State Sen. Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, speaks at a news conference at Brunswick Town Hall on Thursday in response to a Press Herald report that revealed inspectors found deficiencies in the fire suppression system at the Brunswick Executive Airport last June, 14 months before a malfunction spilled more than 50,000 gallons of toxic foam on Aug. 19. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

BRUNSWICK — State and municipal leaders called Thursday for the immediate resignation of the head of Brunswick Landing for failing to disclose year-old deficiencies in an airport fire prevention system that malfunctioned and spilled more than 50,000 gallons of toxic foam in August.

State Sen. Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, singled out Kristine Logan, executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, during a news conference outside Brunswick City Hall that was called after a story in the Portland Press Herald revealed the deficient inspection history.

“The news has shaken my confidence in (the redevelopment authority’s) management and leadership,” Daughtry said. “I am concerned about their ability to manage safety in light of recent failings, and … the lack of transparency in what appears to be a cover-up, miscommunication, or non-sharing of safety standards.”

The authority is a quasi-state agency created by the Legislature to manage the redevelopment of the 3,100-acre former Navy air base. The property, called Brunswick Landing, includes the Brunswick Executive Airport, more than 750 units of housing and 158 businesses that employ over 2,500 people.

Kristine Logan, the executive director of Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, at a news conference outside the Brunswick Executive Airport last month. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

The group of Brunswick-area leaders also called for the immediate shutdown of the airport’s two other fire suppression systems that rely on foam containing toxic forever chemicals until they can work with Gov. Janet Mills to adopt a statewide policy to collect the foam, dispose of it and ban its use in Maine.

They also demanded the inspection reports for the two other hangars at the airport that use aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF. In an interview Wednesday, Logan said she believed that those hangars also had foam systems with components that had reached the end of their service life and needed to be replaced.

The June 2023 inspection report of the hangar where the spill occurred revealed that some of the alarm pull stations did not trigger a foam release and lacked weather stripping on some hangar doors, Logan said Thursday. On Aug. 19, however, the system discharged foam after it “detected” a fire that didn’t exist.

The redevelopment authority repeatedly asked Eastern Fire of Auburn, the inspection company that detected the June 2023 deficiencies in Hangar 4, to correct them, but the company dragged its feet for 14 months while upper management debated whether it wanted to continue to service systems that use the toxic foam, according to emails.

Workers attempt to clean up firefighting foam containing high levels of the potentially harmful chemicals after it was accidentally discharged at Brunswick Executive Airport on Aug. 19. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

“We went back and forth with them until September,” Logan said. “So then, when we couldn’t get them back in, we started calling around to other places to say ‘Hey, would you guys come out and do that?’ But nobody wants to do anything with PFAS anymore.”

But in June 2024, a year after the deficiency findings and two months before the spill, Eastern Fire told Eric Perkins, the facilities manager at Brunswick Landing, that it would only consider continuing to service the hangars if it got assurances from the redevelopment authority that it was willing to pay substantially higher fees.

Fire suppression inspection… by Maine Trust For Local News

The higher price – $100,000 a year compared to $16,000 – came with a warning. Inspections manager Barry Prescott told Perkins: “The potential for accidental foam discharges as it is currently installed and programmed, at least at Hanger 4, is tremendous.”

Town Council Chair Abby King said Brunswick wanted to work collaboratively with the redevelopment authority, but found its handling of the inspection report “deeply disturbing.”

Logan said the authority still doesn’t know if the deficiencies are related to the Aug. 19 discharge.

“That is being investigated still,” Logan wrote Thursday to the Times Record. “During that time, we then started to do more investigation on how we might be able to turn the system off and just use the water system that is in place, allowing us to turn off the foam immediately.”

Abby King of Brunswick Town Council answers questions at a press conference held in response to a Press Herald article that revealed that inspectors found deficiencies last year in the Brunswick airport’s fire suppression system. King said Brunswick wanted to work collaboratively with the redevelopment authority, but found its handling of the inspection report “deeply disturbing.” Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

She added that the authority didn’t know of any alternative foams that could be used at Brunswick Executive Airport. If a non-toxic foam would comply with all state and federal codes, the agency would be interested in making the transition – if it has the funding to do so, Logan said.

On Wednesday, Logan had estimated that switching to a foam that doesn’t rely on forever chemicals would cost about $8 million. She based that figure on estimates from the Navy.

Logan declined to respond to the calls for her resignation. But she had previously said she understood the community was looking for a scapegoat to blame for the accident, the largest foam discharge in Maine in at least 30 years and the sixth largest in the country.

Logan has a long personal connection to Brunswick Landing, where her husband was stationed while he served in the Navy. Although she lived in Topsham, the former teacher said she used to work on the base and used to barbecue at Picnic Pond, an area where spilled foam has only recently stopped sudsing.

Daughtry said at the news conference that the community needs to think about reorganizing the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority to increase accountability and oversight. She said that she will meeting with Logan on Friday, and she wants to hear about what will change. She does not want to hear any excuses, she said.

If Logan does not resign, Daughtry said she and her colleagues will launch a state investigation. There is currently no language in the existing statute that allows for such a removal, which other state lawmakers such as Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, said is part of the problem.

State Rep. Daniel Ankeles, D-Brunswick, speaking at the news conference Thursday, said that urgent action needs to be taken and that there is a lack of accountability for Brunswick Landing, describing it as a “town within a town.” Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

“My constituents and I should not be learning about inspectors determining that there are deficiencies in the fire suppression system in a newspaper article that comes out several weeks after the spill,” Ankeles said at the news conference.

He said that urgent action needs to be taken and that there is a lack of accountability for Brunswick Landing, describing it as a “town within a town.”

Others at Thursday’s news conference voiced their displeasure about the lack of openness about the inspection prior to and after the spill.

Steve Walker, a former town councilor and the executive director of the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, said that he was “stunned and shocked” that the authority didn’t deal with the hazardous foam more seriously.

“Ultimately they were forthcoming, but sitting on that information for a year, year and half? It’s just stunning, shocking, and I hope eye-opening for the council members who can make decisions here moving forward about MRRA,” Walker said.

Fire retardant foam seeps through a manhole cover near Brunswick Landing after the spill on Aug. 19. Meghan Kissling photo

He added that he hopes that the state, which oversees the authority, will take notice of the issue and provide more oversight moving forward.

Brunswick resident Shaun Hogan shared an email he sent to local officials, including Ankeles, also calling for Logan’s resignation.

“What we absolutely cannot and should not tolerate is deception and incompetence,” he wrote.

Dr. David Page called attention to a June 2023 letter that was submitted with the Town Council’s resolution draft last week, saying that it predicted what happened on Aug. 19. He said he never received a response to the letter from the redevelopment authority’s board. He also said that the same signatories to the letter had petitioned Sen. Angus King earlier in 2023 to get the Navy to remove the foam.

Even trace amounts of some PFAS are considered a public health risk, according to federal regulators. High exposure over a long time can cause cancer. Exposure to small amounts during critical life stages, such as in early childhood, can also cause life-changing harm.

The toxic foam is used by firefighters to fight high-intensity fuel fires at military bases, civilian airports, fuel terminals and industrial plants that use a lot of chemicals, such as paper mills. The foam forms a film or blanket over the fire, depriving it of the oxygen it needs to burn.

Firefighting foam is the most common source of forever chemical contamination in the U.S., according to the EPA, but PFAS has shown up in trace amounts almost everywhere, from Arctic polar bears to Maine dairy farmers.

Town Councilors said the inspection report issues will be discussed at the next meeting on Sept. 16.