Maine
Forever chemicals ruined his farm. It took years for Maine to see a bigger problem.
ARUNDEL, Maine — Fred Rock desires you to understand he is not a protestor. Permanently chemicals have actually damaged his life. He simply wishes to pay his financial obligations.
The third-generation farmer from the York Area community of Arundel ended up being a nationwide number in 2019, when he advertised the high degrees of per- as well as polyfluoroalkyl compounds, likewise referred to as PFAS, had actually been found at extremely high degrees in dirt as well as in the milk of his milk herd at Stoneridge Ranch in 2016 from almost two decades of sludge dispersing.
He invested over 2 years prior to that attempting to bring degrees down. The exploration of PFAS in his feed source stopped a pricey mission to conserve his ranch. He currently survives well-being with assistance from loved ones. He maintains a tiny herd of family tree reveal cows after needing to euthanize a polluted herd.
“Our only means of being made entire, if that’s also feasible, is if the state supplies alleviation,” he stated. “Since they are the just one with the methods to do it.”
Rock held your horses no in Maine’s battle versus chemicals connected to cancer cells as well as various other health issue. A closer check out Maine’s handling of his situation demonstrates how authorities had a hard time to recognize the extent of the trouble at Rock’s ranch as well as past, meetings as well as papers reveal. They prevented him from offering milk as well as made him spend for screening while urging his situation was a rarity.
It was not. Maine has actually given that taken several of the globe’s best activities versus the chemicals as well as has actually started a hostile screening initiative initially concentrating on 34 cities as well as communities where one of the most wastewater or paper firm sludge has actually been spread out ashore. Explorations endanger lots of conventional elements of Maine life, from farming to searching as well as freshwater angling.
In safeguarding the Rock examination, the state indicates absence of activity on the government degree, restricted sources to discover contamination as well as brand-new understanding of the degrees at which PFAS can be dangerous. Those aspects reduced its feedback in a manner it is still recuperating from.
“He has actually been solid, as well as I assume in no little component, we’re below as a result of Rock ranch as well as I wouldn’t want this on any person,” Nancy McBrady, supervisor of the Maine Bureau of Farming, Food as well as Rural Resources, stated of Rock. “Yet I do assume that if he were to be located today, we would certainly remain in a various setting to provide even more noise as well as durable assistance.”
Discovering the source
Understanding of Rock’s troubles started at the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport as well as Wells Water Area in April 2016, when authorities joined a government screening program trying to find pollutants that could be controlled in the future. They were not called for to examine for PFAS yet, as well as the 50 components per trillion of PFAS discovered in the water was well listed below government standards evaluated 200 components per trillion.
Yet when those standards were changed dramatically downward to 70 components per trillion a month later on, Standard Labbe, the previous superintendent of the area, determined it was also dangerous to not discover the concern even more. The water area educated Rock in November 2016 the contamination showed up to find from a well situated on his ranch.
By February 2017, the Kennebunk River well was closed down as a safety measure. Labbe was reluctant to go public, not wishing to threaten state companies he functioned carefully with. The DEP stated its preliminary research studies of PFAS at Stoneridge were initial as well as intended to do even more research study prior to they were advertised. Yet area leaders were obtaining awkward awaiting the state to act.
“I intended to introduce right away to my clients what the concern was as well as why we had actually selected to close the well down,” he stated.
It was not up until 2018 that the water area stated its PFAS degrees were connected to Rock’s ranch. Labbe stated it appeared evident to him the exploration would certainly not be the last one in Maine.
Yet he did not be sorry for awaiting the state to complete its job prior to speaking up. Maine was doing its finest to recognize the trouble, he said, as well as it would certainly have been unreasonable to the state to advertise the concern prior to it was done researching it.
“[Waiting] 6 months to a year to speak up isn’t mosting likely to make much of a distinction when several of this sludge has actually been spread out around for thirty years,” he stated.
‘The entire photo’
While the water area was awaiting state activity, Fred Rock was combating to conserve his ranch.
Sludge dispersing started in the 1970s as well as 1980s. Commonly pitched throughout the nation as a cost-efficient means to boost dirt fertility, it likewise offered to eliminate a waste item for regional sewer therapy plants as well as paper firms satisfied to supply it to regional farmers.
He started spreading out sludge on his land in 1983 from 3 various suppliers: the paper mill in Westbrook as well as drain areas in Kennebunk as well as Ogunquit under a state-sponsored program that connected ranches with sludge suppliers. Rock quit spreading it in 2004.
After the water area alert in November 2016, Rock met his attorney as well as vet to go over alternatives. Maine was not needing milk farmers to examine for PFAS in milk as well as still does not. The state occasionally examines retail milk for the chemicals. Yet Rock stated he really felt bound to flag the concern for the state as well as his buyer, Oakhurst, within days of the notification. Oakhurst suspended its investing in agreement with the ranch a month later on, according to e-mails.
There was a feeling of necessity early in the state examination that Rock’s activity welcomed. A late-November e-mail from Rachael Fiske, the state vet, recommended a milk assessor that Rock need to take a complimentary well examination to quicken the procedure, a mean his battles to find.
“If he does not, I think the DEP will certainly require him to examine which will certainly more than likely drag every one of this out a lot more, potentially to the hinderance of his organization,” Fiske composed.
There was no government referral on just how much PFAS need to be allowed milk, so Maine needed to make its very own. It picked 210 components per trillion, a conventional State Toxicologist Andy Smith kept in mind in a March 2017 memorandum was not legitimately enforceable. Maine utilized it to put on hold Stoneridge’s milk-selling authorization that April. It would certainly not be recovered up until the milk evaluated under those degrees. To arrive, Rock would certainly need to spend for month-to-month examinations setting you back approximately $500.
At the exact same time, authorities forbade him from offering feed or garden compost in situation it was infected. They later on prohibited him from revealing his pets unless their milk was tidy as well as no PFAS was discovered in manure, reducing the ranch off from earnings resources. While it got settlements from a government milk indemnity program, checks were usually late, e-mails reveal.
Clockwise from left: Fred Rock brings bleeding devices right into the bleeding shop on his ranch in Arundel on Friday, April 15, 2022; Milk puts right into a pail on Rock’s milk ranch. Rock can no more offer the milk his cows generate as a result of high degrees of PFAS on his land; A cow chews its cud on the ranch. Credit Scores: Troy R. Bennett / BDN
Rock abided as well as maintained peaceful. He stressed over his ranch’s future as well as safeguarding Oakhurst from the credibility of having harmful milk. He discarded numerous gallons daily. He likewise bought a $22,000 filtering system.
Authorities independently questioned that would certainly aid, according to a 2017 e-mail in between Smith as well as Fiske. Smith stated that Rock’s hay was likely a significant source of direct exposure. If he picked to expand hay on his ranch next year, it would certainly combat any type of advantages of the brand-new system.
“I wish he is analyzing the entire photo below prior to investing $20k,” he composed.
That was not the only uncertainty they had. Authorities likewise examined whether manure or plant foods spread out in years when sludge was not might have added to Stoneridge’s PFAS degrees, stated David Madore, the division’s speaker. Yet given that manure dispersing prevails, it would certainly make it hard to identify whether a lot of contamination originated from that or sludge.
Also as Rock’s scenario will emerge, authorities thought his scenario was distinct. Kerri Malinowski, that leads the DEP’s much safer chemicals department, safeguarded that thinking by indicating Maine’s farming division searching for no trace of PFAS in various other milk examples as well as her firm locating nothing else ranches that spread out sludge from the exact same resources in a March 2019 e-mail to a press reporter.
“Eventually, I assume it perhaps led us to attract the verdict that perhaps this wasn’t extensive, in itself, yet a unique scenario,” he stated. “Clearly, as time took place, we recognized that was not the situation.”
Yet Rock stated the state never ever increased the worry concerning plant food to him. He called it “oblivious,” stating he had not spread out any type of for 15 years prior to the PFAS exploration.
Stoneridge Ranch’s milk ultimately revealed non-detectable degrees of PFAS in August 2018. It was short-term. In January 2019, it evaluated at 187 components per trillion. He thinks it was as a result of brand-new feed he had actually acquired, yet he was never ever able to verify it. At that degree, Oakhurst rejected to acquire even more milk, as well as Rock did not really feel comfy attempting to offer milk with any type of degree of pollutants. His loan providers backed out.
The tired Rock went public in March 2019. Entirely, he approximates he shed almost $440,000 because of PFAS. That leaves out the decrease of his residential property as well as the infected cows he needed to eliminate when he might no more pay for to maintain them.
To eliminate the cows, most of whom Rock recognized by face as well as name, was an activity that was unimaginable at the start of the challenge, Rock stated. By the end, it was a cool estimation he needed to make.
“You can’t feed 150-some strange pets simply for laughs as well as laughs,” he stated.
Going it alone
Maine remained in a challenging setting throughout the Stoneridge examination.
Protestors had actually been wondering about sludge dispersing given that the 1980s, yet the threats of PFAS were not popular up until 1998, when a research of chemicals in 3M items recommended they remained in human blood as well as triggered long-lasting health and wellness threats. A lot more just recently, the federal government has actually been remediating army websites where PFAS contamination was connected to firefighting foam. PFAS has actually been found at the previous Flying force base in Sedimentary rock.
Regardless of recognizing that the chemicals are dangerous for several years, government regulatory authorities have actually been slow-moving to attend to them with strategies to control them in alcohol consumption water are still pending. The nation is still just starting to scrape the surface area of exactly how extensive PFAS contamination is.
“Maine has actually needed to go it alone,” stated Sharon Reward, an attorney with the Institute for Farming as well as Profession Plan as well as a previous Autonomous state legislator from Hallowell.
The extent of the Rock examination was incredible, stated Madore, the DEP speaker. The state needed to identify a border, whether contamination was spreading out as well as what might be triggering continuous direct exposure. After the state took its last ground as well as water examples, it took months to examine them to recognize what they indicated. To duplicate that at several ranches without evidence of threat would certainly have strained state’s sources, he stated.
“So we rushed to locate as well as recognize financing to be able to begin this as rapidly as we might up until we might stand something up or request for added financing,” Madore stated.
The state has actually been a lot more hostile given that Gov. Janet Mills took workplace in 2019. DEP is currently called for to examine land where sludge or septage was spread out for PFAS. The Legislature accepted a phase-out of the chemicals in a lot of items by 2030, the very first such activity on the planet.
Maine has actually likewise decreased the appropriate degrees of PFAS in alcohol consumption water to 20 components per trillion, although the milk requirement has actually not altered. Legislators get on track to outlaw sludge dispersing on farmland this year, terminate chemicals with the chemicals in them as well as pass a $60 million alleviation fund for farmers.
Rock claims these rate yet late modifications. The residues of his herd lie interred in a southwest edge of his field. The piles are overgrown with lengthy turf. For him, they are grim tips. They would certainly be plain to somebody passing away by.
The farmer is a significant factor for Maine’s plan modifications, yet they are far too late to conserve his ranch. He seems like he is the just one that paid a cost.
“I would certainly have liked to have actually been foolish,” Rock stated.
A lot more short articles from the BDN
Maine
‘You can’t wait for perfect’: Portland mixes care, crackdown in homeless crisis – The Boston Globe
But where some outreach workers see peril, Dion sees a positive.
“I’m pretty proud of it,” he said of the city’s response, including opening a new, 258-bed shelter, which city officials said had absorbed many of the homeless evicted from the camps. “Some of the nonprofit world wanted a perfect answer, but you can’t wait for perfect.”
Crackdowns against homeless encampments have gained momentum in New England, after the Supreme Court ruled in June that communities can enforce bans on sleeping on public property. This month, the Brockton and Lowell city councils banned unauthorized camping on public property, joining Boston, Fall River, and Salem with some form of prohibition.
In Portland, the parks are now cleaner, but the underlying problems of homelessness remain, social workers said.
“The research is pretty clear that sweeps don’t work. We’re not supportive of the encampments, either; they’re awful places,” said Mark Swann, executive director of Preble Street. “But poverty is complex, and solutions to poverty and homelessness are complex, and people like the black and white.”
After the evictions, some of the homeless found shelter and a broad range of care at the $25 million homeless services center, which opened in March 2023 on the outskirts of the city, about 5 miles from downtown. About 15 to 20 beds are available each day, city officials said, but a far greater number of homeless are sleeping downtown and elsewhere.
The 53,000-square-foot complex contains a health clinic, dental services, storage lockers, mental health counseling, and meeting rooms for caseworkers, as well as three meals a day, laundry facilities, and shuttles that take clients to and from downtown, where other social-service providers are located.
“This place saved my life,” said Michael Smith, 33, an Army veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, who had been sleeping next to a heating vent outside City Hall before he moved to the shelter.
Clients can leave whenever they choose, but many remain for days or weeks while matches with hard-to-find housing are sought for them. No identification is required, and people are accepted even if under the influence, but substance use is not tolerated on site.
“We’ll serve 1,300 to 1,400 unduplicated individuals in a year,” said Aaron Geyer, the city’s director of social services. “I’m incredibly proud of the space we have. It had been a long time coming.”
City spokesperson Jessica Grondin said the number of homeless on the streets is smaller than the number evicted from the camps.
“Most have gone to the shelter,” Grondin said. “We will have a warming shelter in place this winter when the temperatures get to a certain level,” she added, and “outreach workers will encourage these folks to go there for the night.”
The city’s previous shelter, located downtown, had used beds and floor mats, some placed about 12 to 16 inches apart, to accommodate 154 people. In addition to the new facility, Portland operates a family shelter with 146 beds, and a space with 179 beds used by asylum seekers.
David George Delancey, 62, a former truck driver, has been living at Portland’s upgraded shelter for more than a year. “This is probably the best place to be if you want to be safe,” he said.
Delancey is still looking for housing, which Swann, of Preble Street, said is increasingly unaffordable and has contributed to the dramatic escalation of Portland’s homelessness.
“There was a time not that long ago, about seven years ago, when it was extremely rare in Greater Portland to see somebody sleeping outside,” Swann said. “There were eight or nine nonprofits running shelters along with the city at that time, and a really robust planning mechanism. That stopped on a dime.”
Under former governor Paul LePage, the state cut its reimbursement rate for general-assistance funding, which communities can use for shelter costs, to 70 percent from 90 percent, Swann said. For Portland, a tourist destination with a lively food and arts scene, that decrease squeezed its ability to serve the homeless, he added.
“People do not disappear when you do not shelter them, and almost overnight dozens and dozens of people could not find a safe place to sleep with a roof over their heads,” Swann said.
Other reasons for the spike included the mass social disruptions caused by COVID, a shortage of housing vouchers, and a steep rise in Portland’s cost of living. The city’s real-estate prices, including rents, have soared along with an increase in gentrification.
A point-in-time survey in January 2023 by MaineHousing, an independent state agency, found 4,258 people were homeless in Maine, a nearly fourfold increase over the 1,097 who were recorded in 2021.
“The other big challenge is that Maine has a serious opioid problem, one of the highest per-capita rates in the nation,” said Andew Bove, vice president of social work at Preble Street, which has 108 beds at three shelters in the city. “Many of the people we see sleeping out, a high percentage, have opioid-use disorder.”
Opioid fatalities have declined in Portland this year, to 14 deaths through October compared with 39 through October 2023, according to police statistics. But nonfatal overdoses have increased, to 459 from 399 over the same period.
Dion said opioid use in the camps, and its related safety concerns, were important drivers of the decision to raze them.
“There was a lot of violence and exploitation directed against women in that population,” as well as theft in abutting neighborhoods, said Dion, who was elected to the City Council in 2020. “It went from being incidental to dominating the landscape of the city. At City Hall, it sucked the oxygen from every other issue.”
On the streets, the homeless continue to congregate during the day, primarily in the Bayside neighborhood, which is home to several social service providers.
Matt Brown, who founded an outreach group called Hope Squad, said it’s painfully apparent that more needs to be done, especially with winter approaching.
“I see people here, and I can almost see putting them in a [body] bag,” said Brown, a former federal parole officer, as he walked through Bayside recently.
“The uncertainty of what’s going to happen in the next few months is really scary,” he added. “Your garden-variety citizen doesn’t know exactly what’s going on.”
Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at brian.macquarrie@globe.com.
Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
A unicorn apartment was listed in the pricey city of Ellsworth: a 2-bedroom with all utilities included for just $700 per month.
If that sounds too good to be true, it is, and the scam was not hard to detect.
The unit was posted by an anonymous Facebook user in a local forum without a specific address. A palm tree was faintly visible through the front door in one photo. When a reporter inquired about the post, someone used a Montana company’s name and sent a link to apply for a private showing in exchange for a $70 deposit.
A quick call to the Montana company, which deals only in home sales in that state, is not behind the scam listing. A representative said the agency gets daily calls from Facebook users around the nation telling them scammers are impersonating them.
These kinds of apartment listing scams, often seen on Facebook or Craigslist, have picked up steam in recent years as the nation’s housing crisis deepens and more have become desperate for affordable places to live. The scams often promise below-market rents in cities squeezed for that kind of inventory, meaning the fraudsters target those who are most vulnerable.
“Rental scams in a very tight market are very prevalent,” Phil Chin, a lead volunteer with AARP Maine’s fraud watch network, said. “People under the pressure of income are trying to get the best for a lower price, and seniors are always at disadvantage only because they don’t have the wherewithal to do all this checking around.”
These kinds of scams are “unconscionable” for targeting families looking for affordable housing, Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a statement. His office has received multiple complaints on the issue.
Many of the advertised units do not exist, the Federal Trade Commission wrote in an advisory. Some exist but are not for rent. One Maine homeowner recently discovered that his house was for rent on Craigslist without his knowledge, said Christopher Taub, Frey’s deputy. The ad included photos and almost got one renter to send money to a Nigerian email address.
“Fortunately, the shopper contacted the Maine homeowner and discovered the scam before sending any funds to the scam artist,” Taub said. “Other consumers haven’t been so lucky only to arrive at their paid vacation home for the week or new apartment to find out that it isn’t for rent at all.”
Often, Facebook users are wise to these scams and will comment that they appear to be one. But Facebook allows any poster to restrict their comments, allowing many fraudulent listings to go unchecked. Neither Craigslist nor Meta, Facebook’s parent company, responded to a request for comment on scam apartment listings.
To avoid being scammed, it’s important to confirm the person listing an apartment is legitimate or from a known and trusted business before sending them money, Taub said. Call the property management company and ask lots of questions or visit it yourself, the office advised.
The Federal Trade Commission recommends searching online for the rental location’s address and the name of the property owner. If the two don’t match, that’s a red flag. If there’s no address listed at all, like the Ellsworth unit, that’s another sign of a scam.
Though Maine landlords are allowed to charge application fees, it can only be for specific reasons including a background check, a credit check or some other screening process, according to Pine Tree Legal Assistance. Frey warns against paying any such fees by cash, wiring money, sending gift cards or paying by cryptocurrency, as you can’t get that money back.
“It’s a hard one to deal with. People are under income pressure,” said Chin of AARP Maine. “They have to be vigilant on their own, … but it’s hard to keep your wits about you when you’re facing eviction.”
BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – You don’t need to be a farmer to enjoy Maine’s harvest this weekend!
Maine Harvest Festival & Craft Show is returning to Bangor’s Cross Insurance Center both Saturday and Sunday.
Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days, there will be over 80 local artisans, farmers and crafters selling a wide variety of goods, making it a perfect stop for Christmas gifts or Thanksgiving additions!
WABI got a glimpse into the Cross Insurance Center Friday as vendors prepped their booths ahead of the weekend.
New this year: admission is free!
Organizers say it is in response to low admission numbers post-COVID and to incentivize as many people as possible to come shop local.
“At the Cross Center, we really want to celebrate our community, and we want to make sure we give people, our local vendors a spotlight to reach the community,” says Brad LaBree, Cross Insurance Center’s Director of Sales and Marketing.
The event will also give attendees a chance to participate in the Cross Insurance Center’s ticket giveaway to upcoming shows a part of their Broadway series.
LaBree says Cross Insurance Center is expecting about a 5,000-person turnout this weekend.
Copyright 2024 WABI. All rights reserved.
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