We know now that tens of thousands of gallons of firefighting foam that leaked from tanks at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station last summer have been sent out of state for disposal. 

A sense of urgency reportedly underpinned the move. “Not many questions were asked,” one of the people involved in the cleanup told the Press Herald. “It was like, just get it out of here, you know? We wanted it gone as fast as possible, so it couldn’t hurt anyone.”

On the receiving end were incinerators in Ontario and Arkansas, and the people living near those incinerators are rightfully concerned that the toxic chemicals could be hurting them.

The EPA does not regulate the transportation and incineration of PFAS, or forever chemicals, which the Brunswick foam is thick with. There are no federally licensed hazardous waste incinerators in Maine. If you can, imagine what would happen if one such facility was proposed for your community.

Until we can take full responsibility for our own chemical mismanagement, we have to stamp out mismanagement.

“Study after study shows we don’t build incinerators of any kind in white, middle-class neighborhoods,” Gail Carlson, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Colby College, told the paper, before posing a pointed question.

“If we don’t want to breathe it, why should we expect them to?”

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