Pentagon needs ‘culture change’ on pollution, say PFAS caucus members

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Department of Defense must adopt a more constructive attitude toward cleaning up toxic “forever chemical” pollution, say members of a bipartisan caucus in Congress that’s pushing the new administration to move swiftly on regulations that would curb exposure to PFAS chemicals in the environment.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint, called for a “culture change” among leadership at the Pentagon when dealing with fluorochemical pollution cleanup during a call with reporters on Jan. 29 to announce a relaunching of the Congressional PFAS Task Force for the new legislative session.

On Friday, the task force sent a letter to President Joe Biden in which 132 members of Congress from both parties urged immediate steps to tackle the contamination problem across the nation, citing advocacy group data suggesting more than 200 million Americans are likely drinking tap water that contains at least trace levels of the chemicals.

The letter singled out not just the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for being slow to address the problem, but also the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), signaling an expanding congressional focus beyond drinking water into the realm of food 

Other Democrats included Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire and Michigan Reps. Haley Stevens and Debbie Dingell, who said the caucus plans to reintroduce legislation soon aimed at creating a national drinking water standard for PFAS and adding some of the chemicals to the list of those classified as hazardous under the Superfund law.