Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics - McCaffrey Street Site: Village of Hoosick Falls Public Water System Health Consultation

In 2017, the United States Environmental Protection Agency added the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics – McCaffrey Street site, located in the Village of Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer County, New York, to the National Priorities List (also known as the federal Superfund list) because groundwater at the facility is contaminated primarily with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The contaminated groundwater impacted the village’s public water supply wells.

The New York State Department of Health, in partnership with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, prepared a health consultation to evaluate the public health implications posed by past exposure to contaminated drinking water in the Village of Hoosick Falls public drinking water system using sampling data collected from November 2014 to February 2015, and from June 2015 to February 2016. The exposure parameters, toxicity values and health-based water concentrations used to evaluate the public health implications for the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) detected in the Hoosick Falls public water system (perfluorooctanoic acid [PFOA], perfluorobutane sulfonate [PFBS], perfluoroheptanoic acid [PFHpA], and perfluorooctane sulfonate [PFOS]) are current through March 2024. This health consultation predates the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s April 2024 Final National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for six PFAS, which were announced on April 10, 2024 and published in the Federal Register on April 26, 2024.

Based on this evaluation, the New York State Department of Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry have the following health advice:

  • Currently, drinking, and other uses of water from the Village of Hoosick Falls public water supply are not expected to harm people’s health since granulated activated carbon filtration has been in place since 2016.
  • Past exposure to PFOA in the Village of Hoosick Falls public water supply posed an increased risk for health effects, particularly noncancer health effects in infants and young children. The contribution of other PFAS chemicals detected at relatively much lower levels than PFOA in the water system (i.e., perfluorobutane sulfonate, perfluoroheptanoic acid, and perfluorooctane sulfonate) to the overall risk is relatively very small.

For copies of the health consultation or fact sheet, or with other questions, please contact the New York State Department of Health by phone 518-402-7860, by email at BEEI@health.ny.gov, or write to us at this address:

Center for Environmental Health
Bureau of Environmental Exposure Investigation
Empire State Plaza-Corning Tower, Room 1787
Albany, New York 12237

A copy of the health consultation is also available at:

The New York State Department of Health encourages the public to sign up to receive up-to-date site information through the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation email listserv. It’s quick, it’s free, and it will help keep you better informed. As a listserv member, you will periodically receive site-related information/announcements for all contaminated sites in the counties you select.