It’s been a decade since the Cape Cod Gateway Airport and Barnstable County were ordered to assess and mitigate PFAS groundwater contamination. Both the airport and the county’s Firefighting Academy used firefighting foam containing the man-made chemicals that don’t break down and are linked to a variety of health issues.
This week, Barnstable County was awarded a $3 million federal earmark to move forward with its remediation strategies to prevent further PFAS release into Cape Cod's sole-source aquifer. The award was among $30,774,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending for Massachusetts through the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations cycle.
Meanwhile, the airport held a town-hall meeting to provide a status update on its remediation project. Bryan Massa is an environmental consultant and the airport's Licensed Site Professional. He says the airport has implemented its remediation plan and has entered into a monitoring phase.
"The airport has a belt and suspenders approach, where they capped the PFAS-impacted soil," said Massa. "So that cap needs to be monitored in perpetuity, basically."
The airport is transitioning to PFAS-free firefighting foam and has a new firetruck on order, according to Airport Manager Michael Nelson.
"With the introduction of the new truck, we wanted to make sure that we had the PFAS free foam in it," Nelson said. "And once we have that one all set up, ready to go, we will start transitioning to the other trucks to replace the foam in those.”
Nelson noted the changeover is a "fairly expensive endeavor" and will take some time.
