Taxiing jet engines groaned on the tarmac, their fumes filling the Port of Seattle's firetruck bays on an early summer day here. Snaking hoses connected tanks and filters in a complex cleanup operation. Over six days, the system flushed a toxic substance from a firetruck as the department became one of the first in the nation to begin to remove firefighting foam concentrates laced with "forever chemicals.
" For decades, per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, or PFAS, have been used in foams to put out the highest-intensity petroleum-fueled fires—especially important in saving lives amid catastrophe at airports, military bases and fossil fuel refineries. But the chemicals have left a deadly legacy. PFAS manufacturers knew the product was toxic yet concealed it for decades.
The firefighters who were often covered in the foams during training exercises or fire responses, however, only learned of their harm to people and the environment in recent years. As a wave of state and federal legislation and rule-making phase out the chemicals and offer safer alternatives, Sea-Tac says it's the first U.S.
airport to use a cleaning technology. Washington will require the state's 11 commercial airports to remove their PFAS products and replace them by fall 2025. The problem? They can't just literally dump toxic chemicals.
And some argue something more than water is needed to clean equipment. For some local firefighters who have lived through the PFAS era, and lost friends and colleagues along.
