What others have already done.
A sourced library of documented PFAS responses, fire departments and airports that switched off AFFF, water utilities that reached non-detect, military installations that remediated, model state programs, and the communities that drove them. Precedent your organization can cite.
Fire departments & airports
Departments and ARFF crews that pulled AFFF and switched to fluorine-free foam.
Denver International Airport + Denver Fire (CO)
Decontaminated and refilled the entire ARFF fleet with fluorine-free foam, 11 ARFF vehicles rinsed (avg >98% PFAS removal) plus 9 structural rigs, ~$3M of airport funds. Completed May 2025.
Source ↗Los Angeles World Airports. LAX + Van Nuys (CA)
First California airport group to remove PFAS foam from its entire ARFF fleet and switch to F3, 14 trucks cleaned, PFAS reduced >99%. Announced Sept 2024.
Source ↗Portland International Jetport + Portland Fire (ME)
Proactive ~2-year transition to National Foam Avio F3; double-rinsed legacy ARFF trucks; a new truck arrived foam-free. Reported April 2025 as a blueprint for other airports.
Source ↗South Metro Fire Rescue (CO)
First Colorado department to switch to synthetic fluorine-free foam for jet-fuel fires as a cancer-prevention measure; ARFF rigs now carry Solberg 3% MIL-SPEC SFFF. 2024.
Source ↗Pasco Fire Department (WA)
First Washington department to have its AFFF stockpile removed under the new state program, disposed 140+ gallons and is transitioning to F3. 2025.
Source ↗Water utilities
Systems that treated their way to non-detect. (More detail on the methods is in PFAS in Water.)
Cape Fear PUA. Sweeney WTP (Wilmington, NC)
Deep-bed GAC (8 filters, ~3M lbs carbon, the largest GAC water plant in NC) takes GenX and other PFAS to at/near non-detect. Online October 2022.
Source ↗Orange County Water District + City of Orange (CA)
Ion exchange across many agencies, by 2024, 36 facilities online, 58 closed wells restored. An example well (PFOA 14.8 / PFOS 22.8 ppt) returned to service after treatment.
Source ↗Wausau Water Works (WI)
Temporary anion exchange (Dec 2022) then a permanent ~$17M GAC plant took PFAS to non-detect; won a 2025 engineering award and received a $2.86M 3M settlement payment.
Source ↗City of Stuart (FL)
First ion-exchange PFAS plant in Florida (6 MGD), after AFFF from a neighboring public-safety complex, removes PFAS to under 10 ppt (non-detect).
Source ↗Horsham Water & Sewer Authority (PA)
PFAS-selective ion exchange (chosen over GAC in a pilot) after AFFF contamination from nearby bases; treated water held at non-detect.
Source ↗Hyannis / Town of Barnstable (MA)
Coal-based GAC at the wells after AFFF contamination; no detectable PFAS in the system. Treatment began 2016.
Source ↗Military & Air Force bases
Installations that addressed AFFF contamination, and the contrast cases that haven't.
Peterson SFB / Fountain–Widefield (CO)
After AFFF reached the aquifer, districts pulled wells (2016) and provided bottled water; the Air Force paid $9M for a Fountain ion-exchange facility. ATSDR found elevated blood PFAS.
Source ↗Former Wurtsmith AFB. Oscoda (MI)
Pump-and-treat with GAC since 2015; a $4.7M expansion came online Aug 2022 running >99% uptime, though the final remedy is delayed to ~2035 and foam still surfaces on Van Etten Lake.
Source ↗Former Pease AFB (NH)
A contaminated well was shut in 2014; NH ran a 1,578-person blood-testing program, and the CDC/ATSDR Pease Study became the first site, and template, for the national PFAS Multi-Site Study.
Source ↗NAWC Warminster / Willow Grove (PA)
After 2014 contamination, the Navy connected 98 private-well owners to public water and funded main extensions (~$18M Horsham, ~$2.3M Warminster); townships installed GAC + ion exchange.
Source ↗Wright-Patterson AFB (OH)
Shut two wells in 2016 and installed a ~$2.7M GAC system (2017); ~$61.9M spent by 2025. In Feb 2026 the City of Dayton sued the base for >$300M over plume migration.
Source ↗Former England AFB. Alexandria (LA)
The honest contrast: the single highest known PFAS detection at a U.S. military site (20.7 million ppt PFHxS, 2016), yet no completed cleanup and no bottled-water/treatment action reported. A reminder the problem is far from solved.
Source ↗Model state programs
States whose approaches became templates others follow.
Michigan. MPART
A standing cross-agency response team plus enforceable limits for seven PFAS (PFOA 8 ppt, PFOS 16 ppt), effective 2020 across ~2,700 public water supplies. The most-cited 'whole-of-government' model.
Source ↗New Jersey, first-in-nation MCL
NJ set the first drinking-water limit for any PFAS by any U.S. state. PFNA at 13 ppt (2018), followed by PFOA and PFOS in 2020. The regulatory pioneer.
Source ↗North Carolina. Chemours Consent Order
A three-party (DEQ + Cape Fear River Watch + company) court-enforceable order: 99.9% air-emission cut, well sampling and replacement water, $13M penalty (2019). Cited as the enforcement model.
Source ↗Colorado. AFFF takeback
Banned PFAS foam for training and pays departments $40/gallon to remove it, the only cash buyback in the country, projected to destroy ~40,000 gallons. The takeback model.
Source ↗Minnesota, 3M $850M settlement
The state's natural-resource lawsuit over East Metro PFAS disposal settled for $850M (2018), ~$720M net directed to drinking-water and resource projects. The polluter-funded-cleanup model.
Source ↗Maine, first biosolids ban
LD 1911 (2022) was the first U.S. law banning land application of PFAS-containing sludge, source control rather than just treatment. A national model for stopping contamination upstream.
Source ↗Affected communities
Towns and counties that organized a response, and what came of it.
Parkersburg, WV, the 'C8' case
A farmer's dying cattle led attorney Rob Bilott to the 1999 suit and the Leach class action (~70,000 residents). The 2004 settlement funded the C8 Science Panel; ~3,500 injury suits settled in 2017 for $670.7M. The case that exposed PFAS.
Source ↗Hoosick Falls, NY
Resident Michael Hickey tested the village water himself in 2014 after his father died of kidney cancer. Outcomes: a $65.25M class settlement, a $45M state water deal (new wellfield online March 2025), and a $27M DuPont settlement.
Source ↗East Metro, MN (Oakdale / Cottage Grove)
170,000+ residents across Washington County; the state's case against 3M produced the $850M settlement that funded GAC treatment plants and new wells.
Source ↗Decatur, AL
A do-not-drink advisory for ~100,000 people led the West Morgan–East Lawrence authority to build a reverse-osmosis plant; settlements with 3M reached $35M (2019) and $98.4M (2023), plus $3.9M from Daikin.
Source ↗Merrimack, NH
After PFOA was detected in 2016, NHDES negotiated a 2018 consent decree requiring Saint-Gobain to extend municipal water to 300+ properties and fund remediation; the plant was demolished in 2025.
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