A nonprofit group has purchased a central Maine farm that is heavily contaminated with PFAS and is opening it up to researchers with the goal of shedding light on ways to handle "forever chemicals" on farms.
Adam Nordell and Johanna Davis had spent years building up Songbird Farm into a successful organic vegetable and grain operation. But in late-2021, tests revealed that sludge used to fertilize the fields decades before they bought had leached toxic levels of PFAS into the soil and water. The discovery forced the young couple to halt all sales and to move to another house with their toddler son after blood tests also revealed elevated levels of PFAS in their bodies.
After more than a year and a half of work, Maine Farmland Trust announced that it had purchased the farm and planned to open it up to research on PFAS.
The farmland preservation group has been working with farmers for several years as concerns grew that the state's history of fertilizing fields with sludge had inadvertently contaminated some fields with PFAS. State investigations have turned up more than a dozen contaminated farms – as well as hundreds of drinking wells on nearby properties – linked to the state-licensed sludge spreading program. And state lawmakers have set aside more than $100 million in recent years to help conduct the investigations and potentially compensate farmers.
Now the conservation group has bought a 45-acre farm in Unity that was forced to close down because of pollution from the industrial chemicals.
Maine Farmland Trust president and CEO Amy Fisher said Friday that the organization tapped its own funds to purchase Songbird Farm. Fisher said PFAS on farms is still a relatively young field of research. So the trust is inviting researchers to use Songbird Farm to better understand how crops interact with the chemicals and even how plants could help clean up contamination.
"MFT really has a stake in soil remediation and helping foster research that can discover a pathway for soil remediation – and an affordable pathway,” Fisher said. “We have a focus on returning contaminated lands to agriculture in the future when that's possible and want to make this farm available for folks who are doing that kind of research as a great place to do it."
In an interview, Nordell said the purchase will allow both his family and the farm that they loved to receive a “second chance,” albeit in different ways.
Source: mainepublic.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-sasiistock
Categories: Pennsylvania, General