Judge Leans Toward Keeping Pentagon on Liability Hook for PFAS

Cannon Air Force Base may be liable for damage resulting from some PFAS releases in New Mexico, but more information is needed to decide liability at other military bases, a judge said during oral arguments about whether the government can be sued under a federal tort statute.

But, Judge Richard M. Gergel said he doesn’t have jurisdiction to oversee disputes that states and other parties have about how the Pentagon is managing cleanups of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that were in firefighting foams the military used for decades and is now contaminating land, people, and animals, on and off ...