Boyle, Casey, Meehan and Fitzpatrick Fight to Bring Clean Water Funding Increases Over the Finish Line
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December 19, 2017
WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, Congressman Brendan F. Boyle (PA-13) joined three of his fellow members of Congress representing constituents on or near the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Warminster and the former Naval Air Station in Horsham in their latest joint bipartisan effort to ensure that the final defense funding bill for fiscal year 2018, currently being negotiated, retains the funding increases they secured in earlier versions of the legislation.
These communities and others like them across the country are grappling with water contamination due to the past and persistent use of AFFF firefighting foam ("Aqueous Film-Forming Foam") by the Department of Defense. Boyle led the House effort with Congressmen Patrick Meehan (PA-7) and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-8) to increase environmental remediation funding for the U.S. Navy and Air Force, and secured a successful bipartisan vote on his amendment on the floor of the House in July. Senator Casey has spearheaded efforts in the Senate. The members also secured language authorizing and funding a nationwide health study on the human health impacts of the contaminants.
The letter reads as follows:
The Honorable Thad Cochran The Honorable Kay Granger
Chair Chair
Subcommittee on Defense Subcommittee on Defense
Committee on Appropriations Committee on Appropriations
S-128, The Capitol H-305, The Capitol
U.S. Senate U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Richard Durbin The Honorable Pete Visclosky
Ranking Member Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Defense Subcommittee on Defense
Committee on Appropriations Committee on Appropriations
S-128, The Capitol H-305, The Capitol
U.S. Senate U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairmen Cochran and Granger and Ranking Members Durbin and Visclosky:
We write to you on behalf of our constituents to request your support for various provisions in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Defense appropriations bills, which affect communities that are dealing with contaminated drinking water as a result of the Department of Defense's use of firefighting foam (Aqueous Film-Forming Foam, or AFFF).
Since the 1970s, the Department of Defense (DoD) has used AFFF containing perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). These compounds have been found by a growing volume of peer-reviewed studies to be associated with serious human health risks. In May 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a drinking water health advisory for PFOS and PFOA, and it is currently considering the issuance of a more strict regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Both the EPA and DoD have detected elevated levels of PFOS and PFOA in drinking water at or near almost 400 defense installations. The EPA has also found these chemicals in drinking water at non-DoD public water systems across the United States.
This issue directly affects our constituents on and near the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Warminster and the former Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Horsham. For years, our constituents have been living with too many questions and not enough answers about the use of AFFF and its impact on their local water quality and health. We appreciate your attention to this matter, and seek your continued support of the following throughout the FY18 appropriations conference process:
• We respectfully request that you fully fund the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) for the purpose of conducting a health study on the implications of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination, including PFCs, as denoted in Section 316 of the FY18 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), at the full authorized level of $7,000,000.
• Furthermore, we ask that you support an increase of $42,234,000 to the Navy Environmental Restoration account and an increase of $30,000,000 to the Air Force Environmental Restoration account for PFOS/PFOA remediation, as provided by Section 4301 of the FY18 NDAA.
Water contamination as a result of the military's decades-long use of AFFF is a nationwide problem that the Department of Defense must confront head on. As representatives of some of the first and worst communities dealing with this problem today, we ask for your support of our bipartisan requests for any appropriations agreement.
Sincerely,
Robert P. Casey, Jr. Patrick Meehan
United States Senator Member of Congress
Brendan F. Boyle Brian Fitzpatrick
Member of Congress Member of Congress
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