Bills introduced for cleanup of ‘forever chemicals’

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Michigan is surrounded by four of the five Great Lakes—about 3,288 miles of freshwater shoreline—but it’s also been ranked as the state with the most PFAS contamination sites.

PFAS stands for “per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances,” but is better known as “forever chemicals.”

U.S. Rep Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich. 7th Dist.) has introduced two bipartisan bills that intend to speed up PFAS cleanup in Michigan and reduce the amount of PFAS-containing products that the Department of Defense uses today.

PFAS are manmade chemicals found in many consumer products, including non-stick cookware and fire extinguisher foam. The sites with the largest sources of PFAS contamination are usually military bases and manufacturing sites.

Slotkin is co-sponsoring The Accelerating DoD PFAS Cleanups Act with Rep. Jen Kiggans (R- Va. 2nd Dist.), and the Prioritizing PFAS-Free Cleaning Products Act with Rep. Nancy Mace (R- S.C. 1st Dist.).

Environmental advocates, like the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network, stand behind the proposed legislation.

“These important bills will help save lives, by requiring the Defense Department to swiftly target and clean up the most harmful PFAS contamination zones in defense communities like mine in Oscoda, Michigan, and to remove PFAS from the cleaning products used by service members and civilians in military operations,” said Tony Spaniola, Co-Chair of the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network.

The DoD announced last August that it would install two groundwater treatment systems at the site of the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, and an additional two groundwater treatment systems at the site in January.

The former Air Force base, which closed in 1993, is located along Lake Huron. The Environmental Working Group has reported that PFAS chemicals have oozed into the Great Lakes and can cause harm to people who eat fish from the waterways.

Pentagon documents have shown that at least 385 military facilities across the country are polluted with PFAS—which primarily comes from firefighting foam that the military has used in training exercises, The Associated Press reported in 2021.

Slotkin’s office reported in a news release Friday that the Prioritizing PFAS-Free Cleaning Products Act would:

• Require the DoD to prioritize the purchase of PFAS-free cleaning products for use on military installations and other DoD buildings.
• Require the secretary to only procure PFAS-free cleaning products certified by the existing Safer Choice Program (or similar certification programs), to the maximum extent practicable.

The Accelerating DoD PFAS Cleanups Act would:

• Require DoD to expedite implementation of “interim remedies” or “early actions,” to mitigate the spread of PFAS-contaminated groundwater from military installations to off-base sources of groundwater or surface water.
• Require DoD to publish the results of its evaluations, including any potential actions they have identified and a schedule for implementing such actions.
• Require DoD to identify private and public water wells with PFAS concentrations that exceed the maximum contamination level under the recently announced National Primary Drinking Water Standard for PFAS, and to provide alternative drinking water to households and communities served by the contaminated wells.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just finalized a rule in April 2024 that will categorize two widely used PFAS chemicals—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) as Superfund-designated chemicals, and help ensure that the polluters will pay.

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