Last month, New York state’s Drinking Water Quality Council (DWQC) took a positive first step toward ensuring New Yorkers have access to safe, clean drinking water.
But there is still work to be done.
While the Council’s recommendations for legally enforceable limits on toxic chemicals in state water systems are the most protective in the country, they still allow potentially unsafe levels of dangerous, carcinogenic substances in our drinking water.
And the DWQC recommendations are just that; suggestions that must be approved by Health Commissioner Howard Zucker before they become law.
Communities across New York and the entire United States have been facing a water contamination crisis for years; researchers say as many as 15 million Americans are living with unsafe drinking water.
As an attorney representing residents in Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, I’ve seen firsthand how this public health crisis can impact residents and communities.
Hardworking families who now live next to Superfund sites must now worry about their home values, maintain water filters on their drinking wells, and confront the reality that their bodies now contain PFAS chemicals.
The amount of PFOA in these local water systems far exceeds safety levels recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency, which has taken little to no action to address the issue.
Thankfully, state regulators in Vermont, New Jersey and now New York have stepped up and established maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for toxic chemicals in local drinking water.
While there is no safe level for these toxic chemicals in our drinking water systems, New York’s MCL recommendations of 10 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS would be the lowest in the nation.