PFAS Cleanup Cost Estimates, Timelines Stressed in Defense Bill

The annual defense policy bill that Congress is scheduled to vote on this week would require more details on the costs and schedule for the Pentagon’s PFAS cleanups, following pressure from lawmakers and advocates.

Both chambers are likely to vote on the compromise National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2024 (H.R. 2670), which guides Pentagon spending, by Dec. 15.

The bill would authorize at least $1.1 billion for environmental remediation of PFAS and many other contaminants at current and former Department of Defense bases.

It would also require the DoD to include a PFAS budget justification along with its annual budget request. Information lawmakers want includes details about testing, remediation, contaminant disposal, and community outreach involving per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) expenditures.

The legislation also would require the DoD to provide both chambers’ armed services committees a proposed schedule to complete PFAS testing and remediation at military installations, National Guard facilities, and former military sites. The schedule would describe sites that received DoD environmental restoration funds in fiscal 2022.

That schedule should include estimated costs for activities to be carried in the following year or an explanation about why costs can’t be estimated at certain sites, a bill summary said.

Congressional, Public Pressure

Congress has requested schedules and cost estimates in previous defense bills, but H.R. 2670 listed more specific details lawmakers want.

The demand for a budget justification for PFAS expenditures and more thorough cost estimates for site investigations and cleanups follows the frustration some members of Congress, such as Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), have voiced about inadequate and slow responses at military sites affecting communities in their districts and states.

The Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that’s raised concerns about PFAS for years, blames such delays in part on a growing gap its analyses found between the cost of PFAS cleanups and the funding DoD seeks.

“Defense communities should not have to wait 50 years or more for their neighbor, the DOD, to clean up the toxic plumes threatening their health,” Scott Faber, EWG’s senior vice president for government affairs, said in a statement after the bill was released.

The defense bill also would require the Government Accountability Office to assess DoD’s ongoing PFAS investigations and remediation. That report must include the GAO’s conclusions about the thoroughness, pace, and cost-effectiveness of the department’s efforts and suggested improvements.

The compromise bill cut a House-approved expansion of PFAS-containing products the Department of Defense would have been barred from purchasing.