{"id":67689,"date":"2020-01-13T19:45:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T19:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/13\/house-bill-would-require-pentagon-to-support-pfas-cleanup-in-communities\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:58:11","slug":"house-bill-would-require-pentagon-to-support-pfas-cleanup-in-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/01\/13\/house-bill-would-require-pentagon-to-support-pfas-cleanup-in-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"House bill would require Pentagon to support PFAS cleanup in communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A bill that would require the Pentagon to work with states and communities to clean up contamination from chemicals used in military firefighting foam passed the House Friday, a move lawmakers and advocates say would help eliminate the toxic substances from drinking water supplies nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill, the PFAS Action Act of 2019, H.R. 535, would require the Environmental Protection Agency to declare two types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, as hazardous. And while it passed the House, it still faces formidable resistance in the Senate and has been threatened with a veto by the White House over cost and scope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If enacted, the effort to label perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluoroactanesulfonic acid, PFOS \u2014 <\/i>the key ingredients of aqueous film-forming foams used by the U.S. military for firefighting \u2014 as toxic substances, would declare areas contaminated with these substances Superfund sites, jump-starting the cleanup process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill also would set a maximum allowable drinking water level for PFOS and PFOA and establish guidelines for use of the foams by first responders, although the Pentagon already has taken steps to limit use of foams containing PFOA and PFOS during land-based training.<\/p>\n\n\n\t