Press Release: U.S. Military Must Change Way it Cleans Up PFAS Pollution

Washington, DC-- This week, The Intercept reported on the Sierra Club discovery that the U.S. military is sending its stockpiles of toxic PFAS chemicals to hazardous waste incinerators -- a dangerous and contamination-prone approach.

Through military contracts, the Sierra Club unveiled that between 2017 and 2019, the Air Force sent more than 1 million gallons of PFOS-containing aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) and contaminated waste to hazardous waste incinerators. And just last fall, the military signed a second round of contracts to dispose of a similar quantity held by the Army, Navy and Marines.

The Sierra Club and community activists call on the military to change its approach, noting that incineration carries increased, intense risks to the often low income and minority communities who live nearby.

In response, experts released the following statements:

“It is impermissible for the military to send these chemicals to incinerators like the one in East Liverpool, Ohio-- which has chronically violated the law and put communities in direct danger,” said Alonzo Spencer of Save Our County, Inc. “Our community has been exposed to toxic chemicals for decades. Our neighborhood has significantly higher rates of cancer and our kids have learning problems because of their exposure to incinerator wastes.”

“Safely handling PFAS will take innovative thinking. Unfortunately, PFAS are currently outside the laws that would force polluters to do it right,” said Eric Uram, chair of Sierra Club’s Toxics Committee. “The issue is that the two other options in use -- deep well injection and landfilling --  create new problems for these ‘forever chemicals’”.

“Incineration won’t work for PFAS chemicals,” said Jane Williams, chair of Sierra Club’s National Clean Air Team. “The military should use the advanced technologies it developed at our urging, to safely and completely destroy these highly toxic, persistent chemicals.”

Background:

The widespread use of PFAS in fire fighting foams at military bases and airports has resulted in a massive water contamination crisis in United States. More than 16 million people drink water with measurable PFAS contamination, largely due to the use of fire fighting foams. The U.S. military estimates it will take billions to clean up its PFAS contamination. One key strategy to incinerate its stockpiles of leftover PFAS foams, hinged on the fact that the chemicals aren’t currently included in most hazardous waste laws.  

As flame retardant chemicals, PFAS are highly resistant to thermal destruction. Thus, incinerators could fail and emit PFAS back into the environment, or partial decompose to form acutely toxic chemicals that put nearby communities at serious jeopardy.

While the Air Force was incinerating its PFAS stockpile, a research arm of the military has been funding the development safer alternatives to PFAS incineration, citing key reasons why incineration could fail. These include: 1) Too little information about the temperature and handling requirements for PFAS breakdown in incinerators, 2) Incomplete incineration sends PFAS chemicals back out in the environment and 3) The potential to form of new, harmful chemicals that are damage human health or deplete the ozone layer.

Military disposal of hazardous waste has been a contentious issue for decades. In the 1990s, the Sierra Club participated in a grassroots effort that compelled the military to develop safer technologies to destroy stockpiles of chemical weapons instead of sending them to incinerators.

A key requirement from impacted communities was alternative technologies like contained systems so that operators could test the effluent and confirm it was safe before releasing breakdown products into the environment. These same technologies, developed with military funding, can be adapted to destroy PFAS stockpiles and clean up PFAS-contaminated sites. Instead the Air Force stockpiles went to the Heritage Environmental Services with an incinerator in East Liverpool Ohio, that has repeatedly put the surrounding community at risk by chronic violation of its operating permits.

Now, the Sierra Club is working at the state and national level to ensure PFAS stockpiles are safely contained until technologies exist that will completely destroy the chemicals. In addition to military stockpiles, PFAS fire fighting foams are held by fire departments fighting residential and industrial fires. PFAS must be added to federal laws including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which would add penalties for improper disposal.