PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 31, 2022
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has begun hunting for so-called forever chemicals at hundreds of licensed sludge dispersal sites across the state, but it will take years to work through the ever-changing list of more than 700 properties. A team of chemists, geologists, engineers and techs must investigate each location, starting off with the drinking well nearest the fields where the sludge, septic tank sewage, or industrial waste was applied as fertilizer. If unsafe levels of forever chemicals are found, the testing area expands.