Press Release

Official announcements highlighting recent actions taken by the 118th Wing, Tennessee Air National Guard, and other newsworthy information. These are posted to our website as they are released throughout the day.

RELATIVE RISK SITE EVALUATION ...
Introduction The Department of Defense (DoD) has identified certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as emerging contaminants of concern which affected installations across the Air Force, which for these fact sheets includes the Air National Guard. These PFAS are perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) are components of Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) that the Air Force began using in the 1970s as a firefighting agent to extinguish petroleum fires. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued health based site specific Regional Screening Levels (RSLs) for surface soil and groundwater (drinking water) for PFOS, PFOA, PFBS, PFNA, PFHxS and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA, or Gen-X). Site Inspections (SIs) were initiated to collect soil and groundwater samples and analyze those media for 16 different PFAS at the potential AFFF release areas that were identified in the PA. The intent of the SI is to determine if a release has occurred and determine if there are impacts to soil and/or groundwater. The next step in the process is the Relative Risk Site Evaluation (RRSE). The RRSE is a DoD-wide methodology to evaluate the relative risks posed by PFAS present at an installation in relation to other installations. The RRSE is a tool used to sequence funding for which installations have the highest priority to begin a Remedial Investigation (RI). The DoD premise in installation sequencing is “worst first,” meaning the DoD Component shall address installations that pose a relatively greater potential risk to public safety, human health, or the environment before installations posing a lesser risk.

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