Riverkeeper has faith in DEC when dealing with Newburgh’s water

NEWBURGH – A state Department
of Environmental Conservation official told the Newburgh City Council
last week the agency expects to switch back to Washington Lake for the
city’s water supply in January. That follows the installation of
a high-tech carbon filtration system to catch the PFOS in the lake coming
from the Stewart Air National Guard Base.
Council members and city residents objected to the conversion at this time, but Riverkeeper Paul Gallay told Mid-Hudson News he has full confidence in the DEC’s decisions.
“I think the state really heard the community and heard the concerns about the safety of the water and I think the state is dedicated to only turning that water supply back on when it is safe and it is demonstrably safe,” Gallay said.
The city has been using the New York City Catskill Aqueduct for the last year-and-a-half for its water.
Gallay said the federal government has “so many questions to answer
here and so much to reckon with and it is really shameful that they have
not made more progress by now, so we are going to be looking for the federal
government to up their game significantly here.”