Here’s the latest count of suspected bases with toxic “forever chemicals” in
the water
"There are nearly 700 military installations with either confirmed or
suspected ground water contamination caused by fire-fighting foam using
in vehicle and aircraft mishaps, according to new data released Thursday by
the Environmental Working Group.
Cancer-linked per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, collectively known as
PFAS, have been confirmed at 328 sites, according to Pentagon data
analyzed by EWG. and are suspected on about 350 more Defense
Department installations and sites.
“DoD officials have understood the risks of AFFF since at least the early
1970′s, when the Navy and Air Force did their own studies on the toxicity of
PFAS in fish, and the early 1980s when the Air Force conducted its own
animal studies,” Scott Faber, EWG’s senior vice president for government
affairs, told reporters in a phone conference on Thursday.
On 14 installations, Faber added, PFAS levels measured 1 million parts-per-
trillion in the ground water, while the Environmental Protection Agency sets
70 parts-per-trillion as the maximum safe level.
Some places topped even that number. Naval Weapons Station China Lake,
California, reported 8 million parts-per-trillion in its ground water, per a 2017
test. Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, reported 1.06 million parts-per-
trillion.
Though bases have put in place filtration systems to protect drinking water
on bases, they do not eliminate exposure.
“Unfortunately DoD hasn’t moved as quickly as Congress would have liked,"
Faber said, both when comes to transitioning away from AFFF, as well as
cleaning up pollution on and near bases.
Fire-fighting foam is no longer used in training, which has vastly reduced the
frequency of contamination on and near bases. But perfluorooctanesulfonic
and perfluorooctanoic acids do not break down in the body, meaning that a
lifetime drinking water on military installations ― or living near one ― results
in irreversible build-up of the chemicals.
Congress has gotten involved in recent years, including in the latest National
Defense Authorization Act, requiring the Pentagon to find a replacement for
AFFF by 2024, and giving hundreds of billions to support clean-up efforts.
It has fallen short of one big designation that environmentalists have pushed
for, however: getting PFAS classified as toxic under the Safe Drinking Water,
Safe Water and Clean Air acts, which would set a timetable and put billions
of dollars behind clean-up efforts.
The measure is part of the House version of the 2021 NDAA bill, as it was
last year, though it has failed to get Senate Republican support.
Though the military has responded in fits and starts, in terms of reducing
and cleaning up contamination, in July Defense Secretary Mark Esper stood
up a dedicated PFAS task force to study the issue and make
recommendations. The first progress report came out in March, establishing
priorities to come up with a replacement for AFFF, study the health effects
of PFAS on humans and make plans for cleaning up old contamination.
“The task force is focused on continuing to educate DoD health care
providers and their patients, monitoring PFAS research, and preparing to
offer annual testing of DOD firefighters’ blood,” according to a March 13
news release.
The department is also investing $49 billion in research for a new fire-
fighting foam, though possible candidates so far have not proven as
effective.
Last fall, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, hosted a test of the
Enhanced Contact Plasma Reactor, which has been shown to break down
PFAS.
"This is the only technology that actually destroys PFAS molecules that has
been demonstrated at this scale, it doesn’t just remove them from water,”
co-principal investigator Tom Holsen said in a November release. “All of the
other demonstrations that we’re aware of remove it from the water through
filtration so there is still a PFAS-containing waste. Our method actually
destroys PFAS.”"
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