The US Department of War (DOW) and the Federal Aviation Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) are tran­si­tion­ing away from aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs) that have high concen­tra­tions of PFAS in favor of fluorine-free fire­fight­ing (F3) foams. Despite the increasing avail­abil­ity of the new F3 foams on DOW’s Qualified Product List (QPL), the transition may not be as easy as it sounds.

“Tran­si­tion­ing to F3 foam is far more complicated that just cleaning fire trucks,” says Jill Greene, AFFF decon­t­a­m­i­na­tion lead at CDM Smith. 

The federal maximum contaminant levels for PFAS call for extremely low envi­ron­men­tal and drinking water levels, measured in the parts-per-trillion. That means an increased likelihood of aggressive remediation of PFAS in response to discharges of AFFF to the environment, down to an almost non-detectable level.