[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: GAO report on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

Persistent Chemicals: Navy Efforts to Address PFAS at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam


Government Accountability Office
GAO-24-106812
April 15, 2024

As of February 2024, DOD testing had not detected any per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the active drinking water shaft at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. PFAS are a large group of heat and stain resistant chemicals that can persist in the environment—including in water, soil, and air—for decades or longer. In November 2022, during maintenance activities 1,300 gallons of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) concentrate was released from a pipe in a tunnel at the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. Because AFFF—a product used to fight flammable liquid fires—contains PFAS, this incident raised concerns about PFAS in the installation's drinking water and how the Department of Defense (DOD) remediates PFAS contamination at the installation.

Following the AFFF release, DOD took immediate action to ensure the AFFF was contained and removed from the affected area. Both DOD and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have since completed investigations of the November 2022 AFFF release and issued final reports. Both investigations recommended that (1) increased government oversight of AFFF-related activities at the Red Hill facility was necessary, (2) all AFFF concentrate should be removed from the Red Hill facility, and (3) the AFFF system at Red Hill should be decommissioned.

...

For the entire Highlights page and a link to the full report, see
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106812

—

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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