Japan appears to be an exceptional case where the U.S. military has done almost nothing about cancer-causing organic fluorine compounds detected near U.S. military bases.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) repel water and oil and have been used in various products, such as firefighting foam.

The Okinawa prefectural government has detected levels of PFAS exceeding the temporary standards set by the Environment Ministry in tests conducted near U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, in the prefecture.

CONTAMINATED LAND

Masaru Miyagi, 59, who has farmed for many years in Okinawa, is angered by what he is seeing. 

“The land and water on which I grew up has been polluted,” he said. “I have put up with the noise pollution from U.S. military bases as well as the crimes committed by personnel there, but I can no longer control my anger.”

Because Miyagi took pride in his organic farming produce, he is no longer growing anything now that the water has been found to be contaminated.

PFAS contamination first came to light in Okinawa in January 2016 when the Okinawa prefectural government announced the results of its study of rivers and water treatment plants around the U.S. Kadena Air Base.

One finding was that perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), one of the PFAS compounds, was detected in the Chatan water treatment plant that provides water to about 440,000 locals. A maximum 80 nanograms per liter of water were found.

A river near Kadena Air Base had PFOS levels as high as 1,300 nanograms per liter.

Since 2016, the Okinawa prefectural government has made six separate requests at various U.S. military facilities to be allowed to investigate the cause of the contamination.

But the U.S. military has only allowed two on-site inspections because it admitted that accidents had occurred there. One involved 140,000 liters of firefighting foam leaking from the Futenma base in 2020.

Over the past eight years, the Okinawa prefectural government has spent a total of 3.2 billion yen ($21.6 million) to analyze and treat water contaminated with PFAS, of which the Okinawa Defense Bureau subsidized 1 billion yen.

The prefectural government believes at least 8 billion yen will be needed to deal with PFAS contamination over the next decade.

That means water bills in Okinawa will gradually increase by a total of 30 percent from October.

While part of the increase is due to rising consumer prices and to deal with aging water equipment, some of the money will also go toward combatting the PFAS problem.

Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki has asked central government officials to shoulder the burden of managing the PFAS since the central government provides the facilities to the U.S. military from which the contaminant comes.

Masafumi Teruya is secretary-general of a citizens’ group seeking clean water around the Futenma base.

“It is unreasonable to have Okinawa residents pay to handle the PFAS,” he said.

HUGE AMOUNTS SPENT IN U.S.

PFAS contamination has been found in other communities near U.S. military bases as well.

In July 2023, the U.S. military acknowledged three incidents between 2010 and 2012 of PFAS leaking out of Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo.

But no indication was given about the volume of the compound that leaked out.

PFAS were also detected in 2022 near U.S. military bases in the Kanagawa Prefecture cities of Yokosuka and Atsugi, southwest of Tokyo.

Citizens’ groups have asked Koji Harada, an associate professor of health and environmental sciences at Kyoto University, for help in analyzing blood tests from residents near U.S. military bases.

An Okinawa civic group in 2022 released test results of samples collected from 387 residents in six municipalities, which found PFOS levels as much as three times the national average.

Another study in September 2023 in the Tama region upstream from the Yokota base found levels as much as double the national average.

The issue of PFAS contamination has also become the focus of attention in the United States. But there, major budgetary increases have been made to combat the problem.

In November 2022, for example, about 4,900 liters of firefighting foam containing PFAS leaked from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Honolulu.

The facility provides fuel to U.S. Navy ships anchored at Pearl Harbor as well as Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. 

Locals concerned about their water quality held a demonstration the following month. Among the 1,500 or so protesters was Ernest Lau, manager of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.

“The whole community realized that we need safe drinking water to survive,” Lau said.

In 2021, about 70,000 liters of jet fuel leaked from the Red Hill facility, contaminating the water supply for about 93,000 residents, including many in the U.S. military.

The local protests led the U.S. Defense Department to decide to remove all fuel from the Red Hill facility by 2024 and to shut it down by 2027.

“Water is the common thread that can pull all of us together, even if we are from different countries,” Lau said.

PFAS contamination in other parts of the United States led the Environmental Protection Agency in March 2023 to announce for the first time a proposal for water quality standards.

The previous standard was a combined 70 nanograms per liter for PFOS and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), another typical PFAS.

The new proposal called for a stricter standard of 4 nanograms for each PFAS.

If the measure is approved, water monitoring would become a requirement, and if PFAS levels beyond the standard are detected, steps would have to be taken to reduce contamination levels.

The U.S. government plans to spend a total of $9 billion (about 1.3 trillion yen) over a five-year period to cope with PFAS contamination.

The money will go to support communities striving to reduce levels of PFAS and other pollutants as well as conduct blood tests to determine the amount of PFAS entering humans and check the levels found in livestock, fish and vegetables.

STUDIES UNDER WAY ABROAD

PFAS contamination in areas near military bases in the United States largely occurs because firefighting foam, which contains the compound, was used at the bases as it can swiftly bring fires under control.

A U.S. environmental group estimates that PFAS contamination has been confirmed or likely in at least 700 military facilities.

“The department is taking a number of actions to address PFAS, such as developing an alternative to PFAS-containing firefighting foam,” a Defense Department official said. “(The department) remains dedicated to transparent communication and open dialogue with our military personnel and their families, members of Congress, and the people living in communities near military installations.”

According to Japanese government sources, the U.S. military has shouldered the burden of conducting studies about PFAS contamination near U.S. bases in Germany, along with cleaning up.

The U.S. military has also confirmed PFAS contamination near U.S. bases in Belgium and South Korea and has conducted water quality checks.

Jon Mitchell, a British journalist who has investigated environmental pollution from the U.S. military in Hawaii, Okinawa and the Tokyo metropolitan area, said the insufficient response to the situation in Japan was the exception in how the U.S. military usually handled matters.

“Other countries hold the American military more closely accountable than the Japanese government does,” Mitchell said. “The Japanese government needs to push the American military to be more responsible and more transparent about PFAS contamination. I hope there’s many more meetings between local governments and local leaders.”

(This article was written by Satsuki Tanahashi and Taro Ono in Okinawa and Takashi Watanabe on Oahu island.)