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Mid Hudson Times , Wednesday , February 7 , 2018

PUBLIC AGENDA

THURSDAY , FEBRUARY 8

Newburgh City Council Work Session , 6 p . m . City Hall , 83 Broadway .

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Newburgh City Council meeting . 7 p . m . City Hall , 83 Broadway .

TUESDAY , FEBRUARY 13

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beginning early March , he said , and results will be shared with the public . “ That testing will continue ,” Hutton said .

The system is expected to treat the lake water until PFOS is “ non-detect ,” said . “ That switch won ’ t be thrown until we get all the results back ,” Brand said .

Lake vs . aqueduct

Ciaravino said he and other city officials are “ extremely skeptical of the water ,” despite pledges by the state . “ We have retained a consultant ,” he said , to review the entire process .

“ I think Washington Lake should only be a backup when the Catskill Aqueduct is unavailable ,” said city Councilman Jonathan Jacobson . “ When we hook up to Washington Lake , I could see the state and the ( Department of Defense ) washing their hands .”

Ciaravino warned the city could end up having to foot the bill for aqueduct water , “ if at some point the state DEC deems water is safe for consumption , and we , for whatever reasons , we had technical disagreements … it is within the purview of the State of New York to stop reimbursing us for the Catskill Aqueduct water , for which we would pay a very high premium .”

“ We ’ re not going away ,” Brand insisted . “ We ’ re working on a comprehensive agreement in which the state will continue to operate the system ... obviously we want the DoD to pay for it , but until that happens , we aren ’ t going away .”

The aqueduct is more than 100 years old and in dire need of repair , Hutton said . “ It ’ s not an option for the City of Newburgh to just rely upon aqueduct water ,” Hutton asserted .

In fact , the aqueduct is scheduled to be shut down for two to three months later this year to carry out needed repairs , Hutton said . “ I won ’ t be surprised if it has to be taken down for longer ,” he said . Brown ’ s Pond , one of the city ’ s backup water sources , has a water supply that will last about 30 days , he added .

“ Are you holding Stewart accountable ?” asked city senior Erol McDoe , who expressed indignation over the DoD ’ s pollution of the drinking watershed . “ We have to pay for it , the taxpayers .”

“ From August , 2016 , we ’ ve made demands of the DoD ,” said Brand . Despite state test results clearly showing the source of the chemical is the Stewart air base , the federal agency has yet to take any responsibility . “ They ’ ve done some recent investigation in the area ,” Brand said , but , so far , they have not performed

City Manager Michael Ciaravino said exposure to PFOS has been linked to cancer in some studies .

any cleanup . The state will continue to push the DoD to the next step , “ to design a fix ,” Brand said .

Other residents voiced their anger at a lack of information on the human-health effects of PFOS . “ Why does my ( 13 ) -yearold nephew have a thyroid problem ?” asked Melinda Ware . “ We took a test that has no answers .”

Human-health effects

“ Unlike cholesterol .... we don ’ t have a treatment to remove PFOS ,” said Hutton . “ The state of the science is such that we know the range of levels that are ( concerning ),” he said , but not much beyond that .

Considered “ emerging contaminants ,” PFOS and PFOA were banned from production in the U . S . in 2000 . “ The entire nation was exposed to these chemicals ,” said Hutton , through products such as pizza boxes and popcorn bags . “ When we look at blood levels tested in the nation in 1999-2000 , they were actually elevated to the level of Newburgh ’ s ,” he said . “ We ’ ve seen a pretty dramatic reduction in the levels ( since ).”

Ciaravino highlighted information from the EPA reporting results from studies involving animals and occupational exposure in humans that revealed a connection between high levels of PFOS exposure and certain diseases .

“ These studies indicate that exposure for certain levels can result in adverse effects including developmental effects on the fetus during pregnancy , and to breastfed infants including low birth weight , accelerated puberty , skeletal variations , cancer such as kidney cancer , testicular cancer , liver effects …” he said , as well as effects on the thyroid .

The chemicals remain unregulated at the federal level . Hutton pointed to the recent news that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will conduct a five-year study into the human-health effects of exposure to PFOS and PFOA . A total of $ 7 million in federal funding was devoted to the study through the Investing in Testing Act , part of the National Defense Authorization Act , signed into law in December .

Some good news

More positive news has come with results from a state-sponsored blood testing program measuring PFOS levels of Newburgh area residents . “ The major exposure has been through drinking water ,” DOH research scientist Jim Bowers told a small group who participated in a one-on-one question session that evening .

But , people could have also ingested PFOS through water used for cooking , he said . “ When the City of Newburgh switched to the Catskill Aqueduct , people were no longer exposed to this contamination ,” he said . “ We ’ ve seen a definite drop .”

Bowers pointed to a chart showing the average PFOS blood level of a current city resident had dropped to 17.3 micrograms per liter from about 20 in the first round of blood tests . “ People ’ s kidneys have started to catch up ,” he said . “ People are eliminating the chemical more than they are taking it in .”

Bowers said the DOH would return to Newburgh to conduct another round of testing in two years . In the meantime , the state will continue to address the ongoing pollution coming from Recreation Pond , Brand said . “ We ’ ve been up there this fall ,” he said . “ The ( Department of Transportation ) and the DEC have been working at Rec Pond , taking samples , looking at flow rates , looking at design parameters in order to design a system that is going to cut those discharges off .”

“ We ’ re going to go back to the DoD and give them that information and say , ‘ Here , again , we ’ ve done the work for you , we expect you to step up and move forward .’ We ’ re going to continue to do that .”

He continued . “ We ’ re not going to be happy with this system until we fully demonstrate it works and fully demonstrate that , at the other end , we have clean water , free of PFOS . That ’ s the point .”

Editor ’ s Note : Mid Hudson Times Publisher Carl Aiello is among the plaintiffs in a class-action suit filed on behalf of residents exposed to the chemical PFOS .