Workers clean up firefighting foam containing forever chemicals that was discharged at Brunswick Executive Airport on Aug. 19. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer, file

The Brunswick Fire Department issued a notice of violation Thursday to the agency that manages the Brunswick Executive Airport for failing to comply with requirements regarding its fire suppression systems.

Fire suppression systems in airport Hangars 5 and 6 were found deficient in a pair of July 2023 inspections, and airport officials have not submitted documentation indicating the proper repairs have been made, Joshua Shean, deputy chief of the fire department’s fire prevention division, wrote in the notice.

The same kind of suppression system was in use in Hangar 4, where 1,450 gallons of aqueous film-forming foam concentrate mixed with 50,000 gallons of water to create an accidental discharge that was released into the surrounding area last month. That foam contained high concentrations of PFAS, or forever chemicals, which are toxic even in small amounts.

The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, which oversees the airport, is required to submit a corrective action plan for addressing compliance issues at Hangars 5 and 6 by the end of the month, Shean said.

If MRRA fails to meet that deadline, the department will issue a $100 fine and set a new deadline. If that deadline passes without an acceptable plan, the fine ratchets up to $200. This process repeats twice more with $500 and $1,000 fines before penalties shift to civil litigation, Shean said in a Thursday night phone call.

But Shean said he was fairly confident the authority would meet the department’s deadline.

He said Kristine Logan, executive director of the MRRA, told him the authority had already contracted with Eastern Fire to repair the systems and conduct annual inspections in both hangars.

“In some ways, they’re already underway in terms of getting the system back into compliance,” Shean said.

Reached by phone Thursday night, Logan said her team met with Eastern Fire Thursday and aims to have that firm visit the hangars next week to “fix any of the deficiencies” and conduct an annual inspection.

“We are actively looking for other options” for replacing the foam system, Logan said. “We want to do that. That’s our goal.”

Logan said she was confident that her team would be able to submit its action plan by the Sept. 30 deadline, but said it was too early to say when any construction might take place or what its scope would be.

Logan said the next steps will depend on whether it is possible to reuse any of the existing infrastructure, or whether the hangar will need an entirely new system installed.

“Once we figure out what that looks like, then we’ll be looking for how to fund that,” Logan said. “It could be upward of $8 million” to replace the entire system, though she said that figure is an estimate.

A MATTER OF TIMING

Earlier this week, the Brunswick City Council questioned Fire Chief Ken Brillant about why he didn’t know that the airport’s suppression systems were behind on their inspections.

Councilor Jennifer Hicks said she was not sure whether she could believe anything MRRA tells the council and called an earlier response by authority board Chair Herman Nichols’ inadequate.

“We have a lot of people who are very angry at MRRA,” Hicks said. “Trust has been broken.”

At its Monday meeting, the council also unanimously approved a list of seven action items for MRRA, including a call to shut down the fire suppression systems by the end of this month.

But Shean said the system’s use of toxic foam in Hangars 5 and 6 is not a problem from a code perspective, because that foam is extremely effective at putting out blazes. Rather, “the reason that the system is not in compliance now is just because it’s uninspected,” Shean said.

“At the very least, (the report is) showing that it’s two months past when the annual reinspection was due to be conducted,” he said.

Shean said the fire department first received the out of date inspection reports Wednesday as part of a public records release.

He said the local fire department does not regularly inspect the alarm and suppression systems of most buildings, and the department’s most recent inspection efforts have focused on multi-family residential buildings. He said those structures pose the greatest potential for loss of life and property.

Shean said it’s up to property owners to conduct annual inspections of their own buildings and “there is no requirement to submit inspection reports” to the department.

He said the department conducts its own inspections in response to complaints or following up on emergencies – such as the August discharge.

“I couldn’t venture a guess of how many buildings in Brunswick have fire alarm systems,” Shean said.

Now that the department has issued a notice to MRRA, Shean said, the department will continue actively monitoring the airport’s inspection and maintenance reports to ensure compliance.

“Now that we’ve started on the compliance pathway, they stay on that pathway until they’re 100% compliant,” Shean said. “If the inspection report comes back, and there’s deficiencies noted, then we’re going to follow up and make sure those deficiencies are corrected.”

Times Record Staff Writer Kristian Moravec contributed to this report.