View Slideshow 1 of 4 Senior level officials from the Department of Defense were in Newburgh Thursday, where they held a public forum on the PFOS water contamination.
That August, New York state designated Stewart Air National Guard base a Superfund site, after finding the source of PFOS contamination was the historic use of firefighting foam at the base.
In August the city filed a federal lawsuit against a number of parties, including the Air Force, to stop PFOS contamination of the city’s water supply.
And the Department of Defense is well aware of the city’s action as is the state of New York,” says Ciaravino.
“New York continues to demand that the DoD step up and commit to concrete actions to address PFOS contamination from the Stewart Air National Guard Base.” Invites weren’t the only source of contention.
“That’s not what we need to hear now.
We need to hear, on this date we’re going to take action.” Meantime, McMahon says his department is working through CERCLA to address PFOS contamination.
“And part of that is remediation and part of it certainly is financial compensation for the damage that they did.” Skoufis says he also found out about the meeting just a few days earlier and understands the frustration of short notice and a meeting held during the day, when many residents are unable to attend.
She says the day was a breakthrough in terms of meeting face-to-face with the assistant secretaries, but hopes action is not years into the future.
Greene presented petitions to McMahon during the public forum, ones she has held onto since June.