Stoneridge Farm, Arundel, ME
PFOS Contamination Concern

updated December 11, 2019

Summary

In March 2019, a news conference at the Stoneridge Farm in Arundel, Maine claimed that municipal biosolids had caused contamination of milk and demise of the Farm’s business. Maine DEP investigation indicated that the likely source of the one contaminant causing the issue - PFOS - was likely from an industrial material deposited on the Farm in the 1980s, not municipal biosolids (which had also been used on the Farm). The news conference highlighted the lawsuit the Farm had filed against two sewer districts, 3M, and other companies. There was no mention of the industrial source of the PFOS because the lawyers filing the lawsuit for the Farm also represented that company, a conflict of interest that the court noted. The lawsuit was withdrawn in October 2019. A new legal team may file a subsequent suit. The public and political pressure created by the news conference led to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection imposing a moratorium on biosolids use on March 22, 2019, which crippled some Maine land application programs and has reverberated in PFAS news coverage and in the biosolids management profession nationwide.

Details: NEBRA Information Update - PFAS Contamination at Stoneridge Farm, Arundel, Maine, March 25, 2019

11/4/2019
Lawsuit against two Maine sewer districts and PFAS manufacturers is dismissed, but further legal action may still follow.

On October 29, 2019, the York County, ME Superior Court accepted the request of plaintiffs Fred and Laura Stone and Stoneridge Farm, to dismiss the case they had filed in late December 2018. According to reports and court documents, the Stones' lawyers, who filed the original lawsuit against 3M Company, other PFAS manufacturers, and two local sewer districts - Kennebunk and Ogunquit - had a conflict of interest. Reportedly, the law firm also represented a successor company to an industrial facility. That facility also provided material placed on the Stoneridge Farm in the 1980s, according to Maine DEP records. When the lawsuit was filed, it contained no mention of the industrial material applied at the Farm, even though Maine DEP's investigations of PFOS contamination especially pointed to that material as a likely source of contamination. After the initial lawsuit was filed, the plaintiffs never served papers on the two sewer districts and requested time extensions from the court. In the spring, a different law firm, Berman and Simmons, took over the case for the plaintiffs (https://www.journaltribune.com/articles/stateregional/arundel-farmers-say-blood-samples-show-high-levels-of-forever-chemicals/) and, on October 25th, filed a motion dismissing the case, which the court affirmed. However, this does not mean the end of legal action. It is quite possible that the Stones, who have been impacted both personally and in their farm business, will file a new legal action that may or may not target municipal biosolids and/or PFAS manufacturers and users.

Additional Background Documents