By Treven Pyles
Posted on June 28th, 2021
From Alaska to Florida, hundreds of military bases across the country have been contaminated by PFAS-containing materials such as firefighting foam. Although these new bills would provide much-needed deadlines and important resources for remediating PFAS at military facilities, for those exposed, the damage is irreversible.
As we have previously explained in our blogs, PFAS are called "forever chemicals" because they don't break down in the environment and can accumulate in the human body over the years. Research shows they can lead to adverse human health effects, such as thyroid hormone disruption, kidney disease, liver damage, auto-immune disorders, and cancer.
In 2016, the EPA set a combined limit of 70 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS, the two most common PFAS. Data release updates from the Department of Defense show that the number of PFAS-contaminated military sites has grown to nearly 700 from 401.
U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, Alex Padilla, and Kirsten Gillibrand introduced two much-needed pieces of legislation to help accelerate clean up and remediation of PFAS chemicals at all U.S. military installations:
- the Filthy Fifty Act
- the Clean Water for Military Families Act
The Filthy Fifty Act
Introduced on June 8, the Filthy Fifty Act would help expedite the testing, cleanup, removal, and remediation of PFAS at all U.S. military installations by setting deadlines for PFAS remediation at the worst polluted DOD sites in the nation - two years for PFAS testing and completion of all physical construction for remediation within 10 years of the law's enactment.
The bill prioritizes 50 military bases for remediation - those with the highest levels of contamination, as follows:
- England Air Force Base, Louisiana
- Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California
- Patrick Air Force Base, Florida
- Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, South Carolina
- Langley Air Force Base, Virginia
- Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida
- Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, New York
- Grand Prairie Armed Forces Reserve Complex, Texas
- Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma
- Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina
- Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana
- Plattsburgh Air Force Base, New York
- Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida
- Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas
- Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi
- Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois
- Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, California
- Travis Air Force Base, California
- Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota
- Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota
- Westover Air Reserve Base, Massachusetts
- Eaker Air Force Base, Arkansas
- Naval Air Station Alameda, California
- Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska
- Horsham Air Guard Station, Pennsylvania
- Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma
- Dover Air Force Base, Delaware
- Edwards Air Force Base, California
- Robins Air Force Base, Georgia
- Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey
- Galena Air Force Station, Alaska
- Naval Research Laboratory Chesapeake
- Bay Detachment, Maryland
- Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado
- Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee
- Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma
- Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington
- Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
- Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, New York
- F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming
- Nevada Air National Guard Base - Reno, Nevada
- KI Sawyer Air Force Base, Michigan
- Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire
- Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri
- Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan
- Shepherd Field Air National Guard Base, West Virginia
- Naval Air Station Whidbey Island - Ault Field, Washington
- Rosecrans Air National Guard Base, Missouri
- Joint Base Andrews, Maryland
- Iowa Air National Guard Base - Des Moines, Iowa
- Stewart Air National Guard Base, New York
The Clean Water for Military Families Act
Growing evidence that continued exposure to certain PFAS increases the risk of certain cancers has prompted Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand and Alex Padilla to introduce legislation that would force the Department of Defense to study and clean up per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances at U.S. military installations where the dangerous contaminants are prevalent.
The bill would require the Department of Defense to investigate and remediate PFAS contamination at and surrounding DOD installations in the U.S. and state-owned National Guard facilities as well. To ensure military families have access to safe drinking water, the legislation authorizes a one-time, $10 billion investment for PFAS cleanups starting next fiscal year.
For those affected, illnesses cannot be reversed
It is necessitous that we take every step necessary to monitor, remediate and prevent PFAS contamination at the bases where our service members and military families reside - but for many of them, the damage had already been done. Thousands of service members and their families (spouses and children) have developed cancer and other health problems due to continuous or repeated contact with these toxic substances.
The Department of Defense has used PFAS-based firefighting foam since its development in 1963, for difficult-to-extinguish class B hydrocarbons fuel fires such as oil, diesel, and aviation fuels, and also for maintenance, testing, and training. As a result, these chemicals saturated the ground at hundreds of military installations where thousands of service members and their families lived and worked. Military members, their families and nearby residents have since reported cases of:
- Kidney cancer
- Testicular cancer
- Thyroid disease
- Ulcerative colitis
- Bladder cancer
- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
- Leukemia
- Multiple myeloma
- Hodgkin's lymphoma
- Breast cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Liver cancer
Effective legal assistance for veterans exposed to PFAS on one or multiple military bases
Many chemical manufacturing companies like 3M, Chemguard, Du Pont de Nemours, Tyco Fire Products, National Foam, are currently facing a growing number of claims over chemical-based firefighting foam sold for more than five decades and used extensively at various military bases, airports, and municipal fire departments around the country.
Holding companies responsible is the least we can do to help those affected by PFAS substances. Although no amount of money can really help to ease the pain you suffer, the compensation can ease the financial burdens associated with the injury by getting medical bills paid and potentially hold the negligent entities responsible for their actions. For decades, our law firm has advocated on behalf of people and communities impacted by large-scale environmental toxic exposures by:
- helping them identify the parties who could be liable for their exposure and,
- providing them with effective legal assistance that led their claim to a successful resolution.
If you were stationed at one of the above-mentioned military bases for one year or longer and subsequently developed a PFAS-related health condition, then you may have grounds to bring a claim against one or more responsible parties, and additionally, you can also file a VA claim. To initiate the legal process, you will only need to send our legal team your military records, which you must retrieve, and your medical records.
