Maine was warned about toxins in sludge decades before PFAS crisis began

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 1, 2026

In 1983, two farmers attending a growers’ meeting in southwestern Maine heard about a new product that would change their lives, and farming in the state, for decades. That product was sludge, a muddy byproduct of industrial processes and municipal wastewater treatment that also contained nutrients for enriching soil. For Fred Stone, a dairy farmer from Arundel, the decision to spread the fertilizer meant a free way to enrich his clay soil to grow cow feed. But Tim Leary decided against it. Friends at the wastewater department and local dairy cautioned about the chemicals and heavy metals likely to be in the fertilizer, which was made of refuse from the S.D. Warren Paper Mill in Westbrook. That growers’ meeting proved to be a trigger for the spreading of sludge throughout Maine, including through a state-sponsored program. The decisions made by Stone and Leary sent them down separate paths, the effects of which both farmers still feel.