The Pentagon has again extended its timelines for cleaning up 'forever chemicals' at contaminated military bases, the third time in a year the department has moved a key phase of the work.
The latest update changes the schedule at 243 installations, a senior defence official told NOTUS. The official acknowledged that dates are being pushed back but argued the change should not be read as a slowdown. 'Every time we peel those things back, we find more work, and we continue to want to make sure that we get this right,' the official said, pointing to expanding investigations and evolving regulatory standards.
Water supplies already affected
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are synthetic chemicals that resist breaking down in the environment. For decades the military used them in firefighting foam at airfields and training grounds, and they have since spread into groundwater. The Environmental Working Group lists 721 military sites with known or suspected PFAS discharges.
Between May and June, the department quietly revised cleanup schedules at nearly 200 sites without a public announcement, as NOTUS first reported. Fifteen of those sites had contamination that had already reached the drinking water of nearby communities. The Pentagon has supplied bottled water to service members and residents at some locations. The New York Times reported this month that some cleanups had been pushed back by up to 19 years.
Bipartisan anger in Congress
Lawmakers have demanded that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth reverse the delays. In June, senators led by Gary Peters wrote to the Pentagon asking for the specific reasons each site needed more testing and fieldwork. This time the department told Congress in advance rather than publishing revised dates online, a step officials said was meant to improve transparency.
Communities near the installations say the delays leave them exposed while investigations continue. The department says it is still assessing the full scope of contamination, and that new standards for how much PFAS is acceptable in soil and water have widened the work required at each base.