four-page newsletter summarizing updates he had gathered from the DEC. The next step, he said, will be a feasibility study to evaluate possible remedies, followed by a public comment period.
“I think everybody is frustrated that it’s taking this long,” Costello said. “But we’re basically inventing the field and everything as we go along.”