Even though the United States is one of the most developed nations in the world, its citizens continue to struggle with third world issues like fresh drinking water.

Now the Pentagon is admitting that U.S. military bases could be at least partly to blame.

There are hundreds of military bases across the States, and there is a growing body of evidence that nearby waterways tend to be dense with per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

In fact, a recent  Department of Defense (DoD) report shows that a whopping 245 of 275 included bases on U.S. soil could be releasing PFAS “in the proximity of groundwater aquifers that supply drinking water.”

Many of these water sources are the sole place surrounding populations get their drinking water.

They did not release details as far as levels of contamination or which communities might be deemed at risk, but they are expanding their research to include all 707 military installations on U.S. soil.

Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) says the results will likely be even worse than we fear.

“A good neighbor would let you know that their use of PFAS was the reason your water was contaminated, and a bad neighbor would only tell you: ‘Hey, a plume is heading in your direction.'”

And obviously, the DoD isn’t exactly on the side of civilians.

“That is what we know so far because that’s all the DoD told us, and it took an act of Congress to get that much information.”

A different study done by the US Geological Survey suggested that nearly half of U.S. tap water is also contaminated.

Since PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” for a reason, this isn’t a problem that’s going to go quietly away on its own, either. They’ve been linked to cancer and birth defects, although there is still a lot that we don’t know.

For experts who have long suspected that military bases were doing environmental damage, the DoD report is annoyingly vague.

“Communities around the facilities must be really frustrated because they in all likelihood are drinking from wells that are contaminated by the military, but the DoD is coming up short. Inevitably we will get answers for these questions as we move through the process.”

Somebody call Erin Brockovich and get her on the job.

It sounds like these communities – and maybe the rest of us – need her help.