Letter to the Hon. James McPherson, Under Secretary of the Army, and Lieutenant General Darrell Williams, Dir. of the Defense Logistics Agency - Following revelation of 58,000 gallons PFAS foam heading from Navy base to Norlite this week to be burned, Schumer, in letter and personal call to Navy Sec., pushes for immediate halt in toxic shipment and suspension of contract; despite local moratorium banning PFAS burning, Navy/DOD still plan to send highly toxic chemicals to Cohoes to burned

Letter

Dear Acting Secretary McPherson and Lieutenant General Williams:

I write today to urge the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to grant Tradebe Treatment and Recycling, LLC's (Tradebe) request for a six to eight month suspension of the waste disposal contract so as to not force almost 60,000 gallons of Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) upon Norlite, LLC (Norlite) and New York. The DLA must not compel Norlite-Tredabe to accept and burn AFFF against the moratorium enacted by the local government and company to ensure the safety of all New Yorkers.

Two months ago, reports surfaced that Norlite had incinerated AFFF at its Cohoes, New York location in 2018 and 2019. As you know, AFFF contains hundreds of PFAS compounds and was designed to be extremely fire resistant so it could be used to put out jet fuel fires. In a September 2019 document produced by the EPA titled, Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS): Incineration to Manage PFAS Waste Streams the EPA's authors state that, "The effectiveness of incineration to destroy PFAS compounds […] is not well understood." The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (NDAA; P.L. 116-92), in Section 7361, specifies that the EPA must promulgate interim guidance on the destruction and disposal of PFAS materials including AFFF. This guidance is required to take into consideration the potential for release of PFAS during disposal and the potential impact on vulnerable populations living near those sites. As EPA has said, the effectiveness of incinerating PFAS is not well understood, but the health effects of PFAS are increasingly well documented. Exposure to PFAS compounds is strongly linked to a host of cancers, liver disease, auto immune deficiencies, and even infertility. The bottom line is that attempting to burn this fire-resistant carcinogenic chemical and dispersing it into the air, soil and water makes no sense, is a public health threat, and should not be the policy of the DOD.

In response to these reports, Norlite voluntarily shutdown to allow time for further testing of the effects of attempting to burn AFFF. Additionally, the Cohoes Common Council, of Cohoes, NY which includes the Norlite facility, enacted a one-year moratorium on incinerating AFFF. According to Norlite's parent company, Tradebe, the DLA recently rejected their request for a six to eight month suspension of the waste disposal contract. Furthermore according recent reporting, the DLA was pushing an incineration order to Norlite for 58,000 gallons of AFFF waste materials which was set to be transported in 12 tanker trucks traveling from a Navy facility in Virginia. Based on our recent conversation, I am encouraged by your commitment to promptly investigate the situation. This is a time sensitive matter as, according to those same reports, the DLA had instructed Norlite to take possession of the shipment in seven business days as of May 11, which would be today, May 19. This shipment, and future shipments should not occur.

Tradebe and the Cohoes Common Council have both spoken in unison and requested that no more AFFF be burned at the Norlite facility. Therefore, I urge the DLA to grant Tradebe's request for a six to eight month suspension of the Norlite-Tredabe waste disposal contract and to not force almost 60,000 gallons of AFFF upon Norlite and New York.

Thank you both for your time and attention to this matter, if you have questions please do not hesitate to contact my staff.

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