Are California Wildfires Worsening The Water Contamination At Military Bases?
By Miguel Leyva
Sixty-two. This is the number of California military facilities with a known or suspected per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) release, according to the California State Water Resources Control Board.
Among the PFAS chemical family — that includes thousands of substances — PFOS and PFOA are the two most notorious members. These substances have been linked to several types of cancer, thyroid disease, and weakened childhood immunity at fairly low doses (measured in parts per trillion). PFOS and PFOA were traced to the firefighting foam (AFFF) that was used for tens of years at military facilities and contaminated the water resources on the bases and in surrounding communities. The chemicals from firefighting foam stay and spread in the environment for decades, even centuries, and have become a major contributor to drinking water contamination across the country.
No one should have to be concerned about toxic chemicals in their drinking water. However, the contamination from PFAS is currently being felt by the military personnel, veterans, civilians, and their families (spouses, pregnant mothers, and children) and the communities surrounding the air force, army, and marine bases. In the end, that may not be surprising in the light of the fact that the military is one of the country’s largest polluters. According to a former head of the Pentagon's environmental program, there is an inventory of toxic sites on American soil of 39,000 contaminated areas.
More and more people in communities near military bases are becoming sick. They get diagnosed with thyroid disorders, chronic fatigue, kidney issues, esophageal cancer, and other ailments, and doctors cannot explain their suddenly failing health. For example, this testimony of a 50-year-old U.S. Army veteran — born and raised in the Colorado Springs area near military installations — to the House Oversight Committee tells such a family history of diseases.
For decades, people had no clue about the dangers they faced. In many places, scientists tested only recently the tap water and found it was contaminated with PFAS. Other times, military firefighters find out in other ways about their contamination. For example, a biomonitoring survey of California firefighters found that PFDA concentrations — another member of the PFAS family — were three times higher in the firefighter group who used firefighting foam than those in the U.S. general population.
Sometimes, doctors may not know what PFAS and PFOS are or the role played by these chemicals in a family’s illnesses. The current reality is that family histories of illnesses are, unfortunately, becoming more common in California suburbs flanked by military bases.
Adding to that, the military bases and their drinking water supplies are also facing the growing threat of wildfires and the widespread chemical contamination they cause. Wildfires reaching a military base are more complicated than wildfires elsewhere across the state. The blaze can come too close to chemical storage or even fully-fueled rockets.
This situation doesn't apply solely to California, the Pentagon looked at 79 bases all over the U.S. and found that half of the bases should consider wildfires an issue.
Wildfires affect water quality. New research aimed at the impacts of wildfires, looked at the quality of drinking water in California after the 2017 Tubbs Fire and the 2018 Camp Fire passed. The environmental engineers who performed the studies found a plethora of toxic and carcinogenic pollutants that originated from a combination of burning vegetation, plastic materials, and structures.
Also, firefighting can accelerate the spread of water contamination. While the extinguishing foams that firefighters spray on wildfires and structural fires do not typically contain PFAS, they sometimes do use them when fires enter communities and engulf gas stations, factories, and other industrial facilities. Only recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law designed to phase out the sale, manufacture, and use of PFAS-based firefighting foams in the state by 2022.
The contamination process as explained by environmental engineers illustrates that the water pipe network can become contaminated when firefighters draw hydrant water. Later, when clean water passes through the pipe network, the toxic substances leach out, contaminating the water. Chemicals in the air may also get sucked into hydrants as water pipes lose pressure. PFAS and other toxic chemicals then spread into buildings.
In the 2020 wildfire season, at least four of the Californian military facilities with a known or suspected PFAS release were affected by wildfires.
Three large wildfires burned across open terrain on the grounds of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. Although the flames posed no threats to military or civilian structures, they charred roughly 7,400 acres. An 80,000-acre fire affected one of the largest military bases in the world: the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, located in the Western Mojave Desert region of California. The station was struck by lightning, sparking the fast-spreading North Range Fire.
Another wildfire, The LNU Lightning Complex Fire, spanning five counties and 124,100 acres, forced Travis Air Force Base to shut down and evacuate all non-mission essential personnel. Yet another wildfire, that erupted on the outskirts of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, CA, charred at least 15 acres of land.
The military installations in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, and Idaho are as well under the pressure of wildfires. For example, at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, the Wild Horse Fire burned more than 600 acres. According to the 50-year-old U.S. Army veteran cited earlier, the U.S. Army Corps was using PFAS at Fort Carson but banned and replaced the substances in 1991.
At the contaminated bases where the military is the drinking water supplier, the Defense Department moved quickly to shut down wells, install water filters, and provide bottled water. But addressing the groundwater contamination will take a long time and cost billions of dollars.
While the U.S. EPA’s progress towards regulating PFAS has been slow, litigation regarding PFAS is increasing and states are stepping in setting maximum contaminant levels and cleanup standards.
As of now, a California water utility, states, nonprofits, and individuals are suing regarding PFAS contamination and exposure. The California-American Water Company (Cal-Am) has sued the U.S. government, alleging that the U.S. Air Force knowingly contaminated one of its sources of drinking water in Sacramento County by disposing of AFFF laced with hazardous PFOS and PFOA.
Personal injury cases can also be an important way for people to be compensated for PFAS contamination. For instance, residents of Parkersburg in West Virginia sued the PFAS manufacturer DuPont in 2001 for injuries from PFOA contamination in the waterways surrounding the manufacturing facility. In 2017, roughly 3,550 of the pending cases against DuPont and Chemours Co. were settled for over $670 million.
In other lawsuits, two dozen firefighters sued foam makers and manufacturers of personal protective gear that they wore, including 3M Co., in a California district court. And the Giovanni and Palmer families from Bucks County, PA, sued the Navy seeking compensation through a trust to help pay the costs of medical monitoring designed to diagnose and treat health problems people could suffer as a result of being exposed to PFAS-contaminated drinking water.
The VA also closely monitors scientific and medical efforts to link exposure to PFAS and health effects in the population. Although studies have reported possible health outcomes, the VA interprets the overall evidence as currently inconclusive.
Veterans may file a claim for disability compensation for their health problems associated with PFAS. However, the department believes that additional research is needed to understand the link between adverse health outcomes and human exposures to PFAS.
The VA decides these claims on a case-by-case basis, examining if the claims satisfy the elements of service connection — best explained in VA appeal decisions. These elements must include:
- The medical evidence of a current disability
- Proof that the disability is connected to in-service exposure to PFAS
- The concentration, frequency, and duration of exposure
- Medical nexus between the disability and the in-service PFAS exposure
Miguel Leyva is a case manager at Atraxia Law, specializing in supporting veterans injured by PFAS contamination, as well as their families, in gathering and organizing relevant information for their injury claim.