Residents to rally against Stewart Air Base water contamination.
CITY OF NEWBURGH – Residents angered over continued discharges of contaminated water from Stewart Air National Guard Base are planning a public rally on July 15 at 11 a.m.
The rally will take place on Route 300, at an array of large tanks set up to filter water from the City of Newburgh’s contaminated Washington Lake.
The filtration system is located just north of the intersection with Route 207 and across from Moroney’s Cycles.
Sen. Charles Schumer and officials from the state Department of Transportation and Newburgh have demanded that the Department of Defense halt discharges of wastewater containing perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, from a retention pond used by Stewart Air Base.
The pond is blamed for high PFOS levels in Washington Lake, which Newburgh stopped using last year as its main water source.
Officials say the discharges are continuing into Silver Stream, and then into Moodna Creek and the Hudson River.
“We’ve got to reach the Department of Defense,” Newburgh Councilwoman Genie Abrams said.
“Do an investigation, but meanwhile, stop discharging PFOS into Silver Stream.”