CITY OF NEWBURGH — The U.S. Department of Defense urged Newburgh residents to continue holding it accountable for cleaning up environmental contamination caused from the discharge of toxic chemicals at the Stewart Air National Guard Base.

But the hour-long forum at the Newburgh Armory Unity Center on Thursday evening where federal officials gave an update on the cleanup's progress did little to assuage many people's concerns. Some residents expressed frustration and anger that more has not been done to remediate problems that have plagued the community.

In May 2016, the City of Newburgh was forced to switch to an alternative drinking water source after tests showed levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate, known as PFOS, in Washington Lake were twice as high as the advisory limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Studies conducted in 2016 determined Washington Lake was contaminated by PFOS runoff from firefighting foam used at the Stewart Air National Guard Base.

"I’m mad as hell, and as much as I hate speaking in public, I had to come here," said Marianne Marichal, of Newburgh. She held her PFOS blood test results in one hand, a microphone in the other, as she addressed the Department of Defense officials.

Marichal said she wasn't there to talk about her test results, or the health complications that are sure to come with it. She said she was there to ask the government to stop using carcinogen-laden foams.

"When will enough be enough? When those like myself are sick and dying from these toxic chemicals in our bloodstreams?" Marichal asked.

Beatrice Harris said at the DoD's last forum in November she believed her health problems stem from being exposed to Newburgh's contaminated water for more than a decade. She was not comforted by Thursday night's progress update.

"So yeah, there's plans, there's incentives, there's funding, there's suggestions, but that's not going to change my life," Harris told DoD officials.

Assistant Secretary of the Air Force John Henderson seemed apologetic, iterating several times how the DoD is taking ownership of its mistakes and working hard to investigate and clean up the contaminated site.

"We can do better," Henderson said at the close of the forum. "We can always do better."

Henderson said the $2.4 million filtration system designed to prevent further contamination of the City of Newburgh’s former primary drinking water source is still expected to be operational by the end of this summer. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, an agency under the Department of Defense, will use the money to install the filtration system at Recreation Pond.

Henderson met with Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. L. Scott Rice, Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey, interim City Manager Joe Donat, Councilman Bob Sklarz, members of the city's legal team, City Engineer Jason Morris, Water Superintendent Wayne Vradenburgh and a handful of other federal officials behind closed doors at the ANG base.

"The fact they stepped up and have acknowledged some of their responsibility, I think that's a major, major move in the right direction," Harvey said. "(Assistant) Secretary Henderson in our closed door meeting prior to our public meeting seemed to be very genuine, very concerned and very serious about having that collaboration and partnership with the local city government, state and all those involved. Hopefully those actions will come to fruition."

lbellamy@th-record.com