Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point

Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point is a Marine Corps airfield in Havelock, North Carolina, in the eastern part of the state near the Neuse River. Authorized by Congress in July 1941 and officially commissioned on May 20, 1942, the installation grew from roughly 8,000 acres of swamp, farm, and timberland into one of the largest Marine Corps air stations in the country. Cherry Point serves as the home of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing and hosts Fleet Readiness Center East, a major depot-level aircraft maintenance and repair facility. For more than eight decades, the base has supported flight operations, aircraft overhaul, fuel handling, and firefighting training.

Those same industrial activities left a legacy of environmental contamination. Decades of waste disposal, solvent use, and fire training have been associated with contaminated groundwater, soil, sediment, and surface water at multiple sites across the installation, and several substances of concern have been documented there.

1. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are persistent man-made chemicals sometimes called "forever chemicals." At Cherry Point, PFAS contamination has been documented in on-base groundwater and in some off-base drinking water wells, and exposure to certain PFAS has been associated with potential health concerns, including some cancers.
2. PFOS, one of the most studied PFAS compounds, was detected in on-base groundwater at concentrations up to 372,000 parts per trillion during 2022 sampling, far above the EPA drinking water limit of 4 parts per trillion finalized in 2024. In July 2023, an off-base drinking water well near the installation tested at 50.2 parts per trillion of PFOS.
3. PFOA, a related compound, was measured at up to 22,100 parts per trillion in the 2022 on-base groundwater survey, and the same 2023 off-base well showed PFOA above the new federal limit. PFOA exposure has been associated with concerns about kidney and testicular cancer in some studies.
4. AFFF (aqueous film-forming foam) is a firefighting foam containing PFAS that has been used at Cherry Point since the 1970s for crash response and fire training. Its use is considered a primary source of the PFAS contamination documented at the base.
5. TCE (trichloroethylene) is a chlorinated solvent historically used for degreasing aircraft parts. TCE is among the most prevalent volatile organic compounds found in Cherry Point groundwater, and exposure has been associated with potential health effects, including certain cancers.
6. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) are industrial chemicals once common in electrical equipment. PCBs have been documented in soil at the installation, and they are classified as probable human carcinogens.
7. Other solvents and related breakdown products, including vinyl chloride and dichloroethene compounds, have also been identified in groundwater at the base and carry their own potential exposure concerns.

The EPA placed Cherry Point on the Superfund National Priorities List in 1994 because of contamination resulting from past waste disposal practices. The Navy, the EPA, and North Carolina environmental regulators signed a Federal Facilities Agreement in 2005, and investigation and cleanup work, including PFAS sampling of off-base drinking water wells, remains ongoing under Navy leadership with federal and state oversight.

Veterans and family members who lived or worked at Cherry Point may wish to follow the ongoing cleanup and sampling efforts, keep records of their time at the installation, and speak with the VA about any health questions or potential benefits related to past environmental exposure.