by Hank Gross, originally posted on May 14, 2016

Saying that since Stewart Airport, specifically the Air National Guard Base, is “the most likely source” of contamination of the City of Newburgh’s water supply, Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney called on the Defense Department to investigate the situation.

Maloney said investigation must get to the bottom of the situation to protect Newburgh residents

“I’m less concerned with blame than with accountability and with fixing the problem, so the first thing we need to do is we need to identify the source of the contamination so we can stop it,” he said.

Maloney said it is known that PFOA and PFOS are hazardous substances; the question is what is the concentrate that is considered safe.

“We need to get the science right on that. That’s why the EPA has to get off the dime on this and tell us what is real and what is not,” he said

Then there is the bill to pay to remediate the problem.

“Somebody else is going to have to be responsible for what they’ve caused here when we know exactly what happened and by whom,” Maloney said. “The City of Newburgh is not the culpable party here.”