SLO County airport is polluted with ‘forever chemicals.’ It will test 3 ways to clean it up
The San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport has won a large, federal grant to help clean up pollution from toxic firefighting foam.
For decades, aqueous film-forming foam sprayed from firetrucks at the airport leaked into the groundwater and contaminated 42 nearby residential wells with PFAS — toxic, so-called “forever chemicals” that can cause cancer, liver damage and pregnancy complications, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease.
Airports nationwide are trying to clean up that pollution.
The Federal Aviation Administration gave the airport $3.5 million to test three new PFAS remediation technologies for soil and water contaminated by the chemicals, according to an airport news release on Tuesday.
The first piece of equipment will remove PFAS from perched groundwater, which is water pooled near the surface above the water table, airport deputy director Courtney Pene told The Tribune.
The second is a UC Berkeley invention designed to destroy PFAS in the soil, and the third new technology will attempt to prevent more PFAS from leaching into the groundwater, she said.
“We are grateful to the FAA for this investment in our ongoing PFAS remediation efforts,” airport director Courtney Johnson said in the news release. “This funding allows us to continue addressing these critical environmental challenges and protect our community.”
Cleaning up PFAS at SLO County airport
Until October 2021, the FAA required firefighters to use aqueous film-forming foam when battling aircraft fires. That foam contains PFAS.
Over the years, those PFAS chemicals contaminated soil and groundwater around the airport.
In July 2022, San Luis Obispo County, Cal Fire and the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Board agreed to establish a plan to remove PFAS pollution from the soil, groundwater and indoor air around the airport.
According to the plan, the county and Cal Fire must provide PFAS filtration systems to residents with contaminated well water, install treatment systems for the wells, and eventually remediate the contaminated groundwater or find an alternative water source for those properties.
In September, the FAA announced the first authorization of a PFAS-free foam to fight aircraft fires. Now, airports can embark on the expensive task of replacing PFAS-laden firefighting equipment — and cleaning up the existing contamination.
San Luis Obispo County Congressman Salud Carbajal sits on the House Aviation Subcommittee, which has worked to release federal funding for cleaning up the PFAS pollution at airports and changing laws that allow airports to use other types of firefighting foam.
“I’m proud to see this critical investment delivered to SLO County airport to help them exist in harmony with the surrounding community,” Carbajal said in the news release. “As a member of the House Aviation Subcommittee, I have been working every single week to help SLO County airport mitigate and remediate risks posed by PFAS chemicals — and this grant is the latest investment.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
