Organizations push for more aggressive cleanup at base
NEWBURGH, N.Y. » Riverkeeper and Newburgh Clean Water Project are calling on the Air National Guard to commit to an aggressive schedule to clean up PFAS pollution at Stewart Air National Guard Base as a new agreement is negotiated with the state that they say will influence the next two years of remediation.
PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. They were once used in firefighting foam used at the base.
The current two-year agreement expires this month.
The groups are calling for three specific actions. They said the filter at Recreation Pond must be repaired. They said after being installed in December 2019, it failed within one month. The advocates had called for the installation 3 ½ years before.
The filter has not been in operation since last January, as PFAS pollution continues to flow into Silver Stream, which flows into
Moodna Creek, a tributary of the Hudson River.
The organizations are also calling for the capacity of the filter at Recreation Pond to be increased and said the remediation process at the base must advance quickly through the next phase.
The city of Newburgh has been receiving its water from the New York City Catskill Aqueduct. That is being paid for by the state. Newburgh’s reservoir, Washington Lake, has been
shut off as a water supply for four years.
“The Air National Guard has a responsibility to the people of Newburgh and New Windsor to turn this failed cleanup around, and quickly and thoroughly remove this toxic threat from our water,” said Dan Shapley, water quality program director for Riverkeeper. “More than four years ago, this contamination came to light. Stewart Air National Base was identified then as the source.The pollution is still flowing downstream.”
Marcel Barrick, for Newburgh
Clean Water Project, said its members “want action now and through the
entire remediation process to protect public health, and the environment, not delays and promises. We have waited too long; we won’t accept anything else.”