06/27/2025

PFAS Firefighting Foam Needed for Another Year, Pentagon Says

BNA Environment & Energy Report | Pat Rizzuto | June 26, 2025

PFAS Firefighting Foam Needed for Another Year, Pentagon Says

Military bases will seek Congress’ approval to use PFAS-enabled firefighting foam until Oct. 1, 2026, according to recently released briefing materials from the Department of Defense.

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2020—which banned use of the fire suppressant aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) on domestic bases as of Oct. 1, 2024—allowed up to two one-year waivers of the prohibition. But Congress must be updated on the military’s progress.

Congress already approved the first extension, allowing AFFF to be used until Oct. 1, 2025.

Six qualifying alternative foams have been approved and new technologies are being explored that could help the department phase out AFFF, DOD said. But, more time is needed to transition more than 6,000 mobile pieces of equipment and more than 1,000 facilities from AFFF, according to the materials from the Defense secretary’s office.

The department is working to phase out the foams’ use on military bases while it also continues investigations and cleanup efforts at 574 installations and works with other federal agencies at another seven facilities, according to its most recent, separate update on efforts to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) released from the military’s decades-long use of AFFF.

Spills Occur

The military also has increasingly developed policies to restrict training and other historical uses of AFFF, but Hawaii, Maine, and New Mexico are among states that have experienced spills of the foam or rinse waters containing it since 2022.

The military waiver-request briefing summarized challenges DOD is facing as it transitions to alternative fire suppressants, including fluorine-free foams that can’t have more than one part per billion PFAS, and technologies such as new designs for hanger floors or other buildings, water-only sprinklers, and optical flame detectors.

The 2020 law allowed ocean-going vessels to continue using AFFF. That may reflect the dire circumstances that can occur on ships, such as a 1967 fire aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal off the coast of Vietnam that killed 134 sailors and spurred the foam’s development.

But AFFF’s decades-long use has spurred thousands of lawsuits across the country, many of which are combined in multidistrict litigation overseen by the US District Court for the District of South Carolina.

DOD’s next step in the AFFF-use waiver process will be to submit a written certification to the Congressional defense committees by Aug. 2.