The Pentagon has made almost no progress in cleaning up the military installations that are some of the most contaminated with the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, according to an EWG review of Defense Department records.
Of 50 Air Force or Navy bases with some of the highest levels of PFAS contamination, only nine have cleanup plans being developed under the Superfund law, according to the most recent documents made public by the Defense Department. Not a single cleanup plan has been finalized for those nine bases, and little actual cleanup has begun.
More than five years ago, under a mandate from the Environmental Protection Agency, Defense completed testing for PFAS in drinking water at 63 installations. EWG has since identified and mapped 703 military sites with known or suspected discharges of PFAS. Read more…