Hutton, left, and Brand predict a clean Lake Washington in February
NEWBURGH – Top officials of the state departments of environmental conservation and health assured residents of the City of Newburgh Monday night that the newly installed granulated carbon filtration system will be able to handle all contaminants found in the Washington Lake reservoir.
New City Councilman Jonathan Jacobson expressed concern about the system given that the Department of Defense has yet to take action to stop the contamination coming from the Stewart Air National Guard Base.
“I think our damages at minimum should be holing up forever to the New York City aqueduct,” Jacobson said. “I think that is what it has to be because I don’t think that we can ever be satisfied.”
But, state Health Department Deputy Commissioner Brad Hutton said that is not the best route to take.
“The Catskill Aqueduct is more than 100 years old and it needs to be taken down this year, pretty much for the first time by (New York) city for an estimated two to three months to do some important work, work that is really the first time they have been in that aqueduct for that long,” he said.
Both Hutton and Deputy Environmental Conservation Commissioner Martin Brand said Washington Lake water will be safe for human consumption by next month.
At the same time, they said the state is continuing to press the Department of Defense to stop the pollution from the Guard base and clean up the damage that has been done to the Newburgh watershed.
