Defence officials will brief Auckland Council today about toxic firefighting foam contamination at Whenuapai and Devonport, as the number of potentially contaminated sites grows.
Whenuapai airbase in Auckland is one of four potentially contaminated defence sites Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
The toxic foam alarm has now spread to four airports and four defence force bases, and the neighbourhoods around them.
Fire and Emergency said it will also conduct a nationwide investigation into fire brigade training locations at Mt Wellington in Auckland, Rotorua, Kilbirnie in Wellington, and Woolston in Christchurch.
Below-maximum levels of the contaminants the foam contains were discovered in the soil at Woolston in 2015, during post-quake rebuilding.
The use of two types of foam - PFOS and PFOA - has been illegal since 2006.
PFOS has been listed as a persistent organic pollutant under the Stockholm Convention since 2011, and New Zealand's Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act was amended back then to show this.
The chemicals in foam have been increasingly implicated in reproductive, immune and cancer conditions in humans in research since 2000.
They have leached into groundwater and into bores used for drinking water at several properties near to defence force bases at Ohakea and Woodbourne.
The first tests at Ohakea were three years ago, but at Whenuapai the investigation is only at a preliminary stage.
Late last week, the Environment Ministry told Auckland Council in an internal memo that "new information shows that some neighbouring properties have bores and could potentially be using these for drinking water".
The Defence Ministry is due to brief Auckland Council later today about Whenuapai and Devonport, where run-off, sediment and soil is confirmed as contaminated above safe levels, and groundwater has tested at 50 to 100 times above recommended maximums.
Three airports - Palmerston North, Gisborne and Napier - were revealed yesterday to have small stocks of the foam, in addition to Nelson airport, which discovered it had stocks of the foam last month.
Horizons regional council has asked for an urgent meeting with Palmerston North airport about the extent of foam use and the implications for testing.
Waipawa company Task Protection Services, which holds the firefighting contract at the three airports named yesterday, had been ordered to put a halt to using the foam and to come up with a plan by early April for getting rid of it.
"We were disappointed, we were shocked - the protection of the environment is who we are," company contracts manager Kim Reade said.
"We were not aware it was a banned substance. Had we been aware we would certainly have taken action much earlier."
The company had stocks of the foam in small quantities going back more than 20 years at Palmerston North airport, but had not actually used any of it either in an emergency or in training, she said.
"Foam for a start is a very expensive product."
The authority had several more airports to check, but the four where the banned foam has been found so far were at the top of its list for those most likely to have the foam.
Environmental Protection Authority head Allan Freeth said the understanding around the foams was "nowhere near where we expected it to be".
"[For] anyone working with chemicals, the obligation is on the user - ignorance isn't a defence here.
"Whoever's imported it has broken the law, anyone who owns it to use is breaking the law. I'm not sure of the legality of people who've on-sold it."
Groundwater testing around the airports was now up to regional councils, he said.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand had no authority over airport crews and said it had no inkling they had been using banned foam, even though its crews regularly train alongside airport crews.
"They'd be familiar with their fire appliance but wouldn't be able to see what sort of foam they had in a tank," national urban commander Paul McGill said.
Fire crews still used foams with the suspect chemical fluorine in them but had not used or bought the banned foams since 2006, he said.
The hunt was on for a foam that had none of the troublesome fluorines in it but still put out very hot fires.
Fire and Emergency was also centralising its foam buying so it could keep better track of it, Mr McGill said.