Army: Water-test files to cost $290,400
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has informed The Environmental Working Group that it would charge the advocacy group $290,400 to provide records of water tests at 154 military installations for a family of compounds known as PFAS, which federal authorities say appear to be linked to certain cancers and other health and developmental problems.
Formally called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS are found in firefighting foam used at military bases and are in a wide range of nonstick and stain-resistant consumer products. The compounds have been dubbed “forever chemicals” because they are expected to take hundreds or thousands of years to break down.
Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Maureen Sullivan told a House panel this month that the Defense Department has identified 401 military sites where it believes PFAS were used and has found 24 U.S. military drinking water systems around the world with PFAS levels above the current U.S. advisory level.
Environmental attorneys asked for the water-test records under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
Ordinary people and communities worried about water contamination may not have lawyers able to wrangle with the Pentagon “and certainly don’t have the money to pay for this kind of information,” said Melanie Benesh, one of the attorneys who made the request.