Destroying Forever Chemicals Ignites N.Y. Town’s ‘Worst Fears’

When Joe Ritchie was a kid growing up near an upstate New York incinerator, it wasn’t unusual to find black soot on windowsills around the house. But in the last few years, there’s been a new odor in the neighborhood, that smells as if someone has been dumping household chemicals in a tub and lighting them on fire.

In February, Ritchie, found out the incinerator had been burning firefighting foam containing PFAS. About 2.5 million pounds of waste contaminated with the chemicals were shipped to the incinerator from more than two dozen states.

“When I saw that, I thought, oh ...