In dark corners and supply closets in firehouses across Maryland sit gallons upon gallons of a toxic firefighting foam that firefighters can no longer use.
In 2022, the state legislature passed a law banning the use of firefighting foams laden with PFAS, a class of heat- and oil-resistant chemicals, many of which have been linked to cancer, reproductive harms and other ailments.
But about four years later, the state doesn’t have a plan to get rid of the foam, leaving fire departments around the state scratching their heads.
“I hate to say it, but it seems like the gears of government run slow,” said Robert Phillips, the legislative chair for the Maryland State Firefighters Association.
In April, the Maryland Department of the Environment put out a new call for proposals to local contractors to collect and destroy the contaminated foam, called aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF. It came after outcry on the Senate floor from Sen. Jack Bailey (R-Calvert and St. Mary’s), a sponsor of the 2022 legislation.
Bailey said that after the law passed in 2022, he and other legislators assumed that the foam would at least be collected by now. Under the law, MDE was required to develop a “takeback program” for the substances, and received $500,000 from the state’s general fund in fiscal 2024 to get it done.
“If there was a chemical that we don’t use anymore that we have outlawed, we should not have it sitting in a closet,” Bailey said recently. “They are the Department of the Environment. They should have at least reported back, worked on a plan. Four years? For doing nothing? It’s not acceptable.”
In a statement, MDE spokesperson Jay Apperson said that the agency mentioned the difficulties associated with transporting and disposing of the foam in its 2023 “PFAS Action Plan.”
“MDE has been allocated $500K to fund the take-back program,” the plan notes. “However, it is unclear if this will be sufficient due to the high demand for PFAS and other hazardous waste disposal capacity.”
The legislature adjourned earlier this month, and likely won’t return until next January, but Bailey hinted that the General Assembly could intervene to push the environmental agency to find a solution.
“There definitely has to be some standards put in place to hold MDE accountable,” Bailey said.
The state environmental agency has made two previous attempts to find a company willing to collect and dispose of the material, Maryland Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain wrote in an April 23 letter to Bailey.
First, the agency tried to commission the Maryland Environmental Service, and then the agency issued a request for bids that did not yield a “successful contractor response.”
“We recognize … that implementation has not moved as quickly as intended. We share that frustration,” McIlwain wrote.
MDE has “identified the specific procurement issues that led to these failures,” McIlwain wrote, and hopes to have rectified the issues in its latest request for bids.
In the request, issued in April, the department states that it is seeking a company that can collect the foam from Maryland fire departments and airports, and “dispose of AFFF at a permitted facility outside of Maryland or destroy the AFFF using MDE-approved methods.”
A survey conducted by MDE found that at least 10,535 gallons of PFAS-containing material is dispersed among responsive fire companies across Maryland.
The department “does not have the necessary in-house infrastructure or safe-handling capacity to move and store the foam itself,” McIlwain’s letter said.
Disposing of PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, is notoriously difficult. The human-made chemicals, which have been used on everything from nonstick pans to dental floss, and carpets to food packaging, contain a uniquely strong bond between carbon and fluorine. As a result, they do not readily deteriorate in the environment, and even accumulate in the human body, causing cancer and other maladies.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency recommends disposal options that have the lowest potential impact on the environment, including hazardous waste landfills, deep underground injection sites and hazardous waste combustion facilities.
As long as it remains contained, the foam doesn’t pose a danger to human health. An online fact sheet issued by the Washington State Department of Ecology advises departments to store the containers indoors and protect them from the elements, keep the containers clean so that any leaks can be easily detected and use a secondary containment structure to prevent spillage into the environment.
Washington is among the states that have developed a collection program for fire departments with the foams, according to the Department of Ecology’s website. Washington’s program incinerates the foam.
Also known as Class B firefighting foams, the substances were used for boiling liquid fires, Phillips said. That’s because the foam could sit on the top of the boiling liquid, and essentially suffocate the fire, he said.
“It makes a foam that floats across the surface of the fire and it actually separates the boiling liquids from oxygen,” Phillips said.
But, in more recent years, non-PFAS alternatives have been developed, he said, allowing fire companies to replace their Class B foam, though restocking it comes at a steep cost, usually in the thousands of dollars, Phillips said.
The foam is likely still spread throughout the state, Phillips said, and larger departments likely have larger stores.
Prince George’s County, for instance, has about 1,000 gallons of AFFF firefighting foam, said spokesperson Michael Yourishin, and it’s all centralized in one storage facility.
But at the Mechanicsville Volunteer Fire Department in Bailey’s Southern Maryland district, about 125 gallons worth of AFFF firefighting foam sit in containers in a storage shed, said Joe Guyther, a former chief who still volunteers for the department.
Guyther said he has repeatedly contacted MDE for updates about how to get rid of the foam. The answer has been consistent: The agency cannot find a contractor to perform the job.
“It’s the same old story,” Guyther said. “We’re tired of hearing excuses.”
That’s why he decided to contact Bailey’s office for help, he said.
Guyther said his greatest concern, though, is that, without a takeback program and dedicated outreach from the state, some departments around the state may have never drained the PFAS-containing foam from the tanks on their fire trucks, meaning the foam could still be in use and contaminating the environment.
“From our perspective, here’s this law on the books, the legislature has stepped in and recognized the problem,” Guyther said. “The Department of the Environment has dropped the ball.”
