State of #NewHampshire Launches Statewide #FirefightingFoam Take Back Program
#AFFF Take Back Program will use new technology to destroy #PFAS chemicals
"This is a groundbreaking step in safeguarding public health and the #environment in the state.”
August 13, 2024
Concord, N.H. — "The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (#NHDES), in partnership with the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal, has launched a statewide initiative to destroy hazardous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in firefighting foam.
"During an event at the New Hampshire Fire Academy’s Aircraft Rescue Training Facility in Concord today, NHDES Commissioner Bob Scott announced details of the new Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) Take Back Program. AFFF is primarily used by fire departments to smother flammable liquid fires, but its high concentrations of PFAS compounds resist typical environmental degradation processes and cause long-term contamination of water, soil and air. The ban on the use of these 'legacy foams' is possible because there are now PFAS-free foam alternatives available. The AFFF Take Back Program is set up to remove and properly dispose of AFFF from New Hampshire fire departments, local governments, and government-owned airports.
"NHDES has contracted with #ReviveEnvironmental Technology (Revive) to administer the collection and destruction of AFFF in the state. Following collection of the foam, Revive will consolidate the containers and ship them to its Columbus, Ohio, facility, where the foam will be treated with Revive’s #PFASAnnihilator® technology, originally developed by Battelle, which uses supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) to destroy the PFAS chemicals without generating harmful PFAS byproducts or transferring the PFAS elsewhere in the process. It is estimated that the Take Back Program will remove and properly treat and dispose of more than 10,000 gallons of AFFF collected from over 100 #FireDepartments.
"'The State of New Hampshire has made great strides in reducing environmental contamination and the public health risk to New Hampshire residents from traditional firefighting foam, and this Take Back Program is a major accomplishment in that mission,' said NHDES Commissioner Bob Scott. 'The ability to not only assist our fire departments and other facilities with the removal of their foam inventories, but to also find a disposal solution that fully destroys the PFAS is both a monumental and reassuring development.'
"The Concord event on Tuesday is one of 10 collection events being held across the state in the month of August. A full list of dates and locations can be found on the program’s webpage. The collection program is operated at no cost to local fire departments, but agencies must register their AFFF materials to be scheduled for collection on those dates. Funding for the program was appropriated by the New Hampshire Legislature to address PFAS contamination in our state.