The path of ‘forever chemicals’ into public drinking water used by thousands in central Maine

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 17, 2022

Towns and cities along the Kennebec River are finding that their public drinking water has been contaminated with toxic chemicals. The Capitol building in Augusta, the veterans hospital at Togus, and thousands of homes and businesses in central Maine are connected to pipes filled with water with varying levels of manmade per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, often called forever chemicals. The Bangor Daily News traced how PFAS can end up in the drinking water of thousands in Skowhegan, Augusta, Manchester, Hallowell, Chelsea, Farmingdale, Gardiner, Randolph and Pittston, through a cycle that ties together the ways of water, industry and waste. The Kennebec River offers a case study in the remarkably complicated PFAS crisis unfolding in Maine.