MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • July 18, 2021
For over a century, the paper industry has been a core part of both Maine’s economy and the state’s environmental challenges. Today’s paper mills are cleaner than a few decades ago, thanks to better technology and environmental laws. But growing health concerns about PFAS – per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances – are shining an intense spotlight on industries that utilized the substances for decades. Dubbed forever chemicals because of their extreme durability, some PFAS compounds have been linked to cancer, kidney disease, and other health problems. Paper mills have used a lot of PFAS. Eight paper companies spread more than 500,000 cubic yards of paper mill waste in Maine between 1989 and 2016. That does not include the hundreds of thousands of cubic yards spread by wastewater treatment plants, some of which process paper mill sludge and wastewater. Now the industry faces a reckoning as the state grapples with soil and water contamination from the sludge that was spread on farm fields.