ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and describes challenges faced by personnel in the US Air Force (USAF) from a restoration perspective: identifying PFAS contamination from historical use of PFAS-containing aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF). From a Department of Defense (DOD) perspective, the overall effect of new and emerging contaminants (ECs), or new regulations associated with existing chemicals, is facilitated through a working group under the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Science and Technology Directorate's Chemical and Material Risk Management Program. The USAF Civil Engineer Center (AFCEC) first identified the use of aqueous film-forming foams as an environmental issue following MERIT's Phase one Impact Assessment of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in 2008. As a result of the collective weight of evidence regarding the scale of the PFAS problem, AFCEC initiated in 2014 a programmatic response to investigate all AFFF releases across the entire portfolio of installations within the continental United States.
