Clean Air, Soil, and Water for All
Every Hudson Valley family should be able to turn on the faucet and have the peace of mind knowing the water is clean and safe; they should be able to let their children run around on the playground without worrying about toxins or contaminants. Everyone deserves clean air, water, and soil - that’s what I’m fighting for.
FIGHTING TOXIC ‘FOREVER CHEMICALS’
As a member of the Congressional PFAS Task Force, I introduced the historic PFAS Action Act, the most comprehensive legislation to combat “forever chemicals” in our drinking water and household goods to date. Since its introduction, multiple provisions of the Act have been adapted by the Environmental Protection Agency for enforcement, including establishing a nationwide limit for the amount of PFAS in drinking water. I’ve repeatedly called for the accelerated cleanup of PFAS contamination at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh and am fighting for the Department of Defense PFAS Discharge Prevention Act.
GETTING LEAD OUT OF OUR COMMUNITIES
No amount of lead exposure is safe for kids, no matter what the source is - lead pipes in water systems, aerial lead-sheathed telecommunications cables over playgrounds, or paint in homes. I’m fighting to get the lead out of our communities. I brought the Environmental Protection Agency to Poughkeepsie to help the city address the lead pipe crisis and secure federal funds to remove them. I was proud to join with Governor Hochul earlier this year to announce nearly $12 million for Poughkeepsie to replace lead pipes in its water system, including funding from the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The BIL includes $15 billion in funding for lead pipe replacement across the country and you better believe I’ll keep working every day to bring more of those investments home to the Hudson Valley to protect our families from toxic lead exposures.
Lead pipes aren’t the only source of lead I’m fighting to get out of our communities. Last year, the Wall Street Journal published bombshell reporting that big telecommunications companies were allowing decrepit, no longer used lead-sheathed cables to shed the toxin into the environment, including aerial cables above a playground in Wappingers Falls. I immediately called on the multi-billion dollar corporations to clean up the messes they made and stop exposing our families to toxic lead. Since then, I’ve joined with community leaders to clean up the toxic cables myself, have called for a Congressional hearing on the cables, and repeatedly demanded that the companies publicly disclose the locations of their cables. I’ll keep pressing to hold these corporations accountable and get these toxic lead cables out of our communities.
PROTECTING OUR CHERISHED HUDSON RIVER
Time and time again, we’ve seen big corporations come into our communities, dump their toxic waste, and put their profits over the health and safety of our families. Enough.
When big oil companies pushed to anchor their barges (and the dangerous pollutants that come with them) in our cherished Hudson River, I pushed back even harder. Countless folks from across the Hudson Valley contributed their voices to the public comments that I collected and hand-delivered to the Coast Guard to prevent the anchorages from moving forward.I introduced my Hudson River Protection Act to permanently ban barges from being able to anchor on our River and am proud that it passed in the House with unanimous, bipartisan support.
I’ve taken that same fight to General Electric (GE), who dumped their toxic PCB pollution into the Hudson River for decades. I’ve long demanded that GE be held accountable for the full cleanup of its mess and for putting its profit ahead of the safety of our families. This year, the EPA released a report on the status of PCB pollution cleanup efforts and the results were clear: GE is failing to meet basic remediation requirements. I immediately called for GE to restart its cleanup and I will keep pressing to hold GE accountable.
Just like how I spearheaded efforts to stop Holtec from discharging 1 million gallons of radioactive waste into the Hudson River last year, I will always fight to protect our River and the health of the 100,000 people in our district who depend on it for drinking water.
BRINGING HOME FEDERAL FUNDING FOR CLEAN DRINKING WATER PROJECTS
Just after taking office, I was proud to deliver over $9 million in federal funding for Orange County water infrastructure projects and prioritized water infrastructure projects for my nominations for federal Community Project Funding - including securing nearly $1 million each for Middletown, Cornwall-on-Hudson, Millerton, and Warwick earlier this year. Now, I’m fighting for even more funding for crucial water infrastructure overhauls in Middletown, Cornwall, and New Paltz.
“Better Together: Congressman Ryan’s vital support of a shared wastewater system has helped fuel the collaborative effort between the Village of Millerton and the Town of North East, exemplifying the transformative power of partnership.” - Millerton Mayor Jenn Najdek
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law created scores of investments to strengthen the resilience of our nation’s water infrastructure and ensure that every family has access to clean drinking water, with New York slated for at least $450 million for water infrastructure projects alone. I’ve already brought home major BIL investments for water projects in Hudson Valley communities, including Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, Greenwood Lake, Hyde Park, and Tilvoli – I’m going to keep fighting to deliver more of these transformative investments to every Hudson Valley community.