U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, has authored new legislation to initiate PFAS cleanup at Michigan military installments.
The bill would require the Department of Defense to begin PFAS cleaning at military sites in Michigan and across the country within the next two years.
"We can't undo the contamination that has already happened, but we can affect what happens next, and that means doing everything we can to clean up contaminated sites," Peters said in a YouTube video.
PFAS are often described as "forever chemicals" because some don't naturally degrade and are linked to severe illnesses and cancers.
The legislation comes weeks after the Pentagon postponed PFAS cleanups at hundreds of military sites across the U.S.
In a press release, Peters said delays have affected 11 military installments across Michigan.
Four of the sites highlighted by Peters are located in northern Michigan:
- Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center
- Camp Grayling
- Wurtsmith Air Force Base
- Kincheloe Air Force Base
According to reporting by USA Today, the two sites in Michigan that have been delayed the longest are Selfridge Air National Guard Base and Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center. Both installments have been delayed 26 years.
Wurtsmith Air Force Base has been delayed seven years, but the cost increase since 2021 is over $247 million.
"It’s past time that the Department of Defense treats this growing public health crisis with the urgency it deserves," Peters said in the release. "This bipartisan bill would force them to get shovels in the ground and begin cleanup of these sites without further delay."
He said PFAS contamination at nearby military sites are depriving some communities of access to safe drinking water.
"People living near active and former military sites in Michigan are grappling with health complications from drinking water poisoned PFAS chemical pollution," Bentley Johnson, federal government affairs director of Michigan League of Conservation Voters, said in the release.
If passed, the Department of Defense is required to initiate cleanup of PFAS at military installments in the U.S., within the next two years.
U.S. Senator Mike Rounds, R-SD, co-authored the bill with Peters.
