Tucson Opinion: With south-side PFAS water contamination, history repeats itself

The issue of contaminated water in South Tucson and the surrounding area is decades old. In the mid-1990s, we began researching what then surfaced publicly as a serious problem: Residents in the same area claimed that they were becoming sick, and dying, from exposure to TCE, or trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent used by industries located in their backyard. The exposure went on for decades, and TCE exposure is associated with a variety of illnesses and cancers.

Our research included analyzing data collected by Pima County’s Public Works Department, files collected by then Pima County Board Member Raúl Grijalva, and several interviews that included all Board Members, attorney Richard Gonzales, who litigated the lawsuit, and Southside activist Manuel Herrera.

We discovered that it was not so much the polluting activity itself that demonstrated environmental racism, but instead the nature of the wildly different responses by local and county officials once the problem was brought into the open by reporters from The Arizona Daily Star.

These responses were marked by denial, neglect, and in some cases outright blame of the victims. Most notably, the contamination resulted in lawsuits and settlements, the designation of a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the closing of contaminated wells, and a massive cleanup effort.

Now, 25 years later, headlines are reporting on another source of contamination on Tucson’s south side: Chemicals called PFAS, used primarily to fight fires, have been leaking for years from the Tucson Air National Guard facility. Located adjacent to the Tucson International Airport, the National Guard facility is very close to where the TCE came from years ago.

The Tucson Airport Remediation Plant (TARP) had to be closed recently due to toxic levels of PFAS found in wells on the south side. The closing of wells puts additional strains on an already overburdened water supply in Southern Arizona, especially in a time of climate change and long-term drought conditions regionally.

Although in some ways the modern PFAS water pollution problem is different from the TCE contamination, in that city and county leaders are much more concerned, it has been federal governmental agencies that have been dragging their feet in addressing the problem.

The EPA, largely put out of business under the former administration, has yet to address this serious problem. As scholars who have spent decades studying environmental policy, here and elsewhere, we ask: When will there be equal justice for the ethnic minorities who have lived with, and died from, seriously contaminated water? Without clean water all of us are at risk. Tragically, some citizens more than others.