Japan Press Weekly

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2024 May 22 - 28 [US FORCES]

US military refuses to provide results of PFOS-contained wastewater analysis

The U.S. military has refused to make public the results of an analysis of the water, which supposedly contains organofluorine compounds such as PFOS and PFOA, drained from a wastewater treatment facility at the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Japan’s Ministry of Defense on May 24 informed Yokosuka City Mayor Kamiji Katsuaki that the U.S. military would not respond to the city’s request to provide it with the results.

According to the Defense Ministry, the U.S. military command in Japan claims that the U.S. military has no obligation to provide data on PFOS/PFOA levels in the wastewater because there are no standards for discharging PFOS/PFOA-contained water in Japanese laws and regulations. The Ministry seems to accept this claim.

The Yokosuka City mayor expressed resentment at the U.S. military and said that it is necessary for the Japanese government to set effluent standards on harmful chemicals, including PFOS.

Japanese Communist Party member of the Yokosuka City Assembly Omura Yoko, in an interview with Akahata, said, “The lack of standards should not be a reason not to publish the results of the analysis. The Japanese authorities should continue to demand that it be made public, and the U.S. military should respond to it to alleviate residents’ concern over polluted water.”

It was discovered last October that the granular activated carbon filters that had been installed to remove PFOS and other chemicals were not in operation. Therefore, the mayor requested that the results of the wastewater sampling analysis be provided.