Experts are raising the alarm about the water soldiers are drinking at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas.
Dr. Graham Peaslee, a physicist at Notre Dame University, maintains that dangerous levels of carcinogenic Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) — chemicals that have properties that allow them to repel water, dirt, and oil — are present in Dyess’ drinking water.
Peaslee came to national attention when he discovered PFAS in firemen’s turnout gear after testing the equipment at the request of Diane Cotter, who is married to a fireman diagnosed with cancer.
The Dallas Express shared Dyess’s 2023 water quality report with the scientist to get his insights. There are eight types of PFAS in the drinking water, according to the report, and Peaslee takes issue with all of them.
Peaslee started by explaining the contamination levels and noted that starting this year, the EPA is embracing stricter standards for acceptable levels of PFAS.
“As of 2024, the US EPA is switching from a Health Advisory Limit of 70 ppt for all PFAS, to a Regulatory Maximum Contaminant Limit… of 4 ppt for PFOA and 4 ppt for PFOS, 10 ppt for PFHxS, 10 ppt for PFNA, 10 ppt for Gen-X, and 2000 ppt for PFBS,” he said, “This means that even if the base hadn’t gotten worse in the last year, they are now out of compliance with the EPA regulations for PFOA (7.5 > 4.0), PFOS (30 >> 4.0), and PFHxS (28 >> 10).”
The dangers of this are serious and grave.
“This means everybody drinking that water is drinking water with PFAS concentrations significantly above levels that the EPA have decreed are the maximum allowable in drinking water, and are likely to cause adverse health effects at those concentrations when drunk over a lifetime,” Peaslee said.
Health consequences include breast, thyroid, and prostate cancer, according to the National Institute of Health.
Moreover, these chemicals are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they do not break down in the environment or bodies in any timeframe that is meaningful to humans.
“You also have 60 ppt of “other” identified PFAS that aren’t of regulatory concern, but definitely would be bad as a mixture in your drinking water with yet-to-be-identified adverse health effects,” Peaslee warned. “There is also likely to be lots of other PFAS (as many as 40x as much of the detected shown in a recent German paper) not detected by these standard tests … which is really frightening around the country, not just on this base.”
Then, he came to a startling conclusion.
“By all measures, this water is not safe to drink with respect to PFAS …”
The 2023 report is the most recent water quality report issued for Dyess AFB, and it is somewhat unclear if the military base conducts any of its own water testing, as several footnotes seem to indicate the base relies on the City of Abilene and West Central Texas WMD for its water data. Nevertheless, Peaslee says the water contamination is likely coming from the base. He noted that the PFOA, PFOS, and PFHxS contamination is “tightly linked to AFFF [fire fighting foam] contamination of the water – common around AFBs in the US.”
He also found it noteworthy that there was “no measurement of Gen-X or PFNA, and there probably wasn’t much of those two PFAS, and the PFBS value was below EPA limits.”
Other researchers, like Dr. San Hwang at Texas State, have found that PFAS can contaminate water when firemen wash their protective gear, as a certain amount of PFAS leaches from the gear into the wash water, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. Both Dyess and nearby Abilene have fire departments.
While Peaslee’s insights alone are grounds for concern, there is also a high degree of ambiguity on whether the Air Force is keeping track of various reports of possible contamination at Dyess. An Air Force FOIA office recently told DX that they have no idea when the Air Force will be able to identify whether there are complaints about drinking water quality at the base.
DX launched an investigation into water quality on Texas military bases after 60 Minutes exposed the Navy for accidentally contaminating drinking water for military families at the Pearl Harbor base with ship fuel.
The CBS program reported that the Navy initially told families that the water was safe to drink, despite not having evidence to support that assertion, and that the department repeatedly dismissed complaints about drinking water. This allegedly led to numerous illnesses in servicemen and their wives and some potentially long-term injuries in children.
The Navy is now in litigation with 2,500 plaintiffs in court and disputes that there are any long-term injuries.
Given the military base’s use of jet fuel, PFAS, and other chemicals, DX used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request all water quality complaints at Dyess from January 1, 2022, to the present. The request was filed on May 1, 2024, but for some unknown reason, it took the Air Force FOIA officer 27 days to receive it.
In the acknowledgment letter, the FOIA officer wrote, “We estimate a respond [sic] to your request in 30-days but may be extended due to [sic] extenuating circumstances. The estimated date is 11 July 2024.”
The officer noted that the request was marked as “complex,” which often indicates the sought documents are held in multiple departments and denied expedited processing.
On July 11, the FOIA officer wrote, “We find a time extension is necessary due to consultation review by Air Force. We hope to respond to you by 31 Jul 24.”
On August 6, six days after this deadline lapsed, the Air Force officer invoked another time extension, this time confessing that it was unknown when the request would be filled.
“Your request was forwarded to Air Force for consultation. Their consultation and review is mandatory before we can release any responsive documents; however, we have yet to hear back from Air Force. At this time, we are unable to provide you a confirmed expectation date since we have no way of knowing when your FOIA case will be reviewed,” the officer wrote.
DX contacted Air Force Headquarters for comment, but no response was received by publication deadline.