The New Development: A Verbal Agreement at Cannon AFB

The New Mexico Environment Department and the U.S. Department of the Air Force announced a verbal agreement this week to establish a collaborative groundwater sampling framework around Cannon Air Force Base in Curry County, according to a joint announcement covered by MyHighPlains.

Under the agreement: NMED leads off-base groundwater sampling — including at multiple local dairies — while the Air Force provides funding and technical resources. The Air Force is also continuing its existing cleanup work, which represents a $74 million investment already underway.

This agreement didn't come out of nowhere. In March, NMED had already signed four separate agreements with Curry County dairies to investigate and remediate groundwater contamination tied to the base. PFAS was first detected in groundwater around Cannon AFB in 2018 — a four-mile plume sitting in the Ogallala Aquifer.

New Mexico Lieutenant Governor Howie Morales called it a win for military partnerships and farm families. "This verbal agreement ensures New Mexican farmers can live, work, and support their families in Curry County for generations to come," he said per the joint announcement.

But the broader context is worth examining.

The Number That Should Alarm Everyone

A 2025 Government Accountability Office report — cited by GreaterGood — found that the DoD had completed early assessments at nearly all 718 military installations flagged as having a potential PFAS release.

As of June 2024: zero sites had entered the long-term cleanup phase. Not one.

Early inspections are done. Contamination has been confirmed. Billions of dollars in projected costs are documented. And the actual cleaning? Hasn't started anywhere.

The same GAO report pegs DoD's future PFAS investigation and cleanup costs at over $9.3 billion — a figure that has more than tripled since 2022. The longer this drags, the more expensive it gets. That's taxpayer money, and the clock is running.

578 Bases. Real People. Real Harm.

According to a September 3, 2024 memo from Assistant Secretary of Defense Brendan M. Owens, approximately 80% of U.S. military bases — 578 of 710 — are known or suspected to have elevated PFAS levels in soil and water, as reported by Time.

These aren't abstract statistics. Near Cannon AFB, a 2025 report covered by The Guardian found elevated PFAS blood levels in people who lived or worked in the contaminated zone, according to GreaterGood. Private wells, public water systems, farmland, dairy operations — all affected.

The contamination source is well-documented: aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, used for decades in firefighting training on bases. The military knew what it was using. The communities nearby didn't sign up for it.

The Coverage Gap

Left-leaning outlets like the New York Times are framing this primarily as a legal and environmental justice story — New Mexico's lawsuit against the federal government, the 15,000+ other claims it could set precedent for, communities versus the Pentagon. That's a real angle.

What's being downplayed: the policy contradiction happening in real time. The EPA just proposed rolling back four of the six PFAS drinking water limits that were previously established — while the DoD simultaneously acknowledges a contamination crisis affecting hundreds of bases and billions in cleanup costs. The two positions are difficult to reconcile.

Conservative outlets have largely stayed quiet on this one. But this is a veterans and military families issue. Service members and their families live on and near these bases. Dismissing PFAS cleanup as "green overreach" when the Pentagon's own internal memos confirm the scale of contamination lacks credibility.

The Verbal Agreement Is a Baby Step

Give New Mexico credit — they've been the most aggressive state in the country on this issue. The Cannon AFB agreement is real progress at the local level. NMED pushed for it, the Air Force agreed to fund it, and dairy farmers who had nothing to do with military training might finally get answers about their water.

But a verbal agreement for more sampling around one base — while the GAO confirms no base anywhere has started actual cleanup — is a small move against a massive problem.

The DoD says a "whole-of-government approach is underway," per Assistant Secretary Owens's statement to Time. That phrase carries weight when claims are paired with action. The government's own auditors say cleanup hasn't started anywhere after years of assessments.

What Regular People Should Know

If you live near a military base — active or former — your groundwater may already be compromised. The federal government has known about this for years and is still in the "assessment" phase at most sites.

The $9.3 billion cleanup bill is coming regardless. The only question is whether it happens fast enough to matter for the families, farmers, and veterans already living with contaminated water — or whether it drags out another decade while lawyers argue and bureaucrats assess.

Right now, it's looking like the latter.