Letter to Deborah L. James, Secretary of the Air Force - Haven Well Contamination

Letter

The Honorable Deborah L. James
Secretary of the Air Force
1670 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1670

Dear Secretary James:

We write to request your personal attention in the matter of ensuring that the Air Force identifies and notifies all who may have been exposed to chemicals from the Haven Well.

On June 1, 2015, we wrote to you, as well as the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, regarding the inadequate response to the presence of perflourochemicals (PFCs) in the Haven Well in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. As we pointed out in the letter, the presence of these chemicals in the well is likely due to the Air Force's use of fire-fighting foam at Pease. Exposure to these chemicals has been associated with certain types of cancer.

In the letter, we pointed out that the Air Force has not taken affirmative steps to identify and notify the service members and civilians who may have been exposed while stationed at Pease. We called on the Air Force to immediately identify and contact all those who are likely to have been exposed to these chemicals, including individuals stationed at Pease after the date the contamination was introduced into the water.

On June 30, 2015, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment, and Energy Miranda Ballentine replied to our letter. In that response, the Air Force said that providing such notification would be "technically challenging." The Air Force also made clear that it is not currently undertaking and may not undertake an effort to identify and notify service members and Department of Defense civilians who were potentially exposed to these chemicals.

This response from the Air Force is particularly troubling because the report on the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act passed by Senate Armed Service Committee directs the Air Force to provide a plan to complete notification by the end of the year. More than a month after this committee published its clear direction, the Air Force response suggested it might not comply.

We believe that the Air Force has a responsibility to take care of those who serve our country and that surely includes informing them when they may have been exposed to dangerous chemicals.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Source