The Pentagon is again delaying its timelines to clean up “forever chemicals” at hundreds of contaminated military sites across the United States, the third time in a year the department has extended estimates for completing a key phase of the cleanups.
The latest update will change the schedule at 243 installations, a senior Defense Department official told NOTUS on Wednesday. The official acknowledged that the dates at those installations are being pushed back, while arguing the changes should not be interpreted as a slowdown in the Pentagon’s effort to address contamination from the chemicals known as PFAS.
Instead, the official said the new dates reflect expanding investigations, evolving regulatory standards and additional work needed as the department learns more about contamination at individual sites.
“Every time we peel those things back, we find more work, and we continue to want to make sure that we get this right,” the official said.
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The changes mark the latest setback in the Pentagon’s yearslong effort to address widespread PFAS contamination caused by decades of military use of firefighting foam at airfields and training facilities.
The new delays include more than 40 sites with PFAS contamination that has reached nearby drinking water. That’s three-quarters of all locations where the DOD has identified drinking water impacts. In those locations, the military provides alternative options like bottled water delivery to ensure people can access safe water.
Joint Base San Antonio in Texas and Fairchild Air Force Base in eastern Washington are among those dealing both with drinking water impacts and now the longest new delays. Joint Base San Antonio is seeing an additional 13 year delay and Fairchild Air Force Base is getting a 12 year delay. For both of those locations, the Defense Department indicated in its schedule that the delays were caused by the need for “additional testing and fieldwork.”
Lawmakers and communities complained that the Pentagon had previously published revised dates online without a public announcement. Between May and June, the Pentagon quietly pushed back cleanup schedules at nearly 200 sites, as NOTUS first reported. Those delays included 15 military sites where PFAS contamination had already spread into the drinking water of nearby communities.
Two dozen senators subsequently demanded that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reverse the delays and provide more information about how the decisions were made.
This time, the department is taking a different approach. Pentagon officials notified lawmakers and reporters ahead of the update and said installations will be expected to communicate the changes locally through public meetings, restoration advisory boards, social media and fact sheets.
“I can always communicate more effectively,” the senior official said, acknowledging the concerns about the department’s previous handling of the schedule changes.
The department also plans to change how cleanup information is conveyed on its website in an effort to be “more plain, more spoken, more addressing the issues, so communities can see what’s happening,” the official said. The department is planning to roll out a site redesign later this year.
Defense officials insist the later dates do not mean the cleanup work is stopping. The Pentagon says it’s using interim measures — such as contaminated soil removal, groundwater treatment, filtration systems for homes and work with municipal water supplies — while longer investigations continue.
“I want to reiterate: It’s not a pause in our efforts. In fact, the ongoing efforts are increasing,” the official said. “But these adjustments that you’re going to see are based upon both the interim actions that we’re taking on the cleanup part of this. Right, so we’re taking more interim actions.”
The official said that the schedules are driven mainly by the science and the amount of investigative work required. Asked whether additional money from Congress could shorten the cleanup timelines, the official did not identify a specific funding level or say how much faster the work could proceed.
The military is one of the country’s most significant sources of PFAS pollution. PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, can remain in the environment and the human body for decades. In large enough concentrations, the chemicals can cause health problems ranging from developmental issues to certain cancers.
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