A new investigation from Grist and The Intercept details how the U.S. military's expanding presence in the Pacific is imposing environmental and climate costs on local communities. The story centers on Guam, where residents of the village of Yigo discovered that their tap water contained high levels of dieldrin, a pesticide the U.S. banned in 1987. The nearby Air Force base had flagged the chemical as a "chemical of concern" since at least 1993, yet high levels were detected in the community's water as recently as last fall.
The contamination is part of a broader pattern of militarization. The Pentagon, already the world's largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases, is seeking billions for new weaponry and bases across the Indo-Pacific. That buildup, the investigation notes, will not only damage reefs, forests, and Indigenous sacred sites but also accelerate the climate crisis that threatens the survival of Pacific islands.
The military says it meets every environmental regulation, and local officials acknowledge that dieldrin was once widely used, so other sources may exist. But for residents like Leevin Camacho, whose children drank the contaminated water for years, the episode underscores how the people of Guam—U.S. citizens—continue to bear the costs of militarization. As Camacho put it, the sheer scale of injustice can be overwhelming. "I need to compartmentalize these things," he said. "That's sometimes the only way that you can do this."