[CPEO-MEF] PFAS, GLOBAL: "Okinawan officials are 'furious' while the Japanese government is complacent"

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

Caught between a rock and a hard place
U.S. Marines in Okinawa discharge PFAS into the sewers
Okinawan officials are “furious” while the Japanese government is complacent

By Pat Elder
Military Poisons
September 26, 2021

In 2020 the Futenma Marine Corps Command was forced to cancel the popular, annual  Futenma Flightline Fair that had been scheduled for Saturday, March 14 and Sunday, March 15. These were the early days of the Covid pandemic and everyone looked forward the Flightline Fair and the displays of the F/A-18’s, F-35B’s and MV-22’s, with flyovers, a car show, and a spectacular barbecue. 

Morale suffered, so the command gave the nod to hold a barbecue on April 10th near a large hangar for the esprit de corps of the Marines. Heat from the barbecue equipment triggered the hangar fire suppression system, releasing massive amounts of toxic firefighting foam containing Perfluoro octane sulfonic acid, (PFOS). It ruined the barbecue.   

…

When the suppression systems unleash their foams, the military may either send the foam into storm water sewers, sanitary sewers, or underground storage tanks. Sending the carcinogens into the storm water sewers causes the materials to run directly into the rivers. Discharging the foams into the sanitary sewer system means the toxins are sent to wastewater treatment facilities where they are eventually discharged, untreated, into the rivers.  Foams captured in underground storage tanks can be sent to either of the sewer systems or removed from the site to be dumped elsewhere or incinerated. Because the chemicals don’t burn and don’t break down, there is no way to properly dispose of them and they’re likely to find pathways to human consumption. The Okinawans are upset for this reason.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.militarypoisons.org/latest-news/caught-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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