
Jenni Tilton-Flood, a partner in Flood Brothers dairy farm in Clinton, pictured last month, is on the committee that oversees the state’s PFAS contamination fund. Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press
With their multiyear investigation not yet halfway complete, Maine state inspectors have identified more than 100 Maine farms and 500 residential properties contaminated by the harmful forever chemicals left behind by sludge-based fertilizer use.
A farm soil or water sample that tests above Maine’s screening level does not mean the crops, livestock or dairy products from that farm were unsafe — the egg-laying hens, milk cows or potato fields creating that farm’s produce might have been far away from the tainted field, pond or well.
“Our screening levels are very conservative, so if a farm’s soil or water tests above it, it’s not a death sentence,” said Meagan Hennessey, the director of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry’s PFAS Response Program. “Farms are coming back from this. Not all, but most.”
But that positive test can turn a farmer’s world upside down, Hennessey told a morning crowd at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show on Wednesday. They worry about the health of their customers, their business and their own family. In a handful of cases, farmers have had to sell or close.

Adam Nordell visits the family farm in Unity he used to operate with his partner, but after testing for staggeringly high levels of PFAS, he had to shut it down. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald file
In all, Maine has had to order fewer than a half dozen farms to stop selling their milk or food, Hennessey said. Some farmers who had positive soil or water tests were able to prove through additional tests that their food products were safe to eat. Others voluntarily pulled their food products from the shelves.
Maine launched its sludge investigation in 2021, five years after Arundel dairy farmer Fred Stone, who had used sludge fertilizer for 30 years, learned his water and soil were contaminated, and his milk was testing seven times over the state limit. He became the first Maine farm to close due to PFAS.
In 2022, Maine banned sludge spreading, and is now investigating PFAS in retail products and landfills.
With hundreds of sludge sites left to test, Maine now finds itself facing a funding shortfall as the already ambitious investigation could expand even more as the scientific evidence of the public health risks of forever chemicals mount and new federal protections supersede old state ones.
In a report submitted to the Legislature on Wednesday, Maine Department of Environmental Protection estimated it could complete its review of the remaining sludge sites and install the additional 165 water filtration sites likely to be needed and still stay within the program’s $28.8 million budget.

Steven James, left, Elise Dostie, Robert Dostie and Egide Dostie II watch as dairy cows are loaded into a truck June 9, 2023, at the Dostie’s farm in Fairfield, which was forced to close due to PFAS contamination. More than 110 Maine farms have been found to have PFAS-contaminated soil or water, and the state has found the forever chemicals in a growing number of private drinking water wells, officials from two state agencies reported Wednesday. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald file
To date, the department has found 576 of the 2,919 water samples, or 20%, exceeded Maine’s drinking water standard of 20 parts per trillion (ppt). Of those that tested “hot,” 49% tested up to 100 ppt, 36% tested up to 1,000 ppt and 15% exceeded 1,000 ppt. The state has installed 500 water filtration systems.
Without more money, however, the department would not be able to continue to pay the estimated $5,000 apiece per year needed to maintain the 660 water filtration systems installed over the course of the entire sludge investigation for more than another year, leaving homeowners on the hook for those costs.
Adopting the stricter federal protections — where two infamous forever chemicals are capped at 4 parts per trillion compared to Maine’s 20 parts per trillion for six PFAS combined — would require $10.8 million more for the investigation and $1 million for the 300 filtration systems likely to be needed.
The DEP has estimated as many as 500 Maine homes that rely on well water fall “in between” the state’s old drinking water standards and the new federal guidelines. While the department plans to adopt the federal limits, it has long signaled its plan to use its limited funds to help those with higher contamination levels first.
In its report, DEP asks state lawmakers for the guidance, and the funds, to guide the program into the future. The public may expect more protective standards because of Maine’s track record, the report said, but they may get frustrated by the delay and the cost connected with implementing them.

Even trace amounts of some PFAS can be dangerous to humans, with exposure to high levels of certain PFAS linked to decreased fertility and increased high blood pressure in pregnant women, developmental delays in children and low birth weight, increased risk of some cancers and weakened immune systems.
People are exposed to forever chemicals through a broad range of common household products, such as nonstick pans, makeup and waterproof clothing. People living on farms also can be exposed through consuming eggs, milk and meat from pasture-raised hens and cows and drinking water from on-site wells.
The chemicals are resistant to heat, water and grease can now be found almost everywhere: in animals from pandas to polar bears, in the rain, even in our blood. They eventually wind up in our public water supplies and many of our ponds, lakes, rivers and oceans.
According to a draft risk assessment released by the Environmental Protection Agency this week, cancer risk levels associated with an adult drinking 32 ounces per day of contaminated milk can exceed 1 in 1,000. The risk of a serving per day of certain fruits and vegetables can exceed 1 in 100,000.
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