A boat heads down the Hudson River on July 10, 2024.

The city of Albany and many other upstate municipalities pay to have toxins dumped in upstate rivers.

That tidbit is one of many shocking revelations included in a recent report from environmental researchers decrying the "leachate loophole."

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What, you ask, is leachate? Think of it as a sort of toxic coffee: It's created as rain or snowmelt percolates through landfills and becomes dangerous as it picks up pollutants from consumer and industrial garbage, including the forever chemicals known as PFAS.

The good news is that leachate by law can't be released directly into waterways. So in most cases, the polluted water is collected at the landfills and transported to municipal treatment plants, whence it flows untreated into our rivers.

Yes, you read that right. The plants don't have the technology needed to remove the chemicals, and they are not required to.

That nonsensical gap in environmental regulations results in 89........

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