ENDICOTT -- A Jan. 18 chemical spill at the Huron campus was reported promptly to state officials, but village officials and residents knew nothing about it until an anonymous tip from within the company months later.

The information gap, which came to light Friday, outraged many residents and advocates already living in a plume of pollution that seeped from the same plant decades earlier when it was owned by IBM Corp.

Ethylene glycol -- a refrigerant that can damage the heart, nerves and kidneys of people exposed to it -- seeped into the ground near Clark Street and poured into a village storm sewer network that empties into the Susquehanna River, according to records filed with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The incident happened when a pipe failed.

James McNamara, president of Endicott Interconnect Technology -- IBM's successor at the site -- said the company promptly reported the spill to appropriate state officials and effectively contained much of it.

About 10,000 gallons of a chemical solution escaped the system at the microelectronics plant. About half of that was contained, said Paul Speranza, manager of environmental and chemical services for the company. The other half, about 2,100 gallons of the chemical, mixed with about 2,900 gallons of water, seeped into the ground or washed down the storm sewer.

Diane Carlton, a spokeswoman for the DEC, said Friday much of the pollution was flushed through the system and down the river. The chemical has not tainted the water supply, and agency officials don't perceive it poses significant health or environmental threats, she said. But tests are continuing in the ground near the spill to make sure. If the spill left behind traces of contamination, the state will require a plan to clean it, she added.

Many village officials and residents said Friday they were angry and bewildered that the information was not passed along to them, especially concerning the long history of other pollution problems at the site.

Rick Miller, superintendent of public works, said it was "unbelievable" that neither state nor company officials notified the village that thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals spilled into the municipal storm sewer system. Village workers regularly maintain the system by vacuuming debris and sediments from the catch basins, Miller said, and he would like to know if that included any hazardous material.

Members of the Western Broome Environmental Stakeholders Coalition -- a citizens committee that meets monthly with state and county officials to address pollution and related health issues in the village -- said they couldn't fathom why officials did not share the information.

"I don't know who the DEC is working for. Is it the people in the village or is it owners of the plant?" said Betty Havel, a village trustee and member of the group.

Bernadette Patrick, an advocate and resident, characterized the stakeholders group as "a smokescreen to convince residents that officials are addressing community concerns when they are not."

"This is beyond unacceptable. It is appalling," state Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, said. "How much more do the people of Endicott have to go through? "

Months after the spill, a concerned employee leaked the information to Alliance at IBM, a pro-union organization, said Rick White, a spokesman for the group. White and Alan Turnbull, director of Resident Action Group of Endicott, began piecing together the information.

"They (officials) should inform the public," Turnbull said Friday. "They are evidently lacking in that skill."

Claudia Edwards, director of the Broome County Health Department, said Friday that mandates require agencies to notify communities of imminent health threats from pollution or spills, but the Jan. 18 spill didn't qualify. The chemical, a kind of antifreeze, is highly toxic but dissipates more quickly than some other chemicals and researchers don't expect it will leave significant lingering traces, she said.

Edwards added that it would have been a good idea for officials to inform residents of the issue, anyway. "I would agree (because of other pollution problems) the area is sensitive to any kind of releases," she said. "I can understand their concerns. It would be a best practice to put this information forward."

Libous, who said he expressed his outrage to state and county officials after learning of the spill Friday, put it this way: "I don't care what your legal responsibility is here. There is a moral responsibility to notify the public."

A recovery well near the recent ethylene glycol spill, installed to pump toxic chemicals from the ground first discovered in 1979 when IBM owned the site, is effectively pulling the recent contamination from the ground, McNamara said. "Our hazmat team did a superb job and the measures in place are working," he said. "We did what we were supposed to do: We notified the DEC as soon as we knew there was a problem."

Lack of public disclosure about pollution has been a sore spot in the village for decades.

• Residents said they should have been given more information about the lasting effects of subterranean chemical pollution from the plant dating to at least 1979. In 2003, IBM Corp., overseen by the DEC, documented trichloroethylene vapors seeping into basements through a process called vapor intrusion. Since then, systems to block the vapors have been installed on more than 430 properties, but dozens remain unprotected.

• An investigation by the Press & Sun-Bulletin, published Oct. 30, found more than 50 renters unknowingly living in apartment buildings in the polluted area without systems to block vapor intrusion.

• Information about an ethylene glycol spill under the Broome County's Grippen Ice Rink wasn't reported until last July, more than four months after it was discovered.

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