BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 14, 2022
The first round of testing at Maine landfills shows how closely the state’s PFAS contamination problem is linked to its papermaking history. So many of Maine’s state-licensed landfills exist because of the nearby paper mills that used them. Many of those mills closed years ago, but the PFAS contamination in their landfills persists. But the landfill testing also shows how hard Maine’s PFAS contamination problem will be to solve. The landfills are likely the final resting place for the chemicals that pose long-term health and environmental risks. But landfills can’t contain all of the PFAS that end up there. Their runoff contains the chemicals, and the wastewater facilities that treat it then discharge the substance into rivers. Any PFAS they manage to remove ends up back in a landfill as sludge, and the cycle starts again.