Sec. 323. Provision of uncontaminated water for agricultural use on land contaminated by PFOS and PFOA used on military installations
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Congress makes the following findings: Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (in this section referred to as PFOS ) and perfluorooctanoic acid (in this section referred to as PFOA ) are part of a class of man-made chemicals that have been used in a variety of industrial and consumer products to make the products resist heat, stains, water, and grease. Because PFOS and PFOA extinguish petroleum fires quickly, the Department of Defense and commercial airports began using aqueous film forming foam containing PFOS and PFOA in the 1970s.
PFOS and PFOA can accumulate and stay in the body for long periods of time. Exposure to PFOS and PFOA may cause health problems, including issues with the reproductive system, liver and kidney damage, developmental issues in children, and negatively impacted immune system, and cancer. A common method of human exposure to PFOS and PFOA is by consuming contaminated drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency issued lifetime health advisories under the Safe Drinking Water Act for individual or combined PFOS and PFOA concentrations at 70 parts per trillion in 2016, but has not yet issued any guidance or regulation for groundwater or agricultural water.
The Department of Defense has provided mitigations in many communities where drinking water has tested at or above the lifetime health advisory level, including bottled water and drinking water filtration systems. Due to the lack of regulatory guidance, these mitigations have not been mirrored in agricultural water systems. As a result, farmers located adjacent to military installations with PFOS and PFOA contamination that has migrated off-installation are potentially impacted, and in at least one case, such contamination has had a serious impact on the livelihood of a dairy farmer.
If an area has been identified under paragraph (2), and a military installation has been determined to be the source of that contamination, the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary concerned may provide, for the purpose of producing agricultural products destined for human consumption— water sources uncontaminated with perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, including PFOA and PFOS, or treatment of contaminated waters. An area identified under this paragraph is an area for which the level of PFOA or PFOS contamination— is above the lifetime health advisory for contamination for such compounds as issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and printed in the Federal Register on May 25, 2016; is at or above a regulatory standard set by the Food and Drug Administration for PFOA and PFOS in raw agricultural commodities and milk; or is at or above a duly promulgated, non-discriminatory standard promulgated by a State regulatory entity for PFOA and PFOS in raw agricultural commodities and milk.
Amounts used to carry out this section shall be derived— in the case of amounts made available by the Secretary concerned, from amounts authorized to be appropriated for Operation and Maintenance for the military department concerned; or in the case of amounts made available by the Secretary of Defense, from amounts authorized to be appropriated for Operation and Maintenance, Defense-wide. It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary concerned should explore authorities under which the Secretary could acquire land the land adjacent to military installations where the owners of the land have experienced impacts to their livelihood due to PFOS and PFOA contamination that has been verified to have been caused by that installation, including the authorities under sections 2663, 2864a, and 2869 of title 10, United States Code.