NC’s Contaminated Military Bases’ “Forever Chemicals” Contribute to Environmental Injustice

Since the early 20th century, the US military’s negligent use, storage, and disposal of toxic substances on its bases have been the source of lasting health and environmental issues. Countless troops, relatives, and civilians who lived and worked on contaminated army installations were exposed to a plethora of chemical hazards known to cause debilitating and potentially-fatal diseases. 

In notorious cases such as North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune, where contamination went unobserved for over 30 years, the military’s reckless practices are also indicative of a far more insidious pattern of environmental discrimination that disproportionately affects historically disadvantaged minority communities. 

Camp Lejeune’s Ignoble Legacy

Built in 1942 in Jacksonville, NC, Camp Lejeune became the first marine base to train African Americans who would serve in WWII. However, during an era when Jim Crow laws were commonplace, the base’s first Black recruits were often the target of racial prejudice and abuse. African Americans were segregated to the Montford Point facility located on Camp Lejeune’s marshy northern outskirts, where living conditions were vastly inferior, and were unable to access other areas on the base unless a white service member accompanied them. 

After the army was desegregated in 1948, African American soldiers were no longer restricted to Montford Point. Still, none suspected this meant they would subsequently be located in areas around Camp Lejeune where contamination was prevalent in the following decades. From 1953 to 1987, close to 1 million individuals who lived and served on the base were exposed to severe health hazards like vinyl chloride, benzene, perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, and per/polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

To this day, African Americans in the armed forces face higher risks of toxic exposure than their Caucasian colleagues. Due to lingering systemic issues and lower representation in ranks of authority (only 9% of US Army officers), Black service members, who make up 19% of all enlisted personnel, are mostly relegated to lower-ranking positions, where their regular duties require they spend more time around various health hazards and contaminated areas.

In 1989, Camp Lejeune’s extensive toxic issues earned it the designation of Superfund site, which entails continuous cleanup efforts that are ongoing to this day. Despite its infamy, the base is far from being a singular case, either on the state or federal level. 

Environmental Racism and PFAS in North Carolina

As a result of discriminatory redlining policies common in the early to mid-1900s, land in minority neighborhoods was drastically undervalued, becoming an attractive and cheap prospect for locating army bases, factories, traffic routes, landfills, and other toxic pollution sources. The higher health burden that vulnerable frontline communities suffer is better known as “environmental racism,” a term first coined in the early 80s by Black environmental activists in North Carolina.

Since the 1970s, the army’s use of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) to extinguish difficult fuel fires led to over 700 bases being contaminated with PFAS, a class of artificial compounds commonly known as “forever chemicals” due to their resilient structure that prevents natural decomposition. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to several forms of cancer, decreased antibody response to vaccinations in children, organ damage, high cholesterol, and reproductive issues. In 2016, the EPA established a health advisory of 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOS and PFOA, the most common PFAS compounds used in AFFF.

In North Carolina, the bases with the highest levels of PFAS contaminants are Seymour Johnson Air Force Base (312,000 ppt), Camp Lejeune (179,348 ppt), and the Air National Guard Base at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (10,100 ppt). Other affected installations include New London ANGB at Stanly County Airport (985 ppt), Cherry Point MCAS (151 ppt), and Fort Bragg (84 ppt).

Due to their solid molecular bonds, PFAS can permeate the soil and contaminate the drinking water sources of surrounding communities. Moreover, shifting climate conditions also increase the likelihood of toxic runoff from contaminated army bases during flooding events. After Hurricane Florence battered Camp Lejeune in 2018 for three days with heavy rains and winds, a sewage spill from the base spread 84,000 gallons of wastewater in neighboring areas, of which over a third are comprised of minorities. Discouragingly, similar events have occurred on at least three other occasions since. 

Overcoming Environmental and Social Injustice

Minority populations in the US face disproportionate environmental burdens, inhaling more airborne hazards than they produce, suffering higher rates of respiratory diseases, and being far more likely to live near highly contaminated areas. On top of the issues that toxins originating from military sources represent for North Carolinians, a recent study indicates that up 1.5 million residents are potentially exposed to PFAS from industrial sources. 

Combating environmental racism’s lasting effects requires far-reaching institutional involvement that addresses environmental injustice at its core, supporting disenfranchised ethnic communities who don’t have the power or resources to confront polluters directly. Fortunately, the US’ myriad toxic issues have become an increasingly important policy point over the past few years.

By virtue of the National Defense Authorization Act, the army will progressively phase out AFFF from military use by October 2024 and finance PFAS remediation projects. The bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act and federal projects like the Justice40 program will direct vital funding toward communities impacted by pollution to address ongoing health hazards and environmental justice issues. 

The most encouraging developments come from the EPA, which seeks to effectively regulate PFAS federally by 2023 and enact enforceable maximum contaminant levels in drinking water. On June 15, 2022, the agency took an important step forward by slashing its former 70 ppt advisory for PFOA and PFOS to only 0.004 ppt – 0.02 ppt, illustrating the toxic potential these ubiquitous contaminants represent even at minuscule concentrations. 

About the Author

Jonathan Sharp serves as CFO at Environmental Litigation Group PC, a law firm based in Birmingham, Alabama, that specializes in toxic exposure cases and helps individuals injured by hazardous chemicals on US army bases.