Novel Fluoroalkylated Surfactants in Soils Following Firefighting Foam Deployment During the Lac-Mégantic Railway Accident
Abstract
The derailment of an unmanned train carrying crude oil and subsequent fire in the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, led to the use of 33 000 L of aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) concentrate. While it is known that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) contained in AFFFs pose a potential environmental and health risk, critical knowledge gaps remain as regards to their environmental fate after release. The accident in Lac-Mégantic provided valuable information regarding the identity and concentration of PFASs present in the soil after the AFFF deployment, as well as their possible transformation over time. The current study analyzed four sets of samples from Lac-Mégantic: soil collected days after the accident from a heavily impacted area, soil sampled two years later from the treatment biopiles, soil collected two years after the accident from downtown Lac-Mégantic, and nonimpacted soil from a nearby area. A total of 33 PFASs were quantified in the soils. The highest observed concentrations correspond to those of 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonamidoalkyl betaine, 6:2 and 8:2 fluorotelomer sulfonates, and short chain perfluorocarboxylic acids. The soils collected in Lac-Mégantic two years after the accident show a total PFAS concentration that is ∼50 times lower than soils collected in 2013, while the proportion of perfluoroalkyl acids in those samples shows an increase. Qualitative analysis revealed the presence in soil of 55 additional PFASs that had been previously identified in AFFF formulations. The present study highlights the need to perform detailed analysis of AFFF impacted sites, instead of focusing solely on perfluoroalkyl acids.
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A considerable number of novel PFAS, including cationic and zwitterionic species, have been detected in recent studies of abiotic solid matrices.
“A considerable number of novel PFAS, including cationic and zwitterionic species, have been detected in recent studies [60,74].”
From Worldwide trends in tracing poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the environment (2019) · cites this paper as [74]
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- Authors
- Mejia-Avendaño, S., Munoz, G., Vo Duy, S., Desrosiers, M., Benoı̂t, P., Sauvé, S., & Liu, J.
- Affiliations
- Department of Civil Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Québec H3A 0C3, Canada
- McGill University (CA)
- Department of Chemistry, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada
- Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs (CA)
- Direction générale de l’analyse et de l’expertise régionales - Estrie et Montérégie, Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement, et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, Longueuil, Québec J4K 2T5, Canada
- Université de Montréal (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Liu, Jinxia
- Venue
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2017-07-19
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 15
- Pages
- 8313-8323
- ISSN
- 0013-936X (ISSN-L)
- 1520-5851
- OpenAlex
- W2727923256
- Cited by
- 147
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 5
- FWCI
- 7.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Environmental Science & Technology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Canada Foundation for Innovation (30291)
- McGill University
- Fonds Qu?b?cois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (183278)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Minist?re du D?veloppement durable, de l?Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Environmental Chemistry and Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact
- Keywords
- aqueous film-forming foam, firefighting foam, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, fluorotelomer sulfonates, perfluorocarboxylic acids, soil contamination, biopiles
- MeSH terms
- Accidents, Environmental Pollutants, Fluorocarbons, Quebec, Railroads, Soil, Surface-Active Agents, Water Pollutants, Chemical
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