BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 16, 2024
Maine researchers are studying the role that rural schools could inadvertently play in spreading dangerous “forever chemicals” after those contaminants were found at high levels in the drinking water of some homes around Mount Desert Island High School. It’s not well understood how the chemicals, which have been linked to cancer and other health threats, may spread from public institutions such as high schools into nearby drinking water supplies. But Jane Disney, an associate professor at the independent MDI Bio Lab in Bar Harbor, said one factor could be that rural institutions are more likely to use septic systems and leachfields to dispose of their wastewater, rather than public sewers.