Environmental Management of Firefighting Foam Policy Explanatory Notes Revision 2 Prepared by: Incident Response Unit, Department of Environment and Heritage Protection © State of Queensland, 2014-16. The Queensland Government supports and encourages the dissemination and exchange of its information. The copyright in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY) licence. Under this licence you are free, without having to seek our permission, to use this publication in accordance with the licence terms. You must keep intact the copyright notice and attribute the State of Queensland as the source of the publication. For more information on this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en Disclaimer This document has been prepared with all due diligence and care, based on the best available information at the time of publication. The department holds no responsibility for any errors or omissions within this document. 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Revision 2.2 – July 2016 www.EHP.qld.gov.au ABN 46 640 294 485 Firefighting Foam Management Policy – Explanatory Notes (Revision 2) Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Background ...........................................................................................................................................1 1.2 Firefighting foam defined .......................................................................................................................2 1.3 General principles..................................................................................................................................2 1.4 The Precautionary Principle ..................................................................................................................3 1.5 Regulatory basis and impact considerations .........................................................................................5 2 Impacts of firefighting foams ....................................................................................................................8 2.1 Composition of firefighting foams ..........................................................................................................9 2.2 Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) .................................................................................................. 14 2.2.1 BOD of firefighting foam .............................................................................................................. 16 2.2.2 Impacts of firefighting foam BOD on water bodies ...................................................................... 17 2.3 Biodegradability .................................................................................................................................. 18 2.3.1 Biodegradability of firefighting foam ............................................................................................ 19 2.3.2 Definitions of biodegradability for firefighting foam ...................................................................... 20 2.4 Acute (short-term) toxicity .................................................................................................................. 21 2.4.1 Acute (short-term) toxicity of firefighting foam ............................................................................. 22 2.5 Persistence ......................................................................................................................................... 24 2.5.1 Persistence of fluorinated organic compounds............................................................................ 25 2.5.2 Precursors and partial transformation of fluorinated organic compounds ................................... 26 2.6 Bioaccumulation ................................................................................................................................. 30 2.7 Chronic (long-term) toxicity ................................................................................................................ 31 2.8 PBT (Persistence-Bioaccumulation-Toxicity) ..................................................................................... 32 2.9 Health, safety, amenity and economic considerations ....................................................................... 33 2.9.1 The costs of incidents involving firefighting foam ........................................................................ 34 2.9.2 Human health and safety implications ......................................................................................... 37 2.10 Applying the Precautionary Principle ................................................................................................ 38 3 Treatment and disposal of wastes ........................................................................................................ 41 3.1 Firewater and wastewater treatment .................................................................................................. 41 3.2 Foam concentrate disposal ................................................................................................................ 42 3.3 Infrastructure contamination ............................................................................................................... 42 4 Foam use issues ..................................................................................................................................... 43 4.1 Fire brigades ....................................................................................................................................... 43 4.2 Hydrocarbon refineries and large storage facilities ............................................................................ 45 4.3 Ports, shipping and offshore facilities ................................................................................................. 46 4.4 Mobile plant and portable extinguishers ............................................................................................. 48 5 Assessment standards and information .............................................................................................. 49 5.1 Safety Data Sheets (SDS/MSDS) ...................................................................................................... 49 5.1.1 SDS preparation .......................................................................................................................... 51 5.1.2 Ecological information (SDS Section 12) ..................................................................................... 51 Page iii of 85 • July 2016 Department of Environmental and Heritage Protection www.EHP.qld.gov.au ABN 46 640 294 485. Environmental Management of Firefighting Foam Policy – Explanatory Notes (Revision 2) 5.2 Analyses for fluorinated organic compounds ..................................................................................... 52 6 Balancing considerations ...................................................................................................................... 54 6.1 Large-scale release risks ................................................................................................................... 55 6.2 Small-scale releases .......................................................................................................................... 55 6.3 Considering the choices ..................................................................................................................... 56 7 Use of persistent organic compounds ................................................................................................. 57 7.1 World-wide concerns .......................................................................................................................... 58 7.2 Ongoing use of fluorinated compounds ............................................................................................. 58 7.3 U.S. EPA PFOA Stewardship Program relevance ............................................................................. 60 7.4 Long-chain fluorinated organic compounds ....................................................................................... 61 7.5 Short-chain fluorinated organic compounds ....................................................................................... 63 7.6 Alternatives to fluorinated compounds ............................................................................................... 66 8 Use of non-persistent foams ................................................................................................................. 68 9 Policy implementation ............................................................................................................................ 70 9.1 General compliance timelines ............................................................................................................ 71 9.2 Up to three years for facilities to comply ............................................................................................ 71 References ..................................................................................................................................................