Fort Sill covers over 93,000 acres of southwest Oklahoma. It is the home of the U.S. Army Field Artillery and the Henry Post Army Air Field. The military base serves as a training ground for basic and advanced training courses for up to 15,000 military personnel and officers. In 2022, a third-party investigator found that Fort Sill’s Former Firefighter Training Area had the highest levels of PFAS chemicals out of the different contaminated areas inside the base. According to the U.S. Army Environmental Command, a remedial investigation of Fort Sill is ongoing under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as the Superfund Act.
What dangerous chemicals were found at Fort Sill?
For decades, the Department of Defense used aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) for training and extinguishing Class B fires. This fire extinguishing foam was made with high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). These substances are known as “forever chemicals,” which are difficult to degrade or remove once they contaminate soil and groundwater.
Fort Sill is one of 720 military installations in the United States with known or suspected PFAS contamination, mainly from the use of firefighting foam. As late as 2016, an inventory report revealed that Fort Still still had four fire engines, each capable of carrying 15 gallons of AFFF concentrate. The site also had a “Crash-22” vehicle that could contain 130 gallons of AFFF concentrate. In Fort Still’s 2016 inventory, Great Plains Technology Center and HPA were listed as locations for possible AFFF storage. According to the site’s inventory, over 1,500 gallons of AFFF were still stored at Fort Sill as of 2017.
In 2018, interviews conducted by a third-party investigator revealed that approximately 640 gallons of AFFF remained in fire trucks and other storage locations at Fort Sill. During the years of continuous AFFF use at Fort Still, the site went through 50 gallons of AFFF each year.
There are thousands of different types of PFAS chemicals. Three of the many PFAS types found in AFFF include PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate), PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), and PFBS (perfluorobutane sulfonate). According to the Preliminary Investigation and Site Inspection of Fort Sill in 2022, the highest concentrations of PFOS, PFOA, and PFBS in Fort Sill were found in groundwater samples from the Former Firefighter Training Area. Additionally, PFAS chemicals were also detected in eight other locations inside Fort Sill. These chemicals are cancer-causing and endocrine-disrupting. High levels of PFAS exposure have been linked to an increased risk of developing severe health conditions.
What health issues can exposure to PFAS cause?
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) pose a threat to public health when PFAS from firefighting foam seep into the ground, contaminating the soil and groundwater inside military bases like Fort Sill and its surrounding communities. High-level exposure to PFAS has been strongly associated with kidney cancer and testicular cancer. Due to the potential effects of PFAS on immune system function and oxidative stress, it has also been linked to other severe conditions. If you have been exposed to PFAS at Fort Sill and were later diagnosed with any of the following conditions, you may be able to file a PFAS claim:
