Guide Marcel Barrick of the Newburgh Clean Water Project talks to riders on a bus tour of the City of Newburgh's watershed on Saturday. Barrick discussed the dangers facing the city's water supply from chemicals such as PFOS and PFOA, as well as other pollutants. View more photos from the group's "We Deserve Clean Water" event at recordonline.com. [Allyse Pulliam photos/For the Times Herald-Record] ▲ Washington Lake as seen from the bus tour. The "Watershed Safari" included stops in and around New York Stewart International Airport, where firefighting foam used at the Air National Guard base there has been cited as the cause of contamination of the city’s now former primary water supply, Washington Lake, by the chemicals PFOS and PFOA. ▲ Bus tour participants Peyton Andretta, left, and her mother, Danielle, look at a pipe that carries water through Stewart Air National Guard Base. Danielle Andretta, of New Windsor, said she found the tour "very educational." ▲

NEWBURGH — "We Deserve Clean Water" was the name of the Newburgh Clean Water Project's event Saturday afternoon and evening.

Highlighting the day were a pair of bus tours of the City of Newburgh's watershed, focusing on the dangers it faces from chemicals and other pollutants.

"Water is life," said group member Marcel Barrick, who served as one of the tour guides. "We have to protect the water and let everybody know how important this is."

The tour included stops in and around New York Stewart International Airport, where firefighting foam used at the Air National Guard Base there has been cited as the cause of contamination of the city's now former primary water supply, Washington Lake, by the chemicals PFOS and PFOA.

High levels of the chemicals, used in making the foam, were found in the city reservoir, forcing Newburgh to switch to New York City's Delaware Aqueduct for its water.

But that is not the only danger posed to Newburgh and other communities' drinking water. Bill Fetter, the secretary-treasurer of the Quassaick Creek Watershed Alliance, said everything from salt spread on roads in winter to petroleum that leaks in parking lots and then is carried into water bodies by storm water runoff, also are potential hazards, and were around long before the PFOS/PFOA crisis arose.

Danielle Andretta, one of those who took the tour, found it "very educational."

"I live in New Windsor, very close to Stewart Airport," Andretta said. "I pass these places all the time. Marcel put things in easy to understand terms."

The bus tours began and ended at the Ritz Theater on Broadway, where the rest of the day's events were held.

Dan Shapley of the environmental group Riverkeeper, who also took the tour, gave one of several talks toward the end of the day about protecting sources of drinking water. He said people are entitled to high quality drinking water that requires as little treatment as possible.

Riverkeeper also had one of several tables with educational materials in the theater lobby. They were urging those who attended to tell New York's leaders to limit the combined maximum contamination level of chemicals like PFOS and PFOA to two parts per trillion.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency's current maximum standard is 70 parts per trillion.

mrandall@th-record.com