Newburgh Drinking Water Crisis
Photo: Daniel Case via CC
BACKGROUND
The City of Newburgh is facing a drinking water crisis after toxic chemicals known as PFAS PFOS (per and polyfluoroalkyl substances) were found to have contaminated its primary reservoir, Lake Washington, in May 2016.
New York State has since declared the Stewart Air National Guard Base, as the major source of the contamination, a state Superfund site. Alternate sources of water have been provided to ensure tap water is running free of PFAS in the short term.
Riverkeeper has been working with the city, community groups and other partners to advance three overarching goals: remediation of PFAS sources; establishment of drinking water source protection and restoration programs for the city’s reservoirs; and response to health concerns. Riverkeeper is also seeking to ensure that the lessons learned from Newburgh’s crisis result in better protections for public drinking water supplies statewide.
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Newburgh Community Outreach Toolkit for Drinking Water
The Newburgh Community Outreach Toolkit for Drinking Water is a project of Riverkeeper made possible by the generous support of the Arnow Family Fund.
Launched in 2021 and led by Jennifer Rawlison with support from language liaisons Gabby Vasquez and Harvel Brown, the City of Newburgh residents created materials that could explain the Newburgh drinking water crisis in plain language and then translated in common languages in the community. The effort is a step to bridge the gap between local, county, state and federal government and the community members impacted in the City/Town of Newburgh and Town of New Windsor.
Riverkeeper’s goals are to:
- Increase the number of engaged local residents in the Browns Pond and Washington Lake watershed by connecting residents to their drinking water reservoirs;
- Develop a community toolkit and powerpoint presentations that include a fact sheet, talking points, a timeline/history and educational/action items in common community languages about the Newburgh drinking water crisis;
Objectives are to:
- Develop closer connections to new and old community partners and their constituents, schools, neighborhood groups and service organizations;
- Build awareness and interest of new and diverse community members and identify local solutions/actions that can improve Washington Lake and Browns Pond drinking water sources.
City of Newburgh residents deserve comprehensive long-term medical screening. The first essential step in providing that is to provide free blood screening to determine exposure levels – as step that has been taken in other New York communities affected by contamination of drinking water with similar perfluorinated compounds.
Elements of a comprehensive health response should include:
- Blood testing, widely available to all and carefully implemented to serve Newburgh, where multiple languages are spoken, many lack primary care physicians or health care insurance and other challenges are present.
- Assemble an independent panel of experts to develop guidelines for a medical monitoring program, using the C-8 Medical Monitoring Program as a guiding framework.
- Make the medical monitoring program open to all those exposed to PFOS through drinking water.
We are calling for this for several reasons:
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- Newburgh residents are demanding it: The speakers at public meetings in June and September have been clear and compelling in expressing their health concerns and the need for blood testing to be made available to all who were exposed. City, county and state representatives have called for blood testing.
- It’s fair: Residents of Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, who were exposed through drinking water to a very similar chemical, have been offered this service.
- It’s the only way to know who has been exposed: As Howard A. Freed, M.D., Former Director, NYS Department of Health, Center for Environmental Health, testified before a joint Legislative hearing Sept. 7 that when dealing with this type of contamination, a medical monitoring program should be developed for those who have elevated levels of the toxic chemical in their blood. “These people should be identified by making blood PFOA testing widely available and free to concerned and exposed individuals.”
For more information, including information for clinicians, visit this Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) page.
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In 2016, Riverkeeper began a Source Water Protection project to advocate for better protections statewide. We are applying our work on the drinking water crisis in the City of Newburgh, and the lessons learned from the failure to protect that drinking water supply, documented in our white paper, A Case Study and Call for Comprehensive Source Water Protection.
That advocacy contributed to the historic enactment in 2017 of the $2.5 billion Clean Water Infrastructure Act, including over $100 million for a new source water protection land conservation program, and companion legislation that expands drinking water protections for millions of New Yorkers.
Also based on the findings of our White Paper, we have created a Drinking Source Water Protection Scorecard to help communities statewide understand the degree to which their own water supplies are protected, and to argue for sufficient state and federal resources to increase protections.
Learn more about Drinking Water Source Protection
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Riverkeeper is acting as a watchdog on the remedial response to the contamination underlying the Air National Guard Base and Stewart International Airport, which contaminatedLake Washington, Newburgh’s primary reservoir, via stormwater discharges and possibly other routes.
Chief among our current concerns is ensuring that DOD installs an interim remedial measure to filter the water flowing from Recreation Pond, which is situated on the Air National Guard Base and receives discharges of polluted stormwater from several outfalls, including one where state tests have measured PFOS at more than 80 times the EPA guidance level for long-term exposure via drinking water (5,900 vs. 70 ppt). Before the stream that received discharges from Recreation Pond was diverted, polluted water flowed less than 1.4 miles before reaching Newburgh’s primary drinking water supply.
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Newburgh’s water issues are not confined to PFOS in the drinking water supply.
EPA-ordered testing identified several other so-called “emerging contaminants” in Newburgh’s drinking water supply at the same time PFOS was identified. Riverkeeper has asked EPA to provide information about the health effects, potential sources, and treatment technologies available for these chemicals.
Harmful algal blooms have been documented at Brown’s Pond, Newburgh’s backup reservoir, in 2013 and 2015. This cyanobacteria can produce toxins that could enter the water supply if not managed properly, and the algal bloom could be a symptom of issues in the watershed requiring interventions, such as limits to the use of lawn fertilizers, or green infrastructure to reduce stormwater inputs.
Development in the watershed that supplies Newburgh’s reservoirs with water has put water quality at risk of degradation. Riverkeeper is advocating for a long-term restoration plan (see “The Larger Context”).
Lead has also been found at elevated levels, likely due to old pipes throughout the city, a chronic problem in many older cities. Lead has also found at elevated levels in city soils. (Riverkeeper is not working directly on this issue.)
Newburgh is also dealing with its aging sewer system and is implementing a plan to reduce combined sewage overflows into the Hudson River and Quassaick Creek by nearly 100 million gallons over 15 years. It is also working to identify illicit connections between its sewers and storm drains, which have resulted in direct discharges of sewage to the Hudson River, in the case of one neighborhood, for decades. Riverkeeper continues to advocate for these actions.
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Newburgh Clean Water Project, Newburgh Clean Water Project is a local resident’s action group, determined to protect access to clean water in Newburgh.
Quassaick Creek Watershed Alliance, a citizens group devoted to education and research, is an invaluable resource for understanding the watershed that supplies Newburgh’s drinking water.
NAACP Newburgh Highland Falls Branch, the local chapter of the NAACP coordinates with Riverkeeper and othe partners on advocacy, outreach and community education.
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PFOS contamination is known to have contaminated Washington Lake, part of the Quassaick Creek Watershed. There are interconnections between the Moodna and Quassaick Creek watersheds as part of Newburgh’s drinking water system, and both watersheds may be contaminated with PFOS.
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Department of Health found elevated levels of PFAS in certain fish species. The Department of Health has issued a “catch and release” advisory for select waterbodies.
Affected Waterbodies:
– Newburgh Beaver Dam Lake
– Lockwood Basin / Masterson Park Pond
– Moodna Creek
– Recreation Pond
– Silver Stream
– Stream from Stewart State Forest to Beaver Dam Lake
– Washington Lake
For more information, visit the New York State Department of Envrionmental Conservation website.
