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The Altoona Fire Department plans to survey other Blair County fire departments, along with industrial firms, to determine how many have firefighting foam containing a problematic kind of chemical targeted by the Environmental Protection Agency, and how much of it they have, as a prelude for a plan to eventually get rid of the foam.
Blair County Emergency Management Director Mark Taylor on Thursday brought up the issue of Class B Aqueous Film Foam (AFFF) and the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) it contains at a meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee, which is responsible for dealing with hazardous substances held in various locations in the county.
Based on a recent state ruling, foam with PFAS can still be used in emergencies to fight liquid-based fires, but not for training, because PFAS can cause health problems in humans and because it lasts indefinitely in nature, including in water sources that it has contaminated, according to officials at the meeting and websites.
The disposal of what foam is stored in Blair County could be costly, as indicated by the $6,700 that the Centre Region Council of Governments Regional Fire Protection Program paid recently for a firm to incinerate 1,450 gallons of the material -- the great bulk of which was the property of the South Central Mountain Regional Task Force, according to Centre Regional Fire Protection Director Shawn Kauffman.
The Centre COG got rid of its stock before the environmental agencies ratchet its designation of PFAS from a regulated material to a hazardous one, which would have made the cost of getting rid of it much more expensive, Kauffman said.
"We felt it was prudent not to use it at all," Kauffman said.
One incentive for not using it is the presence of PFAS in a water source for households near the State College Regional Airport, according to Kauffman.
The airport has used the Class B AFFF in the past, he said.
The alternative to the Class B AFFF foam is so-called green foam, which is more costly, even though it's less effective, and more is required to be used at fire scenes, according to Kauffman.
The Centre COG is trying to secure funding for its own green foam, Kauffman said.
Meanwhile, it will rely on the availability of green foam at the airport, if needed -- when a fire can't be handled with water and needs to be extinguished, he said.
In some cases, as in a tanker truck fire, water isn't appropriate, but foam may not be necessary, if the fire can be simply left to burn, Kauffman said.
PFAS has been used in "a lot of stuff," including non-stick surfaces for pans, said LEPC member and chemist Tim Rea, co-founder of Mountain Research.
Among the complicating factors in dealing with PFAS are chemical differences among the individual compounds that make some types of PFAS more problematic than others, according to Rea.
Getting rid of the Class B AFFF foam through incineration is expensive, and research is ongoing on cheaper ways to deactivate the problematic chemical in the foam, Rea said.
In addition to creating an inventory of Class B AFFF foam in Blair County, the Altoona Fire Department will be trying to ensure that until it's gone, it's stored safely, Rea said.
In his 19 years with the Altoona Fire Department, the foam has never been used, said Chief Adam Free, an LEPC member.
The foam is required to be available for haz-mat operations, said Free, whose department forms the Blair County Haz-Mat Team.
There may be grant money available from the state to deal with the issue, Free said.
While the problematic foam is not to be used for training, firefighters shouldn't hesitate to use it if it's really needed, although if it's used, there could be questions about what agency is responsible for environmental cleanup, officials said.
"I just wanted to get it on the radar," Taylor said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.