Mi’kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, UMaine awarded federal grants for forever chemical research

Mi’kmaq Nation Vice Chief Richard Silliboy poses with a basket he wove. Silliboy will research PFAS uptake in ash wood and other culturally significant plants as part of the EPA grant. (Photo by Emma Davis / Maine Morning Star)

More research into ways to reduce forever chemicals in the food supply will be conducted in Maine through millions of dollars in grant funding awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week.

Three of the ten institutions awarded grants will focus their work in Maine. The Mi’kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe and the University of Maine were each awarded roughly $1.6 million to embark on research into mitigation at various points throughout food production where per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, otherwise known as PFAS, can contaminate plants and livestock. PFAS have been linked to long-term adverse health outcomes, such as cancers and weakened immune systems

For the Mi’kmaq Nation’s project, which is being conducted with the University of Virginia, this will include finding ways to reduce contamination from farms irrigated with water that contains PFAS, which is a well-known reality for Aroostook County, the area of focus for the project.

“The Aroostook River is known to be contaminated with PFAS,” explained Bryan Berger, associate professor of chemical engineering at UVA. “You’re in a contaminated environment, that’s not going to change soon, so how do you mitigate or maximize the safety of what’s coming out of that process?”

The EPA grant will allow for the continuation of PFAS remediation work that Berger, other researchers and the Mi’kmaq Nation have already begun at the former Loring Air Force Base in the County, where the team has seen early success with using hemp plants to remove PFAS from soil — a process called phytoremediation.

“Maybe you can’t mitigate or clean the irrigation water, but you can plant something that acts as a sponge to sequester PFAS,” Berger said.

Another idea the team is looking into is identifying what are called resistant cultivars, certain varieties of crops that don’t uptake as much PFAS as other varieties. The plan is also to zoom into the molecular level of these crops to determine exactly where PFAS accumulate. For example, do the chemicals only accumulate on the skin, which perhaps could then be removed for safe consumption, or seep into the flesh of the potato?

While it is known that there is PFAS contamination in Maine and across the world, the full extent of the contamination and in which specific materials the chemicals are found remains undetermined. This is the case for many culturally important plants to tribal communities.

For example, Mi’kmaq Nation Vice Chief Richard Silliboy, who is also a part of the research team, has been weaving baskets for decades. However, there isn’t conclusive evidence of whether the ash wood used contains PFAS and, as a result, whether Silliboy and other basket makers may be ingesting the chemicals in the weaving process.

There are also inconclusive findings about the potential risks of consuming fiddleheads, a traditional food source of the Wabanaki Nations, that are grown in areas where PFAS have been detected.

Berger has been testing out biosensors to detect PFAS, a twist on the idea of sentinel plants, which are alternative species that display visible symptoms of infection to provide warning signs. So far, this work has been limited to the lab but Berger hopes to expand testing to the field with the help of the EPA grant.

The projects supported by the grants are each roughly slated for four years, though much of the research being conducted precedes and is expected to continue well after that period.

“I think with all of these types of research projects, especially in PFAS and agriculture where we don’t have very much work in the field, each season raises new questions,” said Ellen Mallory, a professor of sustainable agriculture at UMaine who is a part of that team’s project.

UMaine’s project will also examine ways to disrupt the PFAS contamination cycle, including by limiting the chemical uptake by forages (the plants eaten by livestock), livestock, and animal byproducts such as milk, meat and manure. Mallory, who is leading the forage crop research, is building on work she started two years ago on a farm in Unity.

These grant-funded projects each have a community engagement focus, too. The ultimate goal of the research is to equip farmers with integrated and scalable mitigation strategies so they can proactively reduce the risk of PFAS contamination in their products, Mallory said.

This community-centered model is evident in the intentional collaboration between UVA and the Mi’kmaq Nation, which has intimate and long-standing knowledge of the affected land.

The Passamaquoddy Tribe, specifically the Sipayik Environmental Department at Pleasant Point, will assess PFAS in water and fish from watersheds in Tribal and disadvantaged regions of Northeastern Maine. Results from that research are intended to inform the health of Tribal members and others in the area who depend on recreational fisheries as food sources.

While this research is important, Mallory said, “it’s just one piece of a huge amount of effort going on in the state of Maine to address the PFAS crisis for farmers.”

Maine has been a leader in establishing PFAS protections. In 2021, the state was the first to pass a rule requiring manufacturers to report intentionally added PFAS in their products and, by the turn of the decade, ban the sale of products with intentionally added PFAS.

Maine has also passed laws to improve testing of land and groundwater, and invest in remediation efforts, after the state-sanctioned practice of sludge spreading led to PFAS contamination on dozens of farms that have since had to close.

Earlier this summer, the state established a program that offers Maine farmers tailored assistance to manage the impacts of forever chemicals on their farms.

The issue of PFAS contamination extends beyond agriculture programs, however. Last month, the largest spill of PFAS-laden firefighting foam in Maine’s recorded history occurred in Brunswick and has sparked calls for reform in how the state handles forever chemical-contaminated products.

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