Maine farms contaminated with PFAS get new purpose
More than 60 Maine farms have been identified as having unsafe levels of PFAS chemicals in their soil and water, largely from municipal sludge spread on farms as fertilizer for decades.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of Saving Land magazine.
Organic vegetable farmers Adam Nordell and Johanna Davis of Songbird Farm in Unity, Maine, learned two years ago that their farm soils were highly contaminated with poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, chemicals that have been used since the 1950s in products ranging from food packaging to firefighting foam. The contamination stemmed from municipal sewage sludge that had been spread in the years before they purchased the farm. Once discovered, the land couldn’t be used to grow food.
Songbird Farm is the latest victim of a growing PFAS problem impacting Maine’s farming community. More than 60 Maine farms have been identified as having unsafe levels of PFAS chemicals in their soil and water, largely from municipal sludge spread on farms as fertilizer for decades.
The accredited Maine Farmland Trust recently purchased Songbird Farm, after previously protecting it with an agricultural conservation easement, and plans to make the land available to research partners interested in exploring PFAS contamination and possible soil remediation techniques. Maine Farmland Trust has been working closely with the state and many other partners to increase testing, research and support for Maine farmers impacted by PFAS.
“When PFAS contamination was discovered at Songbird Farm, we knew that Maine farmers needed urgent solutions to the PFAS crisis,” said Amy Fisher, Maine Farmland Trust president and CEO.
“It is very, very sad to know that the land we farmed was so fundamentally violated by the sludge spreading,” said Nordell. “We loved that place. Maine Farmland Trust is giving the farm a new life. Maybe it can’t produce food anymore, but it can still produce information that serves the broader farming community.”
The nearby Sebasticook Regional Land Trust was recently awarded a $5,000 grant to transform farmland contaminated with PFAS into a nature preserve for grassland birds. The Richardson Memorial Preserve had relied financially on two small farming operations that leased 50 acres. Both farms were forced to close when PFAS contamination was confirmed in 2022.
CBS Evening News discusses Songbird Farm and PFAS chemicals in Maine: