April 21, 2022: On Wednesday, April 20th, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed LD 1911, “An Act To Prevent the Further Contamination of the Soils and Waters of the State with So-called Forever Chemicals,” which bans the land application, sale and distribution of biosolids-based soil amendments in the State of Maine. The law will be effective in late July 2022 (90 days from the enacted date). The new law also establishes PFAS effluent testing requirements for water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) but repeals the $10 per ton handling fee on septage and sludge that was enacted in 2021.
According to the National Biosolids Data Project (www.biosolidsdata.org/Maine) Maine, has long been the regional leader in percent of wastewater solids recycled to land within the New England footprint. For some years in the 1990s and 2000s the state has exceeded 85% of biosolids applied to the land. However, in recent years, more Maine biosolids have gone to landfills because of reduced availability of beneficial use outlets and increased regulatory restrictions. In 2018, approximately 40% of Maine’s municipal wastewater solids were applied to soils; the rest were disposed of in landfills.
In March of 2019, Maine became the first state to impose strict biosolids regulatory screening standards for PFAS. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection (ME DEP) ceased biosolids use until PFAS testing was completed. Since then, resumed beneficial use of any biosolids product has only been allowed if biosolids do not exceed strict screening standards or could be shown to not impact soils above those screening standards. However, discovery of PFAS contamination of soil, water, and farm products on a few Maine farms has led to increased public outcry which ultimately led to the passage of the legislative ban.
Earthcare’s patented gasification technology is being deployed to effectively process municipal biosolids at Earthcare’s facility located in Bethel, PA at full-scale with completion slated for late 2023. Learn more about this groundbreaking project here.