Oct. 11—The embattled director of the regional airport where a faulty, poorly maintained sprinkler system caused one of the nation's biggest toxic foam spills says she is resigning because she had become a distraction from the oversight board's cleanup efforts.
"After much reflection, I've come to the difficult decision that my first duty is to ensure this good work goes on, unimpeded by outside politics and the political agendas of others," Kristine Logan said in a statement Friday night. "For that reason, I've decided to remove myself as a focal point."
The board of trustees of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority — the public municipal corporation created by the state to oversee the privatization of the 3,300-acre former Brunswick Naval Air Station — announced Thursday that Logan would be stepping down Oct. 18.
This came about two months after a fire suppression system in one of the hangars malfunctioned and discharged 51,450 gallons of firefighting foam containing high levels of toxic forever chemicals down the drains, into the parking lot, and eventually into nearby Androscoggin River and Harpswell Cove.
Even trace amounts of some perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, undermine public health, according to federal regulators. High exposure over a long time can cause cancer. Exposure during critical life stages, such as in early childhood, can cause life-changing harm.
Firefighters use aqueous film-forming foams, or AFFF, containing forever chemicals to fight high-intensity fuel fires. The foam forms a film or blanket over the fire, depriving it of the oxygen it needs to burn, but its environmental risks have prompted many to switch to slightly less effective PFAS-free foams.
Maine recently passed a law banning the purchase of AFFF but not its use, which means airports and firefighters are allowed to use up their existing stock of legacy PFAS foams before having to shell out for a new foam supply, a new foam system and disposal of any lingering legacy foams.
Logan had initially claimed that Brunswick Executive Airport had no choice but to use the old PFAS-laden foam concentrate left behind by the Navy to make its firefighting foam. But nothing in the Federal Aviation Administration rules or state fire code prohibits a switch to PFAS-free foam.
Logan also initially said that the malfunctioning sprinkler system had a clean service record. When pressed for inspection reports, however, she admitted its last inspection had revealed several deficiencies that had yet to be addressed even though more than a year had passed.
Logan said she didn't know about the inspection deficiencies when answering initial questions about the Aug. 19 spill and had relied on the word of her facilities manager. But records she provided to defend her actions revealed that she had been copied on emails about the deficiencies.
The lack of transparency over the hangar's inspection record angered local officials worried about the environmental damage and potential public health risks caused by the spill. Local officials called for Logan's resignation after the Portland Press Herald published the inspection record.
At the time, Logan portrayed calls for her ouster as the search for a scapegoat. She and her family had spent years loving a place that she only later realized had been contaminated by the Navy. Contributing to that grim environmental record, even by accident, was her worst nightmare, she said.
The redevelopment authority's board of trustees stood behind Logan. In its statement announcing her decision to step down, the board said it would have preferred Logan stay and praised how she handled the multiagency effort to clean up the spill and remove the AFFF from the airport's two other hangars.
The board statement did not specify Logan's reason for leaving. Logan filled in that blank on Friday.
"As a leader, I can best serve in the current environment by stepping away," Logan wrote in a personal statement issued by the redevelopment agency. "I not only believe in the concept of servant-leadership but do my best to practice it."
The Topsham resident has had multiple roles at MRRA and Brunswick Landing over the past 9 1/2 years, including eight years as the business development manager, deputy director and director of TechPlace, Brunswick Landing's technology incubator.
The former school teacher and Navy wife's first official role for what is now Brunswick Landing was as the director of the BRAC Transition Center, which was set up in April 2007 to help civilian employees retrain for a new career after the Navy closed the base.
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