With the recent rains New York has experienced, environmental advocates are calling on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign legislation banning PFAS in drinking water while also raising concerns about algal blooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat New York\u2019s been experiencing, a lot of people, especially in the Hudson Valley, have been calling it thousand-year storms,\u201d said Vanessa Fajans-Turner, executive director of Environmental Advocates New York.<\/p>\n
Fajans-Turner says more than ever, New York needs legislation to enforce stronger limits on PFAS in drinking water.<\/p>\n
PFAS, also known as \u201cforever chemicals,\u201d are a class of more than 15,000 toxic chemicals that appear in a vast range of everyday consumer products to industrial ones.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve been linked to kidney cancer and low birth weights.<\/p>\n
Fajans-Turner says heavy rains like the state recently experienced often aren\u2019t absorbed by the soil.<\/p>\n
As a result, those rains often cause runoff and stormwater that dumps dangerous chemicals into our water ways, not just from potential soil contamination, but also from litter and trash of products that contain PFAS.<\/p>\n
Some of those toxic chemicals can also promote the growth of algal blooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a piece of legislation that we want to put four parts per trillion (4.0 ppt) into statues,\u201d said Niamh Moore, director of healthy communities for Environmental Advocates New York.<\/p>\n
Moore tells Spectrum News 1 that Environmental Advocates New York worked on the bills that passed during the legislative session, which would establish contaminant levels and a hazard index in drinking water when it comes to PFAS.<\/p>\n