Dutchess, Putnam Tapped for Well Testing

Program will fund filters for PFAS contamination
Property owners in Dutchess and Putnam counties will soon be able to be reimbursed for testing their wells and installing filters if they exceed limits for a family of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems.
Both counties have been selected for a pilot program to address private wells contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Known as "forever chemicals" because of their persistence in the environment and the human body, PFAS have been used for decades in nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing and other consumer products, as well as firefighting foams.
Researchers have linked them to various health problems, including cancer, low birthweights and high cholesterol. Health concerns have led public health officials to close contaminated water sources serving the City of Newburgh and other municipalities, and supply filters to well owners in Dutchess and Putnam, including Mahopac and Putnam Valley. According to a groundwater study completed nearly 20 years ago, half of Philipstown's 9,400 residents at the time relied on well water.
While Dutchess has yet to finalize details, Rian Rodriguez, Putnam's public health director, told the Legislature's Health Committee on Feb. 11 that the state chose for the pilot six counties "at higher risk" of PFAS contamination. "The goal is to reduce exposure to PFAS from private wells in communities more likely to be impacted, and assess the feasibility for a more comprehensive, statewide program," he said.
Homeowners and business owners in Philipstown and other parts of Putnam should be able to begin applying for the county's $1.5 million allocation by June, said Brian Stevens, an associate public health sanitarian with the Health Department.

If testing, which can cost hundreds of dollars, confirms levels exceeding the state guideline of 10 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS (the two most common versions of the chemicals), homes and businesses can be reimbursed up to $5,000 for installing "point-of-entry" filtration systems on their main water lines.
The state will also subsidize up to $1,000 "point-of-use" filters installed on faucets or other outlets where water is dispensed, up to $10,000 to connect a property to a public water system and up to $1,500 for ongoing testing and maintenance.
New York and the federal Environmental Protection Agency regulate limits on PFAS in public drinking water supplies, such as the reservoirs that serve residents of Beacon and Cold Spring. But the estimated 1 million homes and businesses in New York state that rely on wells must test on their own unless they are part of a larger investigation tied to a verified source of major pollution.
Dozens of properties near the Mahopac Business District received point-of-entry filters from the state after testing showed more than 100 private wells in the area had PFAS levels above state limits. The state began testing after discovering chemicals in monitoring wells installed during the district's cleanup of volatile organic compounds and other toxic substances linked to the use of dry-cleaning chemicals.
New York has also allocated funds to the Town of Kent, the Birch Hill Acres and Starr Ridge Manor communities in Brewster, and Floradan Estates in Putnam Valley to address PFAS contamination through filtration systems. One such system is filtering water used by students and staff at Putnam Valley Elementary School, whose well once showed levels of 38.3 parts per trillion for PFOS and 23.3 ppt for PFOA. The district traced the problem to the Putnam Valley Fire Department's use of PFAS foams at its firehouses.
The federal government estimates that as many as 50 percent of U.S. households have some level of PFAS in their water — whether from a well or a municipal system. But while federal officials have put strict limits on water provided by utilities, those rules don't apply to the roughly 40 million people in the U.S. who rely on we...