Sept. 11, 2026, 5:08 a.m. ET
Households close to an Air Nationwide Guard Base in Newburgh, New York, have spent 10 years worrying for the reason that metropolis declared a state of emergency from poisonous “perpetually chemical substances” contaminating their ingesting water.
That base was scheduled to hit an vital cleanup milestone this month. As an alternative, these neighbors will wait a long time extra.
The Pentagon introduced Sept. 2 that it’s once more delaying cleanup of perpetually chemical substances at tons of of navy websites, together with bases whose schedules had already quietly slipped for years and even a long time. Altogether, USA TODAY’s evaluation of newly up to date navy information discovered the Pentagon has delayed its cleanup timelines almost 1,250 instances over the previous 5 years.
These schedules are supposed to handle PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which the navy has used for many years in firefighting foams. The chemical substances can then leach into groundwater and have been linked to most cancers and different well being issues.
MAP: Have navy websites close to me delayed PFAS cleanup?
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How has the Pentagon modified its strategy?
Till a USA TODAY investigation this summer season, the Pentagon had been quietly updating a chart buried behind a hyperlink on its web site to announce the delays. This strategy earned the company offended letters from dozens of lawmakers for what one senator known as “a violation of belief between navy leaders and their surrounding communities.”
This time, the Pentagon emailed members of Congress immediately on Aug. 31 to inform them of the extra delays.
Two days later, the Pentagon up to date its PFAS web site to prominently describe “frequent” timeline adjustments as a routine a part of the multistep Superfund program that directs how they clear up environmental contamination.
“Changes to those schedules replicate a dedication to doing the job appropriately – guaranteeing visibility into present estimated timelines, incorporating evolving PFAS science and altering regulatory requirements, and searching for public enter,” the freshly up to date web site reads.
The Pentagon web site additionally now lists counts of web sites delayed within the newest replace and the overall causes for these adjustments, blaming extra stringent ingesting water requirements the Environmental Safety Company authorized in 2024 and pointing to a have to prioritize assets for extra contaminated websites.
A Pentagon spokesman didn’t reply to USA TODAY’s questions in time for publication.
Which internet sites are most affected?
Delays have occurred throughout all branches of the navy, however the longest are at Air Nationwide Guard bases, which on common are set to hit cleanup milestones greater than 30 years later than initially promised.
The Air Power’s Nationwide Guard bases usually sit adjoining to main civilian airports like these in Portland, Oregon and Phoenix, Arizona. Of the 40 Air Nationwide Guard websites delayed, all have been pushed again repeatedly within the Pentagon’s final three timeline updates.
For instance, a cleanup milestone as soon as anticipated final 12 months on the Air Nationwide Guard base in Peoria, Illinois, now sits in 2065. Successive Pentagon updates first added six years to the timeline, then 15 extra and, most lately, one other 19 years. That pushes the milestone 4 full a long time past its authentic goal.
The navy’s chart explains almost all these recurring Air Nationwide Guard base delays have been meant to prioritize assets “to first handle the websites that pose the very best danger to human well being.”
For folks residing close to a few of these bases with delays, the Pentagon’s clarification presents little consolation.
Contemplate Newburgh, a small city 60 miles north of New York Metropolis. The state now subsidizes the price of piping ingesting water via an aqueduct after research in 2016 found firefighting foams from Stewart Air Nationwide Guard Base had contaminated the town’s reservoir, close by Washington Lake.
This emergency connection solved a direct well being disaster, however not the contamination itself, stated Jennifer Rawlison, a lifelong Newburgh resident turned clear water advocate.
“The reservoir was a thriving, totally practical useful resource that was ours autonomously for over 100 years, and we should always have the ability to exist that approach once more,” Rawlison stated.
She joined different protesters gathered alongside the lake’s shores Sept. 4 to rail towards the navy’s quarter-century-long delay in cleansing up the contamination.
Congressman Pat Ryan, a Democrat who represents the district, stated he attended the rally to name for accountability and demand solutions from the Pentagon.
“Each American – particularly our youngsters – deserves to have clear ingesting water,” Ryan wrote in a information launch. “We’re nonetheless going through a public well being disaster within the Hudson Valley, and the federal authorities needs to be rushing up the cleanup, not slowing it down by a long time.”
On the rally, Rawlison launched herself on the lectern as a member of a residents’ board that meets usually with the bottom’s leaders. Days after a gathering in July the place officers assured them cleanup was on observe, Rawlison known as it insulting to be taught of the delays via USA TODAY’s investigation and never immediately from navy leaders. She stated a base official later advised her he had additionally not been knowledgeable of the change beforehand.
This month’s Pentagon announcement pushes again the timeline in Newburgh even additional. The cleanup milestone initially scheduled for September 2026 now sits in 2051.
For Rawlison and different neighbors, that’s not only a revised timeline. It’s one other era spent ready.
“With these reckless delays,” Rawlison stated on the rally, “my daughter’s era and fairly probably her future kids are being handed an inheritance of poisonous publicity, elevated most cancers danger and misplaced time, traded for zero assurances from the navy.”
