Penelope Overton – Portland Press Herald, Maine
Mar. 5—Spurred on by last year’s Brunswick Landing chemical spill, a Maine legislative committee unanimously endorsed two proposals Wednesday that would catalog, collect and destroy the state’s unwanted stockpile of toxic firefighting foam.
The Environment and Natural Resources committee voted in favor of LD 400, which directs the Office of the State Fire Marshal to conduct a statewide inventory of all aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, and LD 222, which creates a statewide take-back program of any unwanted foam.
“The Office of the State Fire Marshal recognizes this is a serious issue facing our state and we want to be a contributing agency to get this done as fast as possible,” said State Fire Marshal Shawn Esler on Wednesday. “We would like to get started on this immediately.”
The Aug. 19 Brunswick foam spill was the biggest of its kind in Maine history. A faulty sprinkler system dispensed 51,450 gallons of foam laced with toxic forever chemicals in an airport hangar at Brunswick Landing, a redeveloped naval air base that is now home to hundreds of homes and businesses.
The bills, plus one other that would require all foam to be removed from Brunswick Landing, have met with enthusiastic support from the Brunswick community, including many neighbors who say they don’t want another community to endure an accidental spill like the one that upended theirs.
Even trace amounts of the forever chemicals that make up the bulk of the foam are considered a public health risk, according to federal regulators. High exposure over a long time can cause cancer. Exposure during critical life stages, such as in early childhood, can also cause life-changing harm.
The inventory bill would require Esler’s office to survey all public agencies that might use foam to smother high-heat fuel fires, like fire departments and airports, as well as private ones, like the fuel depots in South Portland and factories that keep it on hand to fight chemical fires.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection estimates that such agencies have built up a stockpile of about 50,000 gallons of foam, but that is based on the admittedly lackluster response to an earlier state inventory effort. No one really knows how much foam is out there now.
The inventory, which would eventually be posted to the state fire marshal’s public website, would cost about $170,000. The money would cover two years’ pay for a temporary office assistant to conduct the survey and educate foam users about the looming take-back program.
The take-back bill would require DEP to roll out a state-funded take-back program for unwanted foam by July 2027. Based on the old inventory results, and using cost estimates from New Hampshire’s program, DEP estimates a take-back program would cost Maine about $5 million.
The take-back program would be voluntary; while fire stations welcome the state’s offer to assume the cost and responsibility of storing and disposing of the toxic old foam, some departments can’t afford to purchase new foam without forever chemicals, which can cost $300 for a 5-gallon pail.
The foam that spilled at Brunswick Landing was left over from the property’s days as a 3,100-acre naval air base. The base closed in 2011 and is now home to hundreds of residents and businesses, but it is also a Superfund site with a long history of environmental contamination.
The 22,000 gallons of spilled foam and rinse-water was trucked to Arkansas and Ontario for incineration.
The committee rejected an amendment suggested by Defend Our Health, a Portland-based public health advocacy group, that would have discouraged the Maine Department of Environmental Protection from disposing of the foam in poor communities of color out of state.
Sen. Stacy Brenner, D-Scarborough, said she appreciated the intent, but she didn’t want to tie DEP’s hands, especially given how quickly disposal technology is evolving. DEP Commissioner Melanie Loyzim has already said she didn’t want to dump Maine’s PFAS problems on other states.
“The legislative intent is to collect and destroy the foam,” said Brenner, who has ushered in many of Maine’s forever chemical laws. “I don’t know that we need to get into the specificity of the decision that (DEP officials) make about how they destroy it.”
The bills — part of a trio of measures submitted by Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, now head to the Maine House of Representatives and then the Senate for floor votes. If approved by both chambers, the bills would still require appropriations committee approval because of the combined $5.2 million price tag.
That is a big ask in a legislative session where lawmakers have been warned there is little state funding available for new legislative proposals. Gov. Janet Mills is already scaling back existing spending commitments and raising some taxes to pass a balanced budget.
The governor’s budget office is projecting a deficit of $450 million in the next two-year general fund budget, plus an additional $118 million shortfall in the current year’s budget for MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program.
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