The state health department has been aware for at least three years that high levels of industrial toxin known as PFOA, used in non-stick cookware and other products, had contaminated the drinking water in the Rensselaer County community of Hoosick Falls.
A similar chemical, known as PFOS, has been detected in a reservoir that serves as the water supply for Newburgh, a city of 29,000 people.
The pressure for New York to act independently of federal regulators increased this week after Politico, an online news site, cited unnamed sources in reporting that the Trump administration is steering the Environmental Protection Agency to set no limits for PFOS and PFOA in drinking water.
“Governor Cuomo has said for over three years now that if the federal government does not establish a drinking water standard then New York would,” said Judith Enck, who in the former Obama administration was the Northeast region administrator for the EPA.
“The New York health department is painfully slow, and other states are now speeding by them” with efforts to set limits on the toxins in tap water.
“Federal inaction is not stopping New York from protecting its citizens from unregulated chemicals in drinking water,” said Silk, citing recommendations for proposed standards issued by the New York’s Drinking Water Quality Councli.
“Americans have a right to know how much, if any, of this chemical is in their drinking water,” Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, said in a letter to Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.
Delgado said EPA should address the levels of the toxins in the agency’s water management plan.
Enck and the other activists said the health department should now put those standards in regulation.
Zucker has pointed out that the EPA is responsible for setting regulatory limits under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.