Ohio Governor Mike DeWine will visit Wright State University's Calamityville campus on March 18 to officially launch Ohio’s new statewide program to annihilate hazardous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in firefighting foam.
The new Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) Takeback Program will use new PFAS Annihilator® technology capable of destroying PFAS in certain substances. The program is the first statewide AFFF takeback initiative to launch in the nation that will destroy both firefighting foam and the PFAS it contains.
Several southwest Ohio fire departments are expected to turn in more than 1000 gallons of AFFF during the event. Fire departments will drop off totes and buckets full of AFFF and receive onsite tours of the PFAS annihilator and learn how the AFFF is broken down and the PFAS is destroyed.
The PFAS Annihilator is a closed-loop, on-site destruction solution that effectively destroys PFAS in AFFF to non-detectable levels via supercritical water oxidation. All participating fire stations will receive certificates of destruction.
The program is funded with $3 million in settlement money that Ohio received as part of the state's polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) enforcement case against Monsanto, which was filed by then-Attorney General DeWine in 2018.
NGWA has long been an industry leader in providing PFAS research, education, and resources to the public and scientific communities. Learn more by visiting NGWA.org/PFAS, which is a complete resource center about the groundwater contaminants featuring a recently updated top-10 facts sheet, a position paper, and more.
The Association is hosting, Groundwater in the PFAS Era: Stressors, Protection, and Compliance Conference, April 16-17 in Tucson, Arizona. Click here to learn more.