Rep. Delgado Introduces Hoosick Falls Community Leader Michael Hickey

It's a great honor for me to introduce mister Michael Hickey good friend of mine at this point and and not just a constituent but but a real friend from Hoosick Falls as you know New York County we all owe him a debt of gratitude for following discovery he made as the death of his of his father and in 2013 when Michael's father passed away from cancer and he began to look Connection between cancer and the chemicals used in a local manufacturing facility where his father worked This would eventually lead to the discovery that there was a higher incidence of illnesses related to Pfas chemicals and extremely unsafe levels of these chemicals in the village of who's it falls as well as the village of Petersburg drinking water But Michael's advocacy did not stop there He turned the memory of his father into a force for good and non-stop public Advocacy you wanna get since 2013 Michael has been leading the charge to increase transparency and accountability for SFPD chemicals at the local state and federal level and his work led to New York State designating the village as a Super fun site in the EPA declaring one of the manufacturing facilities and who's falls as a Superfund site Michael's groundbreaking advocacy has contributed immensely to our understanding of Pfas contamination in New York and it is largely due to him that the community has received funding for blood testing remediation and is no longer drinking That was poisoning them Michael is a true hero and what he has done to spur action on this issue and I've been proud to work with him to call for federal regulation on these chemicals including my bipartisan P Foss right to no act that would add chemicals to the toxic release inventory and he joined me at my town Hall in his hometown of Hoosick Falls that focus on water contamination in our work to hold those contaminating the water accountable Additionally I was honored to have him join me for the state of the Union our message then Our message today the crisis is urgent prevalent and not going away The administration must step up its efforts to protect the health and safety of communities in upstate New York and across the country I look forward to hearing Michael's testimony today and I appreciate the work of this Committee to continue to shed light on the prevalence of the toxic Pfas chemical in our communities I also look forward to continue my work with Michael Falls and Petersburg communities and members of the Committee to address the needs of all upstate residents who deserve drinking water That is free of cancer causing chemicals and just lastly I don't often get emotional chairwoman but my Exchange with mister Ross and his lack of desire to commit to an MCL and the fact that I was bothered to the degree that I was in many respects has to do with how connected I feel to mister Hickey and the community in Hoosick Falls. This is real lives Real people not just numbers Thank you