Mammoth Yosemite Airport in the clear
The results are in from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding allegations from former Mammoth Airport employee Doug Kriese claiming the airport had been out of compliance with its level of AFFF or aqueous film-forming foam agent at the end of 2010.
According to a letter from the FAA, the ARFF, or Airport Rescue and Firefighting vehicle contained AFFF in an amount that satisfied the Airport Index requirement but not another regulatory requirement. A portion of the regulation states that there must be enough AFFF to “mix with twice the water required to be carried by the vehicle,” which the airport did not have in October 2010. According to the report, “the airport was unaware of the regulatory requirement and believed that by satisfying the Index requirement they were satisfactory.”
It was also noted in the report that personnel training for live fire exercises was not at acceptable levels.
The airport has already taken corrective action for both issues and the FAA stated in its letter that the case is closed and does not warrant any legal enforcement.
For background on this story, check out The Sheet’s story FAA Probes MMH.