A new threat emerges at Superfund sites in Maine

SACO, Maine — Duane Choquette hesitated when he discovered the property he wanted to buy to create a small homestead is a quarter mile from a Superfund site containing capped-over pits holding arsenic, chromium and other heavy metal waste dumped by a former tannery.

He researched how the site was cleaned up and found no contaminants when he tested the Saco property’s well water, which he would need for irrigation. Choquette bought the home on Hearn Road in 2014.

“Luckily, I happen to work as an ecologist for an environmental consulting company where a lot of other people do remediation work, so they deployed me to the right documents,” he said. “That helped, and the fact that we are uphill from the site.”

Now, 10 years later, a new potential threat is emerging at the location, known as the Saco Waste Pits Superfund Site. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notified Choquette and other neighbors by letter recently that it had discovered high levels of forever chemicals in some locations both on the site and in a few residential wells nearby. It will conduct additional testing over the next couple years to find the source of the PFAS and whether it might threaten nearby residences. That has renewed concern over the safety of that Superfund site and others across Maine and the country.

The federal agency has found forever chemicals at several Superfund sites in Maine and elsewhere in New England that could require new scrutiny, said spokesperson Vikram Lakshmanan. The EPA had not tested for the man-made forever chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, until the past five years, and regulations at the time did not mandate that the toxic chemicals be cleaned up.

That changed last July when a new federal regulation designated two of the most studied and commonly used PFAS as hazardous substances, requiring them to be remediated if they exceed federal standards They are PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, and PFOS, or perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, both used in tanneries to hydrate and degrease hides and for leather finishing. Exposure to the chemicals may increase the risk of some cancers.

“They’re going to have to start this testing at current Superfund sites across the board,” said Jared Hayes, senior policy analyst at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group in Washington D.C. “This is kind of a new undertaking by the EPA, to have regular testing for PFOA and PFOS. Previously they were only doing it in select locations where there were already chances for concern.”

The EPA has tested Choquette’s well, which did not have PFAS. He expects it to conduct more testing.

Monitoring an emerging chemical

The EPA first tested for and discovered PFAS at the Saco pits Superfund site in June 2019. The nine groundwater monitoring wells at the dump site all showed PFAS levels higher than what was then the drinking water standard, according to the agency’s most recent safety review of the site released in January.

After those results, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection tested 38 residential wells near the Saco pits for several PFAS from 2019 to 2023. Four residential wells topped the drinking water standard at the time.

“There could be potential that groundwater conditions have changed,” the report said. “The capped tannery waste may contain elevated concentrations of PFAS.”

Meantime, Choquette said he is watching for the results and will read them carefully. He said he will be satisfied “as long as the caps hold on the site.”

The EPA is requiring additional tests at several other Superfund sites where PFAS has been found, including Loring Air Force Base in Limestone and at Naval Air Station Brunswick. Some 1,400 gallons of toxic firefighting foam containing PFAS spilled at and around Brunswick Executive Airport last summer, worrying residents that their well water might be contaminated. PFAS also was found at the former Eastland Woolen Mill in Corinna, which is a Superfund site, during the last EPA review in 2020, but the levels were below the maximums allowed at the time. The EPA plans to review all three locations by the end of September.

Living near a Superfund site

The Saco Tannery, which operated from 1959 until 1981, dumped 23 million gallons of its process waste at the site in two large lagoons, about two acres in size each, and 57 smaller waste pits, according to federal estimates. Located on 212 acres, the pits site is surrounded by the Maine Turnpike, Flag Pond Road and Hearn Road.

After the Saco Tannery shuttered, the EPA found three acidic pits posed immediate and significant human health risks. The pits became a Superfund site in 1983. The EPA extracted the liquids, neutralized the sludge and capped the pits with clean soil and a nonpermeable membrane.

The site is now a wildlife refuge owned by the quasi-state Finance Authority of Maine and is not open to the public. FAME has been working cooperatively with the EPA and Maine DEP on testing and remediation at the site, said Bill Norbert, a FAME spokesperson. He said it is unclear and premature to say which entity might need to pay for any possible additional cleanup.

The area looks the same now as it did when the trucks were dumping tannery waste there, said Anatole Brown, education manager at the Saco Museum. It is heavily wooded and not possible to see the covered pits and lagoons from the road. Still, the area developed a reputation from the dumping operation.

“Flag Pond Road was always considered a toxic zone, and not until recently did you see houses starting to get built along that road,” Brown said.

In the past decade or so, homes and housing developments have sprung up around the Superfund site, with some neighbors barely aware it is there. So far, the city has not received any complaints about the discovery of the high levels of PFAS nor the two-year timetable for more tests, said Saco City Administrator John Bohenko. He said environmental regulators have been communicating about their review of the site and any necessary actions, and he will wait for their results.

But the PFAS news has some residents paying more attention. Kathleen Pierce, who lives on Hearn Road, said her family bought a house 11 years ago about a mile from the pits and didn’t hear too much about the Superfund site at the time.

“Now, hearing about the PFAS, it is an impetus for me, as a homeowner in the area, to take it seriously and get my water tested,” she said.

On the other road bordering the site, Tim Leary, the seventh-generation owner of Leary Farm, remembers when waste was still being dumped. He said many people at the time didn’t realize that the tannery, located about four miles away in Saco, was dumping acids and heavy metals into the pits.

“The primary concern at the time was the organic waste, because the smell was horrendous,” said Leary, 65, who has lived at the farm his entire life. “Before it was fenced off, we used to go skating on the ponds, on the lagoons. In retrospect, that probably was not a great idea.”

Leary tests the milk from his dairy cows and water to process his vegetables every year. So far, there have been no PFAS readings, and he would like it to stay that way.

“If I hear that the plume is moving, I might be concerned,” Leary said.

Lori Valigra is an investigative environment reporter for the BDN’s Maine Focus team. She may be reached at lvaligra@bangordailynews.com. Support for this reporting is provided by the Unity Foundation, a fund at the Maine Community Foundation, and donations by BDN readers.