Five months after hundreds of gallons of toxic fire suppressant spilled at the Navy's Red Hill fuel facility, sparking outrage from state health officials and environmentalists, military officials have yet to release their investigation or video of the spill.
At the same time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's probe initiated in January into that incident, as well as other spills of the fire suppressant—called aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF—has resulted in little information being revealed publicly about the circumstances surrounding the incidents.
On Nov. 29 an estimated 1, 300 gallons of concentrated AFFF spilled from a pipe at Red Hill, prompting a major environmental cleanup that involved soil excavation and testing for a contaminant in the fire suppressant called PFAS, known commonly as “forever chemicals ” because they break down so slowly in the environment. The EPA has recently proposed strict limits on the chemicals in drinking water because they've been linked to certain cancers and other health problems.
The spill touched off another round of controversy for the military, which has been under fire since a fuel spill from Red Hill in November 2021 contaminated the drinking water of military families. That spill, as well as historic spills from the facility, have contaminated the groundwater beneath Red Hill, and health officials and environmentalists have long worried that chemicals from…
