BRUNSWICK COUNTY — Four years ago, the U.S. Army found high PFAS concentrations in groundwater at the largest military terminal in the country. Though a remedial investigation was recommended, none has materialized.
READ MORE: NC State researcher finds high PFAS concentrations in sea foam along local beaches
ALSO: Why did MOTSU allow a private company to release a toxic air pollutant on its property?
Military Ocean Sunny Point Terminal is the nation’s largest ocean terminal for receiving and delivering weapons, explosives, and military equipment. It encompasses over 16,000 acres near Southport in Brunswick County, including a 2,100 acre buffer zone in Carolina Beach; it is operated by the 596th Transportation Brigade, a unit within the U.S. Army.
In 2021, the Army published a PFAS site assessment of MOTSU. The report recommended further study in three of the terminals’ areas after finding high concentrations of tested PFAS compounds in groundwater far exceeding DoD risk screening levels.
The Army detected PFOS levels as high as 23,000 parts per trillion in groundwater at MOTSU’s fire station. PFOS, or perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, is a type of PFAS contaminant. PFOA, a different compound called perfluorooctanoic acid, was measured at the same location to be 770 ppt.
According to the report, MOTSU’s deep groundwater flows east before discharging into the Cape Fear River. Shallow groundwater at the facility is expected to flow towards the river’s tributaries including Nigis, Fishing, and Governors Creeks. The assessment noted potential exposure pathways from groundwater, soil, and surface water could affect site workers.
According to the assessment, service members released PFAS-containing firefighter foam on a regular basis for training with runoff directed towards Nigis Creek. The study detected PFOS at 290 ppt in one surface water sample collected from the creek, which flows into the Cape Fear River.
N.C. State researchers recently cited the military terminal as a possible source of high PFAS concentrations found in sea foam samples collected from shorelines near the facility.
The Department of Defense has identified PFAS contamination at hundreds of military sites throughout the country caused by decades of using PFAS-containing firefighter foam. An interactive map published by the Environmental Working Group identifies 720 military sites with known or suspected PFAS discharges, including MOTSU.
“PFAS contamination at Department of Defense sites is widespread,” Natural Resources Defense Council senior attorney Cori Bell told Port City Daily. “I think it’s particularly horrifying that this is along the Cape Fear, where people are already overburdened with PFAS. At these military sites, people are living and working and consuming this water all day. They’re essentially being treated as guinea pigs by the Department of Defense, and it’s a horrible way to treat people that are serving our country.”
The Department of Defense is phasing out its use of aqueous film-forming foam but estimates around 80% of the country’s military bases have elevated PFAS in soil and water. The U.S. government is claiming governmental immunity and asking for dismissal in numerous lawsuits from plaintiffs seeking billions in damages for PFAS contamination at military sites throughout the country.
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act gives the EPA authority to take legal action to force polluters to clean up designated superfund sites. Last year, the EPA designated two PFAS substances, PFOA and PFOS, as hazardous substances under CERCLA, though MOTSU has not been designated as superfund priority site.
Still, the U.S. Army Environmental Command’s website states MOTSU has a remediation investigation scheduled in adherence with CERCLA. However, the Army has not initiated further study and an EPA spokesperson told Port City Daily MOTSU is not on the agency’s remediation list.
“Based on Army priorities, the fact that MOTSU purchases finished water from an outside source, and low on-site detection levels, the remediation investigation has not been initiated,” 596th Transportation Brigade public affairs officer Mark Harris said. “There is currently no projected date of initiation.”
Harris added MOTSU stopped using AFFF foam in 2017 and no longer uses PFAS-containing foam. He said the Army’s most recent testing at MOTSU was carried out in May 2024, finding PFAS levels in groundwater and drinking water below 2016 lifetime health advisory levels. However, the EPA has tightened PFAS standards since 2016 and groundwater levels in MOTSU’s 2021 assessment greatly exceeded risk standards.
MOTSU purchases drinking water from Brunswick County, which sources it from the Cape Fear River, also contaminated with PFAS due to Chemours chemical dumps upstream. Though the county is in the process of building a treatment plant to filter out PFAS, MOTSU’s May 2024 drinking water had combined levels of 15.2 ppt of PFOA and PFOS, above current EPA standards.
Port City Daily requested specific data and locations for the Army’s most recent testing but did not receive it by press.
Chemical industry connections to military
The U.S. military has long been involved in PFAS manufacturing. The U.S. Navy worked with multinational manufacturer 3M to create aqueous film-forming foam in the 1960s. Internal Department of Defense studies found aqueous film-forming foam to be toxic since the 1970s, the decade 3M began supplying it to the military.
3M found evidence PFOS did not biodegrade in 1949 but told customers until the 1990s the “forever chemical” would naturally break. The company’s animal studies determined PFAS toxicity in the 1960s.
The company accumulated internal research reinforcing PFAS health hazards in the following decades, including assessments linking its compounds to testicular cancer. Two decades later, a federal study found Air Force servicemen with elevated blood levels of PFOS at higher risk of developing the malady.
In 2000, Pentagon and EPA officials met to discuss the serious risk PFOS posed to human health. But a 2021 Department of Defense Inspector General report found the military failed to alert service members of health risks.
The Inspector General’s report also found DoD officials did not proactively identify, mitigate, or remediate contaminant effects of PFAS-containing materials aside from aqueous film-forming foam.
The Department of Defense maintains PFAS are critical to national security and viable alternatives do not yet exist. It issued a 2023 report on critical PFAS uses including former DuPont products now owned by Chemours. These include Vitex fluoroelastomer used in munitions and Teflon used in pyrotechnics and missile systems.
The chemical industry has long been integral to what President Dwight Eisenhower described as the “military-industrial complex” — the network of corporate and government interests with a vested interest in military spending. DuPont took in over $200 million in profits from World War I, leading critics to describe it as a “Merchant of Death” during the 1934 Nye Committee hearings regarding war profiteering.
Fluorochemicals originated from the U.S. effort to create the atomic bomb and 3M later hired several Manhattan Project researchers to begin mass production of early PFAS compounds.
The Department of Defense sought to hire toxicologist Michael Dourson to lead a PFAS health risk study in 2018. Trump nominated Dourson to lead EPA’s toxicology department a year earlier, but he withdrew amid scrutiny of his financial ties to the chemical industry, including involvement with studies downplaying PFAS risk funded by its manufacturers.
Last July, Dourson sent an email to his associates requesting assistance in a coordinated effort to publish studies aimed at undermining the EPA’s new PFAS maximum contaminant levels.
Dourson is president of the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, which recently launched a publication — the Journal of Toxicology and Regulatory Policy — focused on PFAS.
ISRTP sent EPA administrator Lee Zeldin a February letter urging him to reevaluate PFAS maximum contaminant levels. The group recently filed a brief in support of the chemical and water utility industries’ lawsuit against EPA seeking to overturn the rules.
The International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology’s vice president for 2025-2026 is Patricia Underwood, chief toxicologist with the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
“Trish Underwood was not affiliated with ISRTP at the time we initiated our letter to Administrator Zeldin or during the development of the amicus brief,” ISRTP administrative manager Allen Weidman wrote in an email to Port City Daily.
Tips or comments? Email journalist Peter Castagno at peter@localdailymedia.com.
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