Former Village of Brewster Mayor John Degnan speaks, East Fishkill Supervisor John Hickman listens

EAST FISHKILL – Congressman John Hall Friday brought two members of the House Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment to his 19th District for a special hearing in hopes of speeding along the remediation process for several superfund sites, and to urge environmental leaders to impose stricter regulations on contaminants.

Subcommittee Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) and ranking member John Boozman (R-Arkansas) heard testimony from state environmental and health officials, along with local leaders and community members affected by groundwater contamination.

They want more action from the involved government agencies to fix the problems.

 “It’s not unlike many other areas in the country, but we certainly understand that this is a relatively smaller community that has the concentration we will certainly continue to observe it and question what is going on to see when we can come to an acceptable remedy,” said Johnson.

The session at East Fishkill Town Hall was meant “to bring the growing issue of groundwater contamination in the Hudson Valley to the forefront,” according to Hall.

During the meeting, testimonies from Town of East Fishkill Supervisor John Hickman and former Village of Brewster Mayor John Degnan focused on the challenges the towns faced in handling communications between victims of groundwater contamination and the EPA, and how much work was involved in attempting to mediate the situations.

Both Brewster and East Fishkill contain superfund sites. In Brewster, a parcel of land was treated for groundwater contamination 15 years ago, yet a few years ago, it still tested positive for PCB’s.  In East Fishkill, the Hopewell Precision Site continues to provide a mile-long plume of groundwater and air contamination.

Though representatives Johnson and Boozman said they have been pleased so far with the work and cooperation of the EPA and the DEC in these cases, and others around the nation, they both felt the studies need to end soon, and that more solutions need to come to fruition before the contamination is given a chance to spread.

Meanwhile, one of the two Republicans seeking to challenge Hall in November, Kieran Lalor, issued a statement Friday: “This is John Hall’s MO; grandstanding on noncontroversial issues while dodging the day’s most pressing problems. The great issue of the day is delivering clean, affordable energy to middle-class Americans. If Hall is serious about saving the environment, he would reconsider nuclear energy.”