Fire retardant foam seeps through a manhole cover near Brunswick Landing after a spill early Monday morning. Photograph by Meghan Kissling

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is downplaying the risk to the public water supply and nearby drinking water wells from an accidental discharge of 1,450 gallons of toxic firefighting foam at the Brunswick Executive Airport on Monday.

But a state toxicologist at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Maine does not yet understand the public health risk that might be posed from inhalation of foam. After the spill, the foam could be seen blowing in the wind around Hangar 4, drains and manholes, and nearby retention ponds.

“We’ve all seen the videos of the foam in the air,” toxicologist Andy Smith said. “We can understand why that is concerning to people. … As that happens, you can potentially form an aerosol, small droplets, and it is the small droplets that people can inhale.”

Smith is working with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, two federal public health agencies, to better understand the risk for those who might have inhaled aerosolized firefighting foam droplets.

During an afternoon news conference outside the Brunswick Executive Airport offices Wednesday, Smith warned people to avoid coming into physical contact with the foam, although he did not specify if the forever chemicals contained within the foam concentrate could be absorbed through the skin.

State Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, said he was concerned to hear the foam could become an aerosol.

“Given that the foam blew all over the Landing, getting a warning now that there may be an air-quality issue – that was a little concerning,” Ankeles said. “And I’m looking forward to hearing more about what sort of proximity we’re talking about when they tell us ‘don’t get close to the foam.’ ”

Previous water testing conducted at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station, which closed in 2011 and is now home to hundreds of residents and businesses, shows no definitive link between the contamination the Navy left behind at the former 3,100-acre base and nearby drinking water wells, the DEP said.

“Many samples have been taken at this location over the past several years as part of the ongoing federal cleanup activities,” the DEP said in a statement issued Wednesday. “This data does not definitively confirm a connection between the contaminated site and nearby private drinking water wells.”

A worker is seen behind a Clean Harbors truck parked near Picnic Pond, on Wednesday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

The legacy contamination is moving away from the wells, the DEP said. But that data is a few years old now.

In what it calls “an abundance of caution,” the DEP will take additional samples from on-base monitoring wells and nearby residential drinking water wells – with homeowner permission – to see if this discharge is following the same pattern and confirm that it poses no risk to nearby homeowners’ water supply.

But the department will not be sampling every well in the community, the agency said. Instead, it will take representative samples to understand if the chemicals have seeped into the groundwater, how they might be moving underground, and if more testing is required.

SOME AREA WELLS TO BE TESTED

On Monday afternoon, four samples were collected to evaluate immediate impacts to the environment and understand the potential for impacts to groundwater. The DEP has asked the contracted laboratories to expedite their analysis, which usually takes a month. The state hopes to get results by Friday.

State and local officials have emphasized that the public water supply appears untouched by the spill.

A public well that draws water from an aquifer near the Brunswick Executive Airport was not in service at the time of the spill. Although there is no evidence the spill reached the closed well, the local public water district won’t open it back up until additional testing shows the water meets all state drinking water standards.

“Homes and businesses served by the Brunswick-Topsham Water District can safely use the water,” said Lindsay Hammes, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. “The BTWD is currently using unimpacted drinking water sources sufficiently distant from the foam discharge.”

The water district increased monitoring of its aquifer on Monday. General Manager Craig Douglas said that foam is unlikely to get into its water supply, but even if it did, a monitoring system would detect the contaminants long before they reached anyone’s tap.

Results from the first post-spill testing from stormwater outfalls will not be available for a month.

On Monday, 1,450 gallons of firefighting foam containing forever chemicals, or PFAS, which are known to be harmful to human health, were discharged from a malfunctioning fire suppression system in place to smother high-intensity fuel fires inside Hangar 4 at the Brunswick Executive Airport.

It is unknown why the system faltered; Brunswick Landing officials said it passed inspection last year.

Melanie Loyzim, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection leads a press conference with members of the Unified Command outside of the Brunswick Executive Airport on Wednesday. The group spoke to various questions about health and safety after Monday’s release of hundreds of gallons of aqueous firefight foam containing toxic forever chemicals. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are called forever chemicals because they can linger in the environment for decades. They are used to manufacture thousands of common household and industrial products resistant to heat, water and grease.

Even trace amounts of some PFAS 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.

For decades, military and civilian firefighters used special foam containing PFAS to smother the intense flames caused by fuel fires. While manufacturers can no longer use two variants of the chemicals, large amounts of “legacy” PFAS-containing foam are still out there.

The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority is responsible for fronting the cost of cleanup efforts, Executive Director Kristine Logan said. The price tag will run into the millions, money that she said MRRA doesn’t have.

CLEAN UP EXPECTED TO COST MILLONS

She said MRRA is looking at funding sources to support mitigation, including funding from the Federal Aviation Administration, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Crews from a variety of entities – the DEP, Clean Harbors, Zoom Drain and Safety Kleen – were seen cleaning the spill sites on Wednesday. Police tape was used to cordon off Picnic Pond near Neptune Drive and storm drains on Orion Street.

Fire-retardant foam from Monday’s spill at Brunswick Executive Airport collected on a meadow near Neptune Drive on Tuesday. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

DEP Division Director of Response Services Chris Hopper said a cleanup crew of up to 15 people has been working on foam mitigation. He said that the initial focus was finding where foam was appearing, and has since moved to cleanup operations.

Crews are using vacuums to suck up material and placing waterway booms and tarps to prevent further spread. So far, crews have collected 6,000 gallons of material that will be trucked to an incinerator in Texas for disposal. He doesn’t know how long it will take to clean it up, or how much will be recovered.

“We’re going to continue to operate until we feel satisfied that that’s been taken care of,” Hopper said.

In 2019, the Maine State Fire Marshal tried to inventory how much of the dangerous foam was being stored or even still used at Maine fire stations, fuel depots and airports, but survey response was very low, leaving the state unsure how much is out there and if it is being properly stored.

Ankeles said Maine needs to get rid of this old foam and find a toxin-free alternative for the “sake of public safety.” The Navy was scheduled to remove the foam from Hangar 4 this fall, Logan said.

DEP Commissioner Melanie Loyzim acknowledged Wednesday that Maine has long known the former base had a forever chemical contamination problem, even before Monday’s spill. Some tests show high levels of forever chemicals in the base groundwater – as high has 10,000 parts per trillion.

Maine says drinking water can’t have more than 20 parts per trillion of six combined forever chemicals. New federal limits are even lower, with a 4-parts-per-trillion cap. All houses and businesses located on Brunswick Landing – the new name of the old base – draw water from the public supply.

Loyzim and Logan said Brunswick Landing has reported two previous accidental discharges since the Navy left. A small foam discharge occurred in 2019 when MRRA forgot to close a floor drain during a systems test, allowing concentrate to reach the sewer system.