NEWBURGH – The US Senate will include $20 million to clean up the PFOS contamination at the Stewart Airport Air National Guard Base and Newburgh Mayor Judy Kennedy couldn’t be happier.
She has been one of the top city officials demanding that Washington pay for the work.
The PFOS chemical, a component in aircraft firefighting foam, has been determined to be the cause of the contamination of the City of Newburgh’s Washington Lake reservoir and streams in and around the airport. The Defense Department has been reluctant to take responsibility and agree to remediate the situation.
Kennedy said any cleanup effort will have to start right on the Guard base.
“They are going to have to build some kind of filtration plant up there because it is running into the pond and then running out of the pond and into our streams so they have to filter that pond water somehow,” the mayor said.
The Senate funding is included in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced the funding for the cleanup.
Kennedy is confident the House will follow suit and include the funding for the remediation effort.
