ALBANY – Residents from Dutchess and Putnam counties who get their drinking water from private wells can apply for free PFAS testing funded by the state.
If mitigation is needed, they will be eligible for a rebate to install a PFAS water treatment system or connect to a public water supply.
In the coming months, the state will also accept applications in Orange, Ulster and Westchester counties.
Orange County, in particular, has had a number of problems with PFAS contaminating private wells, especially in the area in and around New York Stewart International Airport where the Air National Guard base contaminated local streams and the City of Newburgh’s Washington Lake reservoir with firefighting foam that contains the carcinogenic chemical.
The State Departments of Health and Environmental Conservation and the Environmental Facilities Corporation have budgeted $1.5 million per county to support this pilot project. Those funds will support a limited number of participants in six counties selected for the pilot (including Suffolk) because they have large numbers of private wells and a higher likelihood of PFAS contamination, state officials said.
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