Eight years ago, Maine uncovered the edge of a vast agricultural problem when PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) surfaced on a third-generation dairy farm. The toxic fluorinated compounds in the farm’s water, soil, pasture grasses and milk traced back to wastewater sludge spread on fields more than a decade earlier.
Among more than 700 chemical compounds the EPA has identified in the residual wastewater sludge that industry terms “biosolids,” PFAS are nearly universal. “What’s different about Maine is that we’re actually looking for it,” says Sarah Alexander, executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA). In 2022, Maine became the first state to ban land application of sludge and the sale of compost containing sludge. No such protections exist for the larger U.S. food supply, Alexander notes.
To force faster adoption of federal regulations governing PFAS in sludge, MOFGA announced last week its intent to join a lawsuit against the EPA with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), an environmental watchdog group that notified the EPA in February of its intent to sue. That action followed sludge contamination incidents affecting farmers in Texas, South Carolina, Michigan and other states.