Officials focused on the PFOS water contamination in Newburgh have been urging the Department of Defense to take responsibility for pollution on and off Stewart Air National Guard base, and to pay for the cleanup.
Newburgh City Manager Michael Ciaravino wants DoD to move more quickly.
“I believe President Trump himself needs to step forward and not only speak but direct on this issue and to treat it with the same urgency you would a national defense emergency,” Ciaravino says. “President Trump’s constituents are being poisoned, have been poisoned, and if we do nothing with the Department of Defense and their responsibility to act urgently as they would in any other national emergency, this is going to drag on for probably a decade.”
He says the time to act is now.
