The agency that oversees Brunswick’s airport is trying to respond to mounting criticism from residents and state and local officials following the large spill of PFAS-laden firefighting foam last month.
During a public meeting Friday, officials with the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority said they are responding to specific requests that Brunswick’s Town Council made for it and some state agencies to clean up the spill, remove the remaining foam stored at the airport and establish plans for sharing information about future mishaps.
Some local leaders have also called on the authority’s executive director, Kristine Logan, to resign, after the Portland Press Herald reported that the organization failed to disclose deficiencies in the fire suppression system that malfunctioned. But Logan indicated no plans to step down during the meeting on Friday afternoon.
During that malfunction on Aug. 19, the system released over 1,000 gallons of toxic foam mixed with 50,000 gallons of water into Brunswick Executive Airport’s Hangar 4 and the surrounding environment.
The authority revealed this week that recent inspections had found deficiencies in two other hangars as well. Hangar 6 has horn and strobe deficiencies, while Hangar 5 has a non-functional control unit, aging parts and batteries that need replacing, the group reported.
Nick Nichols, the chair of the authority’s board, said at Friday’s meeting that the contaminated water and foam has all been cleaned up. Logan said the Navy came to start removing the remaining foam from Hangar 4 on Friday and should finish that work by Oct. 21.
Logan also said that the authority is getting estimates from two vendors for designing and installing a new fire suppression system, which could cost more than $5 million.
She added that Eastern Fire of Auburn will come to the airport on Monday to do annual inspections on hangars 4, 5 and 6, and to resolve the deficiencies that have been reported.
About 50 people attended Friday’s meeting in person, along more who followed it remotely, and about 20 of the attendees spoke. Several of them continued to call for transparency and communication by the authority.
Caitlin D’Amour, a Brunswick resident, questioned a response that Logan gave to the Press Herald indicating that she hadn’t been able to find a fire sprinkler company that had been willing to fix deficiencies identified last year in the Hangar 4 system, after Eastern Fire had done the inspection and warned that there was “tremendous” potential for an accidental foam discharge.
“I guess I’m just really confused: all of a sudden you were able to connect and communicate with them, and now you guys are working together and collaborating and coming up with a plan?” D’Amour said.
The authority’s board members did not respond.
Nichols said the board is considering how to remove the foam from hangars 5 and 6 in response to Brunswick’s request. However, Shaun Halligan, a worker unaffiliated with the airport who repairs planes in Hangar 6, said during public comment that removing the foam would immediately shut down his operations.
“The aviation industry requires very strict guidelines on what we can and can’t do in any situation, and a very short time span of shutting off our fire suppression basically means I cannot work on anybody’s aircraft in our hangar,” he said.
