The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority is asking Gov. Janet Mills’ office for funding to help clean up toxic chemicals from its hangars following a disastrous firefighting foam spill in August.

In an Oct. 28 budget request letter, the Authority said it wants to continue an emergency project that will cost about $21.9 million to remove and replace its fire suppression systems and substances containing per – and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) at Brunswick Executive. Airport. The authority said the funding will be used to design, demolish, permit, tender and build new fire suppression systems, as well as to remove hazardous PFAS chemicals in hangars 4, 5 and 6.

“It has been determined that the most effective way to mitigate this problem and eliminate further occurrences is to replace the current PFAS containing AFFF systems with alternative technologies in Hangar 4, as well as decommissioning and replacing similar systems in Hangars 5 and 6 with the same alternative. technologies,” the letter, which is signed by MRRA Board of Directors Chairman HA “Nick” Nichols.

The request comes more than two months after an Aug. 18 spill in which Hangar 4’s fire suppression system malfunctioned, releasing 1,450 gallons of concentrated firefighting foam mixed with 50,000 gallons of water. The concentrate was an aqueous film-forming solution (AFFF), which is PFAS, a man-made “forever chemical” family known to be harmful to health.

The spill — Maine’s worst in 30 years — has since prompted an ongoing remediation effort involving the Department of Environmental Protection. Hangar 4 also cannot operate as intended, the Authority said, making it unable to honor an “income-generating lease” with the tenant.

MRRA is financially strapped for the spill and noted in its letter that it has made a similar request to the Federal Aviation Administration under the Military Airports Program (MAP), which can provide grants to help convert military airports to public use. The letter also said the Navy informed the MRRA that removing and cleaning up PFAS from the spill and other hangars was not its legal responsibility.

The letter reiterated that the suppression systems in Hangars 4, 5, and 6 had been installed by the Navy and that the Authority had sought alternatives to AFFF in its hangars. MRRA inherited the systems through a 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Act that closed the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. The property was officially decommissioned in 2011.

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