WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — US Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) pressed military officials for answers with regard to ongoing efforts to remediate PFAS contamination nationwide during a Thursday committee hearing.
The compounds, known as ‘forever chemicals’, have been detected by researchers across several hundred sites statewide.
The preponderance of those occurrences are in close proximity to former military facilities, including the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda.
A report produced by the Defense Department’s Inspector General revealed the military’s response had, for years, been insufficient given the scope of contamination.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee convened Thursday to examine the author’s findings.
The Committee called several panels of witnesses to testify over the course of the more than two hour proceeding.
Great Lakes PFAS Action Network Co-Chair Anthony Spaniola numbered among the stable of experts committee-members tapped for analysis.
“There's momentum building here to take action,” Spaniola related via Zoom Thursday afternoon following his testimony. “Pushing the Department of Defense to take action, I think can only have good consequences for the non-DOD sites, of which there are so many in Michigan, including in West Michigan.”
Spaniola referred to the plumes detected beneath the City of Rockford and environs, where experts have indicated industrial waste produced by shoe manufacturer Wolverine Worldwide had, over the course of several decades, laced the groundwater with levels of PFAS contamination several thousand-times beyond lifetime federal safety standards.
The contamination remains at the center of a number of ongoing lawsuits.
In a media release issued following the hearing, Peters said the contamination had resulted in ‘preventable harm’ after the Department of Defense ‘failed to warn servicemembers, their families and local communities.’
“Moving forward… the Department of Defense must do more to work collaboratively with communities and state and local stakeholders who have suffered from PFAS contamination over the years,” the senator said.
Peters called upon officials to bolster clean-up efforts and expand programming already in place to test and monitor those affected for adverse longer-term health outcomes.
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