PFAS

An advisory committee is considering a plan to spend millions of dollars from a new state PFAS response fund to provide farmers with loan assistance, research, land purchases and medical monitoring and support.

On Wednesday, members of the Legislature's Environment and Natural Resources Committee voted unanimously to push back that reporting requirement to January of 2025.

State environmental officials say they support a two-year suspension of new restrictions on out-of-state waste.

New legislation would require Maine's water bottling companies to monitor for PFAS chemicals and label any PFAS contaminants in each bottle.

The agency says fish samples from lakes, rivers, and streams in Sanford, Albion, China, Fairfield, Thorndike and Limestone had elevated levels of the forever chemicals.

There is bipartisan support in Augusta for allowing companies to delay new requirements for reporting when a product contains the class of chemicals known as PFAS. But lawmakers are hearing competing narratives about whether Maine needs to merely tweak the new law — or overhaul it entirely.

In an announcement on Tuesday that was years in the making, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed requiring public water systems across the country to test for PFAS for the first time.

The bills would also authorize grants to expand PFAS testing in states, to pay for health monitoring for affected individuals and to study ways to clean up water or soil polluted with PFAS.

The private company that runs Maine's largest, state-owned landfill said it can no longer accept millions of pounds of sludge per month, forcing municipalities to change operations to avoid a potential environmental "crisis" as waste builds up at treatment plants.

Here in Maine, the analysis cited Harbor Porpoise, Harbor Seals, and Pygmy Sperm Whales.