Toxic town meeting in Brunswick, Maine

 

Two nights ago Mary Beth and I attended the Brunswick town hall meeting about the recent major PFAS contamination at the former naval air station in our community. 

The local newspaper reported that the meeting came 10 days after a malfunctioning fire suppression system released 1,450 gallons of AFFF — a toxic firefighting foam that contains forever chemicals as PFAS — into Hangar 4 and surrounding areas. The fire suppression system in the hangar, which is owned by Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA), has since been shut down.

The town hall meeting space was packed with frightened, angry and frustrated citizens who came seeking answers to many questions that so far have gone unanswered in the community.

I was sitting in the back row next to a man who works for the Department of Environmental Protection in charge of remediation. Before the meeting began we talked about the extremely serious situation that one local community activist called our own version of Love Canal. The DEP man told me 'we have no information' and went on to explain that there could be no effective remediation of the massive PFAS spill until serious questions were answered about the toxicity of PFAS, what was an effective clean-up strategy, could the PFAS become aerosolized and many other technical issues.

In the end he was as frustrated as everyone else who attended the packed event. No answers to any of the questions emerged.

 

The town meeting room was full so people had to go upstairs and sit in two overflow rooms that were broadcasting the meeting via the town's public access TV station. People were also watching the meeting via their TV's while at home as well. You can see the entire meeting here

Long before the US Navy closed the Brunswick Naval Air Station in 2011 the site had been declared a Superfund toxic site in 1987 after open-air detonation of ordnance. When the Navy left Brunswick it still was not fully cleaned up and the PFAS problem had begun to rear its ugly head. Hangers 4, 5 and 6 had PFAS foam stored in them. Hanger 4 had the accident and during the meeting we learned that Hanger 6 'may be leaking now' and could have a greater release than at Hanger 4. 

One of the 'experts' on the panel said that there was no current leak in Hanger 6 but Brunswick Landing Restoration Advisory Board member, a retired Bowdoin College Chemistry professor, David Page responded to MRRA representative Jeffrey Jordan that the hanger was 'not, not leaking' which seemed to drift past the other talking heads without further comment.

When the Navy left Brunswick in 2011 the MRRA was commissioned by the state to take over operation of the former base. They were told to get rid of the PFAS foam in Hangers 4, 5 & 6 but they did not do so. Surely they must be held legally liable for this incident.

The former base is now called 'Brunswick Landing' with many large and small businesses in operation. (Day care centers, offices, restaurants, YMCA, senior citizen assisted living centers, homes for working class people, homes for recently arrived African immigrants, and much more.)

Many who live and or work at Brunswick Landing complained that to this day the MRRA had not sent out any communication about the leak to them. They had to learn about it through the media.

The MRRA has had a 'golden boy' image since it took over the former base. They have a board of directors appointed by the state government but there appears to be little state effort made to keep tabs on the operation - especially the various toxic environmental problems. MRRA regularly organizes military airshows that bring lots of cash into their coffers. Maine media have equally been in the MRRA's bag for years - see this one TV spot as evidence here.

 

One man in the audience reported that his environmental organization has organic gardens at the former base which are providing food for the many African immigrants who now live there. He said the PFAS foam landed in the garden and he asked if the food could still be eaten. The audience groaned but the filibustering talking heads didn't have much of a comment.

One young mother said her child is attending a child care center at the Landing and she wondered if it was safe for the kids to play outside on the playground equipment. State Toxicologist Andy Smith suggested they could take a wet wipe and clean the equipment and it should be safe. Another groan.

There were many other questions and concerns like is it safe to ride bikes there, can we drink the water? One man stood up and said he and his wife bought a house at the Landing and now she is pregnant. Forget any chance of selling that house anytime soon.

We've heard that PFAS is already in the nearby Androscoggin River. The fish are likely contaminated. PFAS that gets into the soil can be swept up by the winds and carried as dust. How do you clean that up?

Many asked who will pay for any possible clean-up. Again, no one had any answers.

When I got my chance to speak I said: 

We are all sadly living in a dream world. The US is $35 trillion in debt. The Navy ain't gonna clean this up. I said we are not alone in this as the US has 800 bases around the world and all over this country. All these bases are a toxic stew. Let me give one example. In South Korea the US had a base in the capital city of Seoul for many years. It was contaminating the living hell out of the water and the US military refused to clean it up. So eventually the US closed the base and moved to Camp Humphreys in southern South Korea. The US forced the destruction of 70 farming villages all around that base in order to expand and take in the operations from Seoul. The villagers fought for 10 years but were defeated because the US insisted the base be expanded. Today that base is now becoming contaminated.

I concluded by turning toward US Sen. Angus King (Independent from Maine) who lives in Brunswick and was sitting in the back row. I said that there is only one solution to pay for this cleanup - the US spends $1 trillion a year on the military. If we cut that budget then maybe we could begin to clean up Brunswick and all these other bases around the world. So it's good that Sen. King is here, maybe he will go to Washington and lead the fight to cut military spending, close these bases around the world, return the lands to the people, and clean them up as we should because we are responsible for the mess.

I am not particularly optimistic after witnessing the rather weak 'experts' and local political leaders who were running the meeting. A couple of citizens stated that more of these meetings should be held in the near future and I would second that motion. In fact hold them in a bigger space so that everyone can be in the same room in order to make sure the 'community leaders' can look the public in the eye. It would also be a good idea to form a citizens advocacy group to organize on behalf of the community.

Bruce