NY Assembly to hold hearings on drinking water contamination

originally posted on July 6, 2016

 

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – The state Assembly is planning to hold public hearings on water quality in early September.

Speaker Carl Heastie, Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Steve Englebright and Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried announced the hearings Wednesday afternoon.

They said the hearings in Albany and Suffolk County will take testimony related to the causes and responses to drinking water contamination in various communities across the state.

Residents of Hoosick Falls have been calling for hearings into why the state Health Department didn’t warn them about contamination until 18 months after it was discovered.

The Rensselaer County village and nearby Petersburgh are in the midst of cleanup work for contamination with PFOA, a toxic chemical used in making Teflon and similar materials.

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