Stana McLeod pours a glass of water from her faucet at her home in Fairfield on Dec. 4, 2020. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

Lawmakers are considering a proposal to spend $10 million to extend public water service in Fairfield to protect residents with drinking water wells contaminated by forever chemicals left behind by the state’s now banned sludge spreading program.

The spreading of 10,700 truckloads worth of sludge-based fertilizer on local farms over two decades has left Fairfield with some of Maine’s highest PFAS concentrations, with 210 private wells falling short of Maine’s drinking water standards and another 110 below new federal standards.

The bill would pay for part of the estimated $50 million needed to extend the regional public water system into contaminated parts of Fairfield and eventually eliminate the need for individual household filtration systems, which can cost up to $15,600 to install and $7,000 a year to maintain.

“My neighbors, friends and clients have had their lives turned upside-down by the effects of PFAS contamination due to no fault of their own,” said Matthew Townsend, a local town councilor who lives in Fairfield’s PFAS hot zone. “This bill would only be a first step in a long-term approach.”

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are so-called forever chemicals used to make thousands of common household and industrial products resistant to heat, water and grease. They are slow to break down in the environment, and are found almost everywhere: in animals from pandas to polar bears, in the rain, even in our blood.

Even trace amounts of some PFAS can be dangerous to humans, with high exposure linked to infertility and increased high blood pressure in pregnant women, developmental delays in children, weakened immune systems and increased risk of certain cancers.

Fairfield has two kinds of PFAS-contaminated wells: the 210 that fail Maine’s drinking water standards and another 110 that comply with Maine’s safety criterion but fall short of strict new federal standards adopted last year for public water supplies.

The wells that exceed Maine’s standards — which caps PFAS limits at 20 parts per trillion, or ppt, for a combination of six chemicals — get a state-funded water filtration system, which can cost between $3,400 and $15,600 to install, depending on the amount of pre-treatment and protection of the filters required.

Those that meet state standards but fall short of federal ones — which cap two of the most harmful forever chemicals at no more than 4 ppt each and four others at 10 ppt each — are left to fend for themselves because the state said it must save its dwindling PFAS fund for those facing the highest risk.

To understand these numbers, imagine an above-ground swimming pool, measuring 20 feet across, 4 feet deep, and holding about 10,000 gallons. Maine allows 20 drops spread out over 1,000 such swimming pools, compared to the 4 drops allowed by federal regulators.

DEP is spending $600,000 a year to keep Fairfield’s water filtration systems running, but the money is running out, according to Victoria Eleftheriou, DEP’s deputy director of waste management. In a few years, she said, residents will have to assume these costs, which could reach $7,000 a year.

The bill, LD 1111, was submitted by Rep. Shelley Rudnicki, R-Fairfield, who lives in one of Fairfield’s hot zones but whose house was the last on her street to already be connected to the public water supply provided by the Kennebec Water District. She said her neighbors deserve that same peace of mind.

“This issue is a serious problem for our town,” Rudnicki told the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee at a public hearing on the bill Monday. “This money would go a long way to help bring public water to some hard-hit places.”

“I appreciate the DEP’s position on this, but my view is that no resident or homeowner should have to pay a cent to resolve the PFAS contamination of their drinking water well,” said Nathan Saunders, the Fairfield resident who brought this concern to Rudnicki.

Saunders is a retired state engineer who lives on Fairfield’s Howe Road, where 21 homes have contaminated wells. One of his neighbors tested at 12,851 ppt, which is 642 times Maine’s PFAS drinking water limit, he said.

One of the most alarming things Saunders told the committee was that Fairfield is just one of 15 central Maine communities that received sludge from the Kennebec Sanitary District from 1980 to 2003. Fairfield received 49% of the sludge; 51% was spread in surrounding towns, like Benton and Unity.

Despite the state’s grim financial outlook, the bill was well received by committee members. Since state inspectors found contaminated milk at an Arundel dairy farm in 2016, state lawmakers have banned sludge spreading, created a $60 million farmers relief fund and adopted a broad PFAS product ban.

Sen. Denise Tepler, D-Topsham, noted the state is responsible for the PFAS contamination. Rep. Morgan Rielly, D-Westbrook, asked Rudnicki if $10 million would be enough. Rep. David Woodsome, R-North Waterboro, said the PFAS crisis has undoubtedly hurt local property values.

Rep. Victoria Doudera, D-Camden, suggested Maine could recoup this money from the manufacturers of the chemicals, who ultimately bear the responsibility for producing a harmful product. Maine has two pending PFAS lawsuits, one on behalf of farmers and the other tied to toxic firefighting foam.

Saunders estimated that filtration systems will be needed at many of these contaminated Fairfield wells for the next half century or more. As expensive as a $10 million public water supply expansion might seem now — or $50 million in the long term — that investment will pay for itself over time, supporters said.

“That is a cost the state cannot bear indefinitely,” said Sarah Woodbury, a lobbyist with Portland-based Defend Our Health. “We recognize this is a lot of money to pay up front, but over time this is the most financially reasonable way to ensure the citizens of Fairfield have access to safe drinking water.”