House defense bill includes historic funding for PFAS cleanup at military sites

WASHINGTON – The House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, or NDAA, includes $549 million in dedicated funding for the cleanup at Defense Department installations of the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, according to the chairman’s version of the bill, which was released today.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) chairs the House Armed Services Committee.

The bill will provide $100 million for formerly used defense sites; $175 million for the Air Force; $174 million for the Navy; and $100 million for the Army to clean up PFAS contamination at Defense Department bases.

 “EWG applauds Chairman Smith for including more than half a billion dollars in dedicated funding for PFAS cleanup at military sites around the country in the NDAA for FY 2022,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at EWG.

“The historic investments called for in the House NDAA signal just how serious Smith and the members of the House Armed Services Committee are about tackling PFAS contamination,” Faber continued.

“Although dedicated PFAS funding will be critical, Congress must also end needless exposures to toxic PFAS through household items and establish deadlines for the Pentagon to test for and clean up PFAS at military sites,” he added.

Hundreds of DOD installations are contaminated with PFAS, department records show.

PFAS are known as forever chemicals because they build up in our blood and organs and do not break down in the environment. Studies show that exposure to very low levels of PFAS can increase the risk of cancer, harm fetal development and reduce vaccine effectiveness.

The primary source of PFAS contamination at military bases is aqueous firefighting film-forming foam, or AFFF, developed by DOD and 3M in the 1960s and first required by the Navy and the Marine Corps in 1967. Legacy formulations of AFFF, used for decades, contained PFOS and PFAS precursors that can break down into PFOA and other toxic PFAS.

The funding levels in the House version of the NDAA build upon congressional spending that has been dedicated for cleaning up PFAS at military sites. Last year’s omnibus spending bill included $168 million for dedicated PFAS cleanup at military sites, with $100 million of that going to formerly used defense sites or BRAC sites.

The House NDAA also includes $40 million in funding for PFAS through DOD’s environmental research program and environmental security technical certification program to facilitate the replacement of AFFF. The funding will also spur the development of PFAS-free firefighting agents, as well as other environmental remediation and disposal technologies.

In addition, the Subcommittee on Readiness mark passed in July and published on the House Armed Services Committee website today includes several PFAS provisions, some of which were adopted as amendments by the House in its version of the NDAA for 2021:

• Sec. 315 establishes a temporary moratorium on the incineration of materials containing PFAS, including AFFF.
• Sec. 316 requires the Pentagon to publicly report the test results for PFAS at all military sites where tests have been conducted since 2016 and alert communities when it tests for PFAS.
• Sec. 317 requires the Pentagon to produce guidance on ways DOD can prevent or mitigate AFFF spills.
• Sec. 312 would allow the National Guard to use environmental restoration funding to clean up all PFAS as well as other contaminants, not just PFOA and PFOS, the two most notorious PFAS. The House version of the NDAA for FY 2022 will be marked up by the full House Armed Services Committee on September 1. https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2021/08/house-defense-bill-includes-historic-funding-pfas-cleanup

Marine Bacteria Capable of Biodegrading Diesel and Oil Found in Canadian Arctic

August 12 2021 | Original story from the American Society for Microbiology

Marine bacteria in the frigid waters of the Canadian Arctic are capable of biodegrading oil and diesel fuel, according to a new study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Genomic sequencing revealed unexpected potential for hydrocarbon bioremediation in lineages of bacteria including Paraperlucidibaca, Cycloclasticus, and Zhongshania, said coauthor Casey Hubert, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Geomicrobiology, University of Calgary. These “may represent key players in the response to Arctic marine oil spills.”

“The study also confirmed that providing nutrients can enhance hydrocarbon biodegradation under these low temperature conditions,” said Dr. Hubert.

The impetus for this work: “These permanently cold waters are seeing increasing industrial activity related to maritime shipping and offshore oil and gas sector activities,” said Dr. Hubert.

Sean Murphy, Dr. Hubert’s student, who grew up in the region, instigated the project. Mr. Murphy, Aquatic Scientist, ERM Canada, had noted both the benefit offshore oil had brought to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, but had been deeply troubled by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and had focused his masters research on the Labrador Sea to “help inform future oil spill mitigation strategies… at cold temperatures in the region.”

The Labrador coast—where the study took place—is important for Indigenous peoples who rely on the ocean for food, and that unlike at lower latitudes, there’s been a dearth of research on bioremediation this far north, Dr. Hubert noted.

“As climate change extends ice-free periods and increasing industrial activity takes place in the Arctic, it is important to understand the ways in which the Arctic marine microbiome will respond if there is an oil or fuel spill,” said Dr. Hubert. That’s especially important, as “this region remains vast and remote such that oil spill emergency response would be complicated and slow.”

In the study, the investigators simulated oil spill remediation inside of bottles, by combining mud from the top few centimeters of seabed with artificial seawater, and with either diesel or crude oil, along with different nutrient amendments at different concentrations.

The experiments were performed at 4°C, to approximate the temperature in the Labrador Sea, and took place over several weeks. “Our simulations demonstrated that naturally occurring oil-degrading bacteria in the ocean represent nature’s first responders to an oil spill,” said Dr. Hubert. 

Reference
Murphy SMC, Bautista MA, Cramm MA, Hubert CRJ. Biodegradation of diesel and crude oil by Labrador Sea cold adapted microbial communities. App Enviro Microbiol. 0(ja):AEM.00800-21. doi:10.1128/AEM.00800-21

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

https://www.technologynetworks.com/applied-sciences/news/marine-bacteria-capable-of-biodegrading-diesel-and-oil-found-in-canadian-arctic-351943

China marks 25% of its territory for environmental protection

Reuters

BEIJING, July 7 (Reuters) – China has designated 25% of its onshore territory “ecological conservation” areas, limiting development and human activities in order to improve the environment and conserve resources.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment was tasked with identifying areas in need of protection a decade ago, when the government acknowledged that decades of “irrational development” had put its ecological safety under severe strain.

Cui Shuhong, a director from the ministry’s Nature and Ecology Conservation Department, told a news conference on Wednesday that “red lines” had been drawn around zones that served a major ecological function, and areas that were sensitive and vulnerable along with important regions for biodiversity.

“We will delineate and strictly guard the ecological protection red lines…and rein in various violations of the ecological environment that harm the vital interests of the people,” Cui said.

In 2017, the central government made clear that local government officials were responsible for protecting designated areas, and later ordered an ongoing crack down on industrial plants, farms, piggeries and even residential houses built within the red lines.

Reporting by Muyu Xu and Shivani Singh; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/china-marks-25-its-territory-environmental-protection-2021-07-07/