BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 1, 2021
In 2016, testing at Fred Stone’s Maine dairy farm showed stratospherically high levels of certain chemicals used in manufacturing in his soil and water. The culprit was likely his use of biosolids as fertilizer, something that environmental protection officials had assured him for years was safe. He still has letters from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection from that time ensuring the safety of the practice. “The assistance to farmers to date has been lacking,” said Patrick MacRoy, deputy director of Defend Our Health, a nonprofit advocacy group working on issues of clean and safe food and drinking water.