julieturkewitzVerified account

Servicemen and women would spray the toxic foam in copious amounts during trainings, year after year, sometimes into unlined pits.

It's not difficult to see how the toxic chemicals made their way into the drinking water systems by the bases.

For decades, the military had signs that the chemicals in its firefighting foam were dangerous.

The Army Corps of Engineers told Fort Carson to stop using the foam in 1991, calling it “harmful to the environment.”

In 2000, under pressure from the E.P.A., 3M phased out production of some of the PFAS compounds, announcing that they could “could potentially pose a risk to human health.” Five years later, the E.P.A. declared that another compound was “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”

But the military continued to use firefighting foams containing the chemicals because E.P.A. doesn’t regulate them.

Industry officials have said they are following E.P.A. rules, while the E.P.A. has said it is still exploring regulation.