Federal Officials: Stewart PFAS Cleanup Taking Big Step Forward

May 19—Stewart Air National Guard Base has been accepted into the well-funded Defense Environmental Restoration Program, the region's federal representatives said in a joint announcement Tuesday.

That will allow funding for a remedial investigation — the next step in getting PFAS cleaned up at the base and in surrounding communities, senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney said.

The base previously was prevented from accessing the program, known by the acronym DERP.

PFAS are a group of toxic chemicals found in products such as the firefighting foam used at the airport. High levels of PFAS were found in Washington Lake, the City of Newburgh's former primary drinking water supply, in 2016. The lake is due east of the airport.

Stewart's is the first Air National Guard base remedial program to be funded under DERP. It was made eligible under the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, after the Trump administration previously eliminated all National Guard bases from the program.

The funding now will be awarded by the end of September 2021, the officials said.

Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said acceptance into DERP is "a game changer for the effort to clean up the toxic PFAS mess at Stewart."

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