The people of Newburgh are expressing their concerns after preliminary tests done by the city show that Silver Stream has PFOA and PFOS chemical levels, 15 times higher than the legal health standard. 

The city tested the water, after firefighting foam spilled in a Hangar Owned by Atlantic Aviation. It then escaped into a retention pond, sending it into Silver Stream. 

"When I was here last Sunday, when all the foam was floating through the air, there were children riding bicycles trying to catch it trying to ride through it. We have a history in this community of New Windsor, and now in Newburgh as well, of the contamination of the PFOA and PFOS," said Cynthia Mack, Newburgh resident. "The long term health effects, I think that's the most frightening for everyone. It's making people very very sick."

This foam is not supposed to contain these toxic chemicals, and it is a huge problem if it does. However, it is possible the chemicals are not from the foam but rather could be many years old, since the retention pond was previously contaminated with these chemicals from a 2016 spill. 

"We can begin to assess the problem of whether the PFOS is coming in from the water main, is it coming in from the recreation pond, is it coming in from where? Is it coming into the foam from the silver stream? So there are a lot of unanswered questions," said Newburgh City Mayor Torrance Harvey.

The Newburgh City manager and he says the DEC is responsible for leading this clean-up effort, and they have told Atlantic to deploy all available resources to assist with this clean-up effort.

The DEC emphasized the city’s test results are just preliminary. They took their own samples Wednesday, and expect to have the results in a few days. 

"There's a lot of sides to this and we're just beginning. This is the beginning of a long process," Harvey said.