As New York regulators consider a plan to increase the amount of human sewage sludge used on farm fields as fertilizer, another state has banned the practice altogether. When tests in the state of Maine showed dozens of farms and hundreds of drinking water wells were poisoned by forever chemicals, the state banned the use of biosolids.  

Sue Hunter says to stay in farming, you have to love farming. That is why she stays on her farm in Unity, Maine.  

“It’s a beautiful piece of land,” said Hunter. “It used to be an old potato field. As a kid, I used to pick potatoes on this field.”

Hunter met her husband, Alan, not far from the farm. The two met while she was milking cows on her uncle’s dairy farm. They were married for 39 years and bought the current farm in 2008, the year before Alan was diagnosed with cancer.  

“It’s been crazy,” she said.

Alan died in 2015. The loss was just the first blow.

“That’s what angers me,” said Hunter. “Is they knew about it.”

“It” refers to the forever chemicals — PFAS, from industrial contaminants Hunter says were in the sewage sludge that they spread on their fields as fertilizer. 

Sue Hunter says two-thirds of the 100 tillable acres of land on her farm are contaminated with forever chemicals — and no longer farmable. (Spectrum News 1/Seth Voorhees)

“The state came to us and said that, you know, this is free fertilizer,” she said. “We're going to spread it for you. It's not going to do anything to you. And here we are now.”

Hunter grew organic hay and sold it to a neighboring farmer, whose dairy was shut down by the state of Maine because of PFAS in his milk. Two-thirds of the 100 tillable acres of land on her farm are contaminated with forever chemicals and no longer farmable.

“We are the ones who are suffering the consequences,” said Hunter.

About a half-hour away, in Fairfield, Egide Dostie faced a similar situation. In 2020, his herd of over 400 cows tested over three times the allowable safe level of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, the man-made chemical compound used as a water repellant in a number of products. 

In 2020, Egide Dostie's herd of over 400 cows tested over three times the allowable safe level of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, the man-made chemical compound used as a water repellant in a number of products. (Spectrum News 1/Seth Voorhees)

“It was devastating,” said Dostie, a fourth-generation farmer. “The first thing that went through my mind was no way. No way in hell can there be a chemical in the milk.”

On top of that, 200 acres of his land is contaminated. Land spread with sewage sludge by the farm’s previous owner is no good.

“So we’re stuck with land that’s not worth anything,” said Dostie. “It’s a nightmare.”

Dostie now raises beef cattle, fed with clean hay from another farm. He has no idea what the future holds.

“It don’t hold much. Not much at all,” he said. “We’re not going to do it raising beef. We can’t make a living raising beef. It’s not profitable. That’s what we’re trying to do right now, figure out how to stay profitable.”

In 2022, Maine became the first state in the nation to ban the spreading of sewage sludge on farm fields. Like Dostie, when Adam Nordell found out, it was too late.

“Sludge is incalculably toxic,” said Nordell. “We will never know what’s going down the drain.”

Nordell and his wife owned and operated Songbird Farm in Unity for seven years, growing certified organic vegetables and grains. They sold their harvest at places like the annual Common Ground Country Fair in Unity, as well as local farm markets and their own pantry share. Today the farm sits abandoned, out of fear for his family’s health.  

Adam Nordell and his wife owned and operated Songbird Farm in Unity for seven years. oday the farm sits abandoned, out of fear for his family’s health. (Spectrum News 1/Seth Voorhees)

“It’s unreconcilable,” he said. “There are too many of us, unfortunately.”

As in other cases, Nordell says the previous landowner had also spread sewage sludge. Their well water tested 400 times over the safe limit for PFAS.

“I was so heartbroken and outraged when I learned about what had happened to my farm, and what had happened to my friend's farms,” said Nordell. “And the way the Maine food supply had been put at risk.”

Since the state of Maine began testing, nearly 80 farms were found to be contaminated by higher than acceptable levels of PFAS.

“The farms in this area especially, we're really willing to speak out and be vocal about what was happening,” said Tricia Rouleau, farm network director for Maine Farmland Trust. “Their livelihood was at risk.”

Maine Farmland Trust is a nonprofit that works to protect farmland and administers a PFAS emergency relief fund set up by Maine state lawmakers for farmers affected by contamination.

“It’s clear that the likelihood of fighting PFAS contamination, if you're doing statewide testing, is pretty high,” said Rouleau. “And that if you are going to start that testing, there need to be some support systems in place for the farms to deal with the repercussions and help them find the path forward.”

In late 2021, Maine released a map which showed 700 sites that had been licensed to spread sewage sludge. The state systematically tested each one. More than 450 wells had higher than acceptable levels of PFAS. Recently, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife announced a “do not eat” advisory for wild turkey and deer hunted in three spots, including Unity and Fairfield. One includes land surrounding Casella Organics Hawk Ridge Compost Facility in Unity Township, built on the site of what once was a farm, where Maine DEP groundwater sample data shows PFAS levels more than 6,000-times higher than the state’s safe drinking water limit. 

“When a farm becomes contaminated the PFAS," said Nordell. “It doesn’t necessarily respect property boundaries, right?”

No longer living on his farm, Nordell is now campaign manager for Defend Our Health, an organization working to reduce people’s exposure to toxic chemicals. He helps farmers and neighbors with access to well testing, blood tests for PFAS exposure and medical care. He told his heartbreaking story to Maine lawmakers. Nordell credits the state for leading the fight against PFAS contamination. 

“That was a really transformative experience,” said Nordell. “To go through something terrible and then use that experience to try to protect other people, is sort of the best thing you can do in a bad situation sometimes.”

Nordell is just one of many Maine farmers who have found new purpose in advocacy. Sue Hunter invited researchers from the University of Maine to her farm.

“My goal in this is to bring back the farm as a farm,” said Hunter.

It takes a lot of work. Experiments on plots of land focus on how PFAS move through certain crops, like corn. In experiments conducted last year, researchers found that PFAS did not get into the earn but did still contaminate the corn stalks. Scientists are also focusing on potential ways to remediate forever chemicals from poisoned ground.

“Instead of packing up and leaving, which I could have done easily, farming is in my blood,” said Hunter. And I didn't want to give it up,”

Hunter holds onto the dream of passing the family farm to the next generation. Despite all she’s been through, she remains hopeful.

“We have a problem, and we need to solve it,” she said. “Or at least find some type of solution for it. I’m not just helping myself, I’m helping someone else.”