civilian exposure

Jacksonville NAS is an active installation facing a variety of contamination issues both in the past, and in the present. The EPA placed the site on the Superfund program’s National Priorities List in 1989 because of contaminated soil, sediment, groundwater and surface water. More recently, the problem of high levels of PFAS in water at the base has come to the fore.

Site investigations found contamination in groundwater, surface water, sediments and soil at Naval Air Station Pensacola that could potentially harm people in the area. The site is currently still in remediation.

We wore gloves but no masks. I’m glad we worked outside under a canopy. I don’t know what affect the toluene had on me. I breathed it in all day for almost a year.

Our dad, Joseph, along with Robert Kennedy, Jr., exposed a toxic military dumpsite buried in the 60’s (which included Agent Orange) at Stewart Air Force Base in Newburgh, New York. It is a site that has been covered up by our government, the EPA and DEC for the past 40 years. As a result, this contamination has poisoned the community for over 40 years by leeching into Washington Lake Drinking Water Resevoir, which is right across the street from the Air Force base that serves 10’s of thousands of civilians.

In 2014 I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. It all started with severe back…

Donaldson Air Force Base in Greenville, South Carolina, was closed in 1963. The property was transferred to the City and County of Greenville, South Carolina in 1964. It is currently owned 50/50 by the city and county, with some private industrial ownership of the peripheral areas. Now known as the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center (SCTAC), the 2,600-acre industrial park that is home to various high-profile companies such as Lockheed Martin, Michelin, IBM, 3M, and others. It is one of six bases in the state that continue to be a problem for toxic military contamination and potential exposure impacts.

Three U.S. Army veterans of a nuclear weapons base in Okinawa have filed claims with the Veterans Administration for cancers associated with radiation exposure. Since January, 2020, the Japanese Defense Ministry has been removing a large swath of soil from the former nuclear weapons storage area in Henoko Village, but has refused a request from the local Diet representative from Okinawa to test it for radioactive contamination. This threatens the safety of local residents, and denies important information to the veterans filing VA claims.

Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, located in Oak Harbor, Washington, has a history of contamination issues that goes back decades. One of the latest and most prevalent sources of contamination is firefighting foams (PFAS). Learn more about Whidbey Island NAS.

It has been a while since I have taken the time to sit down…

I was an Air Force Firefighter for just short of eleven years, separating only after a physical injury left me unable to do my job. I served from Jan 1993 – Nov 2003. I was stationed at Fairchild AFB, WA, Clear AS, AK, Shaw AFB, SC, and Ellsworth AFB, SD. I deployed 4 times during my time on active duty. We used AFFF for everything. When an aircraft hangar would have a foam dump, we’d play around in that stuff because it was so deep we didn’t have much choice.