Kevin Kitchin returned to his hometown of Fairfield in 2018 after 30 years in the U.S. Navy and bought his dream home on 40 acres. Two years later, high levels of forever chemicals were discovered in several areas of the town, including on his property.
“Shortly after that the state warned us to not eat deer. That’s why I bought this house, so I can hunt on my own land and do the things I like to do as a Mainer,” he said.
With forever chemical readings of 36,000 parts per trillion in his drinking water — thousands of times higher than the state’s limit of 20 parts per trillion — his first inclination was to move out of state. Instead, he decided to stay and fight to get clean water.
He supports a proposed bill to be heard by the Maine Legislature’s energy committee on Monday that aims to get a one-time, $10 million payment from the state to extend Fairfield’s public water supply to residents with private wells that have high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS.
The man-made PFAS chemicals got into private wells mostly from sludge spread on farmland, a practice that became popular in the 1980s and that the state banned in April 2022.
To date, state regulators have dealt with the high readings in Fairfield by providing free filtration systems to residents. So far, 149 homes have the systems, and another 111 are approved for them. But money for the $25 million filtration program will run out in a few years, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection told the town in 2023. The average annual cost per house of $5,000 to maintain the systems would then fall onto the homeowners. Kitchin said his high PFAS levels require changing the filters more often, so his cost could run $10,000 or more a year.
The ongoing expenses and dwindling funding led lawmakers to propose the bill. Kitchin, who helped create the town’s recently released PFAS committee report analyzing local testing and filter needs, supports the bill, with reservations.
“Any money Fairfield can get to help with clean and safe drinking water is a good thing,” Kitchin said. “My primary concern is, if the bill passes, it’s going to take two, maybe three, years to expand the water system, and the funding is running out for residents that have filtration systems.”
Bill co-sponsor Rep. Scott Cyrway, R-Albion, has the same concern. He also worries about how far the money will stretch if the bill passes. It could cost $7 million or more to just expand the current town water system to Howe Road, a hotspot in the town for high PFAS readings in private well water. He said it could cost as much as $70 million for the Kennebec Water District to expand town water to all the areas of Fairfield with contaminated private wells.
“But we want to be able to help people continue to get paid to replace their filters,” said Cyrway, who grew up on a farm in neighboring Benton. “I think the verbiage of the bill could be amended to include that.”
Cryway also is concerned about the potential effect of the filter maintenance cost on the real estate market should property owners have to assume it. So far, town representatives have said there has been no effect on property values or real estate sales. But Cyrway disagreed, saying a cost of as much as $10,000 extra each year for filter system maintenance could hurt property values and sales.
“The state should take a big part of ownership of this,” he said. “The $10 million for the expansion is a start.”
Residents voted against an expansion proposed in 2022, citing cost concerns and a requirement that they must connect to the new town water, Town Manager Michelle Flewelling said when the PFAS report was released in mid-March.
“We were working with everybody that was out there to get funding from all possible sources, so we could make a portion of the plan happen, and then when the town voted no, everything stopped,” Flewelling said.
Another headwind possibly facing the water expansion is that the town gets its water from China Lake, which is under the state’s legal limit for PFAS now. But stricter federal guidelines set last year at 4 parts per trillion — and that have yet to go into effect — would put the town’s water over the PFAS limit.
The proposed bill may be a moot point given the ongoing debate over the $11.3 billion state budget. For bill co-sponsor Rep. Shelley Rudnicki, R-Fairfield, a resident who already is on town water, the biggest result will be reminding Mainers that PFAS is still a major problem in Fairfield.
“I’m not holding out a lot of hope for the bill. But I want to keep the conversation going,” she said. “People are struggling for fresh drinking water.”
Lori Valigra reports on the environment for the BDN’s Maine Focus investigative team. Reach her at [email protected]. Support for this reporting is provided by the Unity Foundation, a fund at the Maine Community Foundation and donations by BDN readers.
