Contaminated sludge could be at sites in county

Washington County is not immune to the impact of the recent discovery that chemicals used in non stick cookware, carpets, water repellent sportswear, food wrappers and containers, firefighting foam and even ski wax are contributing to water, soil, food and wild game contamination throughout Maine.
There is growing awareness that the presence of "forever chemicals" known as PFAS being discovered across the country and in the state, most recently at an organic farm in Unity, is linked to septage and sludge spreading from municipalities and other septage treatment sources that was an accepted practice licensed by the state for many years.
In Washington County, from Cherryfield to Indian Township there are 14 septage land application sites and six sludge utilization sites, with licensing going back to the 1990s or before. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) defines sludge as a solid, semi solid or liquid waste generated from a wastewater treatment process as well as from dewatered septage. Septage is a fluid mixture of sewage solids, liquids and sludge of domestic origin, which is collected in and removed from a septic tank system.
At a January 24 public hearing held by the legislature's Environment and Natural Resources Committee on a bill concerning the issue, senior attorney Sharon Treat with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy said, "The problem of PFAS contamination in Maine cannot be overstated; it is not hyperbole to call it a crisis."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explains that PFAS, the group of manufactured chemicals known has per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, of which there are thousands of varieties, have been made and used since the 1940s. Their usefulness is in part because of their chemical stability and their ability to repel water and oil.
In testimony during the January 24 public hearing on LD 1911, a bill that would close a loophole in existing law that allows sludge to be added to materials that are sold and used as compost for home gardeners, the Unity farmer, Johanna Davis, explained that she and her husband found out about sludge spreading on their organic farm that was done long before they owned the property. She stated that they "just learned that our farm was spread with sludge twice by the Portland Water District and twice by the Kennebec Sanitary Treatment District in the early 1990s." The farm's water source for drinking and crop irrigation is over 400 times the state of Maine's safety threshold. The couple's blood serum models estimate that their PFAS levels are about 250 times the level of the average American. They have had to stop selling their products, and they are fearful for their and their child's health and their economic future.
PFAS do not break down easily, and this characteristic is now recognized as potentially detrimental to human and mammalian health because of the ability of the chemicals to build up over time in the environment and in drinking water and food sources such as agricultural and farm products and wild game and fish. PFAS are linked to health risks, including reduced reproductive fertility and hormone disruption, development effects and delays in children, increased risk of some cancers, a reduction in the body's ability to fight off infection and more.
While sites in mid and southern Maine are being tested for PFAS, Victoria Eleftheriou, deputy director, DEP Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management, says, "I'm unaware of any sites currently being tested in Washington County ... Sites are being prioritized based, in part, on the volume of sludge land applied, type of industrial inputs, and proximity and number of drinking water wells near a site."
Sites currently being investigated in Maine are in the Tier I category, which involves land where 10,000 cubic yards or more of sludge was land applied, where homes are within a half mile, and where PFAS are likely to be present in the sludge based on an evaluation of known sources or contributors of wastewater at a given treatment facility.
History of septage and sludge spreading
David Madore, deputy commissioner of the DEP, explains, "Land application of sludges and residuals was a commonly accepted practice authorized by the federal EPA as a way to enhance nutrients in the soil for agriculture and also to provide a way to manage residual products and sludges." Licenses in Maine and much of the U.S. for the spreading activity required setbacks from sensitive areas such as wells and surface water with testing of heavy metals and dioxins. "Unfortunately, like all the other states in the U.S., the Maine DEP was not aware of the widespread use of PFAS in manufacturing, as PFAS were not federally regulated and required to be tested in residuals."
Madore says, "Maine DEP instituted a testing program in 2019 requiring licensees of sludge and sludge derived products to test for PFAS. This data confirmed the presence of PFAS in these residuals, including a large percentage that exceeded Maine's screening levels for PFOA, PFOS and PFBS." The link was then made between land application and PFAS contamination in soil, water and certain agricultural products. "This link is what has led to the initiatives and legislative programs in place in Maine today."
In addition to septage and sludge spreading on agricultural farms, fields and barrens and municipal airport lands, the material was and continues to be added to soils and other materials to create compost for use by home gardeners.
DEP charged with testing
The state has begun to enact laws, with legislation in 2021 and with additional bills pending in 2022, to address PFAS contamination and the emerging understanding of the risks posed to health. A 2021 Maine law requires the Maine DEP to conduct a statewide investigation of soil and water. In addition, that law requires the DEP to test landfill leachate from landfills that manage and collect leachate. DEP is also monitoring for PFAS at remediation sites throughout the state, including the closed landfill program as well as at other state and federal cleanup sites that may have used firefighting foam.
Madore says, "It is too soon in the investigation to know the extent of contamination or more accurately understand how PFAS are moving through the environment." It's a constantly moving target, with the DEP's PFAS website noting that data and Tier levels will be changing according to ongoing research. "Areas where land application took place and contamination is identified above Maine's Interim Drinking Water Standard that are near a public drinking water system are referred to the Maine Drinking Water Program for potential hook up to the [public] system. DEP is paying for and installing filter systems at homes that have private drinking water wells above the Interim Drinking Water Standard as funding remains available."
The state is investigating the potential impact on shellfish and other wildlife harvested for food near septage and sludge sites. Madore notes that the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (DIF&W) recently issued a deer advisory for PFAS in the Fairfield area and is planning to look into further impacts from PFAS on deer and turkeys in Fairfield and in other locations still to be determined.
Madore explains that there isn't a cost effective proven technology available at this time to destroy PFAS. Despite that lack, the Maine PFAS Task Force recommends that the Maine DEP investigate "the treatment and disposal technologies that minimize the potential for environmental PFAS contamination. Preference should be given to technologies with the demonstrated capacity to safely destroy PFAS."
The Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC), a nonprofit state led coalition based in the District of Columbia, has compiled a list of 12 PFAS treatment and remedial action technologies under study, ranging from incineration to excavation and removal. The journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology issued a research report in early 2021 titled "Challenges and Current Status of Biological Treatment of PFAS Contaminated Soils." The report notes that while in its nascent stage, research involving phytoremediation, bioremediation, microalgae and PFAS degrading bacteria are possibilities as a potential "treatment train," where multiple treatments are combined to break PFAS down. The authors state, "Microalgae have shown the ability to remediate several emerging contaminants, including PFAS, through bioaccumulation, biodegradation and bio absorption."
New legislation pending
At a February 7 workshop, the legislature's Environment and Natural Resources Committee voted to recommend an amended version of LD 1911, An Act to Prohibit the Contamination of Clean Soils with So called Forever Chemicals. Along with a number of provisions, the bill would close two existing loopholes in current law and would prohibit the licensing of land application or distribution of sludge or sludge derived compost that does not meet testing levels determined to be safe by the DEP.
At the bill's public hearing on January 24, the primary committee concern was the increase in the amount of sludge being deposited in landfills that would result if the option of mixing sludge with "clean" soil to create compost was eliminated. However, the vast majority of testimony was in support of closing the loopholes. Treat, with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, pointed to a report that found "PFAS in each of nine fertilizer products tested and marketed as 'eco' or 'natural,' eight of which exceeded Maine's current screening [for PFAS] guidelines." She added that the test products were purchased in Maine and nationally at national chains, including Lowe's, Home Depot and Ace Hardware, as well as locally owned garden centers.
At the legislative February 7 workshop, Paula Clark with the DEP stated that the largest compost-making facility in the state, Hawk Ridge Compost in Unity, accepted 7,000 tons of Maine sludge and 42,000 tons of sludge from out of state in 2020. Generally the sludge is used to make compost, although on occasion some of the Maine sludge is diverted to the Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town and Alton, which by Maine law cannot accept out of state sludge.
Sarah Woodbury, director of advocacy for Defend Our Health, explained at the January 24 hearing how the two existing loopholes work. The first allows for clean soil to be mixed with contaminated sludge. "The screening standard that is being used for the sludge is currently based on the same underlying assumptions of harm as 70 ppt [parts per trillion]." Maine passed legislation in 2021 that reduced the screen level to 20 ppt. "The department has not adjusted the screen levels for PFAS in sludge to accommodate these new standards." In addition, she noted that the U.S. EPA has recently submitted evidence that would support "substantially lower acceptable limits" than 20 ppt.
The second loophole, Woodbury noted, is the allowance of contaminated sludge to be sent to compost facilities, which sell the compost to farmers, landscapers and at retail for home gardeners, "leaving them to inadvertently contaminate their land. DEP justifies this by saying since they don't know or regulate where compost is going to be used; they assume it will be going to ... essentially clean soil."
During the legislative hearing, Fairfield resident Nathan Saunders presented testimony about the discovery at his home of PFAS at a level of 15,000 ppt, in comparison to Maine's new screening level of 20 ppt, and 742 times the enforceable limit. He talked about how he saw sludge spread across the street from his house from 1980 to 2003 on "nearby fields every year, and I thought it was manure. And additional material spoken of as 'fertilizer' was spread on these fields from 2006-2015." Saunders added, "As a result of drinking PFAS contaminated water for 33 years ... my current blood levels for PFAS exceed the average PFAS levels of employees working for DuPont and 3M, the companies that made PFAS chemicals."
For more information about PFAS in Maine, Maine DEP actions and maps of sites, visit www.maine.gov/dep/spills/topics/pfas/index.html.