NEWBURGH – It has been seven years since the chemicals PFOS and PFOA were discovered in Washington Lake, the City of Newburgh’s drinking water supply. Investigations determined the cause was firefighting foam leaching from the nearby Stewart Air National Guard Base.
Washington Lake was turned off when the chemicals were discovered and Newburgh has been receiving its water from the New York City aqueduct system.
Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney says city residents should feel secure in knowing the water they are drinking is safe.
“The fact is that you have had a pretty comprehensive solution, an expensive one, but a comprehensive so0lution that kept the people safe,” he said. “In the federal legislation that Senator Schumer and I secured last year, you are going to have the Department of Defense bare the cost of the remediation of cleaning up the contaminated areas because it shouldn’t fall on local taxpayers. We’ve got that well under control and residents are safe in drinking clean water.”
The state installed a carbon filtration system for Washington Lake, but it has never been put into use and the federal government has yet to move forward with the actual remediation of the contamination from the Air Guard base.
