In December, Representative Jack Bergman of Michigan, a staunch ally of President Trump and MAGA defender, took to the House floor to praise America’s military might, lauding its “will to face down potential aggressors.”
Then his speech took an unexpected turn, to pollution.
“We have much more to do,” he said. High on his list: cleaning up PFAS, the harmful “forever chemicals” that pollute hundreds of military sites nationwide. The Pentagon must prioritize “delivering environmental stewardship to communities impacted by PFAS,” Mr. Bergman said.
In a fiercely divided Washington, there is bipartisan anger at the stalled progress in cleaning up toxic chemicals at military bases. The delays have emerged as a rare issue uniting Democrats and Republicans in their criticism of the Pentagon.
PFAS-based foam has been used for decades in firefighting drills and exercises, and has left behind widespread contamination at military sites across the country. PFAS make the foam extremely effective at smothering fires. But service members and communities near military installations have for years contended with the harmful chemicals, which are linked to low birth weight, birth defects and developmental delays, as well as an increased risk of some prostate, kidney and testicular cancers.
The New York Times reported in September that the Pentagon had quietly delayed its PFAS cleanups at nearly 140 military installations. Since then, the Pentagon has put off cleanups at nearly 200 sites. One location is delayed by up to 20 years, according to a follow-up Times analysis of the latest federal data.
Dozens of members of Congress have demanded that the Department of Defense explain the delays, and outline how it will protect service members and those living near the bases.
In a July 17 letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Democratic Representatives Kristen McDonald Rivet and Debbie Dingell of Michigan, and Republican Representatives Jen A. Kiggans of Virginia and Brian K. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said that it was “unacceptable that D.O.D. has continued to deprioritize” its cleanup efforts. The four are co-chairs of a bipartisan PFAS task force that works on federal action to protect the public from the chemicals.
“We have real conversations, not partisan bickering,” Ms. McDonald Rivet said in an interview. “This is about the health and welfare of our troops. It’s about protecting our soldiers in the homeland.”
The Department of Defense did not respond to questions about the cleanup delays.
The revolt represents a rare political convergence in the face of Pentagon inaction on a matter that has become a major health concern for military communities nationwide.
Perhaps most extraordinary has been the reaction from Mr. Bergman, a retired three-star U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant general. He has forcefully backed President Trump’s “America First” agenda, and has questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election that Mr. Trump lost to former President Joe Biden.
Mr. Bergman has harshly criticized G.O.P. candidates who have opposed any part of Mr. Trump’s agenda, and has supported investing heavily in border security and national defense.
But he also represents Michigan’s First Congressional District, home to several current and former military sites with heavy PFAS contamination. They include the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, where decades of firefighting foam use severely contaminated the water and soil, as well as the drinking water in the area.
“I will be direct: The community of Oscoda has endured more than a decade of contamination, broken promises, and institutional whiplash from the Air Force,” Mr. Bergman wrote in a May 20 letter to the Pentagon, which was reviewed by The Times. “I am running out of ways to explain to my constituents why the service they trusted with their community continues to treat them this way,” he wrote.
The cleanup is a daunting task. Because PFAS are highly soluble in water and some do not break down in the environment, they can migrate far from where they were released and persist for decades, said Jennifer Field, a professor of environmental toxicology at Oregon State University.
“The plumes can be very, very large, so the scale of contamination itself can be a challenge,” Prof. Field said.
The chemicals have cast a pall on life in many military communities, said Tony Spaniola, co-chair of the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network, an environmental group that has pressed the Department of Defense to prioritize cleanup at the former Wurtsmith base.
“It’s not just drinking water,” he said. “It’s the fish, it’s the venison, it’s the small game.”
In a report by the Government Accountability Office last year, defense officials described the number of sites that must be assessed for PFAS contamination nationwide as “overwhelming.” They had little information on where PFAS might have been used at each location, they said, which meant they needed to test across entire installations, in some cases covering hundreds of thousands of acres.
There is also no widely available technology that quickly removes all PFAS contamination in soil and water.
At Wurtsmith, the Pentagon discovered the contamination there in 2010 and was expected to complete its remedial investigation of the site in mid-2027. Only after that can potential cleanup begin.
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