Updated map: Toxic 'forever chemicals' confirmed to contaminate 455 military sites

WASHINGTON – More than 700 military installations are likely contaminated with the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, according to an updated comprehensive review of Defense Department records by the Environmental Working Group. 

The DOD identified 58 additional sites with confirmed PFAS detections in drinking water and groundwater for a total of 455 sites where the chemicals have been detected. Concerns about potential contamination persist at an additional 255 bases, bringing the total number of DOD sites where PFAS have been confirmed or suspected to 710.

Among the top 20 locations with newly reported PFAS detections, five are in Hawaii. Pearl Harbor, located eight miles west of Honolulu, had two sites with detections exceeding 2 million parts per trillion. The five sites are: Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam; Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Pearl Harbor; Navy Munitions Command East Asia at Pearl Harbor; Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Hawaii; and Marine Corps Base Hawaii, formerly Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay.

“The Defense Department has failed to treat PFAS with the urgency service members and their families rightly deserve,” said Jared Hayes, a senior policy analyst at EWG. “For too long, people living in communities near military installations also have been the victims of the Pentagon’s failure to act.”

 The new military installations with the highest PFAS detects of more than 10,000 parts per trillion, or ppt, in their drinking water or groundwater are:

^{Source: Department of Defense}

Through Freedom of Information Act requests and publicly available databases, EWG previously discovered that many of the highest PFAS detections in the U.S. are found on or near military installations.

In December 2022, an internal DOD study concluded more than 175,000 service members at 24 military installations were served unsafe water containing PFOA and PFOS – the two most notorious PFAS. That study only counted service members at installations served water with PFAS levels greater than 70 ppt, the advisory level set by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2016.

It’s likely that more than 600,000 service members and their families have been exposed to PFAS through on-base drinking water above levels that the EPA currently considers to be safe. 

In March 2023, the EPA unveiled unprecedented new drinking water limits for six PFAS – PFOA, PFOS, GenX, PFBS, PFNA and PFHxS. The limit, known as the maximum contaminant level, or MCL, for PFOA is 4 ppt, and 4 ppt for PFOS, currently the limit of detection for both chemicals. MCLs represent the highest levels of contaminants allowed in drinking water.  

The DOD also excluded from its internal study the effect of PFAS on maternal and fetal health because its review “focused on military members and veterans.” Studies show that about 13,000 service members give birth every year, and many family members live on DOD installations. 

The Pentagon’s use of firefighting foam made with PFAS, also known as aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, is the primary source of PFAS pollution at military installations.

DOD officials have understood the risks of AFFF since the early 1970s, when Navy and Air Force studies first showed the firefighting foam was toxic to fish. In 2001, a DOD memo concluded that the main ingredient in AFFF was “persistent, bioaccumulating and toxic.”

Risks from PFAS exposure

PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because once released into the environment they do not break down and they can build up in our blood and organs. 

The blood of nearly all Americans is contaminated with PFAS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies show exposure to very low levels of PFAS can increase the risk of cancer, harm fetal development and reduce vaccine effectiveness.

The DOD’s internal health assessment recognizes many of these harms, but it ignores the increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer from PFAS exposure, which is well documented by other federal agencies.  

And a new federal study suggests a strong link between PFOS found in the blood of thousands of military personnel and testicular cancer. Multiple studies have shown that firefighters, both military and civilian, have been diagnosed with testicular cancer at higher rates than people in most other occupations.  

The DOD is also failing to confront an almost $8 billion, and growing, increase in the cost of cleaning up contaminated sites, many polluted by PFAS.

The estimated total for cleaning up these sites has soared to nearly $39 billion, up by $11 billion from 2016 to 2022, the last year the Pentagon provided estimates. Yet its cleanup budget increased by only $400 million over the same period. The DOD cannot tackle PFAS cleanup properly with this level of funding. 

As a result, some sites plagued by these toxic PFAS might not get cleaned up for more than half a century.

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The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.