Environmental Sciences Group, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, ON, K7K 7B4, Canada.
Geosyntec Consultants, 130 Stone Road West, Guelph, ON, N1G 5G3, Canada.
J Environ Manage. 2018 Sep 15;222:122-131. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.05.028. Epub 2018 May 26.
Assessing the extent to which emerging contaminants (ECs) such as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been released into the environment is one of the foundations for developing effective management and remediation strategies for impacted sites. PFAS are known to have caused the contamination of soil, groundwater, and surface water as a result of aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) being accidentally or intentionally released into the environment. To date, the scope of the issue has not been evaluated in Canada. In this study we developed a framework, in the form of a decision tree, to estimate the number of potentially PFAS impacted airport sites in Canada as a result of AFFF releases. The screening process was completed using publicly available resources including airport websites, the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association website, Sky Vector, Transport Safety Board of Canada aviation investigation reports, the Aviation Safety Network website, and Google maps. The methodology presented in this study could be used to identify additional PFAS impacted sites in Canada or other jurisdictions worldwide. 2071 airport/heliport sites in Canada were investigated with indications that 152 (7%) of these sites likely have PFAS contamination as a result of the use of AFFF at firefighter training areas (FFTAs) and/or accidents where fires occurred. In addition, another 268 sites (13%) were identified as possibly impacted with PFASs primarily as a result of the location having the ability to store and dispense petroleum products, and therefore having AFFF systems onsite. Surficial geology was also identified for all sites determined to likely have PFAS contamination. An estimated 42.8% had surficial geology composed of sand, 27% had clay, 19.7% organic-based, with the remaining sites found on cryosols or rock. Methodological validation was also completed. The procedure used in this study successfully predicted occurrences of PFAS contamination at 25 sites where contamination, as a result of AFFF use, was confirmed by Canadian governmental departments. For these 25 sites, the distance from potential release areas to the nearest surface water was calculated. Five of the sites were within 200 meters of surface water, 19 were within one kilometer, and all 25 were within 2.5 kilometers. This suggests that surface water may have been historically impacted by PFAS at as many as 152 to 420 different airport locations in Canada.
评估新兴污染物（如全氟烷基和多氟烷基物质（PFAS））在环境中释放的程度是制定受影响地点有效管理和修复策略的基础之一。由于意外或故意将水成膜泡沫（AFFF）释放到环境中，PFAS 已导致土壤、地下水和地表水受到污染。迄今为止，加拿大尚未评估该问题的范围。在这项研究中，我们开发了一个框架，以决策树的形式来估计由于 AFFF 释放而在加拿大受 PFAS 影响的潜在机场的数量。筛选过程使用了公开资源完成，包括机场网站、加拿大所有者和飞行员协会网站、Sky Vector、加拿大运输安全局航空调查报告、航空安全网网站和谷歌地图。本研究中提出的方法可用于在加拿大或世界其他司法管辖区确定其他受 PFAS 影响的地点。对加拿大 2071 个机场/直升机停机坪进行了调查，结果表明，由于在消防员培训区（FFTAs）和/或发生火灾的地方使用 AFFF，其中 152 个（7%）机场/直升机停机坪可能受到 PFAS 污染。此外，还确定了另外 268 个（13%）可能受到 PFAS 影响的地点，主要是由于该地点有能力储存和分配石油产品，因此现场有 AFFF 系统。还确定了所有被确定为可能受到 PFAS 污染的地点的表层地质。估计有 42.8%的表层地质由沙子组成，27%的表层地质由粘土组成，19.7%的表层地质由有机物质组成，其余的表层地质位于冷冻土或岩石上。还完成了方法验证。本研究中使用的程序成功预测了 25 个因 AFFF 使用而确认存在 PFAS 污染的地点的污染情况，这些地点得到了加拿大政府部门的证实。对于这 25 个地点，计算了潜在释放区到最近地表水的距离。其中 5 个地点距离地表水不到 200 米，19 个地点距离地表水不到 1 公里，所有 25 个地点都在 2.5 公里范围内。这表明，在加拿大多达 152 到 420 个不同的机场地点，地表水可能曾受到 PFAS 的历史影响。
