The Air Force says new federal standards governing “forever chemicals” will be incorporated into future cleanup efforts and may lead to more testing for on- and off-base residents who have had their water supplies contaminated.
In April, the Environmental Protection Agency enacted new drinking water standards that set limits on exposure to PFAS — perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, chemicals that do not degrade in the environment and can build up in the body, hence the nickname forever chemicals. They have led to warnings of adverse health effects such as kidney and testicular cancer, increased cholesterol levels and changes in liver enzymes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new EPA rules will inform the Air Force’s own cleanup standards for bases and nearby water supplies that may have been tainted by PFAS through practices such as the military‘s use of aqueous film forming foam — a flame suppressing substance known as AFFF used since the 1970s for petroleum fires — that seeped into ground and drinking water.
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Since 2015, the Department of the Air Force has found that 191 of 204 installations that it inspected had released PFAS into the environment. That has raised concerns in recent years that nearby communities or those residents who may have water supplies contaminated by the…
