Senator Hassan Pushes Defense Department to Strengthen Engagement with Communities Impacted by PFAS Following Testimony from NH Leader

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) is leading a call, joined by Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and Tom Carper (D-DE), for the Department of Defense (DoD) to improve its engagement with communities affected by current and former military sites’ contamination by PFAS and other toxic substances.

In New Hampshire and across the country, DoD restoration advisory boards and committees are tasked with working with and listening to communities that are undergoing DoD toxic substance cleanup efforts -- but too often community members don’t feel like their concerns are heard or acted upon by those groups. Senator Hassan brought Andrea Amico, a PFAS advocate from Portsmouth, to testify in a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing last month. Amico discussed how the DoD needs to do a better job working with, and listening to, the affected communities that they serve.

“Impacted communities would like to see improved relationships with local…restoration advisory boards and restoration advisory committees, focused on trust and collaboration. […] One suggestion I would have for [the Department] is to include some impacted community members as part of training, and to give DOD some guidance on how to best work with communities,” Amico said at the hearing.

Following Amico’s testimony, Senator Hassan is now pushing for the DoD to take immediate action to improve its community engagement efforts.

“Clean water is critical for our citizens to lead healthy lives, and it is at the heart of economic development, healthy families, and vibrant communities,” wrote the Senators in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The Senators cited testimony from Amico and additional community leaders and requested that the DoD address these community leaders’ concerns. “We urge you to solicit and incorporate input from community leaders and organizations as the Department improves [restoration advisory boards] and [restoration advisory committees], and to listen to the priorities of those impacted as the Department carries out its statutorily-mandated efforts to keep communities across our nation safe from PFAS,” the Senators wrote.

This push is part of Senator Hassan’s ongoing efforts to address PFAS contamination and ensure that communities in New Hampshire have access to clean and safe drinking water. The bipartisan infrastructure law that Senator Hassan helped negotiate includes meaningful investments to help communities afford critical water infrastructure projects, including an estimated more than $400 million for water infrastructure improvements to New Hampshire, and dedicated funding to address PFAS contamination. The bill also includes a measure authored by Senator Hassan to better ensure that more New Hampshire towns would be eligible for an advanced technology grant program that can be used to remove contaminants, including PFAS, from drinking water.

Read the Senators’ full letter here or below.

Dear Secretary Austin:

We write today to urge the Department of Defense to solicit and incorporate perspectives from community leaders as the Department reexamines and revamps community engagement efforts, specifically Restoration Advisory Boards (RABs) and Restoration Advisory Committees (RACs), associated with Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) remediation strategies in New Hampshire and across the country.

Clean water is critical for our citizens to lead healthy lives, and it is at the heart of economic development, healthy families, and vibrant communities. PFAS contamination can cause long-term health complications for people who are exposed, and PFAS chemicals remain in our environment long after release, continuing to degrade our landfills and groundwater. Tragically, too many communities across the country have been exposed to PFAS contamination through drinking water sources, including communities on and surrounding active and former military installations.

On December 9, 2021, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing to discuss the Department’s efforts and progress on PFAS contamination remediation efforts as outlined in the Department of Defense’s Inspector General Report, “Evaluation of the Department of Defense’s Actions to Control Contaminant Effects from Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances at Department of Defense Installations” (DODIG-2021-105). Witnesses from the Department, including Richard Kidd, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Energy Resilience, appeared before the Committee, along with witnesses including New Hampshire PFAS community leader Andrea Amico, who testified about her firsthand experience fighting to address PFAS contamination at the former Pease Air Force Base, and Michigan’s Tony Spaniola, who testified about the glacial pace of the Department’s PFAS remediation efforts at the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base.

While we are encouraged that the Department of Defense is responding to congressional directives to address PFAS contamination, there is more work to be done with respect to working with, and listening to, affected communities. Mrs. Amico highlighted this at the hearing, stating, “Impacted communities would like to see improved relationships with local…restoration advisory boards and restoration advisory committees, focused on trust and collaboration. […] One suggestion I would have for [the Department] is to include some impacted community members as part of [RAB and RAC] training, and to give DOD some guidance on how to best work with communities.” In his testimony, Mr. Spaniola also raised the importance of better interaction with communities, noting that “citizens are left out of this process; decisions are made without citizen input and, in the real world, citizens are the ones who live with the results and who actually have in many times the best ideas for resolving them.”

The Department operates community engagement programs, such as RABs and RACs, which serve as collaborative forums for communities, government agencies, tribes, and installation decision makers to discuss and determine the best community restoration strategies. During the December 9th hearing, Mr. Kidd acknowledged the need for the Department to better utilize RAB and RAC programs by “revisit[ing] the training we provide to our installations in terms of public outreach…and update[ing] our best practices guide so that we can get better outcomes in terms of community engagement.” For over 25 years, these bodies have served as a medium for the public to influence cleanup decisions and restorative efforts in their communities. We cannot let the opportunity pass to make real improvements in both Department programs, and in building trust and collaboration between the Department and our communities.

For those reasons, we urge you to solicit and incorporate input from community leaders and organizations as the Department improves RABs and RACs, and to listen to the priorities of those impacted as the Department carries out its statutorily-mandated efforts to keep communities across our nation safe from PFAS.

We appreciate your leadership and attention to this important matter, and we know that you share my concerns about this critical public health hazard facing Americans across the country. It is in that spirit that we make this recommendation, and we thank you for your attention to this matter.

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