An exclusive look at the Pentagon’s effort to limit PFAS contamination at military installations and the stakes for one Michigan community considered “ground zero.”

“It was used three or four or five times a week in training, and they would foam down the entire runway,” said Tony Spaniola, an Oscoda resident who lives along the lake. “It was generally thought to be safe, but here we are many years later still seeing and feeling the consequences.”

The foam, developed by the military decades ago, contains per-and poly-fluroalkyl substances, or PFAS – so-called “forever chemicals” because they never break down.