Military families in Arizona are drinking bottled water because their tap water is contaminated with toxic chemicals, and Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) wants to know why the cleanup keeps getting pushed back.
Kelly joined 23 other Senate Democrats in sending a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, demanding answers on the Department of Defense's repeated delays in cleaning up per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS, at military installations across the country.
More than 700 military sites nationwide have known or suspected PFAS contamination, and Arizona has several.
"I'm demanding an answer for why toxic chemical cleanups at Arizona military bases keep getting delayed," Kelly wrote on X. "Drinking water at military bases across the country is contaminated with PFAS—forever chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and an array of other health issues."
Halted Cleanup
The situation at Luke Air Force Base in the West Valley is perhaps the most immediate. Cleanup there was supposed to be finished last year.
It's now been pushed back to 2032, with off-base drinking water exceeding safe PFAS limits, forcing the Air Force to distribute bottled water to families in surrounding communities.
However, the problem extends well beyond Luke, as in Tucson, an investigation into PFAS contamination at the Morris Air National Guard base may not be completed until 2047, a 15-year delay from original projections, and a nearby water treatment plant has been offline since 2021.
Therefore, military sites in Sierra Vista, Yuma, and Flagstaff are also caught up in what the letter describes as delays ranging from one year to more than two decades.
Now, unfortunately, the state is in the midst of a long-term drought with dwindling water supplies, and PFAS contamination is threatening some of its most critical groundwater supplies.
PFAS has been linked to cancer, reduced immune function, reproductive issues, birth defects, and thyroid problems. The chemicals earn their "forever chemical" nickname because they stubbornly persist in both the environment and the human body.
Kelly and his colleagues are asking the Defense Department to respond to their questions by July 31.
