NEWBURGH, NY:
A Case of Environmental Injustice
PFAS in the Water
May 2016: PFAS found in Lake Washington which was Newburgh's primary drinking water reservoir
June 2016:
New York City's Catskill Aqueduct
1970s: DoD had at least suspected that PFAS-laden fire foam was harmful
1980s: PFAS-laden fire foam at Stewart Air National Guard Base began being used in large fires and firefighting drills
May 2016: Switched to Brown's Pond
Demographics
Population: 28,282
Poverty Rate: 29.5%
Median household income: $37,900
Race and Ethnicity:
Hispanic: 50.8%
Black: 24.2%
White (non-hispanic): 20.1%
Asian 1.06%
Multi-racial (non-hispanic): 2.92% , Other: 0.534%
Indigenous: 0.318%
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Foreign-born population: 24%
Citizenship: 83.1%
What Happened?
Newburgh residents had been drinking PFAS-contaminated water for decades following the military’s adoption of aqueous film-forming foam, a fire foam used to fight fuel fires (even though the Pentagon has known since the 1970s that PFAS is toxic).
How?
The EPA has yet to place Maximum Contaminant Levels on PFAS chemicals. The lack of federal regulation for PFAS leaves the state and local governments in charge of regulating this "forever chemical."
Health Impacts
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Kidney disease
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Immune system problems, and hormone disruption, among other conditions
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Liver function
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Reproductive issues
Status of Water Security in Newburgh
Newburgh is without guaranteed access
to clean drinking water in its near future. New York State and the Department of Defense, the department responsible for Stewart National Air Guard Base, have committed to supplying Newburgh with clean water for the time span it will take to fully remediate the watershed and return to the original source of Lake Washington. Remediation will most likely take decades. The city remains on the Catskill aqueduct, threatening the city's access to meaningful water security.
Sources
Environmental Protection Agency. (2020, November 17). PFAS Laws and Regulations. EPA.
Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/pfas/pfas-laws-and-regulations.
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Guillaume, T. G. & K. (2020, February 18). Newburgh's Drinking Water Contaminated by "Forever Chemicals". MARIST CIRCLE.
Retrieved from https://www.maristcircle.com/home/2020/2/17/dvqa1zw8rvm1ez7zsu02t5e7io6x2f.
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Newburgh. Newburgh NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/108825.html.
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Newburgh, New York. The PFAS Project Lab. (2019, November 13). Retrieved from https://pfasproject.com/newburgh-new-york/.
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The New York Water Crisis That Nobody's Talking About. VICE. (n.d.).
Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en/article/v74d5y/newburgh-new-york-water-crisis-that-nobodys-talking-about.
PFOS Contamination Water Crisis Update 2016 to Present. Newburgh NY. (n.d.).
Retrieved from https://www.cityofnewburgh-ny.gov/water-department/pages/pfos-contamination-water-crisis-update-2016-to-present.