Kevin Kitchin is seen March 24 with the water filtration system installed at his home in Fairfield. Kitchin installed the system after high levels of forever chemicals were found in his well water. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

FAIRFIELD — The water Kevin Kitchin drinks comes from his tap, but he fills Dixie and Brandy’s dog bowls with gallon jugs from the supermarket.

He has reason to give his Labrador retrievers the store-bought stuff. While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently lowered the maximum contaminant level for forever chemicals to 4 parts per trillion, his well water has tested as high as 35,600 ppt before it flows through a special filter.

Though the filter drastically reduces the detectable amount of PFAS in the water, he’d rather not give it to his dogs as they are smaller and a small amount could have more of an impact on them.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection currently tests and filters for PFAS in private wells, including those in Fairfield, but funding for that program is almost out. If a new source of funding is not secured, financial responsibility for safe water will fall on Kitchin and hundreds of Fairfield residents drinking from at least 259 contaminated private wells.

Some residents will not be able to shoulder the costs, said Kitchin, who lives on Howe Road, one of the town’s most contaminated areas.

“We already pay enough in taxes,” Kitchin said. “We pay extra for taxes if we have a well or a septic system, and now, we’re going to ask our residents, myself included, to pay to keep maintaining our systems. There’s people out there now that can barely afford to pay their property taxes.”

Dwindling state funding

An ad hoc town PFAS committee on March 12 presented a comprehensive PFAS report to the town containing testing data, recommendations and letters from state officials, including one from DEP warning costs will fall onto residents once funding is depleted, said Matt Townsend, committee chairman.

Fairfield Town Councilor Matt Townsend served on the town’s ad hoc PFAS committee, charged with coming up with recommendations for dealing with the town’s contaminated groundwater. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

For years, Fairfield has been grappling with widespread groundwater contamination from PFAS, a large family of industrial chemicals found in water- and stain-resistant products, clothing, furniture, food packaging and more. The chemicals have leached into groundwater and soil through the spreading of sludge, resulting in widespread contamination, and are slow to break down in the environment, earning them the nickname forever chemicals.

“They did make it plain in their letter back to us, that once (the money is) gone, it’s gone,” Townsend said. “There may be new funding, but they definitely didn’t commit to anything along the outline and didn’t make any promises, and pretty much said: ‘It’s on you, once this is done.'”

Townsend said DEP officials indicated at a 2023 meeting funding would be gone in two and a half to five years.

The committee’s report recommended the town contact Maine legislators and request continued funding for remediating Fairfield’s groundwater, especially given the number of wells in town with PFAS levels above the federal standard.

While the EPA reduced from 20 parts per trillion to 4 parts per trillion for PFAS in public drinking water nearly a year ago, state environmental officials said the state will not lower state drinking water standards to match federal guidance until after the initial statewide investigation is complete.

An estimated 110 private wells in Fairfield have PFAS levels between 4 and 20 parts per trillion. According to the current state standard, none would receive remediation — even if a well tests at 19 parts per trillion.

The average cost for changing out a filtration system in a private well is $5,300. Kitchin, whose filters are changed by state contractors every few months, said residents have not been told the full cost of their maintenance.

“That being the average, I would estimate mine could be as much as $1,000 a month,” Kitchin said. “I just don’t know. And that’s one thing, that there is no transparency in getting the invoice on what each homeowner is costing. So whether they come and fix the filters or do whatever they need to do, the residents have no idea what it’s costing them.”

The DEP began sampling groundwater in 2021 through a $25 million tiered program across Maine, installing filters in private wells over 20 parts per trillion. As of July 2024, state officials said they had completed 30% of the statewide investigation.

Townsend said the state has not provided an updated estimate of how soon funding will run out.

“Nobody’s really been able to give us that number,” Townsend said. “That’s the difficulty sometimes — I guess I won’t try to throw them under the bus — but they speak in very nebulous terms, I think, because they still don’t know the extent of the problem. They just don’t know if they’re going to lift up another rock and find a real mess.”

Ongoing crisis

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry discovered the town’s PFAS problem in 2020 when a sample of milk at a nearby dairy farm tested at 210 parts per trillion. Groundwater sampling ensued, and in 2023, PFAS levels were significantly higher than the state average — 9% of Fairfield wells contained over 1,000 ppt, compared with 3% of wells across Maine.

Kevin Kitchin pours bottled water for his dog Dixie, a Labrador retriever, at their Fairfield home. Kitchin began using bottled water for his dogs after his water tested positive for PFAS. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Long-term exposure to two of the most common compounds, PFOA and PFOS, can potentially cause health effects in the cardiovascular, immune and liver systems, as well as cancer and developmental effects. In 2020, the EPA established a PFAS health advisory of 70 ppt.

Lack of access to safe drinking water affects mental health, Kitchin said.

“You could have somebody that, the world is crashing down on them because they don’t have safe drinking water, or they don’t know, or they think that if they drink it, they’re going to die tomorrow,” Kitchin said. “Everybody has different opinions on that. So the mental health aspect of that, I think, is huge.”

Losing state funding adds another layer of uncertainty.

Town Manager Michelle Flewelling said Fairfield residents have a right to know what their systems could cost them.

“One of the things that we’ve been pushing for as a municipality, is that the state of Maine share with homeowners what the state has invested in those systems in their homes,” Flewelling said. “We don’t want this to be sticker shock to some of these folks, should the state of Maine run out of money and all of a sudden say, ‘Here: Merry Christmas.'”

What can the town do?

The town previously requested additional funding in a letter to U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, state Sen. David LaFountain, D-Winslow, and state Rep. Shelley Rudnicki, R-Fairfield, in May 2024. None responded.

Flewelling said the town should try again.

“The report says they’ve known months ago that there was at least (110) new wells that were between 4 parts per trillion and 20,” Flewelling said. “So (the recommendation) would be: Reach out to state and federal delegates to get bills put in place that would provide funding for private drinking water wells.”

In addition to costs of testing and filtration, residents worry PFAS could affect property values in coming years. Evidence has not shown a drop in values, but Townsend said the town should plan for that possibility.

“If those values are significantly impaired by the presence of PFAS in the wells and in the soil, then those residences should have a decrease in their assessment, and we feel it should be a state fund to pay that difference,” Townsend said.

The Fairfield Town Council will host a workshop April 9 to prioritize recommendations and discuss next steps.

Down the road, the report recommends the town consider expanding public drinking water for commercial and residential locations. The committee noted expansion would likely be supported by state and federal grants given the publicity around Fairfield’s high concentrations of PFAS in private wells.

Without public funding, those private wells are not held to any health standard, Flewelling said.

“It’s an interesting little thing,” Flewelling said. “It’s something that is so detrimental to someone and something you need to survive, and it’s not required to be at a certain standard whatsoever if you own it privately.”

Kitchin is considering putting in a reverse osmosis filter system so his dogs can drink safely from the tap. He said he wants to prevent PFAS-related health risks, not react to them.

“It just seems like the more I dig into this, everything seems reactionary,” Kitchin said. “Reactionary based off of funding, instead of being able to plan for the years to come, what’s going to happen.”