After hailing them as important, EPA cancels PFAS research grants

Yahoo

23-05-2025

May 23—Despite hailing them as important, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has cancelled $15 million in grants to research and reduce the effect of forever chemicals on farms, including almost $5 million in local research projects to the University of Maine, the Mi'kmaq Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe.
The grants, worth about $1.6 million each, addressed a range of forever chemical research, ranging from helping farmers develop rapid field testing to testing tribal waters, shellfish, and fish to conducting some of the first testing of fiddleheads, basket-making trees, and insects living in tainted water.
"These funds were congressionally approved and appropriated, and they cannot be terminated in this way," said Chelli Stanley of Upland Roots, a group working on the Mi'kmaq Nation grant. "It is unconstitutional. Others have successfully challenged the exact same thing."
The cancellation notice arrived just as the Mi'kmaq Nation and Upland Roots began their grant field work, Stanley said. Tribal members were out collecting fiddleheads from the Aroostook watershed to see if they absorb these harmful forever chemicals "out of a concern for human health," she said.
Both tribes plan to appeal the termination notice.
"All that knowledge that can help Maine make informed decisions going forward will be lost," Stanley said. "It will affect the health of Maine people and the ecosystem... Maine is a leader in PFAS research for the country. It will have a big negative affect on our ability to combat PFAS."
The University of Maine is still deciding whether it will appeal the cancellation, a spokesman said.
"The terminated research would have resulted in practical, science-based solutions for farmers and policymakers in Maine and around the nation," according to a university statement. It would have ensured "safer food systems, a more robust American agriculture economy and a healthier nation."
The award would have also funded hands-on research learning experiences for at least 10 UMaine students as part of the university's development of the next generation of agricultural researchers and problem-solvers, the statement said.
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are manmade chemicals found in a broad range of common household products, like nonstick pans and makeup, that pose a public health risk to humans through prolonged exposure.
Even trace amounts of some PFAS can be dangerous to humans, with exposure to high levels of certain PFAS linked to decreased fertility and increased high blood pressure in pregnant women, developmental delays in children and low birth weight, increased risk of some cancers and weakened immune systems.
Last week, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin told Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, during a committee hearing that these PFAS grants were important and implied they would continue after the agency completed its reorganization under the new Trump administration.
"The agency is going through a reorg," Zeldin told lawmakers. "The way that the program and these grants are going to get administered are going to be different going forward. But these are important grants. I look forward to working with you... as we're able to continue that good work going forward."
But EPA told recipients the cancelled grants were "no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities."
When asked to elaborate, EPA spokesman Mike Bastasch sent this emailed reply: "Maybe the Biden-Harris Administration shouldn't have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and 'environmental justice' preferencing on the EPA."
It was unclear whether Bastasch meant the agency's past environmental justice goals were prompting the grant review or if the agency had canceled these specific forever chemical grants because tribal nations, including the Mi'qmak Nation and Pasmaquoddy Tribe of Maine, had received funding.
The grants themselves don't seem to have any specific environmental justice angle. Past grants have been used to develop innovative, science-based solutions to complex environmental problems, including wildfire smoke impacts and enhanced aquifer recharge.
Pingree pressed Zeldin for clarification in a follow-up letter Thursday.
Despite the grant termination, UMaine remains at the forefront of the state's forever chemical research efforts. It received $2.3 million in research funding earlier this month from the state's $60 million fund to support farmers whose water or land was contaminated by state-permitted sludge fertilizer.
And earlier this month, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins assured Maine Senator Susan Collins that $17 million that agency had awarded to the Agriculture Research Service and UMaine to establish a new PFAS research lab was still intact.
"We remain committed to this research," Rollins told Collins during a budget hearing. "Very proud of that $17 million grant to the Center for Excellence... I'm excited to learn more, perhaps even come visit the center in Maine, see the work that they're doing firsthand, and to continue to support it."
Over the last decade, Maine has spent more than $100 million as it became a national leader in the fight against harmful forever chemicals left behind by the state-permitted spreading of tainted sewage sludge on farm fields as a fertilizer.
State inspectors have identified 82 Maine farms and 500 residential properties contaminated by the harmful forever chemicals in the sludge during a $28.8 million investigation of 1,100 sites. It projects it will install 660 water filtration systems at private wells near sludge-spread fields.
So far, 20% of wells tested as part of the sludge investigation have exceeded Maine's interim drinking water standard. The Biden administration announced a stricter federal standard last year, although the Trump administration recently announced it planned to relax those standards and delay enactment.
Local farm advocates said the grant cuts will set the field of PFAS research back, locally and nationally.
"These impacted PFAS research projects are tackling urgent, practical questions to help us understand how PFAS chemicals enter the foods we eat and make management decisions that could reduce or mitigate contamination," said Shelley Mequier, policy and research director at Maine Farmland Trust.
In 2022, Maine became the first state to ban sludge spreading — Connecticut has since followed — and adopted a phased-in ban on sales of most products that contain PFAS. It will soon consider a state take-back program intended to rid Maine of harmful PFAS-laden firefighting foam.
People are exposed to forever chemicals through a broad range of common household products, such as nonstick pans, makeup and waterproof clothing. People living on farms are exposed through eating eggs, milk and meat from pasture-raised hens and cows and drinking water from on-site wells.
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