The state has bought a second farm poisoned by forever chemicals, acquiring a 45-acre property in Unity abandoned by its owners after they discovered their water, fields, produce, and even their blood were saturated by dangerous toxins.

Adam Nordell and Johanna Davis grew organic vegetables at Songbird Farm for almost eight years before they learned a previous owner had spread sewage sludge-based fertilizer on the fields decades ago. At the time, the state encouraged it; no one knew it was dangerous.

After going public five years ago, Songbird became the public face of Maine’s forever chemical crisis. The couple closed the farm and began looking for a way they could move their family off of the contaminated parcel and begin seeking medical treatment.

Maine had already created a first-in-the-nation $60 million relief fund to help farmers hurt by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, but it would take a while to set up the official buy-back program. Nordell and Davis didn’t want to wait that long.

As a nonprofit, Maine Farmland Trust could act faster than state government. It used $380,000 of its own funds to buy Songbird Farm. It turned Songbird into a PFAS field lab until the state’s PFAS Advisory Committee was ready to buy it.

The acquisition took place on May 15, according to county records. No purchase price was given.

“With this milestone, we’re celebrating years of collaborative efforts to address PFAS head-on, with the voices of farmers at the center,” Brett Sykes, co-director of farmland protection at Maine Farmland Trust, said in a written statement on Friday.

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry has renamed the land Green Earth. The state is evaluating the property’s research potential and has yet to commit to any final plan, said Beth Valentine, director of the state’s PFAS Fund.

“The property may help support ongoing research and learning that could benefit Maine farmers and agricultural communities facing PFAS-related challenges,” she said in a written statement on Friday.

The Songbird Farm acquisition follows the state’s first buyout in 2025, the $333,000 purchase of a Palermo hay farm. State officials suggested corn might be safely grown on the Palermo lot at that time. No mention was made of Unity’s agricultural potential in Friday’s sale announcement.

The scale of Maine’s PFAS crisis continues to grow. DACF is managing 127 contaminated sites across the state, ranging from small plots to large, diversified farms. Some survived by installing water filters or switching crops. Others have found no path forward in the private market.

Nordell’s stake was more than financial. His blood tested hundreds of times higher than what is considered safe. The discovery transformed him from a quiet farmer into a fierce public health advocate, first with Defend Our Health and now with Maine Environment.

For now, the 45 acres in Unity are in the state’s portfolio, a reminder of a win-win waste program that failed. As the state continues to test 1,100 sites where sludge was once spread, officials say the goal is to return the land to agricultural production — if science can find a way to do it safely.