WASHINGTONVILLE – The state Department of Environmental Conservation will hold an informational session to provide an update on sampling activities conducted so far in the Beaver Dam Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District.
Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), specifically PFOS and PFOA have been detected in the surface water of Beaver Dam Lake and its tributaries, which is part of the Beaver Dam Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District.
Beaver Dam Lake surface water is not used as drinking water.
The PFCs have been determined to originate from the Air National Guard at Stewart Airport, where firefighting foam was used to extinguish a major aircraft fire in 1996.
The protection district encompasses almost 800 homes, 650 of which use private groundwater wells for their drinking water. The remaining 150 homes receive their drinking water from the Beaver Dam Lake Water Corporation Public Water Supply, which also uses groundwater wells. PFOA and PFOS were not detected in samples collected from the water corporation’s public supply wells.
The DEC said most of the private wells in the Beaver Dam Lake area that were tested by the state health department were “non-detect” for PFOA and PFOS. Where those chemicals were detected in private well samples, they occurred at levels “well below” the US EPA’s health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion in all but one location, which is not used for drinking.
Locations where PFCs were detected have been offered bottle water, and
alternate water options, point of entry treatment systems, and/or public
water connections are being considered, the DEC said.
The DEC session will be held at 7 p.m., January 24 at Washingtonville
Middle School.
