Maine Awards $3 Million to Advance PFAS Solutions for Farmers

Maine Awards $3 Million to Advance PFAS Solutions for Farmers

May 15, 2026

AUGUSTA - The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) today announced $3 million in new PFAS Fund research grants to support Maine farms impacted by PFAS. While the vast majority of Maine farms are not impacted, DACF is currently working with 127 sites, ranging from small properties to large, diversified farms, to provide testing, financial assistance, research, and technical support that help farmers make informed decisions and continue operating safely.

Over the past five years, DACF has built robust programs of testing, expert guidance, and financial assistance to ensure safe food and continued farm operations on properties impacted by PFAS contamination. Most contamination stems from the historic use of wastewater sludge as an abundant, low-cost fertilizer, a practice banned in Maine in 2022. The presence of PFAS on agricultural land raises questions about how PFAS circulate through soil, water, plants, and animals; where PFAS accumulate within plants, animals, and animal products; and what management practices can be adopted to protect food safety and worker health. The PFAS Fund research grant program was established to help answer these questions.

DACF awarded a first round of research grants in Spring 2025 to fund projects investigating topics ranging from the use of biochar to immobilize PFAS to bioaccumulation and depuration in dairy sheep and understanding and managing the transfer of PFAS from soils to poultry and eggs.

"These new grants expand and accelerate agricultural PFAS research," said DACF Commissioner Amanda Beal. The results will help impacted farmers in Maine and across the country make informed decisions so they can continue to operate and thrive.

For this round of applications, the PFAS Fund invited two categories of proposals: major grants focused on a broad set of research priorities to be carried out over two years, and targeted grants focused on narrower research questions that can be investigated over a shorter period. The Fund received a total of 31 grant applications requesting over $11 million. The application selection process was highly competitive. Each proposal was evaluated by a team of peer reviewers drawn from academia, State and Federal agencies, and the private sector.

The nine selected projects will focus on:

• Improving soil tests;
• Understanding plant, animal, and pollinator uptake of PFAS;
• Impact of PFAS on animal and pollinator health;
• Advancing predictive modeling of soil to livestock pathways;
• Whether plant uptake and PFAS leaching can be reduced through biochar;
• Possibilities for alternate crop production.

Full project descriptions are available at PFAS Fund Research webpage.

Targeted grants, Round 1

Christoph Aeppli, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

Improving Soil Tests to Better Predict Plant-Available PFAS and Amendment Effects, $99,931

Exploring how to improve PFAS soil testing by studying which soil extraction methods provide the best estimate of the portion of PFAS accessible to plants and how soil amendments affect plant uptake of PFAS.

Thomas Simones, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Establishing a PFDA Volume of Distribution to Refine Predictive Modeling for the Soil to Forage Crop to Beef Cattle Pathway, $51,159

Improving predictive modeling of PFDA uptake by beef cattle through measurement of the volume of distribution (Vd), which links the amount of a PFAS cattle consume to how much is in their blood and muscle.

Thomas Simones, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Focused Continuation of Understanding and Managing the Transfer of Diverse PFAS in Biosolids Impacted Soils to Poultry and Eggs, $99,623

Studying how PFAS move from soil through the environment and into chickens and eggs, to improve guidance for farmers and homesteaders.

Major Grants, Round 2

Celia Chen, Dartmouth College

Maple Sugaring as a Mode of Alternative Crop Production on PFAS-Contaminated Land: Challenges and Opportunities, $499,602

Studying whether sap from maple trees growing on land contaminated with PFAS can be used to make food-safe maple syrup and exploring with farmers whether maple sugaring could be an effective way to make productive use of lands that are unsuitable for other types of agricultural because of previous contamination.

Philip Fanning, University of Maine

PFAS Bioaccumulation in Floral Rewards: Evaluating the Consequences for Bee Pollinators and the Environment, $489,719

Investigating the consequences of PFAS for bees by evaluating the presence of PFAS in bee-collected pollen, identifying flowering plants associated with higher PFAS concentrations, and characterizing pollinator-specific responses to PFAS exposure.

Linda S Lee, Purdue University

Field-level Efficacy and Longevity of High-carbon Sorbent Incorporation into Soil for Reduced PFAS, $472,754

Investigating if the incorporation of locally available carbon-based biosorbents into heavily PFAS-contaminated agricultural fields will reduce PFAS uptake by feed grasses and corn plants and evaluating whether the effectiveness of these high-carbon amendments support modified soil screening levels aid for safe food production.

Jean D MacRae, University of Maine

High Temperature Treatment of PFAS-Contaminated Plant Residues, and the Effects of Char on Mobility of PFAS from Manure-Char Mixtures, $445,780

Identifying the operating conditions required to destroy PFAS in contaminated plant material using pyrolysis or hydrothermal treatment and determining whether mixing the solid product of high-temperature treatment of organics (char) with contaminated manure to prevent leaching of PFAS into water can reduce the risk that PFAS will migrate off the site or into water.

Jessica Cristina Lemos Motta, University of Maine

Assessing the Effects of PFAS Contamination on Reproductive Function and Embryo Development in Livestock, $499,615

Studying how PFAS exposure affects female reproduction in sheep to help understand how PFAS disrupts fertility and embryo development in livestock.

Eguono Omagamre, University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES)

Soil-Specific Strategies for Managing PFAS in Maine Agriculture: Integrating Amendments, Seasonal/Management Dynamics, $499,328

Studying how biochar affects PFAS uptake in different Maine soils, including how soil type, water conditions, and common farm management practices influence whether biochar reduces PFAS movement into forage crops that may be fed to livestock.

The $60 million PFAS Fund was established by Governor Mills with bipartisan legislative support to provide impacted farmers with financial assistance, purchase contaminated farmland from willing sellers, accelerate research to help inform on-farm management decisions, and support health-related initiatives, including PFAS blood serum testing.

For further information, visit DACF's PFAS Fund and PFAS Response program's website. Because of the technical and financial support provided by DACF, the vast majority of PFAS-impacted farms have been able to adjust their operations and continue farming safely.

For more information contact: Jim Britt at: [email protected]