The cost of cleaning up toxic PFAS “forever chemical” contamination around hundreds of US military installations is ballooning, but Congress and the Pentagon are failing to keep pace, a development that is leaving service members and civilians indefinitely at risk, a new analysis finds.
The estimated total cost for remediating about 50 contaminated military sites has soared to $31bn, up by $3.7bn from 2016 to 2021, the last year the Department of Defense provided estimates. But its requested cleanup budget increased just $400m over the same period, according to the new report by Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit that tracks the military’s PFAS pollution.
At this pace, many of the sites will remain tainted for at least 50 years.
“The DoD is facing a ticking cleanup time bomb as funding falls dramatically behind cleanup costs,” said Jared Hayes, a senior policy analyst at EWG. “The DoD has an obligation to its service members, the families living on bases, and the surrounding communities that have already been contaminated, so they need to clean up their mess.”
PFAS are a class of about 15,000 chemicals often used to make products resistant to water, stains and heat. The compounds are ubiquitous, and linked at low levels of exposure to cancer, thyroid disease, kidney dysfunction, birth defects, autoimmune disease and other serious health problems. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally degrade.
PFAS are thought to be contaminating drinking water for more than 200 million Americans, and military bases are a major source of pollution because the DoD has used firefighting foam that contains high levels of the chemicals during training and emergencies. The military previously “downplayed” the number of service members exposed to the chemicals, EWG found, which the group estimated in the millions over recent decades.
The level of contamination at the many polluted bases is staggering: as high as 20.7m parts per trillion (ppt) for one PFAS compound in England, Louisiana. The EPA has recommended drinking water limits of four ppt for some PFAS compounds.
The military’s cleanup cost estimate is also based on 50 sites it says are contaminated, but EWG identified over 700 sites that are probably polluted, and the true cost is probably tens of billions of dollars more than the $31bn figure.
In some cases, service members and their families have begun fighting back. Those who for decades drank contaminated water at New Hampshire’s Pease air force base are in the process of linking their exposure to extremely high cancer rates at the base, and demanding the military cover their healthcare costs.
The pollution also puts civilians around the bases at risk. Initial data from congressionally mandated analysis of water around 700 military installations showed “shockingly high” levels at each of 12 tested by mid-2022.
The costs continue growing as the DoD delays because PFAS plumes spread further into the groundwater, which pollutes more private wells and public drinking water systems, Hayes said. That could make the challenge nearly impossible to overcome.
“Our analysis clearly shows the DoD at current levels cannot possibly catch up with rising cleanup obligations,” he added.
The military last year missed a deadline to submit a cleanup plan to Congress, but new political leadership in the Pentagon and the Biden administration’s moves to rein in pollution have generated at least some optimism.
The DoD also recently suggested it may ask for $7bn for fiscal year 2024, but history is keeping hope in check: Congress previously tried to kickstart the remediation process by budgeting $2.5bn after the military requested $1.3bn, but the DoD is still asking for less for the next round of funding.
“The crisis is getting worse, not better and the federal efforts are not keeping pace,” said John Reeder, vice-president of federal affairs with EWG. “The problem demands urgency … but instead of urgency, the DoD has consistently requested less funds for cleanup than Congress provided.”
