The City of Kenai is swapping out a firefighting foam linked to public health risks for one that isn’t. The Kenai City Council last week agreed to spend $97,641.61 on the initiative, which includes decontaminating the city fire trucks.
The material being phased out is aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF. The foam is effective for putting out fires involving flammable liquids, like fuel. But it also contains chemicals linked to adverse health conditions, even at low levels. Sometimes called “forever chemicals,” per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, are waterproof, stain resistant and nonstick.
Current and former airports are common sites of PFAS contamination. That’s because the Federal Aviation Administration used to require AFFF for firefighting at airports it certified. The federal mandate ended in 2021 and Alaska fully ended the use of firefighting foams containing PFAS in 2024.
Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank told the council the funding they approved will cover several projects.
“We have to decontaminate our existing equipment, so the machines, or equipment that currently has the foam in it – all that has to be removed,” he said. “Those things have to be cleaned and decontaminated. We have to then dispose of all AFFF that we have because we no longer can use it, and then we must purchase a replacement foam.”
The fire department doesn’t deploy the foam often, and Eubank says they have enough on hand to use while they wait for about 1,500 gallons of the new material to come in, nearly all bound for the airport. He says the city also plans to stagger vehicle decontamination to ensure some remain in commission.
Eubank says PFAS contamination isn’t a problem in Kenai right now.
A 2019 study by Alaska Community Action on Toxics did not find any evidence of unsafe PFAS contamination in the city’s drinking water. Since then, Eubank says the city has affirmed that through its own tests as part of its runway rehabilitation project at the airport. Two samples of Kenai’s municipal water system in 2024 had no detectable levels of PFAS.
Last summer, a state study confirmed the presence of PFAS in soil and groundwater near a former Nikiski fire station. The contamination has polluted a nearby water utility, which has been working to address the issue for years.
Kenai officials expect the contaminant-free foam to ship in the next few months.
