New PFAS Timeline Delays Military Site Cleanup By Up To A Decade
The Department of Defense has postponed PFAS cleanup at nearly 140 U.S. military installations, with little public notice. According to a list analyzed by The New York Times, the new timetable delays some site cleanups by nearly a decade.
The original timetable was published in December 2024 under the Biden Administration. The Trump Administration revised the list in March and posted it in recent weeks without a broad announcement.
PFAS are found in firefighting foams that are widely used by the military. As the military uses these foams for training exercises with jet fuel fires on base, the chemicals begin to seep into soil and groundwater, creating a lasting problem.
The concern around PFAS contamination at military bases is not new. Military communities began to report alarming PFAS levels in their drinking water in 2017. In July, New Mexico sued the U.S. Air Force over PFAS contamination stemming from the Cannon Air Force Base. According to the latest timetable, Cannon Air Force Base’s cleanup has been postponed by nearly six years.
Between interim measures like bottled water and treatment systems for affected communities, the Pentagon has already spent more than $2.6 billion on PFAS cleanup. The latest projections indicate that cleanup costs could reach nearly $7 billion annually — and could continue to rise.
This updated PFAS timeline is just the latest event to highlight the huge undertaking of cleaning up PFAS and protecting our water. While the water industry works hard to create new technologies for removing these “forever chemicals,” this is a challenge that will likely persist for decades.