The Department of Defense has quietly pushed back efforts to clean up dangerous ‘forever chemicals’ at nearly 140 military bases nationwide, according to a recent analysis of publicly available data.
The Pentagon has historically been a major user of these persistent chemicals, known as PFAS, which are crucial components in firefighting foam. For decades, military personnel routinely used this foam during training exercises to extinguish jet-fuel fires. This practice led to the chemicals seeping into the surrounding soil and groundwater, causing widespread contamination.
By 2017, communities near military installations across the country started reporting concerning concentrations of these chemicals in their drinking water. Mounting scientific evidence links PFAS exposure to severe health problems, such as various cancers, developmental issues in children, and fertility challenges.
The Pentagon’s updated schedule could postpone cleanup operations at some military sites by almost ten years. This revised plan, dated March and released without formal announcement in recent weeks, represents a significant departure from the previous timeline issued in December 2024, during the final period of the Biden administration. The extent of these delays varies considerably from one location to another.
The Department of Defense, now controversially referred to as the ‘Department of War’ by the Trump administration, did not provide a response when asked for comment.
This new schedule emerges amidst potential budget cuts for toxic waste cleanups, even as the military grapples with an escalating contamination crisis. Since 2017, the Defense Department has allocated $2.6 billion to investigate the scale of this pollution. In the most severely impacted areas, it has provided clean drinking water to residents.
PFAS, an acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, earned their ‘forever chemical’ moniker due to their extreme persistence in the environment. The Defense Department has previously acknowledged that its comprehensive cleanup initiative, which has yet to fully commence, will require many years and billions of dollars to finalize.
Unfortunately, this means some affected communities will now face even longer waits for remediation.
These delays by the Defense Department impact crucial preparatory stages that must be completed before any physical cleanup can commence. This includes essential tasks like identifying the most effective remediation methods. Consequently, at some locations, actual cleanup efforts may not even start until 2039 or later, based on the revised timetable.
The Defense Department’s own list indicates that preparatory work has been postponed for approximately a quarter of the nearly 600 military sites confirmed to have PFAS contamination. On average, this work at these locations has been delayed by about five years compared to the December 2024 schedule.
Local officials in the vicinity of these contaminated military sites expressed surprise and frustration at the lack of prior communication regarding these changes.
Kristen Mello, a city councilor from Westfield, Mass., where the Barnes Air National Guard Base is located, stated, “There’s been no discussion of a delay.” Mello, a trained chemist whose father served as a lieutenant colonel at the base, added, “It’s very upsetting and depressing that we haven’t had clearer communications.”
These postponements coincide with proposed significant funding cuts for toxic site cleanups in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2026. Furthermore, this legislation seeks to reverse the ban on purchasing and using PFAS firefighting foam, a move that could lead to even greater environmental release of these harmful substances.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing criticism for his suggested budget reductions for the Pentagon. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, publicly questioned whether Hegseth’s “rushed, arbitrary strategy” might compromise national security.
Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), also on the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated that communities “are sick and tired of roadblocks, inaction, red tape and further delays.” She emphasized, “This is not a partisan issue, and President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have no excuse here.”
The sheer magnitude of the cleanup operation presents a significant hurdle. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office highlighted that Defense officials found the number of military installations nationwide requiring PFAS contamination assessment to be “overwhelming.”
According to officials, there was insufficient data regarding where PFAS might have been deployed at each site. This necessitated extensive testing across entire installations, some of which span hundreds of thousands of acres.
The report also noted the absence of a widely accessible technology capable of completely eradicating PFAS contamination from soil and water. Existing methods are described as imperfect and labor-intensive. For groundwater remediation, the process involves extracting the water, filtering out the PFAS, and then reintroducing the treated water back into the ground.
Under the Biden administration, the Environmental Protection Agency introduced stricter limits on PFAS levels in drinking water to safeguard public health. These new regulations effectively increased the standards for the Defense Department’s cleanup operations, which may have also contributed to the current delays.
Federal estimates suggest that fully addressing PFAS contamination around military sites will span decades and incur annual costs close to $7 billion. This staggering figure represents a 1,500 percent increase in just three years, as the true scope of the contamination has become alarmingly apparent, the G.A.O. report revealed.
Alissa H. Czyz, the director of defense capabilities and management at the Government Accountability Office, commented in an interview, “It’s a very long-term process, and there’s just so much uncertainty. This is going to be a massive effort.”
Czyz also suggested that even current cost projections might be insufficient. The report ultimately concludes that the cleanup could take many years, possibly even a century, to complete. It strongly recommended that the Defense Department offer Congress more detailed information about the entire process.
She added, “We understand that the D.O.D. is still trying to get a handle on what would be involved. But they haven’t really been transparent with Congress about just how much this could potentially cost.”
Currently, a House bill aims to mandate that the Secretary of Defense provide annual updates to Congress concerning PFAS funding and cleanup specifics.
Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI) criticized the situation, stating, “Communities impacted by PFAS chemicals have been waiting decades for cleanup, and they’ve been kept in the dark. When cleanup timelines change, residents deserve to know.”
For countless communities, the urgent need for cleanup grows with each passing day.
Just last month, New Mexico’s environmental regulator published a study revealing elevated PFAS levels in the bloodstreams of individuals residing or working near Cannon Air Force Base, located south of Clovis, N.M. For decades, crews at this base routinely used firefighting foam containing PFAS during drills and in response to aircraft incidents, severely contaminating local drinking water supplies.
Beyond military applications, these pervasive chemicals are also found in numerous consumer products, including nonstick cookware, waterproof apparel, stain-resistant carpets, and even dental floss.
New Mexico filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Air Force in 2019 concerning PFAS contamination originating from military bases within the state. The lawsuit asserts that the federal government is responsible for cleaning up the pollution and compensating for damages to New Mexico’s natural resources and private property.
The most recent Pentagon list confirms that the cleanup efforts at Cannon Air Force Base have been pushed back by nearly six years.
James Kenney, the secretary of New Mexico’s environment department, stated in an interview, “The longer they delay in cleanup, the greater the impacts to New Mexico’s water, and to New Mexicans.”
These Defense Department delays are also impacting private sector companies that were preparing to assist with the cleanup. Randol Aikin, CEO of Remedy, a California start-up, is developing an innovative method to eradicate PFAS from soil.
His company is currently involved in a DOD certification program for emerging technologies. Aikin emphasized, “As a technology start-up, we’re really sensitive to timing.”
At the Barnes Air National Guard Base, which contaminated Westfield, Massachusetts’ water supply, the Department of Defense installed water treatment systems in 2020 to begin removing PFAS from groundwater.
Councilor Mello noted that the Defense Department had not mentioned the new timeline during their July meeting with a local cleanup advisory board. Nevertheless, she acknowledged the monumental task facing the military.
Mello concluded, “We understand that an enormous environmental disaster happened here. I’m not even sure that with six more years, they’re going to figure out how to do this.”