Seneca County Says Army Depot Polluted Drinking Water With PFAS

A former US Army depot in New York contaminated Seneca County’s drinking water with PFAS from firefighting foam, the county alleged in a federal lawsuit.

Seneca Army Depot housed and used thousands of gallons of aqueous firefighting foams containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances for training exercises and emergency situations, the county said. PFAS are hard-to-breakdown chemicals that have been linked to serious health effects like cancer, liver damage, and developmental defects.

The Department of Defense knew that firefighting foams with PFAS were dangerous but continued to use them for decades, allowing the toxins to be released into the surrounding air, ...