Read the full article by Lana Bellamy (Times Herald-Record)
“CITY OF NEWBURGH — The Restoration Advisory Committee for the Stewart Air National Guard, consisting mostly of City of Newburgh residents and active community members, held its first meeting Tuesday night at the Newburgh Armory Unity Center.
The committee is designed to provide a two-way forum between the community and the Air National Guard regarding ongoing remediation of PFAS contamination at the Stewart base.
The group spent the first part of the meeting establishing rules and hashing out how communication between the committee and the public will be handled…
Brief updates were also provided about current remediation activities, including the operation of a new granular activated carbon filtration system at Recreation Pond, a 2.5-acre retention basin that catches runoff from the Stewart base.
During storms, water flows from Recreation Pond into Silver Stream and into Washington Lake, the City of Newburgh’s former primary source of drinking water. The contamination has been linked to PFAS-laden firefighting foams used at the base.
Kerry Tull, of Wood Environment and Infrastructure, said Wood visually inspected 189 catch basins and manhole structures, and used a camera to evaluate 39 pipes. The inspection discovered 19 pipes that had leaks or cracks; four pipes were found that were previously unmapped; six pipes were found leaving the base, four of which feed into Recreation Pond…
The filter at Recreation Pond began full-time operations on Dec. 5. Water sampling for PFOS and PFOA began the next day. By Dec. 10, an increased number of solids were found entering the treatment system, requiring filters to be changed three times a day…”