Source: The New York Times, August 13, 2016
Posted on: http://www.advisen.com
State environmental officials took action on Friday to hold the federal Defense Department accountable for water contamination in Newburgh, N.Y., saying that firefighting foam containing a dangerous chemical, used at a local military base, polluted the city’s water supply.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation declared Stewart Air National Guard Base, home to the 105th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard, a state Superfund site.
According to the state agency, the base for years used a type of foam for aircraft emergencies and training purposes that contained PFOS, or perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, which has been linked to cancer and other medical problems. The chemical — no longer used at the site — then polluted a tributary leading to Lake Washington, the primary source of Newburgh’s drinking water, the department said.
State officials began to focus on the problem in Newburgh earlier this year, after another water scare shook Hoosick Falls, N.Y., a village near the Vermont-New York border, about 30 miles northeast of Albany.
In that case, contamination of drinking water by a similar chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, has become a persistent political problem for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, who has been criticized in some quarters for not acting fast enough to remedy concerns.
Independent tests had shown high levels of PFOA in Hoosick Falls in 2014, but the state did not warn residents to avoid drinking the water until Dec. 2015, after federal officials had done so. State health and environmental officials scrambled to respond after outrage from some residents and local officials.
On Friday, however, environmental officials acted more swiftly, unlocking Superfund money to expedite cleanup of the Newburgh site and to investigate the contamination, as well asking the Defense Department to pay for fixes to the problem.
”D.E.C. seeks an immediate commitment from D.O.D. to commence and expeditiously undertake necessary site work,” read a letter sent to the defense officials on Friday.
Environmental and health officials acted as part of a new team set up by the governor, reviewing federal data in March and following up with testing.
Mark Kinkade, an Air Force spokesman, said that it had ”a long history of working with communities under the Superfund process to address environmental issues and protect human health and the environment,” and that it would ”continue to collaborate with regulators to address the issue” in Newburgh.
On Friday, the Republican-led State Senate announced that it would hold hearings in Hoosick Falls on Aug. 30 about the contamination there. The Assembly said it would hold hearings in September about water quality in the state.
Like PFOA, PFOS is an unregulated chemical in the eyes of federal authorities, though New York has recently declared both hazardous. Environmental advocates have warned that millions of Americans have been exposed to the two chemicals, which were used for decades in a wide variety of industrial and commercial products.
In Newburgh, a once-grand Hudson Valley refuge that has more recently been associated with poverty and gang activity, the city manager, Michael G. Ciaravino, said he welcomed the state’s actions. ”We’re very thankful for the progress that’s been made,” he said.
In early May, Mr. Ciaravino declared an emergency in the city after tests showed PFOS in the city’s water at levels above what federal authorities would later deem safe. With state assistantce, the city shifted its water supply source to Brown’s Pond and then to the Catskill Aqueduct, part of New York City’s water system, and instituted a number of water conservation measures.
Still, he said concerns about Newburgh’s water and various ancillary impacts — including rising water levels in Lake Washington, now no longer being drained by residents’ thirst — have continued.
At a community forum at Mount Saint Mary College in June, Mr. Ciaravino said several residents spoke in emotional terms about illnesses that had troubled their families over the years.
”Whether it does or does not have a causal relationship,” the city manager said, ”it’s reopened old wounds.”