Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is a national hot spot of pollution.

It’s among the 100 U.S. military bases most-contaminated by PFAS pollution, according to a list compiled by the advocacy organization Environmental Working Group. It is the only military installation in New Jersey that cracks the list.

PFAS — which stands for polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances — is a family of thousands of different chemicals. Some of the most common include perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS).

The chemicals, which are used for products ranging from nonstick cookware to firefighting foam, have been linked to cancer and other health effects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

PFOA and PFOS make up the majority of the PFAS contamination at the Joint Base, according to the list, but perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS) and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) have also been found.

PFAS levels of up to 264,000 parts per trillion have been detected in groundwater at the Joint Base. Those water testing results were first announced by the Joint Base in 2017.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s health advisory limit for drinking water is 70 parts per trillion for both PFOA and PFOS. New Jersey has a drinking water standard of 13 parts per trillion for PFNA, and has proposed standards of 14 parts per trillion for PFOA and 13 parts per trillion for PFOS.

The base did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The Joint Base is far from the only place in New Jersey known to have PFAS contamination. Other military installations in the Garden State, like Naval Weapons State Earle, are known to have high concentrations of PFAS contamination. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, new sites of PFAS pollution are regularly found across the state.

West Deptford, where the Solvay plant used PFNA, is home to some of the highest levels of PFNA contamination in the world. In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded Rutgers a $1 million grant to study PFAS exposure in Gloucester County.

In March, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection directed a group of five chemical giants — Chemours, Dow DuPont, DuPont, Solvay and 3M — to remediate any PFAS pollution that they were deemed responsible for in the Garden State. In May, the companies told the state that they had no intention of paying for cleanup across the entire state.

That same month, New Jersey sued DuPont, Chemours and 3M for historic pollution at four sites across the state. That case is ongoing. In August, DuPont filed to move the case federal court, arguing that its pollution was done on behalf of the U.S. government during multiple war efforts. The state has since filed to remand the case back to state court.

Then in May, the state sued eight companies for PFAS pollution tied to a type of firefighting foam known as AFFF that the companies either produced or sold. At the time, the DEP said that it had tied the foam to high PFAS levels at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County; Naval Weapons Station Earle in Monmouth County; the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Trenton; and the Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center in Atlantic County.

New Jersey has been among the most aggressive states in dealing with PFAS so far, but efforts to address the issue on a federal level have been slow to develop. In February, the EPA announced a national “action plan” to deal with PFAS pollution, but stopped sort of creating federal drinking water standards for the chemicals.

Read more of NJ.com’s coverage of New Jersey water issues here.

Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MSolDub. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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