TOWN OF NEWBURGH – The Stewart Air National Guard Base in the Town of Newburgh has been placed on the Registry of Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites meaning it presents a significant threat to public health and/or environment.
The designation comes months after the carcinogenic chemical PFOS was found in the City of Newburgh’s main reservoir, Washington Lake.
City Manager Michael Ciaravino is pleased to see regulatory action to remediate the problem.
“That will at least help develop the appropriate plan and even more significantly, the money and the funding to assist the City of Newburgh to be restored whole and brought back to where they would have been before the contamination occurred,” Ciaravino said.
The PFOS contamination of Washington Lake exceeds the 70 parts per trillion for the chemical and in an outfall from the site, concentrations have been found up to 5,900 parts per billion.
The DEC also built and installed a portable filtration system to drain clean water from the lake to prevent it from destroying the dam.
Permanently removing the PFOS from the lake and its bed is a project that still must be tackled.
The state is also paying for Newburgh to tap into the New York City water supply.
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