BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 9, 2022
Maine sewer districts are seeing their disposal costs for wastewater sludge rise as a new state ban on spreading the substance on farmland takes effect later this year. Gov. Janet Mills signed legislation in April banning the spreading of wastewater sludge as compost on farmland. The new prohibition stops the spreading of a substance that has been shown to introduce high levels of so-called forever chemicals, or PFAS, into Maine crops and groundwater. But it also ends a practice that wastewater treatment plants have relied on for decades to dispose of their primary byproduct and recoup some costs.