This story was originally published in the Alaska Beacon.
Alaska firefighting departments will have to stop using fire-suppression foams containing contaminants known as “forever chemicals,” under a law that went into effect on Monday.
The new law is the product of a bill, Senate Bill 67, that legislators passed nearly unanimously. It went into effect without Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s signature.
The new law targets Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, known as PFAS. They have qualities making them resistant to fire, water and oil. They are linked to numerous poor health effects, including developmental delays, compromised immune systems, reproductive problems and certain cancers according to the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The compounds number in the thousands and have been widely used since the mid-20th century in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products, including cookware, textiles, building materials, body care products like shampoo and dental floss and packing material. They have seeped into the environment – in water bodies, soil and the air – and are found in the blood of people and animals around the world, according to the EPA.
The number of PFAS compounds now exceeds 12,000, according to Alaska Community Action on Toxics.
For Alaska and for much of the nation, the biggest source of PFAS contamination in the environment is from industrial firefighting foams, generally used at airports and military bases. In the past, the Federal Aviation Administration required PFAS-containing foams to be used at the airports it certifies. That requirement was dropped in 2021 at the direction of Congress. The FAA and U.S. Department of Defense have been working on transitions to firefighting foams without PFAS chemicals, some of them still in development.
In addition to mandating that Alaska fire departments switch to non-PFAS foams, the new law creates a system for small rural villages to get rid of the PFAS-containing foams stored there. The villages are to be reimbursed by the Department of Environmental Conservation for that work, under the law.
The new PFAS law is the product of years of work by environmental and health organizations, notably Alaska Community Action on Toxics, which has conducted detailed research on contamination in Alaska. The bill’s prime sponsor was Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, whose district includes Gustavus, a small community where PFAS compounds created significant contamination of drinking water sources.
“We have worked for more than six years to pass this legislation with strong support from affected communities throughout Alaska, firefighters, and health professionals,” Pamela Miller, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement released by the Senate’s bipartisan majority caucus.
“We commend Senator Kiehl, co-sponsors, and the overwhelming bi-partisan support in the Legislature for the bill. It is an important step toward protecting the health of Alaskans from the harm caused by these dangerous chemicals.”
Although it had wide support, the PFAS bill took an unusual route to becoming law.
The substance of the bill was approved by the legislature last year, by a near-unanimous vote. At the time, the PFAS provisions were bundled in a separate House measure, House Bill 51, aimed at phasing out the use of another type of chemical, hydrofluorocarbons, known as HFCs. HFCs are used as refrigerants, but they are potent greenhouse gases.
Dunleavy last year vetoed the combined PFAS-HFC bill.
During this year’s session, the bill that ultimately passed was the stand-alone version that Kiehl introduced in 2023. That bill, which passed unanimously last year in the Senate, was modified when it reached the House Finance Committee this year. That modified version was what passed.
There was one significant change made in the House Finance Committee, Kiehl said: a switch from a mandate that the state safely dispose of PFAS foams accumulated in small villages to the new procedure in which the villages will be reimbursed for safe disposal. Money for that reimbursement was appropriated in the just-approved capital budget for the current fiscal year, he noted.
Another minor change tweaked a word, he said. Instead of mandating the end to use of PFAS-containing firefighting substances, the new law uses the word “foam,” which addresses some scientific uncertainty about how certain gases should be classified, he said. However they are defined, those gases do not contaminate water, he said.
Jeff Turner, Dunleavy’s communications director, said he did not have any information as to why the governor declined to sign the bill. Kiehl said he had no information on that, either.
“That’s not something he shared with me,” Kiehl said. “Ultimately, the work gets done, so I’ve got no objection.”
To qualify for disposal reimbursement from the state, villages seeking to get rid of their accumulated PFAS-containing foams must have fewer than 2,000 residents and be off the road system, according to the law.
The Department of Environmental Conservation is preparing a website that will have information for villages on both how to get rid of their PFAS substances and how to submit requests to to be reimbursed for their costs, said Stephanie Buss, the department’s contaminated sites program manager.
“We should be able to start receiving reimbursement requests by Jan. 1,” she said.
There are in numerous options for safe collection, treatment and disposal of PFAS materials, some of them within Alaska and some requiring shipment out of state, she said.
There are some exceptions to the Jan. 1, 2025, ban on PFAS foams. Fire crews at oil facilities, where fires can be particularly explosive, will have more time to phase in alternative foams. Those sites will be required to switch to non-PFAS foams once they become available and are certified as safe and effective by the state fire marshal, under a provision in the new law.
Yereth Rosen came to Alaska in 1987 to work for the Anchorage Times. She has reported for Reuters, for the Alaska Dispatch News, for Arctic Today and for other organizations. She covers environmental issues, energy, climate change, natural resources, economic and business news, health, science and Arctic concerns. In her free time, she likes to ski and watch her son's hockey games.
