WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.), in a hearing to review the Fiscal Year 2020 Budget for the Department of the Air Force, pressed Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson about the Air Force’s insufficient response to PFAS contamination in groundwater surrounding Cannon and Holloman Air Force Bases in New Mexico.
“As you are aware, an epidemic of PFAS contamination is infecting communities’ adjacent to Air Force bases all over the country…Families, business owners, farmers, and service members who have suffered from exposure to these toxic chemicals in New Mexico deserve immediate relief. And the Air Force must take precautionary steps to prevent further dangers to public health,” said Udall. “In response, myself, Senator Heinrich, and Representative Luján are pressing the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense - through newly introduced legislation - to coordinate closely with the State of New Mexico to move forward with remediation plans to clean up contaminated sites and take all necessary steps to prevent further risks to public health.”
Udall has been fighting alongside the New Mexico delegation to make sure that communities and dairy farmers affected by this situation are made whole, including introducing legislation to provide relief to New Mexico communities, ensure the Department of Defense can help agricultural producers facing groundwater contamination from military bases, and require nationwide remediation plan.
“The Air Force has asserted that it does not have legal authority under the law to provide clean water or filtration for agriculture. Is that your understanding of your current authority?” asked Udall.
Wilson responded, “Yes, Senator Udall, that is correct. We have the authority to provide clean water to people but not for agricultural use under the current law.”
“Our bill provides that authority…Is the Air Force prepared to work with us to find a way to ensure they have that authority?” responded Udall.
“We will work with you on that legislation, and also there is a very broad collation of people concerned with this issue…,” said Wilson.
“This is a toxic chemical, and what’s happened in New Mexico near Cannon is with the firefighting activities, the PFAS chemical…has polluted the aquifer, and it has poisoned people,” Udall said. “So we would hope that [the Air Force] would be very, very aggressive about dealing with this issue. We’ve been very frustrated in dealing with the Air Force on this, because you say wanted to have the authority, we gave you legislation on Nov. 27…you basically responded…[saying] we don’t want to have the authority to do that.”
“So, our sense is, the Air Force is not moving aggressively like it should be moving. I’d like to know whether you believe that you are going to take the authority and get the bull by the horns. You say here you want to have authority, well – support the bill...tell me today will you support our bill so we can move forward and correct these things?,” said Udall.
When Udall asked if the Secretary Wilson had reviewed his recent legislation and would support it, Wilson responded, “I have not seen your draft legislation.”
“We’ve been sharing it with you over the course of three months and I think you knew this is what I was going to ask about. So, I’m very disappointed as to where we are today. And we can put it in all sorts of fancy words but the reality is – of this one farmer and many farmers that are in the region – is that the Air Force has poisoned his family, they poisoned his livestock, they poisoned his water, and they poisoned his crops,” said Udall in response. “We would expect under those circumstances that the Air Force would be very aggressive about supporting legislation and doing all that you can to make sure this contamination doesn’t spread further and to take care and make the people whole who have been hurt already.”
