The New York Department of Health and the University at Albany received a $1 million grant from the CDC this week for a five-year study on the health effects of PFAs in Newburgh and Hoosick Falls.

The chemicals have been shown to cause cancer, affect fertility, and stunt growth in children. Clean water advocate Beatrice Harris says after living in Newburgh for a few years she got sick.

"I moved here in 2006 with my family," Harris said. "Because of economic problems we always turned to tap water, so I used it for everything — cooking, making tea, cleaning."

She blames the city's water supply for her illness. I started having severe migraines to a point where it affected one side of my body and as time went on my health just basically morphed.

Activists like Harris say studies aren't enough.

"I don't think a study containing 1,000 adults and 300 children is going to explain anything, and to me, studies especially sponsored by government agencies are just a front," Harris said.

Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey welcomes the new study.

"We're excited about [it]. Any movement in the right direction is great movement for our city, for our residents, including myself and my family that have been affected by this PFOA contamination in our water," Harvey said.

Harvey says the city has taken steps to address the crisis.

"Most of us, if not all, have taken the free blood tests I advocated [for] and was able to get done," Harvey said. "We know our results but how to translate those results, how to understand and comprehend what those human effects are, the jury is still out on that."

Washington Lake was Newburgh's water source until it was discovered it was contaminated by PFAs from runoff from the nearby Stewart Air National Guard Base. It no longer supplies the city and Newburgh also built a $25 million water filtration plant.

Despite the changes, Harvey says more must be done. He is now working on drafting legislation, with the help of Senator Kristen Gillibrand, to bring reparations to the city's residents who are contaminated. The reparations would come in the form of rebates, for years of buying tainted water and other services. 

"Enough is enough, I don't want to talk about it any more," Harvey said. "I want us to be about it. I want us to get results, tangible results for our residents — and we mean it, we want those results immediately."