Two senior level Department of Defense officials were in Newburgh Thursday to update the public about their efforts to address PFOS water contamination emanating from Stewart Air National Guard base. One was Assistant Secretary of the Air Force John Henderson, who had also stopped in the city during the DoD’s first public visit to Newburgh in November on the issue. He spoke with WAMC’s Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Allison Dunne.
During the DoD’s Newburgh forum in November, Henderson discussed the results of the first site investigation. Henderson says a new development since November is that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is designing a carbon filtration system, with $2.4 million in federal funding, at the Recreation Pond outflow at the base, from where some of the highest concentrations of PFOS emanate.
May 2 marks three years since then-City Manager Michael Ciaravino declared a state of emergency because of the PFOS contamination.
