T IMES
MID
HUDSON
Vol. 30, No 6
3
FEBRUARY 7 - 13, 2018
ONE DOLLAR
Lady Goldbacks
win matinee
Page 35
Pages 18-19
SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR
Back to Washington Lake?
Status of city’s drinking water on forum agenda
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
City Manager Michael Ciaravino
spoke at a forum on the Newburgh water
crisis, co-hosted by the New York State
Department of Health and Department
of Environmental Conservation at the
city Activity Center on Monday night.
The event was attended by about 150
people wanting to learn more about the
state of the city’s drinking water.
“Are we switching over to Washington
Lake and what are the consequences for
that?” he asked. “Do we stay where
we’re at on the Catskills and what does
that look like for the city?”
The city manager spoke about the
new, state-of-the-art, granular-activated
carbon (GAC) filtration system, recently
constructed at the city’s water treatment
plant on Little Britain Road. Paid for
by the state, the system was designed
to remove perfluorooctane sulfonate
(PFOS) from city water contaminated
by discharges from the Stewart Air
National Guard Base.
In 2016, the city’s drinking-water
reservoir at Washington Lake was found
to be contaminated by PFOS flowing
from the air base, where PFOS-laden
fire foam was used for decades. The city
is currently supplied with water from
the Catskill Aqueduct, also paid for by
the state. The city is due to switch back
to the lake water sometime this spring.
“If we do switch over to Washington
Lake, we will quickly draw down that
water, unless we open the diversion
gates and accept the water upstream
from Silver Stream,” said Ciaravino.
The stream supplies approximately two-
thirds of the lake water and Patton
Brook supplies the other third, he said.
3
City of
Newburgh to
appoint new
police chief
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
“We took a test that has no answers,” city resident Melinda Ware told state officials at a
forum on the Newburgh water crisis Monday.
Silver Stream is fed by Recreation
Pond. Located next to the air base, in
2016, the pond tested with PFOS levels
of 5,900 parts per trillion, more than
84 times the current lifetime health
advisory level for PFOS set by the EPA.
“This new system is designed to treat
contaminants we found in Washington
Lake,” said Martin Brand, deputy
commissioner of remediation and
materials management at the DEC,
including PFOS and other perfluorinated
chemicals such as perfluorooctanoic
acid (PFOA).
DOH Deputy Commissioner for
Public Health Brad Hutton said the
GAC system is “possibly largest in the
nation,” capable of handling almost
9 million gallons of water per day.
The system will be rigorously tested
Continued on page 2
WWW.MIDHUDSONTIMES.COM
At long last, the City of Newburgh
will have a new police chief. Douglas
Solomon was provisionally appointed to
the position earlier this week.
“As
the
police
chief
of the City of
Beacon, he was
instrumental
in
the
rev i t a l i z at i o n
and renaissance
which
has
occurred in the
City of Beacon,”
the city stated in
a press release
Monday.
T
h
e
appointment
is provisional,
Douglas Solomon
pending Solomon
taking an open-
competitive police chief exam this year.
The city manager’s office did not say
when the exam would be scheduled.
“Chief Solomon is in the process to be
appointed pending the police chief exam
results, at which time he could be deemed
qualified and appointed permanently,”
City Manager Michael Ciaravino said in a
statement Monday.
Solomon has served as a police officer,
Continued on page 3