WASHINGTON – An Air Force
work plan to clean up the carcinogenic chemicals PFOS and PFOA from the
Stewart Airport National Guard Base should include off-airport contamination,
US Senator Charles Schumer said Monday as he fired off a letter to Acting
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Richard Hartley.
“It is more than highly likely that the contaminated water on post flowed into Recreation Pond, Silver Stream, and Washington Lake, yet the Air National Guard work plan, which seeks to remediate the contamination, only covers waterways that are on post, failing to include a plan for the contaminated waterways off post,” Schumer said. “The bottom line is that pollution like PFOS-tainted water does not stop at the base’s perimeter and neither should the Air National Guard’s pollution source survey and clean-up plan.”
Riverkeeper’s Dan Shapley is miffed as to why the Defense Department has not taken responsibility for off-airport pollution.
“We’ve seen the City of Newburgh step up and work with the state to get filtration installed so that the water draws down from its reservoir not polluting water downstream and yet it has been months and the Department of Defense is not taking that same step,” Shapley said. “I find it just flabbergasting. It’s overdue and we want to see them take it now.”
Mayor Judy Kennedy said the Guard should install a filtration system on the water as it comes out of the collection pond and stop polluting Newburgh’s water source and other waterways downstream from the base. “We expect the federal government to be a good neighbor.”
State conservation partnership grants awarded
May 13, 2024
