NEED TO KNOW

• Joint Base Andrews leaked roughly 32,000 gallons of jet fuel between January and March
• About 22,000 gallons reached soil and Piscataway Creek; only 10,000 were contained
• Maryland's federal delegation, minus its lone Republican, says the Air Force stalled disclosure

JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD (TDR) — The Air Force base that houses Air Force One let tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel bleed into Maryland soil and water for months before telling state regulators the full story.

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The big picture: Federal installations sit on Maryland land but answer to the Pentagon, and when those two systems collide, the state usually loses the timing fight.

• The base's fuel system failed a leak safety test in early December 2025
• Maryland did not learn of any issues until March 23, when staff spotted a sheen on the creek

Why it matters: Piscataway Creek feeds the Potomac, which feeds the Chesapeake Bay, and the watershed already carries a chemical legacy from the same base.

• PFAS contamination from prior base operations is documented in the creek
• Drinking water intakes for D.C. and Maryland sit upstream of the spill, which is the only reason this is not a public health crisis

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Driving the news: The disclosure timeline is the story, and the letter from Maryland's delegation lays it out plainly.

• Roughly 22,000 of 32,000 gallons reached the environment, per Sen. Chris Van Hollen's office
• The base did not provide final spill figures until April 8, more than two weeks after the creek discovery
• All Maryland Democrats signed; Rep. Andy Harris, the delegation's only Republican, did not

What they're saying: State and federal voices are not aligned on whether the response was adequate.

• Serena Mcilwain, Maryland Secretary of the Environment — "contaminating Maryland's land and water is unacceptable"
• Adam Ortiz, Maryland deputy environment secretary, told NOTUS the timeline has "a lot of blank spaces"
• Base officials told CBS Baltimore they are coordinating with EPA and public health agencies

Yes, but: EPA staff who visited the site on March 25 reported containment was working at that point.

• An EPA spokesperson told NOTUS no oil sheen was migrating off site during the initial visit
• Containment then failed twice during heavy rainfall, per Maryland officials

Between the lines: This is the second waterway fight between Maryland and the Trump administration in six months, and the partisan split on the letter is the tell. Federal preemption usually shields military installations from state environmental timelines, and the base appears to have used that shield. The Red Hill disaster in Hawaii, where a 20,000-gallon leak sickened thousands on a Navy base, is the cautionary precedent nobody at Andrews wants invoked.

What's next:

• The delegation requested a briefing and written response from Air Force Secretary Troy Meink
• MDE has ordered emergency soil investigations, monitoring wells, and daily cleanup updates
• The Hill reports cleanup costs remain unknown

If a federal installation can quietly contaminate state waterways for months under existing rules, who actually has the authority to enforce the rules?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from NOTUS, Stars and Stripes, CBS Baltimore, The Hill, the official statement from the Maryland Department of the Environment, and the joint letter from Maryland's federal delegation.

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