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Hello loyal Climate Monitor readers,
Sadly, this week’s newsletter is my last as a staff writer for The Maine Monitor. I came to Maine nearly three years ago for this job and have valued every second of it, including all of your readership.
I’m incredibly proud of the reporting I did at The Monitor, and none of it would have been possible without folks like you entrusting me with your stories or sharing your thoughts. My career may bring me back to Maine one way or another, so you may come across my reporting again in the future. But until then, take care and be well.
— Emmett |
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About 500 private wells across Maine receive state funding for PFAS filtration systems. As of 2025, the program’s budget only had the capacity to install a couple hundred more. Photo by Joseph Ciembroniewicz. |
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Maine is tightening limits on “forever chemicals” in drinking water. Are communities ready?
Nearly four dozen water systems that provide drinking water across Maine would be at risk of violating new limits on “forever chemicals” if the state began enforcing updated rules on the toxic substances today, showing how much work they have left to do to meet new requirements.
In 2025, 44 public water systems had a well that tested above at least one of the state’s tightened thresholds for the chemicals, called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, according to a state dataset. The systems include 15 schools, nearly a dozen mobile home parks and five water districts from across Maine that together provide more than 25,000 people with drinking water on a regular basis, an analysis conducted by The Maine Monitor showed.
Without reducing the quarterly average of their PFAS levels by April 2029, the systems could be subject to fines or other enforcement measures from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, according to the new rule. The more stringent limits are effectively a fifth of what they previously were and mostly apply to individual PFAS compounds, not total sums.
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Have you read this story by Lori Valigra, an environment reporter at the Bangor Daily News? She detailed how Lewiston city councilors were caught off guard after receiving a detailed proposal for a $300 million center inside the downtown Bates Mill only about a month before a meeting when they needed to vote on the project. The idea drew instant backlash, and the council unanimously voted it down.
Soon after, the Maine Legislature passed the first statewide ban on large data centers. If Gov. Janet Mills lets the bill become law, it would enact an 18-month moratorium on new data centers harnessing more than 20 megawatts of power to give a task force time to study risks and benefits. |
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Have feedback, a correction or know of something we should look into? Send it to our newsroom. You can also email The Monitor's editors: editors@themainemonitor.org.
The Maine Monitor is a publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, an independent and nonpartisan nonprofit news organization that produces investigative journalism. We believe news is a public good and keep our news free to access. We have no paywall and do not charge for our newsletters. If you value the reporting we do for Maine, please consider making a donation! We cannot do this reporting without your support. |
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