T IMES
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION FIRST-PLACE AWARD FOR GENERAL EXCELLENCE, 2016
MID
HUDSON
Vol. 29, No 15
3
APRIL 12 - 18, 2017
3
ONE DOLLAR
The
End Display
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Page 14 Page 44
SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR
Wetlands protection
Town approves purchase near Chadwick Lake
S pecial R eport :
N ewburgh ’ s T ainted W ater
Not just
a simple
blood test
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
T
The Newburgh Town Council has approved the purchase of a 30-acre property and wetlands north of Chadwick Lake.
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
The Newburgh Town Council has
approved the purchase of a 30-acre
property and wetlands north of
Chadwick Lake. The property purchase
is part of an ongoing effort to protect
the lake, which serves as a chief source
of drinking water for the Town of
Newburgh.
“We need to protect the watershed
wherever we can,” said Councilwoman
Betty Greene at Town Hall on Monday
night.
Located near the Town of Newburgh-
Plattekill border, the undeveloped parcel
contains New York State-designated
wetlands that feed into the Quassaick
Creek, a Chadwick Lake tributary.
“It’s mostly wetlands,” said town
attorney Mark Taylor. “Orange County
acquired the parcel through tax
foreclosure and has offered it to the town
for a price of $15,000.”
Development potential of the property
is limited, Taylor said. “From the town’s
perspective, ownership is the best means
of protecting the waters flowing into the
reservoir,” he said.
The wetlands have been identified as
a “high-priority watershed protection
area,” said town Engineer James
Osborne.
The town has purchased several
lakeside properties in an effort to
preserve the lake’s water quality in
recent years. Chadwick Lake is expected
Continued on page 4
WWW.MIDHUDSONTIMES.COM
he room was white and sterile. A
sign reading “PFOS supplies” was
posted to a
The City of
large, standing
cabinet. A nurse Newburgh is slowly
recovering from PFOS
arrived with
contamination of its
a needle and
drinking-water supply
syringe, which
she placed a label at Washington Lake.
Manufactured in the
on for storage.
U.S. until 2000, the
Soon, the
syringe was filled chemical was used in
Scotchgard products
with the bubbly
and non-stick cookware.
red stuff, ready
It was also a key
to be shipped off
to the Wadsworth ingredient in fire foam
used at Stewart Air
Center
National Guard Base,
Laboratory in
where the chemical
Albany.
seeped into water
The blood
and soil. Pooling in a
sample was
taken as part of a stormwater retention
pond near the air base,
second round of
blood tests offered the chemical flowed
downhill to pollute the
through the
city’s drinking water.
New York State
In this series, the
Department of
Health to test for Mid Hudson Times
investigates the water
PFOS related to
City of Newburgh crisis, the ongoing
cleanup and the source
drinking water.
of the pollution at
“This is not a
Stewart Air National
Continued on
Guard Base.
page 2