By 2001, the U.S. military knew firefighting foams used at bases across the country could break down into toxic chemicals, that the chemicals had entered streams and groundwater at several military bases, and that they could potentially be polluting drinking water wells.
But despite one Department of Defense employee’s prediction that phasing out the foams could be an environmental task rivaling the magnitude of asbestos removal, the military continued to use the foams — without investigating whether anyone on or off the bases had been sickened, according to military records and emails.
In early 2001, he wrote a memo to environmental and safety officials with the Army, Air Force and Navy, as well as personnel with the DOD, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Aviation Administration and National Fire Protection Association, inviting them to a March 16, 2001 meeting at the Pentagon to discuss the issue.
It added that “PFOA and telomer are also persistence (sic) in the environment and more toxic than PFOS.” In addition to planning for a potential foam ban, the meeting would also be used to “discuss ‘high-risk’ uses of PFOS and what should be done to reduce or eliminate environmental releases of the chemical.
KK Phull, with the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Environment, Safety, and Occupational Health, wrote an email to Bowling responding to a request from the March 16 meeting to create a series of questions to help “minimize the impact of a future (foam) ban by EPA."
In late March 2001, Korzeniowski emailed Air Force contractor and senior foam researcher Douglas Dierdorf to question him about why Bowling called PFOA “more toxic” than PFOS in his memo to military personnel earlier that year.
Korzeniowski sought the data behind that assertion, saying DuPont would share its data and the results of “several meetings we had with the US EPA over the past year.” Records from the military show Dierdorf forwarded Korzeniowski’s email to Bowling, then drafted a letter for Bowling to sign and send to DuPont.
The screening suggested a DuPont telomer foam had degraded into a chemical family that included PFOA.
A photocopy of the study was in the records the military provided to Cuker’s law firm.
Various military records indicate the company was a consultant to the DOD on firefighting foam and other fire protection issues.