On Monday, March 18, 2024, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine launched a first-of-its-kind initiative to destroy hazardous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in firefighting foam. 

During an event at Wright State University's Calamityville training facility in Fairborn today, Governor DeWine announced details of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's new Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) Takeback Program. AFFF is primarily used by fire departments to smother flammable liquid fires, but its high concentrations of PFAS compounds - often called "forever" chemicals - resist typical environmental degradation processes and cause long-term contamination of water, soil, and air.  

Using PFAS Annihilator® technology developed by Battelle, which is headquartered in Columbus, the AFFF Takeback Program will destroy PFAS in firefighting foam to non-detectable levels through the process of supercritical water oxidation. 

"The development of this technology is just another example of how Ohio continues to lead the nation in innovation," said Governor DeWine. "Through this new program, we're destroying PFAS, which was once believed to be indestructible, to protect our first responders and safeguard the environment." 

Ohio airports needing assistance with PFAS can follow these steps:

• Go to https://oh.revive-environmental.com/register/

• Make an account- Account will include contact information as well as their Identifier (your identification code is your FAA identifier code). 

• After making an account you should be able to go right into registering your material.

• You will be asked preferred days of week/times for drop-off.

• You will then add the material. For that you will need the following: manufacturer, material name, purchase date, manufacturer date, container type, # of containers, gallons, any images of material and MSDS sheets. You can list unknown to any of these and it just flags it for EPA on the back end because they will then need to do some more testing to determine what the material actually is. The more specifics on the material the better.