Charlestown old Naval Auxiliary Air Field was site of heavy use
By Jonathan Sharp
There are still many toxic hot spots left behind by the Navy.
Those acres are now covered by Ninigret Park and the
Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge
However, across the country, there are thousands of
contaminated sites, many of which exceed new limits reported by the Environment
Agency. One of these sites is Rode Island’s Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Landing
Field, home to approximately 2000 people, who are now on the daily exposed to
PFAS as a result of past military activities.
To date, members of the general public can only
receive compensation for PFAS exposure following
class action lawsuits, and the mere presence of PFAS in the blood is not
enough to guarantee compensation.
Rhode Island’s Charlestown Naval Auxiliary
Landing Field
The former
Charlestown Naval Auxiliary Landing Field (CNALF) sits on 630 acres in
Foster Cove and Ninigret Pond. Owned by the U.S. States Navy up to the 1970s,
the area was later divided between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
and the Town of Charlestown.
On the 230 acres granted to Charlestown, numerousmilitary exercises were conducted in the past, including fire drills using per-
and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under the form of Aqueous Film
film-forming foam (AFFF), and other perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) chemicals.
As these chemicals are highly dangerous to human health and have a high
persistence in the environment, the whole area is under investigation by the
U.S. Environment Agency.
This is not a singular case in the U.S. as over 720
military sites across the country are known to have been contaminated with
PFAS, or the so-called forever chemicals. In total, the U.S.
Environment Agency reports over 7400 contaminated water sites related to
military activities or commercial activities.
As the Department of Defense (DoD) is one of the main contributors to PFAS contamination, persistent efforts have been made over the years to decontaminate these areas and make water safe for the public. However, at present, DoD efforts are concentrated on areas that exceed 70ppt (parts per million) of PFAS in the water. Anything below that does not benefit from decontamination.
Current limits set by the DoD for intervention come
from a 2016 investigation carried out by the
EA’s Health Advisory Commission but have since been reduced for some PFAS
and PFOS to
0.004ppt and 0.002 ppt in light of new evidence
released in 2021 and
2024. With these new limits, the DoD has a
period of five years to decontaminate areas and comply with the new limits.
A total of
42 private and public contaminated wells in Charlestown have been recently identified
by the EA, just under the 70ppt limit, for which the DoD can postpone
intervention. In the meantime, this water serves the local Charlestown
population, not only with drinking water, but also with recreational space,
including playgrounds, picnic spaces, and the Little Nini Pond, which people
use for swimming and fishing.
Decontaminate now or compensate later
There is now sufficient evidence
to demonstrate a clear link between minimal PFAS and PFOS exposure and adverse
health outcomes, especially when a combination of these substances is present
in the water or soil. In the very near future, this evidence is most likely to
grow allowing communities far greater power in court for demonstrating a link
between exposure and disease. Considering this aspect, the DoD will either have
to step up efforts for decontamination or pay later in compensation for the
communities who have been exposed.
Moreover, while the new Vet PFAS Act 2023 does grant
compensation for some conditions, including hypertension, high cholesterol and
some forms of cancer, other conditions that are known in medical literature to be
caused by PFAS still need to be reviewed by a health commission for
eligibility. As the evidence on the causal link between PFAS and multiple
diseases increases, the DoD has fewer and fewer chances to delay the inevitable
and will most likely need to expand the list of diseases caused by PFAS for
which veterans receive compensation.
Rode Island is but one of many locations that could
possibly trigger in future years massive class lawsuits against commercial and
military users of PFAS. Compensating all these populations for diseases that
may develop prior to the DoD’s five-year implementation mark may be more
expensive than decontaminating efforts. Other hidden costs can be added to
these expenses, including medical care, years lost in productivity due to
disability, and legal costs.
About the author
Jonathan Sharp is a Chief Financial Officer at Environmental Litigation Group, P.C.,
responsible for case evaluation and financial analysis. The law firm, based in
Birmingham, Alabama, works with victims of toxic exposure.
