Top U.S. officials have issued a stern warning about drinking water. As someone who grew up in the City of Newburgh, a warning about drinking water is always scary.
In May 2016, City of Newburgh residents learned their drinking water supply was contaminated with the man-made chemical Perfluorooctane Sulfonate, also called PFOS.
According to the source, the Newburgh water had PFOS levels above the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently updated lifetime drinking water health advisory level. PFOS is a potentially toxic chemical.
Studies show that exposure to PFOS over certain levels may result in adverse health effects, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, kidney cancer, testicular cancer, liver damage, low birth weight, and other serious health effects.
In 2019, the New York State Department of Health advised the Town of New Windsor that low levels of PFOA and PFOS were detected in the Butterhill well location.
According to the DOH, the water was acceptable for drinking. However, out of an abundance of caution, New Windsor officials shut down the Butterhill water supply.
Also in 2019, new data found 16 emerging contaminants in different Hudson Valley drinking water systems. Now there’s another water issue that impacts all of the Empire State.
The EPA and White House just sent a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and governors nationwide regarding “disabling cyberattacks” that are striking “water and wastewater systems throughout the United States.”
Officials believe these attacks may “disrupt the critical lifeline of clean and safe drinking water,” and also “impose significant costs on affected communities.”
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Top U.S. officials pointed the blame at Iran and China. The Iranian Government Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recently executed several “malicious cyberattacks” against water systems and other U.S. infrastructures.
The letter also states a Chinese Group “compromised information technology of multiple critical infrastructure systems, including drinking water,” in the United States.