Current Issues
EPA: Open Burning PFAS and Highly Toxic Chemicals Will Continue at Domestic Burn Pits
The Department of Defense, Department of Energy, NASA and the private sector currently operate more than 60 open burn pits across the U.S. and its territories – causing the uncontrolled release of PFAS and other toxic chemicals to the environment. A new federal...
Does U.S. Military Chaff Contain PFAS?
In August 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a legislatively-required report to Congress on the uses of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that the military considers “critical to the national security of the United States.” The detailed 27-page...
EPA Touts Alternatives to Burn Pits but Rulemaking Remains Stalled
In this national news report by InsideEPA, CSWAB comments on the deeply entrenched resistance by DOD, DOE, NASA and private industry to modernize their hazardous waste treatment systems. EPA has quietly published a compendium of alternatives to open burning/open...
Clean Soil is Key to Successful Reuse of Badger Army Lands
Today, CSWAB submitted detailed public comment on a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on the proposed construction and operation of a new 101-acre Dairy Forage Research Center complex along U.S. Highway 12 on former...
EPA Responds to Citizen Comment on Alaska Burn Pits
In response to joint public comment by CSWAB and Alaska Community Action on Toxics, EPA Region 10 is requiring Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) in Anchorage, Alaska to collect additional environmental information to determine if the long-delayed closure...
Communities Push for EPA Ban on U.S. Burn Pits Here at Home
Photograph: EPA continues to permit Indiana's Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center to open air burn and detonate as much as 109 million pounds of hazardous energetic waste every YEAR. Despite the availability of advanced alternative technologies, open burning units like...
PFAS Contamination at Defense Sites Threatens Drinking Water Nationwide including WISCONSIN
PHOTO: Groundwater monitoring wells have detected unsafe levels of PFAS at the southern boundary of the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant. Groundwater discharges to the Lower Wisconsin Riverway at Prairie du Sac, according to Army reports. Underground plumes of PFAS...
Army Challenging WDNR on Cleanup of Toxic DNT in Groundwater
The Army has proposed enhanced bioremediation of the toxic explosive DNT in groundwater flowing from the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant. The proposal would utilize Emulsified Vegetable Oil (EVO) injected into the subsurface to stimulate bioremediation as a means...
Congressional Audit of Natural Resources Damage from Domestic Burn Pits Sought
A national coalition of 26 environmental organizations has submitted a formal joint request to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee for a financial audit to inform both Congress and the public with a measure of damages caused by open air burning and...
Badger Army Groundwater Cleanup Plan Omits PFAS
In a formal letter to WDNR Secretary Adam Payne today, Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) asks that the Department require the U.S. Army, as the acknowledged responsible party, to incorporate PFAS and other emerging contaminants in its pending...
EPA Set to Defer Cleanup of Alaska Burn Pits for Decades, Again
Anchorage, ALASKA -- For more than 40 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has deferred cleanup and closure of a former hazardous waste burning area at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. If approved, a pending EPA permit will leave this wound...
Renewed Permit for Burning Hazardous Waste Questioned
‘They have to convince us’: Concerned residents react to Clean Harbors Colfax’s renewed permit By Alena Noakes COLFAX, La. (KALB) - With the news of a hazardous waste permit renewal for Clean Harbors Colfax (CHC) comes the same wary approach by some Colfax residents...