PFAS Spread Documented In River Systems Downstream From Fire Training Facilities

Fire training sites are letting PFAS into surrounding rivers, which might harm ecosystems and water sources downstream for a long time

Wednesday, July 23, 2025 - New environmental research has proved what communities around fire training facilities have feared for years: PFAS chemicals are migrating from these sites into nearby river systems, where they persist and build downstream. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds, or PFAS for short, have been utilized a lot in firefighting foam at military sites, airports, and city training centers. Foam often washes into neighboring soil and stormwater drains during training exercises. From there, it might end up in rivers and streams. These waterways not only convey the pollution to nearby areas, but they also spread it to places far away from where it came from. Environmental tests done in 2024 and 2025 in numerous states showed that rivers near fire training facilities had PFAS levels hundreds of times higher than what is safe. This puts aquatic ecosystems and the safety of water used for farming or homes at risk. A PFAS water pollution lawyer says that this proof is now being utilized in PFAS water lawsuits to hold both facility operators and foam producers legally responsible.

People in areas downstream may be exposed to PFAS without knowing that the source is kilometers away. Once chemicals get into a river system, they don't break down quickly and often settle into silt or build up in fish and other animals. The U.S. and the U.K. wrote a joint report in 2025. The US Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) detected high amounts of PFAS in river sediments and fish tissue samples taken downstream from known fire training facilities. This makes people worry about damage to the ecosystem and people being exposed to it through fishing and using water. California, Michigan, and North Carolina are some of the states that have already warned people not to eat fish from rivers where fire training has taken place in the past. Health officials also say that local water treatment plants typically don't have the right tools to completely remove PFAS. This means that the chemicals can get into tap water in towns and cities downstream. People who reside far away from any training facility are nevertheless at risk since the circle of exposure keeps getting bigger.

Critics say that the fact that training facilities are still using fluorinated firefighting foam, or AFFF, shows that they aren't doing anything about known contamination paths quickly enough. The Department of Defense and certain city agencies have started to phase out AFFF in favor of safer options, but there are still thousands of liters of old foam in use, especially at local training facilities that don't have enough money. Legal and environmental experts are calling for the quick removal of PFAS-based foam stockpiles, the installation of runoff controls, and the comprehensive monitoring of river systems that may have been affected over the past few decades. They also want the federal government to make it mandatory for all fire training facilities, whether military or civilian, to fully monitor and disclose PFAS levels. Residents and environmental groups are already suing the operators for not stopping or cleaning up the spread of PFAS into key waterways.

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