9/21/2024
WT Staff
 September 21, 2024 1225 pm EDT
Interview with Mark Smith, Emergency Planning and Operations Deputy Fire Chief, PortsToronto
- recorded September 19, 2024 1237 pm EDT
PortsToronto is the owner and operator of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.
WT: Thank you for joining us. WaterToday has been reporting on PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ since 2010. You can imagine how pleased we are to learn about your successful roll-over to an alternative foam, being so close to Toronto's drinking water source. Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport ESG report for 2023 says you are the first airport in North America to make this change. Where did it begin?
Deputy-Chief Mark Smith: The main reason we made this transition, Billy Bishop is at a very unique location surrounded by Lake Ontario. We needed to order foam, it just happened to work with Transport Canada. It was very good timing.
A bit of background, in 2019 we decided to start the transition journey. Obviously, we know AFFF (aqueous film forming foam) and the hazards that come with that product. There was talk about an alternative and Transport Canada providing a possible exemption. We were getting to the point where we had to get our annual testing done, so I placed the order for our regular stock AFFF with a manufacturer called Solberg Foam.
As soon as we placed the order, funny thing, Transport Canada issued the exemption, right then. I talked to our Airport Director, "What should we do?" Director at the time said, "Let’s do it." I had the full support of PortsToronto, Billy Bishop Airport and the Executive Team and they said, "Let’s make it happen." So, I cancelled the order for AFFF and we ordered the fluorine-free product, called RF3 Foam, also manufactured by Solberg.
WT: That's timing! Tell us more about the exemption from Transport Canada? An exemption from regulations allowed you to implement an alternative?
Smith: Transport Canada issued an exemption because the hazards associated with AFFF were becoming more of a concern across the globe. There was a lot of push from Canadian airports in looking at alternatives, even going back to 2019 – 2020. Transport Canada allowed that exemption but with that came some stipulations that had to be met in order to remain compliant, we had to maintain our response rate as per Transport Canada's requirements. When I say maintain our readiness to respond, if we were going to take the (AFFF) foam out of our vehicles we need to make sure we still have adequate agent in support of airport operations. At Billy Bishop Airport we do have a spare vehicle so we are fortunate we could put that spare vehicle into play while we removed another vehicle to have it transitioned over. That’s one.
Two, making sure the fluorine-free foam had been through physical testing by the vehicle manufacturers. We were fortunate that Solberg had already done testing with Oshkosh, the manufacturer of our vehicle. So that was another box checked. Also ensuring that the foam was complimentary with the dry chemical we have on board. So, we have to make sure that not only is our foam compatible with our truck, we had to make sure that our dry chem, our secondary agent is also compatible. Also, making sure we have all the appropriate documentation from the environmental standpoint and from the vehicle standpoint. So that’s how we got through certain components that needed to be met. Solberg was at that time the only manufacturer that could supply adequate documentation to appease the requirements for Transport Canada for that exemption.
WT: So did I hear you say the push towards an alternative to PFAS product was initiated by the airports?
Smith: I’m going back to 2020, so I’m trying to jog my memory of how that all came about. There was a lot of talk globally, the hazards that were associated with AFFF, not only from an environmental standpoint but health and safety. Billy Bishop had already been looking into alternatives when the exemption came. We are very fortunate that Transport Canada was on it, acknowledged that AFFF is very harmful to the environment and firefighters. A lot of questions were directed to Transport Canada, we are fortunate they jumped on board, as long as we could meet certain stipulations outlined in the exemption, we could go ahead with the transition.
So there was the exemption, now, how to go about this? There was no direction, none of that. Here is where a lot of our own research started, into what foam was going to be used. There were other foams on the market at the time. We had to make sure they met standards.
WT: How did Billy Bishop come to be the first to make this transition? Do you know of others on this same track, how did you end up doing it first?
Smith: Canadian Airports are a small group but it's a large industry. There were still a lot of questions, a lot of airports had questions on making a transition. I do know that we were the first to go through that process.
We worked very closely with Toronto Pearson as well, they did not make the change right then, but we were in contact. Toronto Pearson has now made the switch to a fluorine-free foam. It is slowly starting to go through the airports in Canada, a lot have made the transition by now. Some have gone with other manufacturers such as National Foam, ABO Green and BioX, these are other manufacturers with foam products.
Going back to being the first, that did come with a lot of challenges.
There is more to it than just removing (AFFF) from the vehicle. When we get the foam out, then what do we do? How do we ensure we have all those chemicals out of the tank before we put in the new fluorine-free product? So again, no directions on how to do this. Basically, going on what we feel is right. So, some of that transition I will outline a little bit, not getting to heavily into the details. How do we remove AFFF in a safe manner? Wearing PPE, making sure we have adequate PPE before we start the process. Ordering enough empty totes, pumping off our trucks, getting it into a tote, getting another tote. Washing the truck with water, putting water into the foam tank. Washing down the walls, what do we do with that residual? We we have to put that into a tote. The flushing process took a long time. Multiple tanks of water were used to make sure we were clean as we could get. Once we felt we were clean enough we started discharging out of our turrets, which is you can see those in front of the crash trucks, those big water cannons, we call those turrets. We started discharging water from our foam tank, hand lines, and everywhere we had an output. Once we felt we were clean enough, just to be on the safe side we filled the foam tank up again and took a water sample. I froze it and shipped it to a lab in BC for a water quality test. They tested for a bunch of chemicals PFAS, PFOAs. Working very close with Solberg's head chemist through the whole process, after his review of our water test results, I felt very confident putting the new foam in my truck.
WT: Were pumps and nozzles on the truck an issue?
Smith: Orifices were an issue. There were some modifications made to my trucks to accommodate for this type of foam, for the viscosity. Getting to the technical aspects of it, new crash vehicles are designed with electronic proportioning, so depending on viscosity of the foam the valves will open and close automatically. The older generation vehicles had manual proportioning, 3%. This is where I said we had to do our modifications to our vehicles by drilling out the valves and our proportioning system to allow for the thicker viscosity of the new foam. So that’s where the relationships come in, building your team with your vehicle manufacturer, for us, that's Oshkosh, they were very supportive through the transition. We also work with Rosenbauer and E1. It is very important to talk to your vehicle manufacturer before you make a decision. Building the team is very critical to get through this process.
WT: What was the timeline for the transition and testing?
Smith: Back in October of 2019 we did our first truck transition. Come testing day, we had a full group out, full force. Transport Canada was on site as well. I invited them out to see results of our foam testing and everything passed with our trucks. So that's where its at today, in a nutshell. There's a little more to it obviously when it came to our procedures and how we flushed the trucks but that’s pretty much the nutshell.
WT: What has your experience been like since then, deploying this new foam in testing and training exercises?
Smith: With deploying foam there is a huge cost. There is a little bit of a different application process with this type of foam but generally the only time you will see us discharge foam after transition is during the first test. On the day of the transition, we physically discharged foam not only from our turrets, we also discharged from our hose rails, our under-truck nozzles, everything we needed to test. Since Transport Canada also allowed the use of input-based testing, this allows us to do testing on board our vehicles without discharging. By doing that, you’re also saving on the environment and saving on the cost of physically discharging the foam. Even though we do have fluorine-free foam trucks and agent on board now, we had our trucks additionally modified with Oshkosh products for input-based testing. So, this allows us to test our trucks every year, foam and dry chem testing for Transport Canada, all done by in-put testing rather than output.
WT: I read about that in one of the reports. Input testing you've got a foam concentrate in the truck and it allows you to add water to it and test the foam in the truck without losing it?
Smith: Yes that’s right.
WT: Would you have any advice to give to other fire departments and municipalities?
Smith: I think when it comes to going through this transition, make sure that you have a strong team. Make sure all your firefighters are on board, make sure you have the right PPE on board when removing the old AFFF from your vehicles. Make sure you make contact with your vehicle supplier, make sure the foam is adequate for your proportioning system for your vehicle. As well, make sure of the disposal, have an environmental plan, how you are going to safely dispose of it. We got our foam totes and had it shipped out by truck for disposal. That’s pretty much all I have from an advice prospective. The biggest one is making sure you build that team, its not something you can do on your own, do the research and make sure the new foam is adequate for your application and your vehicle.
From Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport 2023 ESG Report
Intellectual Capital Management - Innovation p 52
In 2019, Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport started the search for PFAS -free foam for its firefighting efforts. It proved to be an uphill battle, as there was a gap in the extinguishment, burn back and sealability times between the legacy PFAS-containing formulations and
fluorine-free alternatives at the time.
After careful investigation and deliberation, we became the first commercial airport in North America to transition to PFAS-free foam in its firefighting operations. The new alternative degrades and breaks down in less than 90 days, as opposed to PFAS, which can take thousands of years to do so. Careful review and examination of options, collaboration with fire truck manufacturers and hazardous waste management companies, and training for the firefighters in the application of this solution were integral to the process, and have ensured safety, security and sustainability of our operations.
|
|
|
