POLAND — An Earth Day program is planned for 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 22 at Excelsior Grange, 446 Harris Hill Road.

The topic will be “forever chemicals” or PFAS.

Sludge from sewerage plants was widely spread throughout Maine including Poland starting in the 1980s, according to a program event news release. Unknown at the time, some sources of sludge contained PFAS which have harmful effects on humans. Maine is in the process of testing more than 700 locations where sludge was spread to determine the extent of the contamination. Farms in the Fairfield area have already been adversely affected because of PFAS contamination.

UMaine Professor of Sustainable Dairy and Forage Systems Richard Kersbergen will be main program speaker. He has been working with the Maine Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation along with the Maine CDC, Department of Environmental Protection and Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association to evaluate the impact of PFAS-contaminated soils on forage production and consumption by cows and milk from those cows.

Kersbergen has also worked with vegetable growers who have been found to have contaminated soil and water. He will discuss what PFAS are and what is know and unknown about the extent of the contamination, as well as possible longterm solutions to the problem.

Hannah Chamberlain from the Maine Farmland Trust will also be present to talk about the work being done by the trust to assist affected farmers.

For more information, contact Steve Verrill at 207-998-2301 or sverrill@roadrunner.com.