The new law requires a switch to PFAS-free foams by Jan. 1 and sets up a system to help rural villages get rid of them.
Waters of Anchorage’s Lake Hood and, beyond it, Lake Spenard are seen on Wednesday behind a parked seaplane. The connected lakes, located at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, comprise a busy seaplane center. A study by Alaska Community Action on Toxics published last year found that the two lakes had, by far, the highest levels of PFAS contamination of several Anchorage- and Fairbanks-area waterways the organization tested.
“We have worked for more than six years to pass this legislation with strong support from affected communities throughout Alaska, firefighters, and health professionals,” Pamela Miller, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement released by the Senate’s bipartisan majority caucus. There was one significant change made in the House Finance Committee, Kiehl said: a switch from a mandate that the state safely dispose of PFAS foams accumulated in small villages to the new procedure in which the villages will be reimbursed for safe disposal. Money for that reimbursement was appropriated in the just-approved capital budget for the current fiscal year, he noted.
“That’s not something he shared with me,” Kiehl said. “Ultimately, the work gets done, so I’ve got no objection.”
State Government Alaska Legislature Jesse Kiehl PFAS PFOA Water Contamination
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