I am a longtime Brunswick resident. Our home is to the southwest of Brunswick Landing, the former Brunswick Naval Air Station (BNAS). My parents lived in Topsham, just across the river from BNAS and directly under the flight path of the P3 Orions. The low hum of the engines was background noise. It was less so at my home in Brunswick because we are off to the side of the flight path, and the P3’s did not bank hard enough to pass over us at low altitude. It was only when the big planes or fighter jets came in that you were reminded how noisy an airport can be. (Then, and on air show weekends.) I always had a favorable view of our air base neighbors. BNAS brought economic prosperity to the community, and I have a number of friends who were stationed there while enlisted and chose to make the area their home after their service ended. And who drove a pickup truck when the base was active without a couple of the sonobuoy tubes full of sand in the bed to increase their winter traction?

In the late ’80s, we started hearing about some of the environmental concerns on the base, and Brunswick Area Citizens For A Safe Environment (BACSE) was formed in 1990 to address some of these issues. The NAS Brunswick Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) was formed in 1995. The base was recommended for closure in 2005 and officially decommissioned in 2011. The former BNAS is now referred to as Brunswick Landing.

BNAS neighbors who were not directly involved in these groups were informed about the “Superfund”-designated sites on the base and informed about the concept of the “eastern plume” — the notion that groundwater pollution impacted only those who were unfortunate enough to live to the south and east of base. Then we started to learn about the detrimental (and probable carcinogenic) effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly referred to as PFAS. We learned that PFAS were found in the aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), a fire retardant that is commonly used in aviation, and was an important part of the fire suppression systems at BNAS. We learned about the “legacy” use and “legacy” disposal and spills of AFFF on the base.

This past August, the PFAS issue “hit the fan” when the fire-suppression system in Hanger 4 on the base failed and we experienced a summer snowstorm of AFFF. As a neighbor to the west, I thought our drinking water well was safe, but I reached out to my town councilor, and he suggested that I get in touch with a group called Brunswick United For A Safe Environment (BUSE — sorry for yet another acronym). This is a group of citizens who organized in response to the August spill. Some of them live within the “eastern plume” and are directly impacted by the contamination of their wells. Some do not, but they have experience in community environmental action and wanted to help.

My involvement with BUSE has informed me how little we know about the extent to which our citizens and our local ecosystem have been impacted by the August spill and the decades of “legacy” PFAS spills and releases on Brunswick Landing. It has also informed me how the entities responsible for monitoring and remedying the pollution on the former air base — the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the current management entity for Brunswick landing, the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority — are capable of finger-pointing and avoiding a lead role in cleaning things up.

Just this month, we learned about another dimension of the PFAS threat when well-testing results revealed dangerous levels of PFAS in a drinking water well at Mere Creek Golf Course, a location thought to be to west of the impacted “eastern plume.” How many residents along Harpswell Road need to worry about this? We know the August spill has impacted Harpswell Cove and the adjacent fisheries. Has it reached the wells of our neighbors in Harpswell? What else has been impacted? Is it safe to hunt and eat deer and turkeys that forage on the base and wander into adjacent areas, or waterfowl harvested in our estuaries? Is it safe to eat vegetables from your garden that you water from your tainted well?

It is time to stop the denial and the finger pointing and organize a comprehensive study of the extent of this pollution and to make a plan to remedy the dangers it poses to our citizens and our ecosystem. In fact, it is past time for this — let’s do it today.

Ralph Keyes is a Brunswick resident.