ALBANY – Congressman Pat Ryan (D, NY-18) and Governor Kathy Hochul are both demanding that telecommunications companies remove lead cables around the country. A Wall Street Journal report said hundreds of communities across the country – including Wappingers Falls – have covered cables leaching into the ground.
Ryan has written to the CEOLs of Verizon, AT&T and US Telecom demanding that they remove the toxic lead cables.
The issue is not just with buried cables, but with aerial lines as well, Ryan said. In Wappingers Falls, he cited one cable that runs along the perimeter of a children’s playground and basketball court.
While the Environmental Protection Agency generally recommends that children avoid soil containing more than 400 parts of lead per million, samples taken on the playground under the cable tested at 850 parts per million.
Governor Hochul, meanwhile, directed the Department of Public Service and the Department of Environmental Conservation to investigate the scope of the potential concern based on past use of lead cables.
Following the Wall Street Journal report, the governor said closed the Wappingers Falls park to be on the safe side while testing of the soil there is conducted and results are analyzed.
