U.S. lawmakers want military to act on perfluorocarbon contamination

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are asking President Donald J. Trump to hasten the U.S. military’s response to drinking water it contaminated with perfluorinated compounds. Groundwater near many current and former military bases across the U.S. is contaminated with perfluorinated substances that were in aqueous film-forming foams used in firefighting at those bases. For more than a year, members of Congress have asked the Defense Department to speed up investigation of perfluorinated compound pollution on its sites and provide clean drinking water to areas with contaminated supplies, says a letter from 14 House of Representatives legislators. The military “has been slow” to do so, the lawmakers’ Aug. 1 letter to Trump says. They say the pollution is endangering the health of service members, their families, and communities near bases. “We must assure them that they, and their families, have access to safe drinking water,” the letter says.