Alaska firefighting departments will have to stop using fire-suppression foams containing contaminants known as “forever chemicals,” under a law that went into effect July 24.
Legislators passed the new law nearly unanimously this spring. It went into effect without Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s signature, an option that governors can choose when they don’t want to veto a bill but also don’t want their name on it.
The new law targets per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS. They have qualities making them resistant to fire, water and oil. But they are linked to numerous poor health effects, including developmental delays, compromised immune systems, reproductive problems and certain cancers, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The compounds have been widely used since the mid-20th century in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products, including cookware, textiles, building materials, body care products like shampoo and dental floss and packing material. They have seeped into the environment — in waterbodies, soil and the air — and are found in the blood of people and animals around the world, according to the EPA.
For Alaska and for much of the nation, the biggest source of PFAS contamination in the environment is from industrial firefighting foams, generally used at airports and military bases.
In the past, the Federal Aviation Administration required PFAS-containing foams to be used at airports it certifies. That requirement was dropped in 2021 at the direction of Congress. The FAA and U.S. Department of Defense have been working on transitioning to firefighting foams without PFAS chemicals, some of them still in development.
Firefighting foam containing PFAS is stored at the Wrangell airport, according to the Alaska Department of Transportation, while the department is working on a statewide plan to convert emergency trucks to a non-PFAS firefighting foam.
In addition to mandating that Alaska fire departments switch to non-PFAS foams, the new law creates a system for small rural villages to get rid of the PFAS-containing foams stored there. The villages are to be reimbursed by the Department of Environmental Conservation for that work, under the law.
The new PFAS law is the product of years of work by environmental and health organizations. The bill’s prime sponsor was Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl, whose district includes Gustavus, where PFAS compounds have created significant contamination of drinking water sources.
Dunleavy last year vetoed a similar legislative attempt.
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