Town Seeks Federal Help for Goudey Station Cleanup and Demolition

The town of Union supervisor says federal funding will be needed to clean up the contamination at a former NYSEG facility in Westover.

Robert Mack said the old Goudey Station electric generating plant property off Riverside Drive “is probably the most contaminated in all of Broome County, if not all of southern New York.”

Mack told WNBF News he has advised Senator Charles Schumer’s staff of the magnitude of the problems posed by the abandoned site.

Mack said remediation of the polluted property will be a multi-million-dollar project. He said it will be vital to get the support of Schumer “in getting rid of that eyesore and that environmental disaster over there, I’m not sure how it’s going to be done.”

The coal-fired generating plant is located just outside the village of Johnson City. The original facility was constructed in 1917. The plant operated for more than nine decades.

Several entities have owned the 33-acre site since it was sold by NYSEG. A Massachusetts-based firm acquired the property in 2020 with plans to demolish the old buildings and construct a commercial solar facility.

Although some preliminary demolition work occurred, the redevelopment project was scrapped.

The Environmental Protection Agency has designated the property a Superfund site. Some residual oil and contaminated soil were removed last year.

Efforts to secure the site have been unsuccessful. People seeking to remove scrap metal often trespass on the property despite improved fencing.

Johnson City firefighters have been called several times to extinguish fires that have been ignited by people burning insulation off wire that want to steal.

Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: [email protected]. For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.