WASHINGTON – As the City of Newburgh and other communities in New York continue to struggle over PFOS and PFOA contamination of their drinking water supplies, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called on the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a community engagement meeting for the state.
In a letter on Friday to Acting Administrator Wheeler, Gillibrand noted the EPA announced at a PFAS National Leadership Summit that it would conduct site visits to affected areas “to inform the development of a PFAS Management Plan for release later this year.”
She said as the EPA drafts the plan, “it is imperative to engage all relevant stakeholders. PFAS contamination has harmed communities throughout New York – including the City of Newburgh, Westhampton Beach, and Hoosick Falls – and the residents who have suffered deserve to be heard so that the EPA can work with expediency to remediate and clean up this threat to public health.”
New York’s junior senator, who is seeking re-election this fall, noted the EPA has already conducted PFAS Community Engagement Meetings in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Colorado and North Carolina.
