800 gallons of hazardous firefighting foam spilled at Guard hangar

Tons of of gallons of firefighting foam spilled in June at a Nationwide Guard facility in South Burlington, Vermont, requiring a clean-up of the hazardous substance.

Roughly 800 gallons of aqueous film-forming foam focus inadvertently unfold within the late hours of June 20 by the Vermont Military Aviation Assist Facility, the state’s Nationwide Guard shared with Navy Instances Wednesday.

“We’re nonetheless determining precisely how all of that occurred,” stated Maj. Mike Arcovitch, a spokesperson from the Vermont Military Nationwide Guard.

Guardsmen returned to work on the hangar after contractors recovered round 650 gallons of the fireplace suppressant for disposal, Arcovitch stated, including that the rest entered the sewage system, together with a portion that flowed to the South Burlington wastewater facility.

“Clear-up of drain traces, sewer traces between constructing and the remedy plant is full,” Col. Jacob Roy, a building and amenities administration officer with the Vermont Guard, stated by way of e-mail. Subsequent, the plan is to flush the sprinkler system and herald carbon filtration programs to try to cut back the general quantity of water that might be disposed of as hazardous waste, he stated.

“We have now internally began to analyze the trigger,” Roy added.

Though Vermont Guard troopers weren’t concerned within the clean-up course of, the froth contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, higher often known as PFAS, or “perpetually chemical substances,” which don’t break down simply and are related to quite a lot of well being points for service members and others.

The Pentagon has promised that any new firefighting foam it purchases won’t include the harmful chemical substances, and has a requirement to comply with a congressionally-mandated rule that it stop utilizing the chemical substances no later than October this yr.

The information of the spill coincided with a video on social media that, at first look, appeared to indicate the hangar crammed with foam. Nevertheless, Arcovitch stated the footage was not from the June 20 spill and occurred at a hangar elsewhere.

One other video, this time from the Vermont Guard, confirmed the June 20 spill. Within the clip, the viscous foam focus could be seen leaking out of a hearth suppression room and onto the ground, surrounding a helicopter within the hangar.

“We stopped utilizing [the firefighting foam] in that facility in 2014,” Arcovitch stated, including that they’ve since been looking for a approach to get it out of the power.

This isn’t the primary time that the sort of hazardous foam has by chance discharged at a army set up.