Even if they don’t kill you, they’ll definitely outlast you.
Texans living near seven military sites discovered last year that their groundwater is heavily polluted with a dangerous group of contaminants called “forever chemicals” — man-made compounds that take thousands of years to break down. In communities near a now-shuttered air force base in Lubbock County, for example, residents unknowingly showered, cooked with and drank contaminated water for decades.
Many of these compounds, called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), may be hazardous to human health — raising the risk of cancer, liver damage and infertility, among other ailments. Nearly half a million Texans live within three miles of sites where groundwater has been deemed “extremely” contaminated, a byproduct of firefighters spraying high-tech foam to extinguish blazes at bases since 1970. But the state’s Congressional delegation has barely made a peep, with only one Texas representative joining the handful of lawmakers who’ve filed bills to limit exposure to the chemicals and urged the Environmental Protection Agency to take action.
