During the late afternoon on Feb. 24, Brunswick Area Citizens for a Safe Environment (BACSE) hosted a public workshop in Town Council chambers to give us further grounding in the challenges PFAS chemicals present on the Landing, site of the former U.S. Naval Air Station.

On Feb. 27, the town Steering Committee for the Mere/Mare Brook Watershed met for two hours to plan this year’s action on behalf of this town brook, whose 2,700-acre watershed lies entirely in Brunswick.

These two meetings had significant chemical overlaps.

Most area residents are passingly familiar with the Aug. 19, 2024, AFFF (aqueous film-forming foam) spill in Hangar 4, where a malfunction released 1,450 gallons of this highly toxic PFOS-based fire-fighting liquid mixed with 50,000 gallons of water. The liquid then did what all liquids do — it began seeking out pathways, waterways to the sea. And of course, given also the nature of liquid to sink into the ground, this toxic blend is still working its way into the groundwater.

Coverage of this spill has been detailed and clear in The Times Record, and through that coverage and the decades-long attention of BACSE and other observers, the spill’s backstory has begun to emerge more fully. That story has made clear that the spill in Hangar 4 was not an unfortunate one-off that can visit even the conscientious. It was, rather, a culmination of years of neglect and resistance to the proper management of a complicated military-grade set of hangar fire suppression systems inherited from the Navy by the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority Board of Directors and Management. Please keep in mind that MRRA is a real estate development entity and has not managed the complex military grade fire-suppression systems in the airport hangars very well.

Because the developing problems with firefighting systems and their chemicals appeared inside buildings and underground, they were largely out of sight and so, out of mind for us, the public. Knowledgeable guardians such as BACSE, the Brunswick-Topsham Sewer District and Friends of Merrymeeting Bay pointed out problems and potential problems repeatedly, but the chorus of praise for redevelopment drowned them out.

It is important to note that Hangar 4 is owned by the Navy and leased to MRRA. Since 2020, the Department of Defense has ordered the removal and disposal of PFAS-based AFFF from the aviation facilities of the various services. MRRA could have requested that the Navy remove the PFOS-based AFFF from Hangar 4. In fact, it was a group of concerned private Brunswick citizens who petitioned Sens. King and Collins in early 2023 to seek the removal of AFFF from Hangar 4. The process for this removal was initiated within two months of this request and was due to begin in September 2024. Sadly, the Aug. 19, 2024, Hangar 4 AFFF spill occurred first.

PFAS chemicals themselves made keeping track of threats difficult as well. Commonly called “forever chemicals” because they breakdown so slowly, they could also be called “everywhere chemicals” for their universal presence in everything from fire suppression systems to grease-resistant wrappings for food. That these chemicals were spread throughout our economic system even as their toxicity grew more and more apparent is an old-old story of how we “build” our economy. We release the genie of invention freely, and then, later, begin the intense work of trying to rebottle said genies if they prove toxic. Our waterways, from the Androscoggin to Mere Creek, are full of these stories. We sacrifice health and safety for ease of use day after day.

The August spill brought all this to the evident surface. Foam from the AFFF-water mix billowed from storm drains, floated through the air, snagged on branches. It was impossible to ignore. That the spill flowed from a system that had failed recent inspections drew red lines around the problem.

Hundreds of people now lived in this foam-zone, and as the waters ran off and sunk in, thousands more wondered about their water, their land, the inner workings of their bodies. “What’s safe?” floated in air and mind everywhere.

That there is no clearcut answer compounds public frustration. We are, at root, hopeful creatures, who want to believe in both our futures and our neighbors. That seems true even in this remarkably divisive time, and our hope for, investment in, our local lands and selves seems especially important now.

How then do we grow and maintain our local optimism when trouble spills into the open? I would suggest that we return to the slow faith of learning and trusting those who have spent a lifetime unravelling the intricacies of learning their discipline. Chemistry, for example. The citizen group BACSE has many merits, and they rest upon a group of area citizens who have spent lifetimes mastering such disciplines as hydrology, geology, chemistry and biology.

They know the stories of life’s composition, and, even deep into lifetimes of study, they keep learning, keep following the unfurling tracks of knowledge before them. Then, they work to shape those stories into ones that help those of us who have devoted lives to other learning and stories understand our worlds. They help us learn the questions, and ask them.

Of such learning and questioning a community grows, finds its footing, becomes healthy, seeks its collective voice and makes it heard.

Sandy Stott is a Brunswick resident, chairperson of the town’s Conservation Commission, chairperson of The Mere Brook Steering Committee and a member of Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust’s Board of Directors. He writes for a variety of publications. He may be reached at fsandystott@gmail.com.