Thunder Bay airport monitoring pollutant
Airport head says chemical used in firefighter training at Canadian aiports has not been used since before 1997
Thunder Bay's Airport Authority says a toxic chemical found on airport property has been contained and is being monitored.
Banned in 1982, Perfluorooctane sulfonate — or PFOS — was part of the foam used for firefighter training for years at Canadian airports. The chemical has been found at numerous airports across the country.
Thunder Bay Airport CEO Scott McFadden said there are no current plans to remove the contaminated soil.
"It is becoming recognized as something that you don't want to have uncontained," he said. "But as far as guidelines for acceptable levels in the soil … there are none."
McFadden said when the Airport Authority took over the site from Transport Canada in 1997, it did an extensive environmental baseline study, but the chemical was not identified as harmful at the time. He added PFOS was last used on airport property sometime before 1997.
According to Health Canada, the exposure of some wildlife to PFOS — such as polar bears and bird species — could be near or at levels that are harmful to them. However, current exposure to humans is not significant enough to be considered dangerous to human health under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
PFOS can accumulate in living organisms and has been widely detected in remote areas of the world including the Canadian Arctic.
McFadden said wells around the perimeter of the old fire training site at the airport are monitored to ensure the chemical does not move.