Firefighting foam “unintentionally released” in an aircraft hangar at Travis Air Force Base in California on Sept. 24, 2013. Firefighting foam contains PFAS or “forever chemicals” that have gotten into the environment and groundwater. (Ken Wright/U.S. Air Force)
The U.S. Department of Defense quietly changed its timeline for cleaning up toxic forever chemicals contaminating groundwater at two military bases in Oregon and Washington, delaying the process by six years without public announcement.
The Air National Guard base in Portland and the Fairchild Air Force base near Spokane are among nearly 140 military sites nationwide with delayed investigations and remediation for a group of chemicals known as PFAS. The delays come as congressional Republicans are proposing cutting by nearly $200 million the defense agency’s budget for environmental cleanup, including PFAS, an abbreviation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and rolling back a 2024 ban on the agency’s use of firefighting foam containing PFAS.
Exposure to the man-made chemicals found in flame retardants, nonstick cookware and waterproof clothing can lead to increased risks for cancers, heart damage, high cholesterol and birth defects, among other adverse health effects.
Washington was the first state to ban the sale and use of firefighting foam containing PFAS in 2018, and Oregon lawmakers this year voted to phase out the use of PFAS-laden firefighting foam. Such foam was heavily used at military bases for decades, and the Department of Defense has identified at least 600 military sites where PFAS are known to have been released.
The delays to PFAS cleanup at military bases were first reported Tuesday by The New York Times. The Times cross-referenced a March list of potentially contaminated military sites — a list not publicly posted on the defense department’s website until recently — with a list that had been posted in December by the agency, when it was under the Biden administration.
The Capital Chronicle’s own analysis of a Sept. 30, 2024 list found that the Air National Guard site in Portland, then slated to have its PFAS investigation and cleanup planning completed by the end of September 2025, is now slated instead to have that done by September 2031. The remedial investigation and planning for PFAS cleanup previously slated to be complete at Fairchild Air Force base by July 2026 is now expected to be done by June 2032.
The Department of Defense was unable to answer questions from the Capital Chronicle by Tuesday evening about how much communication the agency had with Oregon and Washington state leaders, agencies or impacted communities about the changes.
“It will likely take up to a week for our response to be reviewed by general council,” an unidentified Pentagon spokesperson from the Office of the Secretary of Defense said in an email.
Anca Matica, a spokesperson for Gov. Tina Kotek’s office, said they did not have any information about changes to the PFAS cleanup schedule at the Portland Air National Guard base, and referred questions to the Oregon Military Department, which did not immediately respond Tuesday. Spokespersons for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality did not respond to Capital Chronicle questions by Tuesday evening.
Stephanie May, a spokesperson for Washington’s Department of Ecology, said in an email she could not confirm by Tuesday whether the Department of Defense told any ecology officials about changes to the clean-up schedule at Fairchild Air Force base, but that they are looking into it.
“Our focus in working with the base has been to urge immediate actions that can help nearby residents get safe drinking water and protect their families,” she said.
The Environmental Protection Agency officially declared the Fairchild Air Force base a Superfund Site in 1995 for a litany of other contamination issues, and identified in 2017 severe PFAS contamination through well testing. About 100 people who live near the base filed a class action lawsuit in 2018 against 3M — the manufacturer of the firefighting foam used on the base — alleging it has caused them serious health problems.
About one-quarter of all military sites with known PFAS releases that are trying to investigate and address contamination now face an average delay of five years, according to the Times’ reporting.
In 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added several PFAS to the federal list of regulated hazardous substances and mandated states begin testing for them in drinking water systems. In May, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality added six common PFAS substances to the state’s list of regulated contaminants.
Suspected sources of past or ongoing PFAS pollution in Oregon include eight commercial airports that are or were required to maintain PFAS-containing firefighting foam on site, as well as 18 municipal fire training facilities near 20 of the most populous cities in the state, according to rulemaking documents from DEQ.
Officials at Portland International Airport began testing for PFAS in 2017 in and around a firefighter training ground there, and found impaired fish and aquatic species in the nearby waters of the Columbia Slough. They have since switched to using PFAS-free firefighting foam and begun initial stages of cleanup.
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