Development projects in neighboring towns are of concern to City of Newburgh

NEWBURGH – City Manager
Michael Ciaravino of Newburgh is asking planning board officials in the
towns of Newburgh and New Windsor to continue thorough review for development
projects in areas in or near its watershed.
Newburgh’s Washington Lake drinking water supply has been found contaminated with PFOS and PFOA chemicals and has been turned off the last few years.
Ciaravino has asked the town planning boards to continue careful review of projects before them.
In New Windsor, the planning board is reviewing a “BioHiTech” or “ENA Renewables Solid Waste Management Facility” proposed on the Avenue of the Americas immediately adjacent to New York Stewart International Airport.
In the Town of Newburgh, the planning board is considering the “Shoppes at Union Square” at Union Avenue and Orr Avenue.
Both projects are near streams that feed into Washington Lake.
“The city is committed to obtaining full remediation of the drinking watershed and Washington Lake so that it will again serve as the city’s primary drinking water source,” Ciaravino wrote to both planning board chairmen. “Given this experience, however, the city has a heightened concern with any new developments in the city’s watershed that may contribute either during constriction and/or after project completion.”
The manager has asked both town planning boards to consider their detailed review of each project.