POUGHKEEPSIE – The New York Air National Guard Base at Stewart Airport near Newburgh has been the center of the controversy concerning PFOS contamination of the Newburgh City reservoir at Washington Lake.
Now, Hudson Valley Airport, the new name for Dutchess County Airport in Wappinger, has been found to have at least one water well with high levels of PFOS and PFOA.
The Public Works Committee of the Dutchess County Legislature Thursday evening approved spending $808,000 to run a municipal water line to the airport and nearby properties. County Public Works Commissioner Robert Balkind said that will solve the problem.
“By doing that we will have the opportunity to bring public water through the Dutchess County Water/Wastewater Authority’s line to some of these other commercial facilities adjacent to the airport and on the airport,” Balkind said. “AAG (Associated Aircraft Group) happens to be on our airport, it’s our property, AAG is a tenant or ours, but if we can get funding for that water line, we won’t have to replace or upgrade their carbon filter system. We will simply tie them into a new water supply.”
The AAG has the highest concentration of PFOS and PFOA in and around the airport.
A nursery school near the airport is too far to run the water line, so the county will still have to build a carbon filtration plant for that facility.
The county entered an order of consent with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to fix the contamination problem.
