The U.S. military’s firefighting foam problem is growing, with some form of drinking water contamination now found at 37 bases across the country and eight more overseas, according to this news organization’s review of recent reports.
As of the end of 2016, the Department of Defense had spent about $202 million on investigating or cleaning up contamination from the use of firefighting foams, as it works its way through a list of 397 former or active bases where it suspects the foams were used.
Firefighting foams used ubiquitously by the military between 1970 and 2015 contained toxic perfluorinated compounds such as PFOS and PFOA, which are now being found at a growing number of bases.
The DOD report shows the Air Force faces the steepest costs, having spent about $152 million at 203 installations: $119 million on investigations and $32 million on cleanup.
The joint base had spent about $1.8 million.
The Marine Corps had spent $1.3 million across seven of the 14 sites it wants to test, while the Defense Logistics Agency had yet to begin work at two sites.
But it offered no specific estimates — 10 months after the General Accountability Office said it notified the DOD of potential budgeting issues.
“In January 2017, we reported that DOD had not notified Congress that the costs for environmental cleanup at closed installations will significantly increase due to the high cost of remediating emerging contaminants, including PFOS and PFOA,” the GAO report said.
However, when added to more recent reviews conducted by the GAO and posted online by the Air Force, the number of bases with a known water contamination issue grows to 45.
Analysis by this news organization shows that contamination has been found in water systems at 20 bases, in off-base water supplies near 21 bases, and in water used for processes such as agriculture at another eight bases.