PFAS are one of the biggest public health threats of our time. These “forever chemicals” have infested seemingly every facet of our lives, from water and soil to kitchen products, safety equipment, and even our babies’ toys. As a country we need real urgency to address this risk quickly and do it the right way.
Despite rollbacks and standstills of PFAS regulation federally, we’re seeing impressive bipartisan support to tackle forever chemicals at the state level. This is an important step in the right direction. But as states introduce legislation to regulate PFAS, it’s imperative that they move forward with responsible legislation that has been proven to be effective.
There are two policy paths moving through state legislatures, which I call the “Michigan model” and the “Maine model.”
Maine and Michigan both lead the charge for state-level PFAS regulation, but there are two key differences in their approaches that make the Maine Model the gold standard for states to follow.
First, Maine’s model takes a proactive approach, banning PFAS from consumer products before they’re manufactured.
Second, Maine was the first state in the nation to pass a comprehensive ban on the land application of sewage sludge, also known as biosolids, and the sale and distribution of sludge-derived compost. This stops PFAS before they have a chance to pollute our state’s drinking water, farmland, and local communities.
As a Maine policy leader who helped pass this legislation in my home state, I’ve seen the benefits of having a proactive strategy against PFAS. Currently, every state other than Maine and Connecticut is adding to its PFAS contamination through additional sludge spreading, which just deepens the crisis, increasing future remediation and health costs.
States Need a Proactive Legislative Strategy
Though Michigan was an early leader in setting drinking-water standards (Maximum Contaminant Level or MCLs) for specific PFAS chemicals, the Great Lakes state has now fallen behind. Michigan’s PFAS strategy depends on detecting PFAS and mitigating it through cleanup initiatives — a strategy that’s well intended but leaves room for harm to reach the public.
Adding to this, states are finding themselves needing more money to pay for PFAS cleanups, as settlements from polluters aren’t covering the costs.
Maine’s policies stand out because they anticipate the impact of sweeping PFAS prevention measures and create safety nets for the businesses and communities that are most at risk. This shows up in different ways, but a prime example is our partnership with farmers who have been harmed by toxic sludge threatening their land and livelihood.
About six years ago, we started to work with farmers who were no longer able to cultivate and sell their products safely due to PFAS contamination from fertilizer and sewage sludge on their land. We created a PFAS emergency relief fund, which gives farmers the resources they need to navigate safe transitions for their farms. The fund can help farmers pay for initial PFAS testing, access wellness and mental-health services, and sometimes receive short-term income replacement and invest in infrastructure adaptations — which are all essential when you lose your livelihood.
Since creating the infrastructure to transition farms safely away from threats of PFAS contamination, we have supported more than 100 farms. Only the earliest farms to discover contamination — prior to a safety net being in place — have faced closure.
This safety net for our agricultural leaders has been so successful because it prioritizes public health, financial stability, and long-term sustainability. Our food systems, public health, and economic vitality depend on our policies to both turn off the tap on PFAS chemicals being added to products that end up in the waste stream and create safety nets throughout the transition to cleaner infrastructure so small businesses are protected.
Combatting Lax Sludge Standards and Fighting for Accountability
In addition to being proactive, states need to set smart thresholds for sludge. Michigan has set incredibly high contamination thresholds for PFAS concentration in biosolids, which means that large amounts of contaminants will still be applied to the land. If thresholds aren’t meaningful, they aren’t protecting anybody.
Legislation with smart thresholds for sludge has quickly proven itself to be crucial, as attempts to water down anti-sludge policies are cropping up in states across the country. These attempts show up as high thresholds for PFAS contamination in sludge and liability shields for corporations engaged in sludge disposal. To prevent this policy trend from growing, it’s imperative that anti-sludge and anti-PFAS legislation addresses corporate loopholes like these.
Maine’s policies opt for a more comprehensive approach, regulating PFAS as an entire category rather than by individual chemical regulations. Furthermore, we were the first state to mandate a near-total ban on PFAS in products.
Our state has also passed legislation that pushes for accountability from manufacturers who are unable to rid their products of PFAS, giving them a Currently Unavoidable Use (CUU) determination. Our Department of Environmental Protection will only issue a CUU to businesses if the department has determined a product is essential for health, safety, or the functioning of society and for which alternatives are not reasonably available.
Pretty soon it won’t be a choice of whether or not states take action against PFAS, but how they do it. And Maine’s policy is the blueprint for how the rest of America should address this issue to prevent this poisonous public-health threat at the source.
Previously in The Revelator:
The Silent Threat Beneath Our Feet: How Deregulation Fuels the Spread of Forever Chemicals