How toxic water in northern Michigan is affecting military veterans and their families

Across the nation, hundreds of military sites have contaminated waterways with toxic “forever chemicals.” In part two of our series, special correspondent Megan Thompson reports on the potential health impacts of that toxic water and the veterans who fear it has made them sick.
Laura Barrón-López:
Across the nation, hundreds of military sites have contaminated waterways with toxic forever chemicals. Last night we brought you the story of one Michigan community pressuring the Air Force to clean up the decades old contamination. Tonight, special correspondent Megan Thompson reports on the potential health impacts of that toxic water and the veterans who fear it has made them sick.
Craig Minor:
Four, five, six, seven. Almost all the grandchildren. There’s Mitchell in the center.
Megan Thompson:
Craig and Carrie Minor’s home in Cedarville, Ohio, is filled with family photos.
Carrie Minor:
This is my favorite picture. Taylor’s holding Mitchell’s head up. And I just love that picture of all four of the kids.
Megan Thompson:
Mitchell is the Miner’s third child, born in 1989 with severe disabilities.
Craig Minor:
Mitchell had cerebral palsy and he had microcephaly major seizure disorders. He was completely a quadriplegic.
Megan Thompson:
Carrie provided around the clock care for him until he died in 2020 at the age of 30.
Craig Minor:
He was a daddy’s boy. We loved him dearly.
Megan Thompson:
Doctors suggested a virus could have caused Mitchell’s disabilities. But a year before he died, Craig saw something on TV that made him think otherwise.
Craig Minor:
They were talking about contamination that all these bases through firefighter foam and Wordsmith’s name came up.
Megan Thompson:
Wurtsmith is in the former Air Force base in Oscoda, Michigan, where Craig was stationed for four years as a B52 bomber pilot. It’s also where the family lived when Carrie was pregnant with Mitchell. The base made headlines after widespread groundwater contamination was discovered in 2010. It was caused by firefighting foam crews used for decades to practice putting out jet fuel fires containing chemicals called per and polyfluoralkyl substances. PFAS for short.
Courtney Carignan, Michigan State University:
PFAS have been shown to affect multiple systems in the body. So here’s our freezer.
Megan Thompson:
Courtney Carignan is an environmental epidemiologist at Michigan State University who studies the effects of PFAS on human health. She says there’s some level of PFAS in almost every American’s blood.
Courtney Carignan:
They’re used in a lot of different products that most people use or have in their homes. Things like Scotchgard nonstick pans.
Megan Thompson:
There are around 15,000 different types of PFAS. And once in our bodies or the environment, they don’t break down quickly. It’s why they’re known as forever chemicals.
Courtney Carignan:
Our bodies actually see them as useful. We don’t excrete them, they don’t break them down, and they’re being reabsorbed and recirculated in the body. And so it can take years for PFAS to be eliminated. And so when we have a sample come into the lab.
Megan Thompson:
Carignan says PFAS exposure is believed to cause a litany of health problems like cardiovascular disease and kidney and testicular cancers.
Man:
My blood’s been tested. I got five different PFAs, PFNA, PFXHS, P4P this, P that in my blood. 95 percent above the — whatever it is. I’m just so upset.
Megan Thompson:
The discovery of PFAS 14 years ago still has many Oscoda residents angry and concerned about their health. The base closed in 1993, but the PFAS have been leaking into nearby lakes, rivers, and some residents well, water.
Lowell Miller:
I usually only use a sinker down here when the current’s really heavy.
Megan Thompson:
Lowell Miller grew up across the lake from the base in the area where PFAS were found in the drinking water.
Lowell Miller:
Pretty much once or twice a week, we’d have venison and fish.
Megan Thompson:
In this rural area, hunting and fishing are a source of tourist dollars and an affordable way to put food on the table, but only when it’s safe. The state of Michigan now warns that fish, deer, and other game from certain areas should not be eaten.
Lowell Miller:
It definitely changed things up here because a lot of the people that were living off of that, they have to worry. A lot of them have moved.
Megan Thompson:
But contaminated fish and meat were just the start of Miller’s worries. In 2015, he lost his father to lung and brain cancer. Four years later, his mother died from a rare form of cervical cancer. Two of his siblings also had cancer and other health issues.
Lowell Miller:
Sure, you know, cancer, I guess, is getting bad all over the place, but it just seems to be targeting people more around the area. So it just makes me wonder.
Megan Thompson:
But he’s not giving up hunting and fishing. It’s how he earns a living with his handmade fishing lure business and YouTube channel.
Lowell Miller:
Hello, everybody. Welcome to another adventure. Honestly, after losing my mom and my dad, I don’t have anything anymore. I really don’t. So to me, you know, the way I’m looking at it is if I die from eating fish, at least I’m enjoying my life, you know?
Megan Thompson:
The state of Michigan is collecting blood samples from Oscoda residents to determine their PFAS exposure. Veterans who served at wordsmith in the 70s, 80s and 90s when firefighting foam was being used, want something similar done for them.
But the federal agency tasked with studying it for the Pentagon has declined, saying there isn’t sufficient information to know when the base drinking water became contaminated or how much PFAS was in the water decades ago.
Craig Minor:
People have their head buried in the sand.
Megan Thompson:
If the government wouldn’t connect the dots, Craig Miner decided he would.
Craig Minor:
This whole thing here goes way back.
Megan Thompson:
Minor, who has a law degree and a degree in chemistry, compiled hundreds of pages of government documents, made YouTube videos, testified at a U.S. Senate field hearing. He even wrote a book.
Craig Minor:
They dumped the PFAS on the ground 500 yards from the main water wells.
Megan Thompson:
Minor found documents showing the Air Force poured firefighting foam on the ground next to the base’s drinking water source. Even after 3M, the manufacturer recommended it not be disposed of that way.
Minor also found tests done by the state of Michigan in 2016 showing PFAS levels in the groundwater near those wells as high as 46,000 parts per trillion. The new EPA drinking water standard is 4 to 10 parts per trillion.
Craig Minor:
Bottled water wasn’t a thing back then. So you drank, you cooked in it, you showered in it.
Megan Thompson:
Minor had his blood tested and estimates that back when he was on base, he had roughly 250 times more PFAS in his blood than what the National Institutes of Health considers safe.
Craig Minor:
The only way you’re getting that kind of exposure is if you were drinking it.
Megan Thompson:
Minor believes PFAS contributed to his son Mitchell’s poor health and his own.
Craig Minor:
Recently, I’ve had quintuple bypass surgery, so every artery in my heart was blocked. We eat really well. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. This is all the meds.
Megan Thompson:
Studies show a strong correlation between PFAS exposure and high cholesterol. But that’s just Minor’s latest issue at Wurtsmith. In his 20s, he developed a tumor on his back and an enlarged prostate state. He’s also had vision problems, bone pain, and an enlarged heart, liver and spleen.
Craig Minor:
There’s no cameras inside my body or anybody else’s body. We can never go to the exact point and say, aha, I see PFAS present and this thing is happening.
Megan Thompson:
To receive disability benefits from the Veterans Administration, a person must prove their condition is connected to military service. But according to a recent report, illness caused by chemicals is very hard to prove. Some health issues are deemed presumptive, automatically connected to service, so veterans can skip the red tape.
But historically, troops exposed toxic chemicals have had to wait about 34 years for a presumptive to be established. In September, the VA announced it’s considering the first PFAS presumptive for veterans with kidney cancer who were exposed.
In a statement to PBS News Weekend, a VA press secretary said, our top priority is providing veterans with the healthcare and benefits they deserve, and the VA is delivering more benefits to more veterans than ever before.
Craig Minor:
Not only do you need to clean up the PFAS in the ground, but you need to clean it up in the people.
Megan Thompson:
After more than 20 years in the military, Craig Minor qualified for full VA benefits, mostly because he started getting sick while he was still serving. But his fight isn’t over because he believes so many more people deserve the same recognition and care.
Craig Minor:
Like you had burn pits in Iraq and like you had Agent Orange in Vietnam. But this happened on American soil. And not only did it happen to the veterans, but it happened to their wives and their children.
Megan Thompson:
For PBS News Weekend, I’m Megan Thompson in Cedarville, Ohio.