MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—City of Middletown Mayor Joseph DeStefano told The Epoch Times on April 27 that providing a safe water system is the top priority when serving the public, and that’s why he is focused on expanding the city’s watershed area and updating the aging water infrastructure.
DeStefano was expanding on his April 21 State of the City Address, in which he discussed the water system projects that were developed in 2025. During the annual address, DeStefano said the old infrastructure requires large investments to remain usable and compliant with regulations.
DeStefano told The Epoch Times that expanding the watershed area for Middletown is important so that a situation like the one in which harmful chemicals entered the Newburgh water supply would not be possible. In 2016, it was found that the Stewart Air National Guard Base was the source of the chemical perfluorooctane sulfonate, contaminating the Newburgh water supply….