GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A group of Michigan lawmakers is once again calling on the Department of Defense to provide an update on its efforts to clean up PFAS contamination at military sites across the country.
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, and U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint, are spearheading the bipartisan effort with a formal request sent to the DOD. Kildee had previously led a push in 2019 for an update from the Pentagon, leading to a 2021 report that detailed what the department was doing and where.
Kildee, a co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force, told MLive that he believes the DOD can and should be doing more, and he wants updated data to drive that point home.
“I’m impatient with the DOD,” Kildee told MLive. “I am unsatisfied with the level of attention and the degree of urgency that I think this issue deserves.”
The letter broke down the request into four categories, including an explanation for the department’s methodologies for determining the scope of pollution and how it is working with the impacted communities to communicate effectively and mitigate health risks.
The group also wants an update on the DOD’s use of aqueous film-forming foam, commonly referred to as AFFF. The fire suppressant was used commonly at airports and military installations and is one of the primary sources of PFAS contamination on DOD properties. The use of AFFF was banned as part of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. The ban went into effect Oct. 1.
According to the DOD, investigators have identified 717 possible PFAS contamination sites related to the department. Of those 717, 710 have been evaluated and 578 require “further investigation.”
Remedial work has already started at more than 350 of those sites and is slated to start at 150 more within the next two years. At least four of those sites are in Michigan: the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County, and Camp Grayling and the camp’s airfield in Crawford County.
The DOD says it has also taken actions at 55 sites nationwide to address drinking water and groundwater concerns beyond military property that were caused by the DOD.
PFAS — or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are a large group of compounds first developed in the 1940s and incorporated into all sorts of products for waterproofing and heat resistance. Decades later, research showed that PFAS compounds take a long time to break down organically and can build up in the human body, causing serious health problems including cancer.
According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Services, there are more than 15,000 known PFAS compounds.
The Environmental Working Group says there are now more than 5,000 confirmed PFAS-contaminated sites across the United States, including at least one in all 50 states, Washington D.C. and two American territories.
