About a month after state and municipal officials began calling for her resignation, the embattled director of the Brunswick Executive Airport — the site of one of the nation’s biggest toxic firefighting foam spills — is stepping down as the airport authority struggles to pay for a costly cleanup and regain the public trust.
The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority did not announce the resignation of Kristine Logan, its executive director since January 2022, until late Thursday, a few hours after the authority board held its annual meeting. But the announcement letter was written before the meeting had even begun.
Kristine Logan, the executive director of Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, answers questions about the release of hundreds of gallons of aqueous firefighting foam containing forever chemicals at a news conference outside the Brunswick Executive Airport on Aug. 21, two days after the spill. She resigned on Thursday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
The board’s statement, posted on the authority’s website, didn’t say why Logan resigned but noted that the board had wanted her to stay. Oct. 18 will be her last day. Despite a relatively short tenure, the board praised her leadership in turning the former 3,300-acre Brunswick Naval Air Station into the thriving Brunswick Landing.
“Kristine has been an outstanding leader, guiding MRRA through a period of tremendous growth and transformation,” the board wrote. “Under her leadership, Brunswick Landing continues to be one of the most successful military base conversions in the United States.”
Despite a growing chorus of local residents and leaders seeking her termination, the board expressed “full confidence” in how Logan handled an accidental Aug. 19 release of 51,450 gallons of highly toxic aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF. The foam contains forever chemicals that are a public health risk in even trace amounts.
The cause was identified as a faulty fire suppression system. Logan initially claimed the sprinkler system in Hangar 4 had malfunctioned despite a clean inspection record. Later, she admitted the system had not been inspected in over a year and that its last inspection had uncovered several deficiencies.
When asked about the discrepancy between her statements, Logan initially said she hadn’t known about the past violations and had relied on the word of her facilities manager, but documents show that Logan had been copied on emails between the manager and the sprinkler service company.
The board didn’t address this discrepancy but instead focused on her role in the multi-agency cleanup.
Council Chairperson Abby King (second from right) listens to speakers at the podium at the first Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority meeting since one of the worst toxic firefighting foam spills in the state’s history. The embattled board scheduled an emergency meeting for Sept. 20 — spearheaded by the board chairperson and Executive Director Kristine Logan (left) — to address issues arising from the cleanup efforts. Kristian Moravec/The Times Record
“This is not a quick fix,” the board wrote in its two-page statement. “Kristine understood its complexity and multi-jurisdictional challenges and quietly worked in the background to ensure the emergency cleanup response was successful.”
The discrepancies over the inspection histories of the hangar’s foam sprinkler systems, and claims that the redevelopment authority could not switch to a safer version of the firefighting foam like other U.S. airports have, spurred Brunswick officials to call for her resignation.
Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, was one of those calling for Logan to step down.
“While I am among those who called for this resignation, this is not a moment to celebrate, given the damage that has been done to our environment and the ongoing threat to public health that remains,” Ankeles posted on social media Thursday night.
Ankeles said Thursday that the resignation brings accountability to the ongoing issue, but that there is still much left to do.
“This development absolves nobody — including legislators — of the responsibility to ensure a smooth transition and continue our efforts to ensure that all AFFF is removed from all hangars on the former Naval Air Station,” Ankeles wrote. “It certainly does not cancel out the need for major structural reform that restores Brunswick’s governance over the Landing. Legislators must deliver both the reform, and the resources needed to support that reform and prevent another spill.”
Aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, 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.
Workers clean up firefighting foam containing forever chemicals that was discharged at Brunswick Executive Airport on Aug. 19. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Firefighting foam is the most common source of forever chemical contamination in the United States. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are used to make thousands of common household and industrial products resistant to heat, water and grease, and show up in trace amounts almost everywhere.
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 during critical life stages, such as in early childhood, can also cause life-changing harm.
Brunswick leaders, including the legislative delegation and town councilors, had gathered on Sept. 12 to call for her resignation after it was revealed that Hangar 4’s fire suppression system inspection and test report showed deficiencies and was overdue for and inspection. The leaders, who learned about the revelation through a Portland Press Herald article, said that the failure to disclose the issue marked a “failure” in the authority’s leadership.
Logan declined to comment at the time on the calls for her resignation, though MRRA Chairman Herman “Nick” Nichols affirmed the following day that he was “110%” behind Logan and her team.
More revelations
Prior to the news about Logan’s resignation, the authority’s board said one of the insurance claims it filed has been outright denied due to a PFOS-exception in the policy.
The midday board meeting on Thursday overviewed several financial items related to the spill, including updates on insurance claims to help pay for the aftermath. Jordan, the deputy director and chief financial officer, said that the authority has already or will soon receive bills from entities cleaning up the mess, and accumulated about $590,000 to date of spill-related expenditures.
Two claims were filed with its insurance agencies, Jordan said. One claim, which was filed with the state-provided insurance policy, is pending, and Logan had said that only what’s inside the building will be covered, such as cleaning up the foam or walls. Another policy that was required by the Navy for Hangar 4 — a commercial policy — was outright denied due to their being PFOS in the foam that spilled.
The authority also confirmed at the meeting that it received two invoices from Clean Harbors and Republic Services, both of which were contracted to clean up the spill from Aug.19. Jordan said had Logan signed a services agreement with Clean Harbors, but the Department of Environmental Protection and the Coast Guard felt that Clean Harbors did not have enough resources, so they secured a contract with Republic Services on the authority’s behalf.
Jordan said on Thursday that a check for $177,000 was sent to Clean Harbors. The board noted that it still needs to pay the Republic Services bill.
“We are tight for cash,” Jordan said. He also noted that the authority has a deficit of $2 million, and that it has essentially borrowed from those reserves to pay operating costs for the airport.
The meeting was the third gathering of the board in the wake of the spill. Thursday’s meeting was held in the same place where the first emergency MRRA board meeting was held on Sept. 20, a month after the spill occurred.
Thursday’s meeting also came on the heels of a hefty document submission to the town to address additional resolution requests. The document, which was made available to the public on Tuesday, contained eight years of reports for Hangar’s 4, 5 and 6 — a majority of which reported deficiencies in the tests and inspections. It also revealed that 6,300 gallons of AFFF remain in Hangars 4, 5, 6 and 7.
Also included in the records was a rundown of fire codes in place in its hangars, certifications and other safety plan documentation requested by the town. The documentation can be viewed on the town’s website.
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