Maine Organic Farmers Join Texas Ranchers in Lawsuit Against the EPA Over Alleged Failure to Regulate “Forever Chemical” Contamination

The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) joined a lawsuit earlier this week against the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the agency’s alleged failure to adequately address “forever chemical” contamination.

Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA is required to “identify toxic pollutants in sewage sludge” and “promulgate regulations, based on available information, for identified pollutants if sufficient scientific evidence shows they may harm human health or the environment.”

MOFGA announced Tuesday that it signed onto a lawsuit filed in June by a group of ranchers from Johnson County, Texas against the EPA for allegedly “fail[ing] to regulate the land application of sludge contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under the Clean Water Act.”

According to MOFGA’s press release, the Johnson County plaintiffs are all being represented by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), “an organization that shines the light on improper or illegal government actions and supports the work of other organizations.”

“Farmers across the country count on the EPA to ensure that sewage sludge that gets applied on land as fertilizer is safe,” said PEER staff counsel Laura Dumais. “EPA has ample information about the dangers of PFAS in sewage sludge and should have regulated it long ago, as the Clean Water Act requires.”

“Through no fault of their own, farms have been contaminated with PFAS, and we’re holding the EPA accountable for regulating PFAS in sludge,” said MOFGA Executive Director Sarah Alexander.

“The EPA has the responsibility to make sure that sludge that contains harmful PFAS don’t contaminate our water, ecosystems, and our food,” Alexander said. “The EPA should stop PFAS from ending up on farm fields and on our plates. We need to take action for ourselves and for future generations.”

Click Here to Read MOFGA’s Full Press Release

In the Notice of Intent filed by MOFGA in May of this year, the group explains that the primary source of this PFAS contamination is “the use of biosolids and paper mill sludges, either applied to farmland as soil amendments or ‘disposed of’ by spreading on fields.”

[RELATED: Maine Farmers Expected to Sue EPA Over Alleged Failure to Address “Forever Chemical” Contamination]

The EPA has told members of the press that it has no information to provide on pending litigation.

In April of this year, several environmental groups took action against the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) for allegedly failing to do enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the state.

The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), Sierra Club, and Maine Youth Action (MYA) are pursuing legal action against these agencies primarily for their failure to adopt California’s Advanced Clean Cars II Program, which would have mandated that 82 percent of new car sales in the state be comprised of zero-emissions vehicles (ZEVs) by model year 2032.

The Plaintiffs in this case are asking the Cumberland County Superior Court to declare that the State’s decision to reject this mandate was “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.”

[RELATED: Environmental Groups Sue Maine in Effort to Force Adoption of Controversial EV Mandate]

On April 16, Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed a bill into law that made a handful of changes to the state’s first-of-their-kind regulations, requiring that PFAS be removed from the vast majority of products sold in the state by 2032.

For items such as cookware, cosmetics, and upholstered furniture, PFAS must be eliminated by 2026.

By 2040, heating, cooling, and refrigeration equipment being offered for sale in Maine may no longer contain PFAS.

A number of products are explicitly exempted from these requirements, including firefighting foams, federally-regulated medical products, and motor vehicles.

Click Here for More Information on These Changes