The military is poisoning America’s groundwater:

The Pentagon assumes no liability and refuses to pay for cleaning up the contamination it has caused.

By Pat Elder

"America is experiencing one of the greatest public health crises in its history with up to 110 million people potentially exposed to drinking water contaminated with Per and Poly Fluoroalkyl Substances, or PFAS. A major source of the chemical contamination comes from the aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) used in routine fire-training on military bases. The military allows the poisons to leach into the groundwater to contaminate neighboring communities which use groundwater in their wells and municipal water systems.

The Pentagon assumes no liability and refuses to pay for cleaning up the contamination it has caused. Army Col. Andrew Wiesen, the DOD’s Director of Preventive Medicine for the Office of Health Affairs says the contamination is the responsibility of the EPA. “We don’t do the primary research in this area,” he told the Marine Corps Times. “The EPA is responsible for that,” he said. “DoD has not independently looked at the compounds and does not have “additional research into this, about the health effects of PFOS/PFOA, at least as far as I know.”

Meanwhile, the Air Force won’t reimburse three Colorado communities for the money spent responding to water contamination caused by toxic firefighting foam. The AFFF was previously used at Peterson Air Force Base, potentially leaving the towns with an $11 million tab. The Air Force claimed other sources likely contributed to the aquifer’s contamination, though none has been identified.

More than 3,000 harmful PFAS chemicals have been developed. Two of the deadliest are Perfluoro Octane Sulfonate (PFOS) and Perfluoro Octanoic Acid (PFOA). They’re extremely useful in extinguishing super-hot petroleum fires.

PFOS & PFOA are known as the “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally degrade in the environment. The military branches are in the process of switching to other slightly less lethal fire-fighting foams.

The EPA continues to allow deadly PFAS contaminants to be used while Harvard scientists say 1 part per trillion (ppt) is likely to be harmful to human health.

The EPA’s combined Lifetime Health Advisory (LHA) limit for both chemicals is 70 ppt while the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has set lifetime drinking water levels of 11 ppt for PFOA and 7 ppt for PFOS.

The following photo essay endeavors to associate routine AFFF exercises on military bases with heightened levels of poisoned groundwater in adjacent communities.

The amount of PFOS/PFOA contamination in groundwater wells is taken from this DOD report. Remarks made by the DOD in the report are also included.

See photographs at:URL:

[nationofchange.org]