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EPA TO CONNECT EAST FISHKILL RESIDENTS TO FISHKILL WATER SUPPLY

IBM to Pay $10 Million for Hookup

For Release: Wednesday, September 15, 2004

(#04137) NEW YORK -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that residents impacted by the Shenandoah Road Ground Water Contamination Superfund site, in the Town of East Fishkill should be connected to the municipal water supply system. The connection to Fishkill's existing municipal water supply system will take approximately two-and-a-half years to complete, and will cost IBM about $10 million.

"East Fishkill residents will now have a public source of safe drinking water," said EPA
Regional Administrator Jane M. Kenny. "Our first line of duty is always to make sure
people's health is protected."

In 2000, the New York State Department of Health found volatile organic compounds,
including tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, above safe drinking water levels in
area residential wells. EPA distributed bottled water to the residents and provided
whole-house drinking water treatment systems to homes with impacted wells.

By late 2000, EPA identified the source of contamination to be a parcel of property
located on East Hook Cross Road, owned by International Business Machines (I.B.M.)
Corporation, and began to remove the contents of an on-site septic tank as well as
contaminated soil. The Shenandoah Road site was placed on EPA's National Priorities
List of the nation's most hazardous waste sites in June 2001.

In May 2001, IBM entered into an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC) with EPA to
complete the cleanup work at the East Hook Cross Road property. Additionally, IBM
agreed to sample and maintain the residents' drinking water treatment systems installed
by EPA, to install treatment systems in additional homes as necessary, and to develop
alternatives for providing impacted residents with a permanent water supply.

In September 2002, IBM entered into a second AOC with EPA to perform a study of the nature and extent of contamination that remains at the site. With EPA oversight, in late 2002, IBM completed the removal of the excavated sources of ground water contamination from the East Hook Cross Road property. IBM also installed drinking water treatment systems at additional properties and continues to sample and maintain a total of 103 of them. In early November 2003, IBM presented EPA with the alternatives for providing a permanent water supply, and EPA subsequently selected the connection to the Fishkill municipal water supply.

For more information about the Shenandoah Road site, please visit EPA's web site at
www.epa.gov/superfund.

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