The U.S. Military is Poisoning Germany

Germany is experiencing a public health crisis with millions of people potentially  exposed to drinking water contaminated with Per and Poly Fluoroalkyl Substances, or PFAS.

A major source of this chemical contamination comes from the aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) used in routine fire-training on U.S. military bases. After igniting, then dousing massive fires with lethal foam, the American bases allow the poisons to leach into the groundwater to contaminate neighboring communities which use groundwater in their wells and municipal water systems.  

Confidential US Military documents leaked to the German news magazine Volksfreund in 2014 showed that groundwater at Ramstein Airbase contained 264 ug/L or 264,000 ppt. of PFAS.  Other samples at Ramstein were shown to contain 156.5 ug/l or156,500 ppt.

The water monitoring program of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in the vicinity of the Spangdahlem Air Base found  PFAS at concentrations of 1.935 ug/l or 1,935 ppt. The drainage system in Spangdahlem is still spreading the chemicals.

Harvard scientists say PFOS/PFOA at concentrations of 1 part per trillion (ppt)  in drinking water is likely to be harmful to human health. Fishing ponds, streams and rivers around the airfields are a thousand times more contaminated than they should be according to EU requirements.

It is instructive to compare the levels of groundwater contamination with this DOD report on PFAS contamination at US military bases. Like many American bases in the continental U.S., Ramstein and Spangdahlem are highly contaminated.

The health effects of exposure to these chemicals include frequent miscarriages and other severe pregnancy complications. They make it difficult for a woman to hold a baby for 9 months. They contaminate human breast milk and sicken breast-feeding babies. PFAS contribute to liver damage, kidney cancer, high cholesterol, decreased response to vaccines, an increased risk of thyroid disease, along with testicular cancer, micro-penis, and low sperm count in males.

The US military assumes no liability and generally refuses to pay for cleaning up the contamination it has caused. Army Col. Andrew Wiesen, the DOD’s Director of Preventive Medicine for the Office of Health Affairs, says the contamination in the U.S. is the responsibility of the American Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA). “We don’t do the primary research in this area,” he told the Marine Corps Times. “The EPA is responsible for that,” he said. “DoD has not independently looked at the compounds and does not have “additional research into this, about the health effects of PFOS/PFOA, at least as far as I know.”

More than 3,000 harmful PFAS chemicals have been developed. Two of the deadliest are Perfluoro Octane Sulfonate (PFOS) and Perfluoro Octanoic Acid (PFOA). They’re extremely useful in extinguishing super-hot petroleum fires.

The Pentagon pays $90,000,000 for each new F-35. These and other expensive aircraft are prone to catch fire. Foams with per and poly fluoroalkyl substances are the most efficient way to quickly extinguish a fire that might destroy one of these expensive weapons. The US military has known these chemicals are deadly since 1974 but they’ve kept it a secret, pretty much, until now.

PFOS & PFOA are known as the “forever chemicals” because they do not degrade in the environment. The military branches are in the process of switching to other slightly less lethal fire-fighting foams, but still toxic.

These chemicals are not regulated by the EPA. Some speculate this is because of their military applications. Instead, the EPA makes recommendations to states and water agencies regarding these chemicals. The EPA’s combined Lifetime Health Advisory (LHA) limit for both chemicals is 70 ppt, a number environmentalist have said is dangerously high.

The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has set lifetime drinking water levels of 11 ppt for PFOA and 7 ppt for PFOS.  It’s understandable, then, why several states have stopped waiting for the EPA to act and have recently set much lower thresholds to protect public health.

Meanwhile, Germany has established a “health-based guide value” for PFOA + PFOS at 300 ppt. The European Union has proposed a drinking water directive at relatively high levels of 100 ppt. for individual PFAS’s and 500 ppt. for the sum of PFAS’s.  See this chart for PFOS/PFAS guidelines in the US and Europe.

The Ramstein photo above shows an airport hangar filling up with the fire-fighting foam. The US Air Force Command at Ramstein, explained, “We had about 4,500 gallons of water coming out per minute from a 40,000 gallon tank.”  The article reports, “The hangar is designed to control pollution through an underground network of storage that collects the water and is released into a sanitary sewer in controlled amounts and is regulated by a sewage treatment plant in Landstuhl.”  

Apparently, the system isn’t working too well.

The chemicals don’t break down.

Ever.

They leach into the groundwater, streams, and ponds, to poison fish and wildlife. Some are found in drinking water.

The underlying reason for this contamination is that the U.S. military specifications for Class B firefighting foams (mil-F-24385) requires the use of flourinated chemicals.

The PFAS Contamination is not limited to Ramstein and Spangdahlem.

In Bitburg, the groundwater was shown to contain PFAS at levels of 108,000 ppt. The US walked away from Airbase Bitburg in 1994, but the remediation of environmental damage may never end. These carcinogenic pollutants have also been found at the former NATO airfield Hahn, the airbase Büchel and the airfields Sembach and Zweibrücken.

According to Volksfreund, a stream near Bitburg contains 7700 times more PFAS than the EU considers acceptable. Günther Schneider, a farmer and environmental activist from nearby Binsfeld, has old photos that show how the brook that flows through Binsfeld looked like a fluffy white ribbon.

Photo evidence of foam contamination is rare in Germany, but in America, it’s plentiful.

The sludge from the sewage treatment plants of the Spangdahlem and Bitburg airfields is so heavily contaminated it cannot be applied to fields. Instead, the Germans incinerate it, causing more environmental havoc.

Günther Schneider, the activist from Binsfeld, calls for a ban on PFAS and he calls for the rehabilitation of contaminated areas. Meanwhile, the German nation is slowly awakening to this profound environmental crisis. They’re questioning whether the US military is committed under international law to abide by regulatory standards.