“AUGUSTA — A wastewater treatment plant in Somerset County that discharges into the Kennebec River accepted more than 250,000 gallons of liquid runoff from a New Hampshire landfill that was potentially contaminated with the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS.
While the wastewater accounted for a small amount of the Anson-Madison Sanitary District’s total intake, the shipments of landfill “leachate” are the latest example of ways that the toxic chemicals could be seeping into rivers, streams and groundwater in Maine.
The news comes at a time when Maine and other states are scrambling to figure out how to regulate a class of widely used but extremely persistent chemicals that have been linked to low birth weight, elevated cholesterol, some types of cancer and other health concerns.
Neither Maine nor federal rules require landfills or most sewage treatment plants to test for the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances commonly referred to as PFAS, although treatment plants in Maine that turn sludge into fertilizer have been under mandatory testing for months.”
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