“The Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water” Receives Substantial Grant

Firefighters at Peterson Air Force Base conduct live training with AFFF. Notice the grassy area just beyond the foam. July 21, 2014. Photo by Michael Golembesky / US Air Force.

By Nancy Price, Barbara Reed, and Randa Solnick
Earth Democracy Issue Committee

This summer, the Patagonia Environmental Fund awarded the Earth Democracy committee a $12,000 grant for “The Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water,” our new project in California. The grant will support our work bringing the environmental, water, and health justice communities together with the peace movement to expose the extent of the military’s responsibility for the current nationwide  drinking water and health crisis. This project is focused on California, the state with the most WILPF branches, a large number of at-large members, and with a number of environmental, health, water justice, and peace groups with whom we can collaborate.

A probable link has been established between a large class of man-made chemicals known as PFAS, of which PFOA and PFOS are the most commonly used and associated with a range of illnesses, including kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, pre-eclampsia, ulcerative colitis, hormone disruption, infertility, and developmental problems in the fetus and early childhood. PFAS is found in umbilical cord blood and breast milk. The Environmental Working Group reports that PFAS is now in the blood of 99 percent of Americans and has contaminated the drinking water of 110 million or more Americans. Our project will expose the military and military bases as a primary source of pollution in the state. Read Pat Elder’s California Takes on PFAS Contamination While the Military Is a Primary Source of the Pollution and  A New Drinking Water Crisis Hits US Military Bases Across the Nation.

This water and health is a crisis of epic proportions, not only because of the magnitude of contamination. but because the chemicals in this PFAS class are called “forever chemicals” – taking hundreds of years to break down during which time they continue to pollute water, humans, animals, fish, plants, and crops.   

The public is finally starting to become informed of PFAS levels in drinking water and states are starting to take action on setting their own limits, as the Environmental Protection Agency has to date only proposed a maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 70 parts-per-trillion.  California has taken on PFAS pollution and has set the lowest limits of any state to date. Effective January 1, 2020, public water systems must notify customers of PFAS contamination. The current notification level of 14 ppt has been lowered to 5.1 ppt for PFOA and from 13 ppt to 6.5 ppt for PFOS, two of the most widespread in the family of PFAS chemicals. Drinking water sources with  measurements that exceed these levels are either to be taken out of service or the water system must provide public notice of the excess level.

In early 2020, when the California public gets these notices, they may demand to know more, and to press the state to act more quickly to set low and legally-binding MCL levels. Other states are waking up, too: testing water, seeking to find sources of contamination, and setting rates well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed level of 70 ppt. A Harvard scientist has stated that even 1 ppt is too high!

There is still a lot of work to be done to educate and mobilize the public on this important issue and the military’s responsibility. This Earth Democracy project in California is poised to take a lead by raising awareness and building coalitions among activist groups. We’ll start this fall and lead up to a statewide tour in March 2020 by Pat Elder to speak at local events, culminating with a public forum on March 21, the day before World Water Day, on the theme of militarism, the environment and drinking water crisis, and climate.

Pat is a leading researcher and writer on military pollution who publishes at militarytimes.com, civilianexposure.org,  and worldbeyondwar.org.  His Website, www.militarypoisons.org will serve as our project website titled “The Military is Poisoning California” where he already has posted California Databases of contaminated military sites searchable by name of base, city, or county. Click on Alamea and then go to “More” for the bases. Pat is writing a “profile” for each base, and has a section on “How To Do Research.” 

Please Join Earth Democracy in This Project!

First of all: If you live in California, the Santa Cruz Branch is planning a CA Cluster Meeting on November 16th in Santa Cruz, in part to discuss organizing the Pat Elder tour. Please join us and RSVP to Rando Solick at rsolick@gmail.com

Then, here’s what we aim to do:

This fall:

• Invite WILPF branches and at-large members to discuss and decide if the will host a speaking engagement for Pat Elder, and propose a date in March so we can begin to lay out a calendar. By January or early February, we would like to have a schedule in place so we can begin outreach and publicity. We look forward to working with the Environmental Working Group, the Community Water Center (Visalia), Environmental Coalition for Water Justice (Sacramento), CA Nurses Association, CA Breast Action, and 20 Veterans for Peace Chapters.
• Create a series of well-researched educational handouts, including profiles of bases and military installations, with types/ levels of contamination, data for on-base and adjacent community disease clusters, and status of legislative and other actions being taken in CA and other states.
• Create an event poster, banner, and infographic card.
• Develop a social media campaign to educate the public on how the military is the hidden polluter of water, the use of a specially formulated form for fighting intensely hot jet fuel and other fires on bases, its contamination of water and ecosystems on bases and in surrounding communities, and its toxic effects on health.

Beginning in January:

• From January to early February, finalize Pat Elder’s tour schedule.
• Launch our social media campaign.
• Mobilize the CA public and impacted communities to support the new state maximum contaminant level (MCL) for PFASs, in particular PFOA/PFOS  .
• Educate California residents that they have legal rights to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water. Our Earth Democracy Committee was part of the coalition of water justice groups that succeeded in getting the California Human Right to Water bill signed into law in 2012.
• Collaborate with environmental, water, health, and peace organizations to mobilize grassroots, intersectional action advocating for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Defense (DoD) to establish a realistic lowest maximum contaminant levels (MCL) for PFAS contamination.

March 2020

• Branches, at-large-members and groups host community speaking event for Pat Elder.
• March 21 Forum: Militarism – Environment, Water and Health Crisis - and Climate: Speakers TBA.

We need your help to make his project a success.

It’s time to build a broad intersectional movement of environmental, health, water justice, and peace groups in California and nationwide calling to close bases and end wars. This is the only way we can liberate the billions of dollars from the military budget to fund the Superfund cleanup of toxic sites on military bases and contamination in surrounding communities, provide health care for on- and off-base victims of contaminated water, and to repair and build new “state of the art” public, not privatized and corporate owned, drinking water and water treatment systems.

The military is killing us. We must close bases and end wars to protect the environment and the health of current and future generations. Contact Nancy Price nancytprice39@gmail.com or Randa Solick rsolick@gmail.com if you are interested in any aspect of this exciting project. Stay tuned for further reports.