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By Jasmine Laws
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Military bases are known contributors to environmental and drinking water contamination due to the high concentrations of PFAS chemicals present in firefighting foam frequently used in drills. But while the contamination caused by these sites is established, the Department of Defense (DOD) has recently delayed the cleanup of PFAS chemicals at more than one hundred military bases.
"The Department’s timeline for cleanup is dictated by the cleanup law (i.e., CERCLA) and its regulations, and reflects both an evolving understanding of PFAS conditions at our military installations and additional investigation based on drinking water standards that EPA finalized last year," Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told Newsweek.
Experts who spoke to Newsweek have said the delay is "very concerning," warning of the impact already happening to the health of those in neighboring communities.
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Why It Matters
PFAS are classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and have been widely found in U.S. drinking water systems.
Favored for their long-lasting nature, these "forever chemicals" are used across various industries, appearing in consumer products, smartwatch wristbands, and even in the foam used to put out fires at military bases.
More and more research is showing that exposure to PFAS chemicals may be associated with a range of health issues, including increased cholesterol, changes to the immune system, liver damage, as well as increased risk of certain cancers, thyroid disease and asthma.
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PFAS Contamination at U.S. Military Bases
More than 700 military bases across the country are thought to have drinking water contaminated with PFAS and other hazardous chemicals, after the DOD began using the firefighting agent, aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), to fight fuel fires during military drills in the 1970s.
As a result, in 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Biden administration designated two types of PFAS chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
CERCLA is a 1980 law that gave federal agencies authority to respond directly to releases of hazardous substances that could endanger public health or the environment, and PFOA is one of the main PFAS chemicals in AFFF.
This decision, along with concerns about military base PFAS contamination, prompted the DOD to investigate 723 bases, begin the process of cleaning them up, and stop the use of AFFF foams.
The department initially set a deadline of October 2025 to complete the cleanup and to stop the use of AFFF at the bases.
The Delayed PFAS Cleanup Deadline
The deadline for nearly 140 military installations across the country has now been delayed by the DOD, according to The New York Times.
After the outlet reported the delay in cleanups, the DOD told Newsweek that the deadline was dictated by CERCLA, but did not confirm or deny the delay explicitly. Pentagon press secretary Wilson said that The Times report "fails to mention the 99 percent completion rate of the initial cleanup investigations at the 723 military installations and National Guard facilities conducting PFAS cleanup actions."
While Trump's administration is keeping the designation of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous under CERCLA, Wilson said that the change in cleanup deadlines reflects the "evolving understanding" of PFAS conditions at military installations.
Since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, the EPA has been making changes to various rules regarding PFAS chemicals, such as requesting to roll back regulatory standards for three types of PFAS chemicals and delaying the deadline for water utilities to reduce PFAS levels.
Graham Peaslee, a professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, told Newsweek that, based on contacts he said he had within the department, the delay "is a direct result of the re-focusing of funding."
He said that, due to "cost-cutting measures instituted by the new administration," the two programs for environmental protection in regard to the military—the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP)—have been "put on hold for two years."
Newsweek reached out to the press office of the two programs and was told to direct inquiries to the Department of Defense.
"This means the world leader in funding PFAS research and its impacts on the environment has delayed all funding suddenly, and I am not surprised to hear that work at the bases already under contract for clean-up and mitigation has slowed to a halt," Peaslee said.
He said that, while "nothing has been canceled except for new funding initiatives," the work has stopped "until the administration changes its opinion on environmental costs of doing business, or the administration changes."
Wilson told Newsweek that the DOD is "committed to addressing PFAS and remains transparent about the Department’s efforts to identify locations where PFAS may have been released into the environment due to previous defense activities."
"The Department will continue to follow the law, work with regulatory agencies, engage with affected communities, and prioritize actions to address cleanup at locations that pose the greatest risk to human health," he said.
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Experts Warn of the Delay's Impacts
"Delays in remediation are very concerning," Elsie Sunderland, a professor of environmental chemistry and of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University, told Newsweek.
She said some have "already experienced severe impacts on their health and the health of their families" as a result of military base PFAS contamination, and that there is "residual contamination in connected rivers and streams, some recreational fishing areas, and wildlife like deer and wild turkey in some areas," which has implications for both wildlife and humans.
Given that studies have confirmed the contamination in drinking water around military bases, and the toxicity of PFAS, "working to clean up contamination is the right thing to do and delaying cleanup only prolongs PFAS exposure to military personnel, their families, and people living near bases," Jamie DeWitt, director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center at Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, told Newsweek.
She said the department has technologies available to filter PFAS out of water, so "adding them to water systems that they oversee is again, the right thing to do."
"The current administration can stand behind their promises of making America healthy again and starting with military personnel is a step in the right direction," she said.
DeWitt also said that people living near military bases can take action themselves, by filtering drinking water and reducing their use of consumer products containing PFAS, to reduce their overall exposure, but she said "that's just a small piece of their entire exposures."
What Needs to Be Done
To reduce the PFAS contamination around military bases, the Department of Defense can replace AFFF with "safer, non-fluorinated" foams, Phil Brown, the director of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute at Northeastern University, told Newsweek.
He said that the department can also conduct "better monitoring to detect where leakages of stored AFFF occur, and provide better containment and removal to a location that can more safely provide storage."
Brown also said not all military bases take responsibility for PFAS contamination in the neighboring environment, and that "denial of responsibility should end," as instead bases "should work with neighboring communities to test their water."
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