Cuomo’s Water Fail

Nowthat the state’s bungling of the Hoosick Falls water-contamination nightmare has faded from the headlines, Gov. Cuomo’s office has forgotten all about it. That’s the obvious conclusion once you know that the gov’s Drinking Water Quality Council hasn’t met in six months — though it’s supposed to report by Oct. 2.

Cuomo set up the council last year with much fanfare, charging its 12 members to recommend how to limit emerging water contaminants. That is, how to keep local groundwater clean.

This was in the wake of the Hoosick Falls follies, when state officials fought the feds for 18 months over whether to alert the townspeople to water contamination.

The alarm came after a local resident, Michael Hickey, whose dad had died of cancer, hired a lab that in 2014 found high levels of PFOA, a chemical linked to . . . cancer.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency had warned in 2009 against drinking water with high PFOA levels. Yet state officials kept telling Hoosick Falls residents the water was safe for a year and a half.

The excuse they offered at a 2016 hearing: EPA guidelines were “confusing.”

The special water council was Cuomo’s bid to show he cared. But as time passed, his people plainly stopped caring.

According to Politico, the last council meeting set was for March 19 — but it was canceled, with no more ever scheduled. Several council members say they’re stuck in a “holding pattern” because Cuomo’s people haven’t managed to set another meeting.

Mind you, the Huffington Post’s Alex Kaufman flagged this issue in July, warning that the council was mired in a “bureaucratic malaise.” Erin Silk, a spokeswoman from the New York State Department of Health, promised: “We are currently working to schedule a meeting time that ensures all parties are present for this important discussion.”

Seems they’re still working on it, two months later. Are they looking to match the 18-month delay of the Hoosick Falls fail?