MassDEP’s Central Regional Office (CERO) has shared with the LSPA about 40 files containing results from the sampling of non-legacy aqueous film forming foams (AFFFs) for PFAS content. The aim of this 2021 effort was to create a reference of AFFFs deployed at release Sites that would guide MassDEP staff, PRPs, and LSPs as they formulate sampling plans at release Sites where an AFFF has been deployed.  

This effort stems from the fact that, in some cases, AFFF content is not included in ingredients on product Safety Data Sheets or it is assumed that AFFF does not contain PFAS for products manufactured after 2002, around when PFOS was voluntarily phased out from AFFF manufactured by 3M. This can lead parties to conclude that PFAS sampling is not warranted. But that may be an inaccurate assumption. 

The data in these 40 files is only from fire departments in CERO as an initial control scope. No more work has been done to date on this effort at MassDEP.  The LSPA encourages any LSPA members who do analyses of these files to share their findings with the LSPA. Please contact Wendy Rundle, LSPA Executive Director, at [email protected].