“Marshwood Middle School drinking water is safe,” Heidi Early-Hersey, interim SAD 35 superintendent, assured school board members at their Jan. 12 meeting.
An article in the Portland Press Herald last week that included the Eliot school among Maine schools whose water supplies don’t meet state standards for toxic PFAS, known as forever chemicals, was outdated and incorrect, Early-Hersey said.
“I immediately contacted the reporter because the story contained old information,” she said. “They apologized and changed the article immediately, but I’m concerned that some in the community may not have seen the corrected article.”
New stricter limits on PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, were established by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention in December to align with rigorous federal standards adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2024.
PFAS, man-made chemicals that resist natural breakdown for hundreds of years, are used for their oil, water and heat-resistant properties in products like non-stick cookware, waterproof clothing, food packaging, and firefighting foams. PFAS-contaminated air, water and soil also are linked to health problems like liver damage, immune deficiency and certain cancers.
Maine’s previous limit was 20 parts per trillion for the combined sum of six forever chemicals. The change ordered last month by the state CDC reduces the maximum amount of the two most harmful chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, to 4.0 ppt – the equivalent of four drops in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools – and no more than 10 ppt for three others combined.
In 2022, PFAS were found in Marshwood Middle School’s water supply at a level of 63 ppt, according to Assistant Superintendent Ryan Cormier, and the district immediately installed a filtration system that reduced PFAS levels to less than 2.0 ppt.
“The levels have never risen above 2.0 since 2022,” Cormier said. “The well has been tested 13 times since then.”
Quarterly testing of the water, he added, will continue under the guidance of Willis Emmons of the Maine Water Program, who has been working with the district since 2022.
Eliot Elementary and Marshwood High School both have their own water systems, and according to Cormier, have never tested positive for PFAS. “We test all systems frequently, and the water is also chlorinated,” he said.
Central School and Great Works School are supplied by the South Berwick Water District. Ryan Lynch, Water District superintendent, said last spring that all four of the district’s wells had been tested for PFAS.
“The wells off Blackmore Road, Willow Drive and Pumping Station Road all had ‘minute’ amounts of PFAS, far below state and federal levels of concern, while the Junction Road well had no detectable PFAS,” Lynch said.
