More than 100 people from the Brunswick area attended a public forum Thursday night about the recent spill of more than 1,000 gallons of toxic firefighting foam.
On Aug. 19, the fire suppression system at the Brunswick Executive Airport malfunctioned and released 1,450 gallons of the foam containing toxic PFAS chemicals into a hangar and the surrounding environment. Maine State Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, said at the meeting that this spill was the worst of its kind in Maine and one of the worst nationwide.
Cleanup efforts are ongoing, and a variety of agencies are continuing to monitor and test around the site. The foam entered the stormwater and the sewer systems, both of which drain into nearby natural bodies of water and retention ponds. Ankeles said the hangar is being scrubbed, foam is being sucked into vacuum trucks and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is continuing to test water bodies in the areas.
The town hall was led by members of the Unified Command, a group of local, state and federal organizations that have come together to clean up the spill and provide information to the public. Speakers included Ankeles, Brunswick Town Council Chair Abby King, Maine DEP Commissioner Melanie Loyzim, and others.
The Brunswick Town Council will be pushing through a resolution to demand the cleanup of the foam at its meeting next week, and Ankeles said state representatives will be considering legislation regarding the removal of the foam and long-term PFAS disposal.
Twenty-five Brunswick-area residents expressed concerns about testing their well water, air quality safety and compensation for expenses, among other issues, at Thursday night’s town hall.
Jared Lumland, a Brunswick resident, asked at the town hall about testing his private well water for PFAS after the spill, and found that it could cost about $350 and requires running the tap for 10 minutes and keeping the sample at a specific temperature when taking it to a testing site.
“That’s just sort of like, not a very reasonable way of testing the water,” he said.
Several other residents wondered who would foot the bill of private well testing. Officials did not answer that question, but pointed to an $80 test from Cyclopure, a third party that offers PFAS drinking water testing. Residents would also have to buy this themselves.
Several attendees asked if they are safe from the chemicals when going about their lives in Brunswick — biking outside, going on walks, if their children are safe.
Andrew Smith, the state toxicologist with the Maine Center of Disease Control and Prevention, said to minimize exposure to PFAS from the foam, people should not touch any of the foam they see or eat any fish from the local waterways. He said officials are still testing whether the foam can become an aerosol that could enter people’s lungs when breathing, but for now, he doesn’t think that’s a large risk.
“We think it’s theoretically possible, but we don’t have anything to really be quantitative or model,” Smith said.
