These toxins from New Jersey's Army bases contribute to environmental injustice | Opinion
For more than a century, the U.S. Army's reckless use and careless disposal of hazardous chemicals in and around its bases have irreversibly impacted the lives of numerous service members and civilians. In famous cases such as Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, contamination went unnoticed for over 30 years and exposed the base's residents to a slew of toxins known to trigger adverse health effects and debilitating diseases.
In New Jersey, where contaminated bases are located near areas with a significant minority population, the army's inaction in addressing its pollution contributes to a widespread pattern of environmental injustice that primarily affects vulnerable ethnic communities.
The Army's lasting contamination issues
Serving as the poster child for extensive toxic contamination, Camp Lejeune housed nearly 1 million troops and dependents from 1953 to 1987. Throughout this period, the base's residents were unintentionally exposed to volatile organic compounds resulting from decomposing solvents, degreasers, oil, industrial chemicals and radioactive waste.
Testing conducted in the 80s uncovered over 60 toxins contaminating Camp Lejeune's grounds in concentrations exceeding safety limits by 240 to 3,400 times, including benzene, vinyl chloride, perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, and per/polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS for short. Prolonged exposure to such hazards has been linked to several types of cancer (testicular, kidney, liver), hormonal disruptions, developmental issues in children and even miscarriage. Camp Lejeune was deemed a Superfund site in 1989 and remained operational thanks to ongoing remediation efforts, although traces of toxins are still uncovered at several sites around the base to this day.
In particular, the Army's reliance on aqueous film-forming foam since the 1970s to put out difficult fuel blazes or in firefighter training represents a long-term risk for those who were exposed. AFFF is mainly comprised of PFAS or "forever chemicals," a class of synthetic compounds with highly resilient structures that can easily permeate the soil and pollute drinking water sources. More than 700 army bases across the U.S. are known to be contaminated with PFAS, with a recent study identifying 3,493 current or former military sites presumed to be affected.
Environmental injustice in New Jersey
Ethnicity remains the primary indicator of higher toxic exposure risks in the U.S., mainly due to discriminatory redlining policies that significantly undervalued land in minority neighborhoods during the 20th century. As a result, such areas became cheap options for situating industrial facilities, military bases, traffic routes, landfills and other pollution sources without regard for local residents' health. This prevailing phenomenon is also known as "environmental racism."
In New Jersey, the army's use of AFFF has led to several bases being contaminated with excessive PFAS compounds, for which the EPA established non-binding advisories in 2016, deeming concentrations above 70 parts per trillion unsafe. The state's most contaminated military locations include Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (264,000 ppt), Atlantic City Air National Guard Base (87,000 ppt), Naval Air Warfare Center Trenton (27,800 ppt), and Naval Weapons Station Earle (4,330 ppt), several of which are classified as superfund sites.
A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that disadvantaged communities in New Jersey were more prone to PFAS exposure in their drinking water, with 78% of the water systems that serve 4.6 million vulnerable residents exceeding 4 ppt, or the lowest concentration reliably quantified by most labs. Notably, the army's bases in Trenton, Atlantic City and McGuire are surrounded by majority ethnic communities, in some cases comprising over half of the population.
Despite the Department of Defense recognizing the staggering extent of PFAS contamination across its bases, cleanup has yet to commence on the most affected sites, including McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst whose reported concentrations are even higher than Camp Lejeune's (179,348 ppt). From 2016 to 2020, the DoD demonstrated further disregard for public health after covertly incinerating over 20 million pounds of AFFF and spreading airborne PFAS in areas with low-income multiethnic residents.
Overcoming environmental racism
The disproportionate toxic burdens that minorities experience in the US are reflected in a 2019 study, which notes that African Americans and Latinos inhale 56% and 63% more air pollutants than they contribute to. By comparison, white Americans breathe in 17% fewer airborne hazards. Concurrently, the EPA also warns that climate change’s compounding effects likewise increase U.S. minorities' risks of property and income loss, childhood asthma diagnoses, and heat-related fatalities.
Combating and overturning environmental racism's lasting effects in New Jersey, whose sampled water registered as the 4th most PFAS-contaminated in the country, requires decisive institutional involvement that ensures lasting reform and deters polluters. In 2020, New Jersey was the first U.S. state to adopt legislation concerning environmental justice and set PFAS standards in drinking water lower than the EPA's guidelines at 13 to 14 ppt. A new draft rule would also limit industrial polluters' abilities to build or expand facilities in overburdened communities.
Although the progress is encouraging, marginalized communities heavily depend on authorities since they often don't have the resources to confront individuals and groups opposed to improved environmental policies. Several manufacturers and labor groups have challenged what the state defines as "overburdened communities," and while the new draft rule would apply to 8 types of facilities, it would exempt those that serve a "compelling public interest," which has yet to be defined. More importantly, army bases aren't among the facilities mentioned in the draft.
Despite these setbacks, the focus on addressing the U.S.' longstanding environmental injustice and toxic issues has never been higher. The National Defense Authorization Act will phase out AFFF from U.S. Army bases by 2024 and finance PFAS remediation efforts, while policies such as Biden-Harris' Justice40 program will invest 40% of future environmental funds in vulnerable minority neighborhoods located in highly polluted areas.
Most promising of all, the EPA has vowed to federally regulate PFAS in drinking water in the near future. Towards this end, it has significantly reduced its advisories for the most common PFAS compounds to only 0.004 – 0.02 ppt, or 3,500 to 17,500 times lower than its former recommendation.
Jonathan Sharp serves as CFO at the Birmingham, Alabama-based, Environmental Litigation Group PC, a law firm that specializes in toxic exposure cases and represents individuals harmed by hazardous substances on US army bases.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ Army bases environmental contamination
