More Pentagon PFAS Drinking Water Analyses Spurred by EPA Rule

The Department of Defense is reviewing the amount of PFAS in drinking water supplies at some of its sites due to the EPA’s recent rule limiting five “forever chemicals.”

But plans to investigate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances’ (PFAS) contamination on military bases and take action when needed won’t change based on the EPA’s other recent regulation that made two types of the chemicals—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS)—hazardous substances, the DOD said in emailed answers to questions about both regulations.

The DOD referred to a rule the Environmental Protection Agency officially published on April 26 that limited the amount of five PFAS that can be in drinking water and a final hazardous substance rule that agency released on April 19.

The EPA’s rules focus on certain PFAS that are often dubbed “forever chemicals,” because they last for decades or centuries in the environment. The regulated substances also build up in the bodies of people, wildlife, and livestock as well as plants, and are associated with increasing the risk of a spectrum of diseases including cancer.

The rules to dramatically decrease the presence and effects of the chemicals in the environment have sparked compliance and liability concerns from companies, water utilities, and municipalities. But the Pentagon will also face water treatment, waste remediation, and other costs to mitigate the chemicals.

The drinking water rule has spurred the agency to review sampling results and expand existing cleanup investigations, DOD said. These plans include providing drinking water treatment for impacted off-base private wells, on a prioritized basis, it said.

“EPA’s new drinking water rule will significantly increase the amount of PFAS-impacted drinking water that DOD treats, both as a water purveyor and under its cleanup program,” Brendan Owens, assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations, and environment, also told members of a House Armed Services subcommittee during an April 16 hearing.

Costs, Contractors

The department is requesting nearly $300 million for PFAS cleanup in fiscal year 2025 as part of a broader $1.6 billion environmental cleanup allocation, Owens told the subcommittee.

PFAS-related cost increases to other programs, “will require significant resources over the coming years,” Owens said at the hearing.

The Defense Department has spent just over $2.2 billion on contracts related to the cleanup of forever chemicals since the beginning of fiscal 2014, according to Bloomberg Government analysis of unclassified procurement data.

Expenditures jumped significantly in fiscal 2022, followed by a record high of $685.8 million in fiscal 2023.

The cost of contracts and task orders the DOD awarded in fiscal 2023 include 13 which, when fully funded and completed in several years, approaches nearly $1 billion ($928 million).

Companies and a township that received PFAS-services contracts in 2023 include: a joint venture between AECOM and Arcadis for remedial investigations, feasibility studies, and other actions at Army National Guard facilities nationwide; CH2M Hill Inc. for investigations at Washington state’s Whidbey Island Naval Air Station; GEO Consultants LLC for remedial investigation of PFAS at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio; and the Warminster Township Municipal Authority in Warminster, Pa., for additional PFOS and PFOA remediation in town drinking wells from the former, local Naval Air Warfare Center.

Past Liability Undetermined

Costs that DOD will be responsible for to comply with the EPA rules come on top of potential liabilities states, towns, individuals, and other parties allege it has for past uses of the chemicals.

The most widespread alleged liability stems from the military’s decades-long use of PFAS-enabled aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) to quickly, effectively smother jet fuel and other liquid fires, but which contaminated drinking and groundwater supplies across the nation. Naval vessels swept the contaminants into the oceans as their firefighters trained with and used the foams.

DOD-approved alternative fire suppressants made without intentionally adding PFAS are available for land-based uses.

But the historic liability debate is playing out in the In Re Aqueous Film-Forming Foams Products Liability Litigation MDL 2873, which is managed by the US District Court for the District of South Carolina, under a recently modified schedule.

They’re a particular problem for arid states such as New Mexico, Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) said during the hearing. He pointed to a recent US Geological Survey study that detected PFAS in all the state’s major rivers.

Interim Actions

The DOD provided Bloomberg Law an updated list of bases where interim actions to prevent plume migration are underway or will be initiated in fiscal 2024 in a memorandum Owens issued last year.

Interim actions can be taken at any point in Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) investigations, and more updates are expected to reflect fiscal 2025 plans, the department said.

Firefighting Training, Wastes

The Pentagon’s costs to train its firefighters to use new fire suppressants made without PFAS also could increase, according to a report DOD provided Congress in February.

Firefighters need training to gain experience working with these new suppressants, which rely on a more precise application than was necessary for AFFF, the report said. “DoD is currently assessing the costs, benefits, timeline, and resource requirements to meet firefighting training,” it said.

Transitioning equipment to use these new suppressants also is generating wastes that must be disposed of, the department said. It anticipates more than 3.5 million gallons in old AFFF concentrate and AFFF-contaminated rinsate, which is water used to flush the foam out of equipment.

The department didn’t answer specific questions about its disposal plans, but said it’s reviewing PFAS disposal guidance the EPA issued last month.

DOD will update PFAS destruction and disposal guidance it issued last year, the department said without detailing a timeline to do that.