PFOS

Several Democratic U.S. House representatives are calling on their colleagues to pass a bill Friday concerning PFAS chemicals. It’s a bill that President Trump’s senior advisors will recommend he veto.

A number of issues that garnered headlines in the Hudson Valley in 2019 continue this year. There will be a number of closely watched political contests, environmental issues and, most recently, attacks on religious institutions. WAMC’s Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Allison Dunne has a look at a few of the stories from 2019 that are carrying into 2020.

The City of Newburgh will be switching to one of its other sources of drinking water for a few months.

New York U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand visited Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh today. She was briefed on a few issues including the installation of a temporary filtration system at the base to address water contamination.

An interim filtration system at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh was supposed to be up and running by the end of the summer. The remediation effort is intended to trap PFOS-laden water. The U.S. Department of Defense had committed to the measure in December but environmental groups and state officials have concerns.

The U.S. Department of Defense is establishing a PFAS Task Force to address contamination at more than 400 military installations and surrounding communities across the nation. Stewart Air National Guard base in Newburgh is one of those places.

Environmental groups are urging the New York state Department of Health to lower recommended levels for three drinking water contaminants. A public comment period on the recommendations for PFOA and PFOS is now open.

The state of Vermont has released a new sampling plan for PFAS chemicals.

The New York state Department of Environmental Conservation has received validated results from April’s accidental release of firefighting foam from New York Stewart International Airport in Orange County. DEC says more testing is required by the company that operates the hangar where the spill occurred.

The New York Public Interest Research Group has a new report showing the prevalence of emerging contaminants detected in the state’s public drinking water supplies. With a focus the past few years on PFOA and PFOS from Hoosick Falls to Newburgh, NYPIRG highlights other emerging contaminants.

Today, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee is holding a legislative hearing on a series of bills related to PFAS contaminants, a class of compounds discovered in water supplies across the country.

A recent accidental release of firefighting foam from a hangar at New York Stewart International Airport in Orange County is the subject of debate. The foam made its way into a stream, and testing on behalf of the City of Newburgh shows high levels of PFOA and PFOS. But the company that operates the hangar says the foam does not contain PFOA or PFOS. The state is awaiting separate results.

In the 1970’s, the U.S. Air Force began using a firefighting foam that contained the chemicals PFOS and PFOA, which have contaminated water supplies in communities across the Northeast.  The Air Force is now using a May 2016 lifetime health advisory level, or LHA, set by the EPA to determine safe levels and is cleaning up sites above acceptable levels.  A recent update indicates there are still a few homes affected near the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base.

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer was in East Greenbush Wednesday to announce that the Environmental Protection Agency intends to set a Maximum Contaminant Level for PFOA/PFOS chemicals.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler Thursday laid out the agency’s action plan to address PFAS chemicals. PFOA and PFOS have contaminated drinking water in such New York communities as Hoosick Falls and Newburgh. Environmentalists say the plan doesn’t go far enough, and it’s up to states to take the lead.

Earlier today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler laid out the agency’s action plan to address PFAS, a family of chemicals that includes PFOA and PFOS. PFOA and PFOS are toxic substances that have contaminated drinking water in a number of New York communities, including Hoosick Falls and Newburgh.

New York Democratic members of Congress are calling for action after news that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not move to set limits for PFAS chemicals – a group of believed carcinogens found in several Northeast communities.

New York state is launching a new initiative to protect drinking water —and looking for volunteers to take part. A leading environmental group welcomes the news.

A controversial, heated campaign in New York’s 19th congressional district was the talk of the town in 2018. And environmental sagas, including over Newburgh’s PFOS water contamination, continued. But there was plenty else grabbing attention in the region. WAMC’s Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Allison Dunne looks back.

As 2018 comes to a close, there is a new development in the ongoing battle against water contamination in the Hudson Valley. Calls for the Department of Defense to address a continuing source of PFOS water contamination in Newburgh, New York, have been heard. Though the remedy is for the shorter term, critics say it’s a start. An Air National Guard spokeswoman calls the move unprecedented.

New York state’s Drinking Water Quality Council has issued what it considers to be safe levels for exposure to toxic chemicals including PFOAs and PFOS that have been found in high quantities in some of New York’s drinking water supplies. Supporters say Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration now needs to quickly take action to implement standards that they say are long overdue.

The New York State Drinking Water Quality Council on Tuesday recommended maximum contaminant levels for three chemicals that turned up a few years ago in Hoosick Falls, Newburgh and other communities.

The New York State Drinking Water Quality Council met Tuesday and recommended maximum contaminant levels for three chemicals that turned up a few years ago in drinking water in Hoosick Falls, Newburgh and other communities.

The New York State Drinking Water Quality Council is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon. The council is expected to recommend maximum contaminant levels for toxic substances that have turned up in drinking water in Hoosick Falls, Newburgh and other communities. The meeting begins at 3 in Albany, New York City and on Long Island.

The New York State Drinking Water Quality Council is scheduled to meet on December 18.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is calling on the Trump administration to implement a law to help end the use of PFAS chemicals at commercial airports. The junior senator from New York says it’s time to bring awareness that airports can switch to firefighting foam free of the toxic fluorinated chemicals.

As the Newburgh city manager prepares to leave his post at the end of the year, he is speaking out against the use of a state-funded granulated activated carbon filtration system. New York had the system built to filter PFOS and other contaminants from Newburgh’s drinking water supply.