Adding Insult to Injury
The former Loring AFB in Maine is highly contaminated with PFAS.
Plans to redevelop the base into a fuel facility may be jeopardized.
By Pat Elder
December 26, 2023
22 sites have substantial concentrations of PFAS. Nearby streams and rivers are profoundly impacted. – Figure by Air Force Civil Engineer Center
Limestone, Maine, December 22. 2023 – A widely circulated article in The County newspaper “PFAS found on former Loring base could delay $4B fuel production project” contains numerous inaccuracies and important omissions regarding PFAS contamination caused by the Air Force at the former Loring Air Force base.
The Air Force is not being truthful to this community about the massive, toxic, and eternal contamination it has left behind. Frightening levels of PFAS contaminate the soil, air, water, and fish. Apparently, developers and the state don’t think it’s a big deal and are eager to re-develop the former air force base.
Seriously eroded journalistic performance and expectations have brought us to the point where “official” blather is taken as gospel truth. Here, the consequences may be deadly.
Excerpts from the article appear below in bold, followed by pertinent analysis.
The County: LIMESTONE, Maine, December 22, 2023 — One of the chemicals categorized as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, has been found in an old airport hangar at the former Loring Air Force Base, which could delay the base’s largest redevelopment project in years. Washington D.C.-based DG Fuels plans to construct a massive $4 Billion aviation fuel production facility on the former base.
Breaking News! PFAS has been found at the old Air Force base.
PFAS was slathered everywhere: maintenance shops, crash sites, ditches, ponds, streams, tank farms, nose docks, fire houses, runway foaming, hangars, fuel dump areas, wash racks, hard stands, multiple drains, landfills, burn house, jet engine maintenance areas, fuel tank farm, and the sludge drying bed area.
The toxins have permanently contaminated groundwater and surface water.
The County: The PFAS discovery raises legal questions about cleanup responsibilities if hazardous materials are found in the future. Data from the U.S. Air Force’s ongoing investigation of the site won’t be compiled before the start of construction on the DG Fuels facility in late 2024 or early 2025, creating uncertainty about the timing of the project.
These legal questions have been settled by the Air Force in U.S. District Court. The Air Force claims it is not legally liable for the irreparable and eternal contamination it has caused. If states try to sue the Air Force for poisoning property and life, the Air Force will claim sovereign immunity. In the name of national security, the Air Force argues it has the right to poison Maine. They treat Germans and Japanese and people across the country and around the world the same way.
The Air Force is likely to drag its feet before releasing anything further that will damage the DG Fuels deal. Besides, the existing record is enough to incriminate the Air Force.
“The PFAS discovery?” The Air Force used AFFF here from the early 1970’s until 1994. They’ve known it was dangerous since the mid-1970’s and they have a precise record of releases in groundwater, surface water, and fish. They know how much they’ve used, and where they released it. They know what they’ve done, and they don’t give damn.
The Air Force walks away from their criminality in Maine and everywhere else, and so far, they’ve been able to pull it off.
A Brook Trout like these caught near the former Loring AFB contained 1,080,000 ppt of PFOS. We don’t know the concentrations of other PFAS chemicals found in the fish.
Maine’s government, although a national leader in other aspects of PFAS management, could do a better job in this regard. Ten years ago the Maine Department of Environmental Protection reported catching a Brook Trout near the base with 1,080,000 parts per trillion of PFOS in its fillet. That concentration is 54 million times over what the EPA says is safe in drinking water. [1,080,080 / .02 = 54,000,000].
This is a crime, and the state is not prosecuting it. Maine is fully aware of the frightening concentrations of PFAS in streams and lakes and throughout the environment. They’re not calling out the Air Force and they want this attention to go away.
Loring has been an environmental trainwreck for two generations. It was placed on the EPA’s National Priorities List of sites in 1990. The entire region is profoundly impacted. PFAS just adds a new lethal/legal dimension.
The County: The U.S. Air Force began investigating at Loring in 2015 after finding non-dangerous levels of a PFAS known as aqueous film forming foams, or AFFF, in 21 of 22 sites of groundwater, surface water, soil and sediment and within some fish tissue.
Non-dangerous levels? The County must have gotten that from the Air Force.
First, let’s look at the highest groundwater levels for the 11 compounds reported by Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions, Inc. in the Final Site Inspection Report for Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) areas at former Loring Air Force Base, Maine. December 2018.
The EPA says we shouldn’t be consuming more than 1 part per trillion of PFOS or PFOA in drinking water. The EPA says these things but does not enforce them. Maine keeps the combined total of PFOS, PFOA, PFHpA, PFNA, PFDA, and PFHxS in drinking water under 20 parts per trillion, but the state allows thousands of times these levels to be consumed in fish and food. Eggs from one farm in Fairfield averaged 37,000 ppt of PFOS and 1,900 ppt of PFOA, but they’re OK to eat, according to the state. Clams, chickens, milk, deer, have all been found to be highly contaminated while Maine is willing to let the Air Force, with its annual $222 Billion budget, about three times greater than Maine’s entire GDP, walk away with no liability.
The Air Force is not alone in contaminating Maine with these chemicals.
The 8,770 ppt of PFOS shown above is especially alarming because groundwater poisons the surface water and PFOS bioaccumulates in the food we eat. Many of the other compounds listed above do as well. These poisons are flowing beneath the surface, and they are destined to impact the region’s health forever.
Let’s examine surface water levels at one location on the old base.
(Special thanks to the Environmental Working Group, Inc. for their continued diligence.)
The top 5 toxins in groundwater and surface water are almost identical.
The 1,440 ppt of PFOS in surface water is ghastly. Everything around is poisoned, including the water, the air, the animals, fish, and humans. It will remain forever. PFOS may bioaccumulate in fish up to 2,000 times the levels of the carcinogens in streams. PFOS levels this high in surface water may result in fish with more than a million parts per trillion of the toxins and that’s what we see at Loring.
The County: Last year, the Air Force partnered with global company Wood Environment and Infrastructure for a more extensive investigation of AFFF spread at Loring. So far, no levels of that PFAS have been found in the local drinking water supply, said Mark Kinkade, public affairs officer for the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center.
Wood Environment published the revealing 2018 Site Inspection.
The Air Force will always try to steer the conversation toward the drinking water and that’s because there are reasonable, and relatively inexpensive solutions for this contamination. When the Air Force says the drinking water at all of its bases is under 70 parts per trillion, we have no reason to doubt them. Sadly, 70 ppt is too high to protect public health! The Air Force refuses to acknowledge that the EPA has replaced its initial Lifetime Health Advisory of 70 ppt for PFOS and PFOA combined, with an Interim Health Advisory of .02 ppt for PFOS and .004 ppt for PFOA. The Air Force can do and say whatever it wants.
The County: The PFAS does not exceed 70 parts per billion, the amount identified as dangerous under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, known as CERCLA, part of a federal “superfund” used to clean up hazardous waste sites. The EPA replaced its 70 parts per trillion advisory (trillion not billion) with separate advisories for PFOS at .02 and PFOA at .004 ppt. in drinking water.
This is convoluted and that’s just fine with most of the folks who are paying attention.
The County: The Air Force’s overall investigation at Loring is continuing and won’t yield enough data to help form clean-up plans until at least early 2025, according to the Air Force. That causes concern for Loring officials, as DG Fuels intends to start construction by late 2024 or early 2025.
The Air Force holds all the cards. They always hold them. They never fold them.
Clean-up plans? There are no plans. How do we stop or attempt to clean the flow of groundwater into surface water over thousands of acres? How do we reach deep into subsurface soil to clean it? How do we clean up DNA-modified toxic invertebrates? How do we clean up thousands of perpetually contaminated acres of sediment around Loring? What’s the plan for remediating carcinogenic airborne dust? How do we clean the humans, the fish, and the wildlife? The carcinogens may not break down in the environment for thousands of years and perhaps longer.
“[The timeline] is way too long,” Carl Flora, president and CEO of Loring Development Authority said. “We’ll be meeting with our attorneys to discuss the legal aspects of this problem.” Among those issues, Flora said, will be a potential agreement between DG Fuels and Loring that would allow DG Fuels to continue operations at the facility and not be required to demolish buildings if more hazardous materials are discovered after the company’s production facility is built and operating.
DG Fuels CEO Michael Darcy said he currently does not expect a major delay in his company’s construction timeline. DG Fuels hopes to demolish the former hangar.
This is a $4 Billion deal and DG Fuels does not expect a major delay. That says a lot. It’s likely no one will be responsible for “cleaning up” the PFAS and Mainers will do their best to forget about it.
The Air Force has poisoned the fish forever.
Results are in parts per billion. - Loring AFB AFFF Site Inspection, Wood Environment, 2018
The runway is at the top right. Greenlaw Brook receives drainage from several aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) areas. Surface runoff and groundwater transports PFAS to the Storm Drainage System which discharges into the East Branch Greenlaw Brook where a Brook Trout was found with 457,000 ppt of PFOS. Greenlaw Brook flows southwesterly to the Little Madawaska River which empties into the Aroostook River. A no fish consumption advisory is in effect on Greenlaw Brook.
Let’s examine all of the toxins in the fish reported by the Air Force. Increasingly, states that are testing fish only report on one compound – PFOS.
TABLE 3.0-6 Summary of Fish Tissue Analytical Results Site Inspection Report for Aqueous Film Forming Foam Areas at Former Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine
A Smallmouth Bass caught in Durepo Reservoir contained 114,000 ppt of PFOS in its fillet while a Brook Trout had 46,300 ppt, according to the 2018 Site Inspection.
Earlier this year Maine issued a fish advisory for the Durepo Reservoir because of the PFAS contamination caused by the Air Force. The public is advised not to eat the Smallmouth Bass and to limit Brook Trout to four 8-ounce meals per year. Four servings of fish containing 46,300 ppt of PFOS are allowed yearly.
Does this advisory protect human health? The Durepo Reservoir is the secondary water supply source for the Town of Limestone.
To its credit, Maine is clear that women who are pregnant or may become pregnant should not eat any fish from inland waters anywhere in the state, so that’s good. How widely has this advisory been circulated?
Maine is not a special case. It is disposable property, as far as the Air Force is concerned. Besides, the Air Force is on a mission and the health of people and the planet don’t factor into it.
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