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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, May 29, 2019
City’s water department comes clean
Continued from page 1
In 2016 Vradenburgh recalled the worst
moment of his career as the New York
State Department of Environmental
Control rolled in with black SUVs to take
over the plant during the contamination.
He was lucky enough to take over the job
from a well-respected and thought out
Superintendant John Platt.
Platt created a pump station at Brown’s
Pond to have the reservoir as a back-up
to Washington Lake. He received a lot of
blowback putting in a $6 million dollar
pump that could never get used, but he
used interest-free loans and went forward
with the project as a safeguard in the off
chance that Washington Lake was ever
compromised.
“The station was a golden nugget if
we didn’t have this station we would
be on bottled water for years,” said
Vradenburgh. “I took this job because
there was a solid structure set in place by
John that I knew I could build upon.”
The pump station at Brown’s Pond cost
$6,000 to run and is paid for by New York
State, along with the generator and any
extra costs related to the contamination
at Stewart Airport. The pond is located
in New Windsor, but is owned by the
City of Newburgh. The Town of New
Windsor does have a right to use the
water in Brown’s Pond, especially since
the discovery of PFOS and PFOA in New
Windsor wells earlier this month. The
city and the town of New Windsor are
in discussions to make an arrangement
regarding the water supply.
The water from Browns Pond goes
through many levels of filtration before
being distributed. The water first has
a series of chemicals added to group
together the organic compounds and
allow them to flow to the top to get filtered
out. It then goes through six filters to take
out the organics from the water before
going through the $20 million Granulated
Carbon Filtration system installed by
New York State with the intention to
filter out PFOS and PFOA from New York
State, but is currently used to clean the
water from Brown’s Pond and the Catskill
Aqueduct when ready to make the switch.
The GAC is a massive building with
18 vessels each holding 40,000 pounds
of carbon per vessel. The water runs
through the system like a snake running
up and down through each vessel. The
used carbon is taken to Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania where it can be cleaned
and reactivated. According to the
agreement with NYS the carbon used in
the Newburgh plant is all new carbon.
“We built this plant in a year and a
half without a single boil notice,” said
Vradenburgh. “Building a plant of
this type in that short period of time is
unheard of.”
Vradenburgh has not run a drop of
Washington Lake water through the
system because of the lack of insurance
that short chain PFOS will get filtered
out through Carbon. He also is not
ready to move on the ion exchange resin
proposed by the Department of Defense
at Recreation Pond, because of the lack
of science and technology proving its
success.
“I am not ready to do anything until
the science and the technology are there
to prove that the water is 100 percent
clean,” said Vradenburgh. “I believe we
will have to stay on the Catskill aqueduct
until there is a solution in place to provide
the city with sustainable clean water. We
do our part to make sure the best water
quality is put out our door no matter
what.”
Vradenburgh often struggled to make
ends meet with a small budget and a small
staff of 19, with seven operators that run
the plan 24 hours a day seven days a week.
He has found ways to save hundreds of
thousands of dollars with leak detection.
The savings from the leak detection was
invested right back into the department,
to bring equipment up to date and give
workers the tools needed to do their job
efficiently.
The department also participates in
a lead line replacement program where
residents with homes dating further back
than 1988. In two years the department
received 94 applications with 84
applications accepted and the program
was a grant through New York State.
The struggle Vradenburgh faces is one
that every department in the city faces,
retention. He struggles to keep employees
when the private sector is offering higher
salaries and better benefits. They are
trying to create internships and bring in
younger people to get started in a career
with the department.
Vradenburgh also faced the struggle
of deciding to go to the private sector
for more pay or to stay in the City of
Newburgh.
“I have a love for the city, when you love
Newburgh, you love Newburgh. I could
take more money and go but I still have
work to do,” said Vradenburgh. “I’ve got
13 years before I turn it over to someone
else.”
The department hopes to spark an
interest in young students at NFA with
tours and outreach. A majority of the
workers are older men, they are hoping
to bring in younger workers to start their
the department.
“Something I was very impressed by
was that this entire department views the
people they serve as customers and they
always strive to provide quality service.
They are continually employing advanced
scientific testing, to ensure that our water
is of the highest quality,” said Councilman
Bob Sklarz. “It is truly a shame that the
recent crisis, totally caused by outside
agencies, has tarnished the reputation
of this dedicated department. I could not
be more proud of their professionalism
during this challenging period.”
Making their way down Broadway
Marchers in the City of Newburgh’s Memorial Day Parade head east Monday morning. More photos on page 5.
Brian Wolfe