Purchase preserves Newburgh source
New York State, Orange County and the nonprofit Open Space Institute recently announced an agreement to safeguard Brown’s Pond in New Windsor, which supplies drinking water to 29,000 Newburgh residents.
The city has not been able to draw from its primary water supply, Washington Lake, since 2014 because of the discovery of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Instead, it relies on a connection to the Catskill Aqueduct and Brown’s Pond.
Over the past 40 years, much of the land within the Brown’s Pond watershed has been developed, according to a news release. To protect the mix of meadows, mature woods and wetlands adjacent to the pond, Open Space negotiated the purchase of the property for $1.2 million, with $900,000 provided by the state and $300,000 by the Orange County Water Authority.
