Further 1,000 websites in Maine to be examined for PFAS contamination
State environmental regulators say they’ve recognized greater than 1,000 websites in Maine that should be examined for PFAS contamination.
A brand new report from Maine’s Division of Environmental Safety reveals the state has additionally sampled greater than 1,500 wells for contamination, and 23 % of them had PFAS above the state’s accepted consuming water requirements. The state has began or put in water filtration programs at about 300 websites to this point.
Investigations at greater than 200 websites the place sludge was most prevalent are already full or underway.
Maine’s Division of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry can also be working with 34 farms that look like on the highest danger. Heather Spaulding of the Maine Natural Farmers and Gardeners Affiliation stated she’s happy with the progress the state has made to this point.
“However we’re additionally involved that there are a variety of farmers who don’t really feel comfy having their soil and water examined,” she stated. “And within the tier two and tier three communities, there are much more farms that may should be examined.”
State officers estimate it is going to value wherever from $19 million to $53 million to finish these investigations, relying on the variety of websites that the division can take a look at and the price of remediating contamination. The investigations, the DEP stated, will seemingly stretch past a 2025 deadline because the scope of the work expands.
The DEP alone has spent almost $6 million on its investigations to this point, a determine that doesn’t embody what different state businesses have spent on PFAS in the previous couple of years.
Spaulding stated the report reveals the scope of a really costly drawback. MOFGA, together with the Maine Farmland Belief, coordinated and raised $1.3 million for farmers impacted by PFAS contamination. She stated some $876,000 has been disbursed to farmers for testing, new water filtration programs and different assist.
“We simply want to acknowledge we’ve acquired to give you extra funding,” she stated. “We’re simply speaking about earnings substitute and testing, infrastructure. “We’re not even speaking concerning the prospect of complete farm buyouts, which is a really actual prospect for the state to be going through.”
Spaulding stated she’s not conscious that any buyouts are imminent, however farms throughout the state are closing due to PFAS contamination.
This story seems by a media partnership with Maine Public.
