Maine nonprofit buys PFAS-contaminated farm to help 'forever chemicals' research

By Kevin Miller | wbur | October 11, 2023

Read the full article by Kevin Miller (wbur)

"A nonprofit group has purchased a central Maine farm that is heavily contaminated with PFAS and is opening it up to researchers with the goal of shedding light on ways to handle "forever chemicals" on farms.

Adam Nordell and Johanna Davis had spent years building up Songbird Farm into a successful organic vegetable and grain operation. But in late-2021, tests revealed that sludge used to fertilize the fields decades before they bought had leached toxic levels of PFAS into the soil and water. The discovery forced the young couple to halt all sales and to move to another house with their toddler son after blood tests also revealed elevated levels of PFAS in their bodies.

After more than a year and a half of work, Maine Farmland Trust announced that it had purchased the farm and planned to open it up to research on PFAS.

The farmland preservation group has been working with farmers for several years as concerns grew that the state's history of fertilizing fields with sludge had inadvertently contaminated some fields with PFAS. State investigations have turned up more than a dozen contaminated farms – as well as hundreds of drinking wells on nearby properties – linked to the state-licensed sludge spreading program. And state lawmakers have set aside more than $100 million in recent years to help conduct the investigations and potentially compensate farmers."