Firefighting foam and water from a fire suppression system that malfunctioned inside a hangar at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station on Aug. 19 drained into the sewers, the stormwater system and nearby retention ponds before eventually heading toward Harpswell Cove in one direction and the Androscoggin River in the other. Steve Walker/Brunswick Topsham Land Trust

A month after the state’s largest-ever firefighting foam spill, Amy Self learned the private drinking water well at her Brunswick Landing home had more than twice the amount of harmful forever chemicals that federal regulators say is safe for public drinking water.

“The results were shocking and instilled fear and anxiety,” she said. “Our well was destroyed, poisoned.”

Amy Self and her husband, Dan, switched to bottled water and withdrew $35,000 from their retirement accounts to blast through the ledge around her home and connect to city water, but not everyone can afford to do that. Some of her neighbors are still using bottled water.

Self doesn’t want anyone else to suffer like her family. She was one of dozens of Brunswick residents who testified at a legislative hearing Wednesday in favor of three bills intended to prevent another accidental release of aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF.

Introduced by Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, the bills call for a statewide foam inventory (LD 400); a state-run voluntary foam collection, storage and disposal program (LD 222); and removal of the 5,700 gallons of foam concentrate that remains at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station (LD 407).

That is about one-tenth of the 50,000 gallons that Maine estimates can be found in the trucks, tanks and sprinkler systems throughout the state’s fire stations, airports, military bases and fuel depots. But it doesn’t know for sure — a previous state survey effort met with a lackluster response.

But this time, the survey effort would have legislative muscle behind it. Private companies would be required to comply. Maine’s newly appointed fire marshal, Shawn Esler, predicted a 90% compliance rate among public fire departments. He vowed to call all stragglers to encourage their participation.

SURVEY THE FIRST STEP

If approved, the Office of State Fire Marshal would be required to complete its work by 2028.

The bill includes $172,000 over two years for Esler to hire a temporary assistant to conduct the two-year survey of public and private entities known to use the specialized foam to smother fast-burning, high-heat fuel fires. That hire would cost about $172,000 over two years.

Until the survey is complete, DEP can’t put a price tag on a take-back program. But Commissioner Melanie Loyzim estimates it could cost as much as $5 million based on the old survey, quotes from would-be contractors and the costs of take-back programs in Connecticut, Colorado and New Hampshire.

The take-back program will 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.

Maine Fire Chiefs’ Association supports a take-back and disposal concept, but Executive Director William St. Michel, the retired Durham fire chief, testified against the take-back bill Wednesday, saying the state needs to know who still has AFFF and how much they have before moving ahead.

Some departments are already moving ahead with AFFF replacement and disposal, despite the cost.

South Portland has already spent $72,000 to buy fluorine-free foam to replace the old toxic foam, but it has delayed delivery until it can figure out what to do with its 3,000 gallons of old foam and how to pay for the decontamination of the trucks that used it, said Fire Chief Phil Selberg.

“Without a state supported program, many departments, particularly smaller or rural ones, may struggle to afford this transition, leaving these hazardous materials in use or improperly stored,” Selberg told lawmakers.

After adding in the city’s seven fuel depots, South Portland is home to 10,000 gallons of AFFF, he said.

Loyzim considered including a $5 million take-back program in her latest budget proposal, but decided against it because she is already proposing a $50 million bond to help Maine sewer plants manage their sludge, which can no longer be used as fertilizer because it is loaded with forever chemicals.

But the Aug. 19 Brunswick spill, which happened when a faulty sprinkler system dispensed 1,450 gallons of foam concentrate and 50,000 gallons of water in an airport hangar at Brunswick Landing, brought what some dismissed as an agricultural problem into painful focus for the general public.

USING SPILL AS IMPETUS

The foam filled the hangar, spilled into the parking lot, drained into the sewers, the stormwater system and the nearby retention ponds before eventually heading toward Harpswell Cove in one direction and the Androscoggin River in the other.

“I’m here before you today to ensure that our response to one community’s tragedy isn’t just a wasteful shrug,” Ankeles told fellow members of the Legislature’s environment committee. “I’m here to insist that we make the best possible use of what happened to Brunswick.”

Lawmakers should be able to rally around the idea that Maine residents, the land they live on, the water they drink and work on, and the air they breathe should not be exposed to poison — “at least not if we can help it,” Ankeles told lawmakers.

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.

The foam that spilled was left over from Brunswick Landing’s days as a naval air base. The base closed in 2011 and is now home to hundreds of residents and businesses. The former 3,100-acre base is a Superfund site with a long history of environmental contamination.

The 22,000 gallons of spilled foam and rinse-water recovered from Brunswick Landing was trucked to Arkansas and Ontario for incineration. The take-back bill doesn’t specify a foam disposal method, but Ankeles said Wednesday he wouldn’t want to dump it on a poor out-of-state community.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1,200 spills of firefighting foam containing toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or forever chemicals, have occurred across the country since 1990. Brunswick’s spill was the sixth-largest spill recorded.

Aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, is used to fight high-intensity fuel and chemical fires. The foam forms a film or blanket over the fire, depriving it of the oxygen it needs to burn. Firefighting foam is the most common source of forever chemical contamination in the U.S., according to the EPA.

LEGACY OF FEAR

But Maine has struggled with the agricultural legacy of turning PFAS-tainted sewage sludge into fertilizer since at least 2016, when high levels of PFOS were found in an Arundel dairy farmer’s milk. Since then, unsafe PFAS levels have been found in hundreds of farm fields, crops and livestock, and wells in Maine.

Brunswick residents begged not to forgotten as lawmakers manage Maine’s wide-ranging PFAS crisis.

“Today I want to tell you about how a large number of people of Brunswick feel,” said Sande Updegraph, chair of the Brunswick Town Council. “They are afraid. They are afraid to drink the water from their wells. They are afraid to bathe in it. They are afraid for their children’s health.”

Residents who live near Brunswick Landing are afraid to eat vegetables grown in their backyards and eat the fish from nearby streams, she said. They are afraid their home values will plummet. They are afraid they will be forgotten. They are afraid it will happen again.

“Most of all, they are afraid that no one is listening to them and that no one has their backs,” Updegraph told lawmakers. “The effort to remove these fears starts with the people sitting at this table … that effort starts with you.”