TOWN OF NEWBURGH – The Department of Environmental Conservation will spend up to $2.7 million connecting to municipal water systems some Town of Newburgh and New Windsor properties whose wells are poisoned by the same toxic chemical that shut down the City of Newburgh’s main water supply.

At least 10 properties in the Town of Newburgh will get municipal water connections because their wells are contaminated with perfluorooctane sulfonate, and a related chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid, that are tied to the use of firefighting foams at Stewart Air National Guard Base.

The chemicals, also known as PFOS and PFOA, are associated with kidney and testicular cancers, birth defects, ulcerative colitis and other health problems.

An agreement with the Town of Newburgh was approved in mid-October.

The DEC is awaiting approval of a similar agreement for New Windsor that will cover at least 15 properties and cost up to $1.6 million.

“DEC remains committed to providing clean water to all communities impacted by contamination from the Stewart Air National Guard Base, and will continue to hold the Department of Defense accountable for the cleanup of the area,” according to a statement from the department.

The City of Newburgh shut down Washington Lake, its main drinking and cooking water supply, in May 2016 due to levels of PFOS.

Three months later, the DEC added the air base to its Superfund list of contaminated sites.

In addition to the 159-acre Washington Lake reservoir, a water sampling program uncovered PFOS and PFOA in private wells used by homes within the lake’s watershed. Contamination levels ranged from 2 parts per trillion to 34 parts per trillion.

Federal health advisory guidelines for PFOS and PFOA were lowered last year to 70 ppt. The state has bought special filters for some properties with contaminated wells and moved to connect others to municipal supplies.

Last week, Newburgh’s Town Board approved a resolution authorizing the installation of connections for five properties on Coranas and Leary lanes, three on Little Britain Road and three on Rock Cut Road.

The required public hearing will be held on Nov. 27 at Town Hall.

The next step is to advertise the project to interested contractors and select from among the bidders, Supervisor Gil Piaquadio said.

“We’ll have to extend out some of those streets with main water lines and then tie in the houses,” he said.

Thomas Coranas III owns two of the five affected properties on Coranas Lane, which was carved from farmland belonging to his family.

For drinking water, he and his wife have relied the past six months on a water cooler requiring frequent changing of its bottles.

“We went through a lot so far,” Coranas said.

lsparks@th-record.com