The Androscoggin River has just recently begun to modify its century-long record of professional pollution, which was stricken by a chemical spill at Brunswick Executive Airport.
The flow was transported through the pipes that connected the 3,100-acre former naval air station to the sewage plant, where it was treated for some of its worse contaminants but not the always substances that make watery film-forming foam, or AFFF, that are so risky. Its second quit? The Androscoggin.
According to water quality tests conducted by the Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, the waste drinking in from a river effluent pipe across from Cow Island clocked in at 11, 689 parts per trillion for the six long chemicals Maine uses to evaluate having water safety.
” That was for a stunning number”, said Ed Friedman, a Bowdoinham native and president of Friends of Merrymeeting Bay. ” It’s added an almost inexplicable survival to the water’s pollution issues. We will be dealing with this for generations to come.
Friedman spoke about the unfathomable danger that he has come to love from the top of the stressed river. A hapless bald eagle looks for the perfect fish to have while perching on a railroad bridge costs. This was supposed to be a restore river.
With its 162 miles of lateral jumps, river, and rivers between its New Hampshire nature and where it joins the Kennebec River in Merrymeeting Bay simply below Brunswick, the Androscoggin River was intended to electricity market. But that also made it prone to abuse, and pollutants.
A long record of waste, crops, riverside provincial sewage plants, paper mills, plodding, and other industries added up to make the Androscoggin one of the country’s most polluted river. However, in the 1950s, both the scent of the river and its repeated bass kills contributed to the shift in public opinion toward repair.
The disturbed Androscoggin inspired U. S. Sen. Edmund Muskie, a Rumford Democrat, to champion the national Clean Water Act. Maine legislators voted to change the lower Androscoggin River’s water quality regular from rock-bottom C to B in 2022, on the 50th anniversary of the location policy.
That regulations, which Gov. Janet Mills signed, which calls on officials to take actions to keep water excellent, a move that may eventually have a significant negative effect on factories, sewage treatment plants, and rivers. However, it was unable to prevent a malfunctioning airport water from causing Maine’s worst harmful foam spill.
According to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Brunswick spill — 1, 450 gallons of aqueous film-forming foam concentrate mixed with 50, 000 gallons of water — is the sixth-largest U. S. spill in 30 years, behind others in Florida, Alabama, Arizona ( which had two larger spills ) and Ohio.
BASE HAS HISTORY OF Overflows
However, according to Friedman, the U.S. Navy has a long history of violating the environment at Brunswick Landing, a former marine heat base that is now Brunswick Executive Airport. Some foaming has spilled before, he said, but never as many as on Aug. 19.
A month before the flow, a test taken from the same effluent pipe had tested at 15.2 parts per trillion, or presentation, for the six long substances. That was exceedingly small, Friedman noted. Depending on precipitation, among other things, the majority of tests from that effluent pipe returned between 50 and 200 powerpoint.
Maine’s surface water is free of long substances. Three years ago, Maine set an interval having water common: 20 presentation for six long chemicals. However, state regulators have been quick to point out that the 20 ppt should not apply because river water, especially sewer outfall discharge, is not intended to be potable.
A follow-up sample collected on Aug. 30 came back at 2, 681 ppt, indicating AFFF was still present but in decreasing concentrations, Friedman said. Before it was combined with water to make foam, the original AFFF concentrate contained 4.3 billion ppt of the six drinking-water forever chemicals that Maine monitors.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection released the test results on Friday night from water samples it had taken from the Androscoggin River above and below the sewer discharge pipe, which it claims is accepted practice for conducting surface water toxicology tests.
The Brunswick sewer pipe’s six forever chemicals were found to be at the same concentrations as those above it, 4. 6 to 5. 1 ppt above the discharge and 3. 9 to 6. 5 ppt at three locations below the outfall, according to those findings, which were collected on September 5.
At first glance, the state results appear to contradict the earlier findings, but not so, said Friedman.
Because of our own experience sampling large water, he said,” The DEP water results do n’t surprise me.” ” In addition to the fact that tidal action will move suspended particles, various particles will fall into the sediment, and what’s left in the water will eventually become diluted very quickly”
TESTING FISH A KEY
According to Friedman, fish tissue testing is crucial to get a clear picture of ecosystem impact. Last week, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection began examining fish in the Androscoggin for permanent chemical testing. The fish were taken both above and below the discharge pipe.
Researchers in Maine are trying to understand how perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the scientific names for the large class of manmade chemicals known as forever chemicals, or PFAS, are affecting fish, birds, and mammals, including humans.
One particular chemical, PFOS, can accumulate in fish over time even at very low levels in water.
People are already advised against consuming more than 12 meals a year of any fish species from the Androscoggin River due to high levels of PCB, dioxin, and DDT, according to the state Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Because of PFAS, it had been considering lowering those limits prior to the spill.
Federal regulators consider even trace amounts of some PFAS to be a risk for public health. High exposure for a long period of time can lead to cancer. Exposure during critical life stages, such as in early childhood, can also cause life-changing harm.
Aqueous film-forming foam is used by firefighters to fight high-intensity fuel fires at military bases, fuel depots, civilian airports, fire departments and industrial plants that use a lot of chemicals, such as paper mills. The fire is deprived of the oxygen it needs by forming a film or blanket over it.
Firefighting foam is the most prevalent cause of unending chemical contamination in the United States, according to the EPA, but trace amounts of PFAS have been found almost everywhere, from Maine dairy farmers to Arctic polar bears.
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