Where does the PFAS come from on military bases?
Let’s examine the top ten sources
By Pat Elder
August 1, 2023
Where does the PFAS come from?
1) Fire training areas
2) Foam suppression systems
3) Chrome plating operations
4) Wash racks for engine cleaning
5) Sewer Drains in hangars and machine shops
6) Landfills and Leachate
7) Wastewater treatment plants
8) Air/Dust Pollution
9) Incineration of waste
10) Air stripping towers
1) Fire Training Areas
The fire is extinguished in 28 seconds.
Brad Creacey served as a firefighter in the U.S. Air Force from 1974 to 1985. He photographed this striking series at Hahn (1977) and Sembach (1984) Air Bases in Germany. Aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) containing PFAS was used in military firefighter training exercises to extinguish fires that were intentionally ignited in pits.
For nearly 50 years, hundreds of US military bases in the U.S. and around the world engaged in fire training drills that used aqueous film-forming foam, (AFFF), a substance containing PFAS. The foam is specially formulated to put out super-hot class B fires. A class B fire is a fire involving flammable liquids or flammable gases, greases, tars, oils, oil-based paints, solvents, lacquers, etc.
The military simulated these fires and then instructed soldiers to extinguish them with carcinogenic foams.
At Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, just outside of Washington, the fire training area hosted weekly training exercises until a few years ago. Excess fluids generated during the exercises flowed across the burn area into an oil water separator. Residual foam and water passed through the oil water separator into the gravel bottom leaching pond. Liquids typically seeped through the gravel into the ground, but the leaching pond often became plugged, causing the pond to overflow onto the ground surface in the area.
Two years ago, the Air Force reported that groundwater nearby contained 435,000 parts per trillion of Perfluorooctanoic acid, (PFOA). This concentration is 108 million times over the EPA’s unenforced health advisory.
The military used the exercises to dispose of a host of hazardous materials on base, including: jet fuels, drummed waste oils, solvents, lacquers, primers, and various chemicals that needed disposal.
At Marine Corps Air Station Tustin in California, up to 350,000 gallons of liquid waste were used for firefighting training at the burn pits. We don’t know how many gallons of AFFF they used, although the fuel alone left a toxic legacy.
Spraying carcinogenic foam during routine firefighting practice is one of the greatest environmental crimes in human history. If 500 bases participated in monthly firefighting foam drills from the early 1970’s until the early 2020’s, that might be 500 bases x 12 months x 50 years which comes to 300,000 separate applications of the foams. Some bases held fire training exercises weekly. The damage is incalculable, and it is with us forever.
As of December 31, 2021, DOD has determined that 700 active military installations, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) locations, National Guard facilities, and Formerly Used Defense Sites properties require an assessment of PFAS use or potential release.
2) Overhead foam suppression systems
Sept. 16, 2013- Firefighting foam at Dover AFB, DE. Accidents happen frequently. Sometimes they don’t know how to turn the systems off.
The accidental releases of firefighting foam from overhead suppression systems in military hangars around the world has caused immeasurable PFAS contamination. Routine releases to test the systems added to the totals.
On April 10, 2020, at 4:34 pm, U.S. Marines in Hangar 539 at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, Japan, lit a barbeque using charcoal and lighter fluid. The barbecue grill was on the flight line, just outside of the open hangar.
The overhead aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) fire suppression system went off the second the charcoal was ignited. The fire suppression system ran for 28 minutes resulting in the release of an estimated 41,200 gallons of foam. Some of these systems are so powerful that they can coat a 2-acre hangar with enough foam to cover aircraft in a few minutes.
The toxic bubble machine accumulated foam and it extended out across the flight line. Foam could be seen blowing off base. This was an environmental disaster, and it still is.
Residents nearby saw large amounts of foam floating on the Uchidomari River. The foam was picked up by a strong easterly wind and covered “everything,” including homes. The Marines couldn’t figure out how to turn the system off, so it ran until it emptied.
David Steele, commander of Futenma Air Base, said, “If it rains, it will subside.” A similar accident occurred on the same base in December of 2019 when the fire suppression system accidentally discharged the carcinogenic foam.
The USS Bonhomme Richard was destroyed by fire in July, 2020 because sailors didn’t know how to turn the fire suppression system on.
The ship, docked in San Diego, was equipped with extensive AFFF suppression systems and hoses. At no point in the firefighting effort were any of them used, in part because they were degraded, maintenance was not properly performed to keep them ready, and the crew lacked familiarity with their capability and availability.
AFFF suppression systems often malfunction due to faulty construction, overheating, corrosion, mechanical damage, and human sabotage or error. Massive leaks have occurred at: Pax River Naval Station, Naval Station Mayport, Wright Patterson AFB, Travis AFB, Eglin AFB, Pittsburgh ANG, Luke AFB, Tulsa ANG, Dover AFB, and Horsham Air Guard. There have been hundreds of releases from these systems worldwide.
Routine maintenance of the overhead systems called for filling up empty hangars with foam and using hoses to flush the bubbles onto lawns and surface waters outside hangars. One teaspoon of the foam is thought to be powerful enough to poison the drinking reservoir of a mid-sized city.
Andersen AFB, Guam -- Foam from a fire suppression system sprays from the walls and ceiling inside a newly built aircraft maintenance hangar during a test and evaluation exercise in 2015. (U.S. Air Force photo)
3) Vapor suppression systems associated with chrome plating operations use tremendous quantities of PFAS on military bases.
A chrome plating bath.
The military uses metal plating to add resistance to wear, corrosion, and heat, as well as to add lubricity, and electrical conductance properties to base materials. Aeronautical and automotive engine parts perform better with chrome plating.
Julia Roberts played Erin Brockovich in Steven Soderbergh's 2000 film 'Erin Brockovich'.
Metal parts are submerged in a solution of hexavalent chromium, Cr-(VI) a known human carcinogen and a deadly inhalation hazard. The public was introduced to the dangers of Cr-(VI) in the movie Erin Brockovich (2000), which starred American actress Julia Roberts.
Fume suppressants containing PFAS are added to the solution to suppress air emissions and reduce exposure to the Cr-(VI). This military activity represents a significant source of PFOS emissions to wastewater treatment plants that allow PFAS into the environment. The military has also contaminated the earth with Cr-(VI).
4) Wash racks for engine cleaning
An F-35A rolls through a wash rack on Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., May 5, 2015. The base reported 552,200 parts per trillion of PFOS/PFOA in groundwater in 2019. (AF photo)
Nothing cleans fighter jets and engine parts like PFAS. The areas on base typically drain through pipes below a grill. The pipes may connect to storm drains or wastewater treatment plants. Either way, PFAS is allowed to contaminate the environment.
5) Sewer Drains in hangars and machine shops
This drain in a Navy hangar at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Lexington Park, Maryland connects to an oil water separator before heading to the sanitary sewer.
An accident in 2021 sent 2,500 gallons of carcinogenic foam down the drain at this base. The foam was carried in pipes and discharged two miles into the Chesapeake Bay. The Navy claims to have "mitigated the release" of the 2,500 gallon discharge.
Oil/water separators are located in various buildings on bases. They are designed to target oil, based on the gravity difference between oil and water, allowing for heavier solids (sludge) to settle to the bottom while oil rises to the top, leaving additional wastewater in the middle layer. Sludge can then be scraped away, oil can be skimmed off the top and wastewater can move along for further treatment. None of these processes remove PFAS, however. Contaminated air and dust is a major pathway of ingestion in hangars and machine shops.
6) Landfills and Leachate
Leachate draining from military landfills is loaded with PFAS.
Landfills on military bases are toxic dumps where lethal materials, liquids, industrial toxins, and contaminated filters saturated with PFAS are pulverized and buried. The process is like a giant coffee maker. When the rains and the snows come, a deadly toxic stew called leachate runs off. Sometimes the leachate finds its own way into groundwater and surface water. Sometimes it is piped to the wastewater treatment plant, but the result is the same - PFAS is released into our waterways.
7) Wastewater treatment plants, evaporation ponds, sludge beds,
and land application of sludge deliver PFAS to the environment.
The Marine Corps Base Hawaii Wastewater Treatment Plant has released massive levels of fecal matter into the ocean. We don’t know the levels of PFAS being discharged because the Navy is keeping it a secret from the public.
Wastewater treatment plants act like grand central stations for PFAS disposal throughout military installations. Drainage pipes hook up the hangars and the machine shops and wash racks and are routed to the wastewater treatment plant on base. Pipes draining these facilities typically extend into rivers and streams to carry the carcinogens away from the installation. The rivers and aquatic life near military bases are usually poisoned. Sludge with high concentrations of PFAS is spread on agricultural fields. Some states recognize the danger, test the produce, and shut down farms. Many states, like Hawaii, don’t care so much. Generally, the EPA is not involved in regulating this contamination.
Sludge beds and evaporation ponds may facilitate the compounds becoming airborne while the toxins may leach into the surficial aquifer.
8) PFAS in the air and dust
Foam accumulates at a beaver dam on the Little Patuxent River in Maryland a few thousand feet downstream from the outfall of the wastewater treatment plant of the National Security Agency / Fort George G. Meade. PFAS totaled 2,306.2 ppt in the water draining from the foam.
When PFAS is released into streams and rivers from bases the carcinogens coat the banks of canals and creeks. The compounds dry in the sun when the waters recede. The toxins become airborne when lifted by the wind. They settle in our lungs and the dust in our homes. Dust with concentrations of 16.4 million parts per trillion of PFHxS and 13.9 million parts per trillion of PFOS have been recorded in homes near Shephard Field Air National Guard base in Martinsburg, WV.
Infants and toddlers are at risk. This finding should revolutionize the way we clean our homes. Changing the vacuum cleaner bag may be dangerous. We should only wet mop. We ought to be changing our air filters more frequently.
9) Incineration of waste
A propellant is burned during disposal at Crane Army Ammunition Activity near Crane, Indiana, on October 19, 2016.
In 2018 and 2019, 2 million pounds of PFAS-laden foam and related waste were sent in 55-gallon drums and other containers from 25 states and incinerated at the Norlite facility in Cohoes, New York. Bases often have incinerators that burn a host of items, including toxic substances.
The DOD sent large amounts of its stockpiled foam to fuel blending facilities between 2016 and 2020, where it was mixed with other hazardous wastes and commercial fuel, then sent to be used as fuel at certain industrial furnaces, incinerators, and cement kilns across the country.
Attempts to destroy PFAS through incineration pollute communities downwind of these facilities. The process simply recycles PFAS contamination into these areas and the environment. The toxic dust creates a witch’s brew that never goes away.
The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has prohibited the incineration of PFAS waste from DoD installations after 2022, a rare victory for us. Independent oversight is necessary.
10) Air Stripping Towers
Air stripping is a process by which a liquid, usually wastewater, is brought into intimate contact with a gas, usually air, so that toxins present in the liquid phase can be released and “carried away” by the gas.
Air stripping is designed to remove chemicals called “volatile organic compounds” or “VOCs.” VOCs like benzene, toluene, xylene, trichloroethylene, trihalomethanes, vinyl chloride and many others are “treated” this way.
Air strippers simply transfer contaminants from one medium to another. There is no destruction of the contaminant. Consequently, the risks of emitting pollutants into the air are great. Air stripping may result in PFAS being released as aerosols, contaminating soil, groundwater, and surface water.
Who will bell the cat?
So, there you have it. The top ten sources of PFAS on U.S. military bases that poison people and the planet:
1) Fire training areas
2) Foam suppression systems
3) Chrome plating
4) Wash racks for engine cleaning
5) Sewer Drains in hangars and machine shops
6) Landfills and Leachate
7) Wastewater treatment plants
8) Air/Dust Pollution
9) Incineration of waste
10) Air stripping towers
On December 4, 2013, an accident - blamed on a switch malfunction - spread 2,270 liters of aqueous film-forming foam, (AFFF) out of an open hangar and into the parking lot at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
I will be travelling to Japan in September and October with three others with Veterans for Peace to address audiences and to test surface waters for PFAS in 20 cities. I can’t think of a better way to safeguard human health. The U.S. military is not being regulated by states, the federal government or foreign “host” nations. The military’s toxic legacy is shrouded in secrecy. Please help us and make a note that your contribution is for the Japan delegation.
Financial support from the Downs Law Group makes this work possible. The firm is working to provide legal representation to individuals with a high likelihood of exposure to PFAS and other contaminants.
The Downs Law Group employs attorneys accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs to assist those who have served in obtaining VA Compensation and Pension Benefits they are rightly owed.
If you spent time in the military and you think you may be sick as a result of your service, think about joining this group to learn from others with similar issues. Are you interested in joining a multi-base class action lawsuit pertaining to illnesses stemming from various kinds of environmental contamination? Join the Veterans & Civilians Clean Water Alliance Facebook group. (2.4 K members and growing rapidly.)