Republic file photo A photograph of Camp Atterbury fire station taken Aug. 27, 2018.
EDINBURGH — Camp Atterbury has confirmed that contractors have detected toxic “forever chemicals” linked to cancer, low birth weight and an array of other health problems in the groundwater on the training base near Edinburgh.
The base, which is located in parts of Bartholomew, Brown and Johnson counties, joins a growing list of military bases across the country that have been contaminated with compounds known as PFAS, which are a class of human-made compounds that have been used in countless consumer and industrial products.
Research suggests that exposure to the chemicals is associated with an increased risk of some cancers, weakened immunity, low birth weight, developmental delays in children, among several other health problems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They have often been called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down naturally in the environment.
So far, PFAS have been detected at 385 other military sites across the country, including the Shelbyville Army Aviation Support Facility, according to the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization.
At Camp Atterbury, the chemicals were detected in the groundwater near a storage site at the corner of Headquarters Road and Durban Street on the north side of the base, Indiana National Guard spokesman Master Sgt. Jeff Lowry told The Republic. The contamination may be related to the storage of firefighting foam that contained PFAS.
“The contractors found PFAS in the groundwater, but it does not impact the Camp Atterbury water supply,” Lowry said.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management tested water on the base last year but did not detect any PFAS in treated or untreated water, state records show. The testing was part of a statewide effort to examine the prevalence of the chemicals in water systems across the state.
A follow-on survey at the base has been planned and is currently up for bid. Once the National Guard Bureau awards the bid, the survey should take place within two years, Lowry said.
“The U.S. Army’s priority for PFAS is to ensure no one — including service members, family members, civilians and veterans who have trained or spent time at Camp Atterbury — is drinking water above the EPA’s lifetime advisory levels due to operations,” Lowry said. “If they have concerns with PFAS exposure, then they should see their health care providers.”
Last month, the EPA warned that two of the most widely used and studied PFAS — known as PFOA and PFOS — are more dangerous than previously thought and pose health risks even at levels so low they cannot currently be detected, The Associated Press reported.
On June 15, the EPA issued nonbinding health advisories that set health risk thresholds for PFOA and PFOS to near zero, replacing 2016 guidelines that had set them at 70 parts per trillion, according to wire reports.
Areas of interest
The update from Camp Atterbury comes nearly four years after contractors visited the base to assess the “potential effects on human health related to processes at facilities that used” PFAS, particularly firefighting foam, according to a 2020 report.
During the visit, they identified four “areas of interest” on the base where they though PFAS could have been released into the environment.
The areas included the current and former sites of fire stations and a storage facility that where contractors observed four emergency response carts containing PFAS-containing firefighting foam at the time that they were received in 2004.
That storage area is located near where PFAS were ultimately detected in the groundwater. Personnel who were interviewed for the report stated that, as far as they knew, the carts had never been used and there was no indication that they had leaked over the previous 14 years.
However, contractors still concluded that the storage facility was “conservatively considered a potential PFAS release area” given that “releases may occur as a result of the corrosive nature” of AFFF and “incidental leaks or spills during transport” can occur, the report states.
Suspected release
In the late 1990s, a “nondescript piece of firefighting equipment” stored at one of the former fire stations on the base “malfunctioned, releasing firefighting foam within the building,” the report states, citing an interview with an analyst who worked at the base at the time of the incident.
However, it was unknown at the time of the report what type of foam was spilled, if it contained PFAS or how the discharge was cleaned up, according to the report.
The building where the spill occurred may have had floor drains that connected to a sewer line that ran to an oil-water separator before going to the base’s wastewater treatment plant, though the analyst could not confirm the existence of floor drains.
Instead, the analyst said it was “most likely” that “the foam was physically pushed and rinsed out of the building into the surrounding soil,” the report states.
Surface runoff around the site of that former fire station flows into a tributary of Nineveh Creek, which connects to the Driftwood River in northern Bartholomew County.
A tornado destroyed the building in 2008, and it was subsequently rebuilt and repurposed, the report states.
Currently, it is unclear if that suspected leak is related to the PFAS found in the groundwater on the base, as the former fire station in question is located several blocks south of where the chemicals were found. The contractors state in their 2020 report that groundwater on the base flows to the southeast.
But of the four areas of interest, only the storage facility at the corner of Headquarters Road and Durban Street “requires further investigation because PFAS detected exceeded (U.S.) Department of Defense screening criteria,” Lowry said.
The Indiana National Guard said it is “committed to protecting human health” and will continue efforts to investigate and respond” to the presence of PFAS at Camp Atterbury.
“The Indiana National Guard is committed to protecting human health and ensuring its drinking water systems meet state and federal standards, as applicable,” Lowry said. “As part of this commitment, we will continue our comprehensive efforts to investigate and respond as appropriate, to ensure continued protection of guardsmen, their families and the communities surrounding Camp Atterbury.”
