7/27/20 Industrial PFAS Contamination Found at a Second Maine Farm
updated 7/29/20

Read the Maine DACF News Release…
See the Maine DACF PFAS page/FAQs (click “Where Can I Learn More” to access test data)

More recent news:
https://www.centralmaine.com/2020/11/15/state-continues-testing-farmland-in-fairfield-as-another-resident-told-to-stop-using-well-water/

On Friday, July 24th, the Portland Press Herald reported that a second small dairy farm in Maine has found PFAS contamination in its milk. The levels are among the highest reported in milk anywhere, with one test showing ~32,200 parts per trillion (ppt) PFOS and two others at ~12,700 and ~14,900 ppt. Maine has a conservative protective screening level for milk: 210 ppt. The other farm received considerable attention a year ago; its milk tested as high as 1,420 ppt - 10 times lower. In both cases, such high levels of PFAS are likely from industrial waste or use of firefighting foam; municipal biosolids may or may not have conveyed them.

“This latest development is clearly an unusual, extreme situation involving industrial or firefighting contamination,” explains Ned Beecher of NEBRA, who, for the past 3 ½ years, has helped lead nationwide efforts to understand PFAS related to biosolids.

All biosolids contain some traces of PFAS, because these chemicals are used in myriad products in our daily lives and have been since the mid-1900s.

Tests of milk and feed at other Maine and New England farms with years of use of biosolids have found mostly non-detects, with an occasional trace of PFOS well below the Maine screening value (download NEBRA’s fact sheet “PFAS and Biosolids and Septage on NE Farms"). The Press Herald notes: “…McBrady, with the state agriculture department, said it is dangerous to paint all farms that used sludge with a broad brush because state testing has shown many do not have PFAS contamination issues.”

It is uncertain whether or not municipal biosolids were a contributor to the very high levels recently found. This farm was permitted by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (Maine DEP) to use biosolids from 1985 to 2003, according to the ME DACF, and some biosolids were apparently applied during some of that period. Maine DEP is currently reviewing records. The farm was also permitted to receive wastewater solids from a paper mill, but the farmer told ME DACF he does not think any of that material was ever applied. Another possibility is that firefighting foam was the source of the PFAS; the farm experienced two major fires that may have been suppressed with PFAS-containing foam.

Last week, ME DEP sampled soil and feed used at the farm; results are likely in the next two weeks. The farm’s water is from a municipal source and is safe from PFAS.

The recent milk tests were conducted after ME DACF screening tests of retail milk found 66 ppt PFOS in one sample. That result was well below Maine’s screening value, but high enough to raise questions. Seven farms had contributed milk to the processing tank from which the PFOS hit came. Two of the farms contributing milk to that tank were permitted to use municipal biosolids in the past. One had a demonstrated history of biosolids application, and even though it had contributed only a small fraction of the milk in the tank, its milk was tested at the farm. That is where the very high levels of PFOS were found. Tests of milk at the other two farms tested showed non-detect or very low levels of PFAS – 1/10th or less of the Maine screening level.

Over the past year, ME DACF has done extensive testing for PFAS in the state’s milk and has not found any indication of concern for the quality and safety of the products being sold and consumed. Traces in a few farm samples – and even the unusually high level recently discovered at this one farm – were vastly diluted in the mixed milk supply and presented no risk. But now, of course, out of an abundance of caution, this farm’s milk has been cut off, as was the milk from the Stoneridge Farm, while further testing, investigation, and mitigation continues.

The two Maine farms with significant PFOS contamination are two of a few around the U. S. that have been found to have PFAS contamination. One was discovered in the 2000s in Decatur, AL; that was attributed to use of biosolids contaminated by direct industrial discharges to the local wastewater facility by a major manufacturer of PFAS, according to U. S. EPA. The other recent example was a New Mexico dairy next to a military base; the military base had discharged PFAS firefighting foam extensively over many years (no biosolids involved at all).

At the Stoneridge Farm in Arundel, ME, the soil was found to contain up to 848 parts per billion (ppb) PFOS – clearly a case of industrial-scale contamination. Stoneridge Farm used some municipal biosolids in the late 1900s, but that was unlikely to be the cause of the high levels of PFOS in the soil. The soil in other fields, including on the same farm and at a nearby farm that used the same municipal biosolids, have typical low PFAS levels – single to low 10s ppb. The PFOS issue at Stoneridge Farm is likely from some waste material brought there decades ago. Nonetheless, in March 2019, Maine DEP imposed severe restrictions on biosolids.

The two most prominent PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, have been phased out of production and use in North America, and their levels in wastewater and biosolids and humans have diminished dramatically over the past 15 years. Source control and industrial pretreatment – removing chemicals from commerce - and thus wastewater – has proven to be the quickest and most cost-effective approach to addressing potential concerns about PFAS, including in biosolids. For example, this is the effective approach being used in two states with extensive PFAS investigations - New Hampshire and Michigan.

All municipal biosolids contain traces of PFAS, according to published research and extensive testing in several states. This is because PFAS are used in numerous products in our homes and businesses, from cosmetics to waxes to food wrappers to cooking pans to raingear. The typical levels in biosolids are in the low 10s of parts per billion. The State of Michigan found that a significant PFAS industrial impact on biosolids can be assumed if the level of PFOS in biosolids is above 150 parts per billion (ppb). Maine has imposed screening values for biosolids of 2.5 ppb for PFOA and 5.2 ppb for PFOS. NEBRA has shown that those values are scientifically indefensible, and more reasonable screening values for biosolids are at least 10 times higher.

Maine has been a leader in the recycling of municipal biosolids for many years, supporting sustainability and the circular economy by returning local nutrients and organic matter to soils, sequestering carbon (which mitigates climate change), and benefiting local farms. Extensive ongoing testing of Maine biosolids shows the vast majority have typical, low background levels of PFAS that do not cause PFAS concerns when applied to soils.