{"id":9257,"date":"2024-08-14T07:01:44","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T11:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/?p=9257"},"modified":"2024-08-14T07:01:45","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T11:01:45","slug":"state-of-new-hampshire-launches-statewide-firefighting-foam-take-back-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/?p=9257","title":{"rendered":"State of New Hampshire Launches Statewide Firefighting Foam Take Back Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

State of New Hampshire Launches Statewide
Firefighting Foam Take Back Program

AFFF Take Back Program will use new technology to destroy PFAS chemicals

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\u2019s 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 \u201clegacy foams\u201d 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 Revive Environmental 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\u2019s PFAS Annihilator\u00ae 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 fire departments.
\u201cThe 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,\u201d said NHDES Commissioner Bob Scott. \u201cThe 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.\u201d
 
New Hampshire Fire Marshal Sean Toomey said, \u201cOn behalf of the New Hampshire fire service, I would like to thank our Legislature, Governor and NHDES for bringing this initiative to fruition. In addition to the environmental impacts to our state, we have also learned of the negative health impacts to our firefighters and citizens. We are pleased to partner with NHDES and our local fire departments to properly dispose of these PFAS foams in our state.\u201d
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\u2019s 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.
In 2019, the New Hampshire Legislature directed NHDES under Senate Bill 257 to implement an AFFF Take Back Program to inventory, consolidate and dispose of municipal stocks of legacy AFFF. NHDES conducted an AFFF self-inventory initiative to catalog known stores of legacy AFFF at municipal fire departments in June 2022. After due diligence of determining the best disposal option, the State of New Hampshire entered into contract with Revive in July 2023.
\u201cThe State of New Hampshire is setting the standard for responsible environmental stewardship by tackling the challenge of AFFF contamination head-on,\u201d said David Trueba, CEO of Revive. \u201cBy utilizing Revive\u2019s supercritical water oxidation technology to mineralize PFAS with no harmful byproducts, New Hampshire is not moving the problem but instead eliminating future environmental contamination and liability. This is a groundbreaking step in safeguarding public health and the environment in the state.\u201d
 
Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) Director Ted Kitchens, A.A.E., spoke on Tuesday about the airport\u2019s participation in the Take Back Program. Kitchens said that while the FAA doesn\u2019t currently require airports like MHT to transition to the new foam, the airport is taking the initiative to switch over now in order to be a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly airport.
 
\u201cManchester-Boston Regional Airport is proud to be partnering with the State on their AFFF Take Back Program,\u201d said  Kitchens. “We\u2019ve delivered about 720 gallons of AFFF to the State and are excited to continue exploring initiatives to become even more sustainable. We appreciate the State including airports in their take back program.\u201d
 
New Hampshire\u2019s AFFF Take Back Program is open to all New Hampshire fire departments, local governments, and government-owned airports. It is not open to private entities. If you have a question about eligibility, feel free to contact NHDES at (603) 271-6424 or andrew.m.gould@des.nh.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State of New Hampshire Launches StatewideFirefighting Foam Take Back Program AFFF Take Back Program will use new technology to destroy PFAS chemicals 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9258,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9257\/revisions\/9258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townunderground.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}