A center dedicated to researching and finding solutions to “forever chemicals” in Maine will come to the University of Maine’s Orono campus now that the project has secured $17 million in federal funding.
The PFAS Center of Excellence will be created by renovating an existing U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory on campus, but few other details about the facility are available. Researchers at the USDA’s New England Plant, Soil, and Water Laboratory in Orono don’t currently study the topic, said Brian Peterson, the research leader and center director.
Maine is leading the nation in its response to the chemicals, which are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, but many questions about them remain unanswered. PFAS are found in water and land around the state, and studies have linked them to health problems such as liver disease, decreased infant and fetal growth and high cholesterol.
They are considered “forever” because they build up in people’s bodies and the environment over time and break down slowly.
An agriculture appropriations bill passed in the U.S. Senate earlier this month includes $17 million for the project. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the appropriations committee, said in an announcement that UMaine has been at the forefront of efforts to address PFAS contamination affecting the livelihoods of Maine’s farmers, and this funding will further support that work.
Several other UMaine projects received congressional funding totaling more than $35 million.
The USDA’s Agricultural Research Service will use $10 million to renovate the laboratory facilities at the New England Plant, Soil and Water Laboratory. Although office space has undergone upgrades in recent years, the laboratories are nearly 50 years old and need to be reconfigured, Peterson said. The other $7 million will be used for research and programming.
The PFAS facility will allow researchers to find ways to “mitigate threats to people, animals, plants and soil and water health as it relates to contamination,” Peterson said, though specifics are still being determined.
Collins’ office said research will address PFAS contamination across agricultural industries, including work that supports short-term farm management decisions and studying viable uses of contaminated land.
The Agricultural Research Service develops five-year project plans with input from stakeholders and funding from the federal government. Funding for the PFAS center was up in the air until March 8, so now the real planning can begin, including the first step of hiring a research leader, Peterson said.
“ARS, in general, does research that has some beneficial impact to people,” he said. “They don’t research just to do research, so the work at the facility will be impactful and meaningful to people that it really affects.”
Primarily, USDA employees will be the ones working at the PFAS center, but UMaine’s faculty and students will have some involvement, said Jake Ward, UMaine’s vice president for strategic partnerships, innovation, resources and engagement. The project will build on PFAS work that UMaine’s cooperative extension offices, College of Earth, Life and Health Sciences and the Maine College of Engineering and Computing have already done, he said.
“We’re excited about this partnership because now we aggregate all of that under a USDA ARS center,” Ward said.
PFAS is a challenge that was thrust upon Maine because of behaviors and practices over decades, but the university is focused on a “solutions-oriented approach,” he said.
UMaine, a land grant research institution, has hosted a USDA laboratory since the 1970s. The USDA leases the land on which its facility was built from the university.
