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City hears PFAS update; committee backs Air National Guard right-of-entry for sampling
Summary
Amanda Smith, director of water quality, updated the Infrastructure Committee on PFAS testing in Bangor’s sewer system and staff and Air National Guard representatives described ongoing investigations and outreach.
Amanda Smith, the city’s director of water quality, told the Infrastructure Committee the city’s PFAS testing found elevated levels tied to specific sources and outlined coordination with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Air National Guard.
"Wastewater treatment plants were not designed to remove PFAS from wastewater," Smith said, explaining the city took part in expanded sampling after the DEP’s statewide study and found the highest inputs from the Pine Tree Landfill leachate and from groundwater near the former Dow Air Force Base area. Smith said the city will need to be ready for forthcoming federal and state wastewater guidance, and that preventing PFAS from entering the sewer at the source will be critical because end‑of‑pipe municipal treatment options are limited and costly.
Representatives from the Bangor International Guard Base described their community involvement plan and the ongoing remedial investigation. Colonel Byron Newell said the Department of Defense effort is intended to be "openness and transparency" and introduced the installation’s environmental team. Matt McCarthy, the base environmental engineer, described the DOD process: a preliminary assessment (2015), a site inspection (2018) that was closed in 2023, and a continuing remedial investigation that now includes field sampling. Master Sergeant Andrew Sinclair, the base public affairs representative, said the base has published materials and an online survey for community outreach.
Smith told the committee that DEP’s 2022 municipal sampling program and the city’s own follow-up work showed measurable PFAS in influent and effluent; because Pine Tree Landfill sends leachate to the city’s treatment plant, that stream contributes PFAS to the sewer system. Smith said groundwater inflow from the area of the former Dow Air Force Base is a harder problem because contamination can enter the sewer via groundwater that infiltrates lines.
Committee members were asked to consider a request from the Air National Guard for right-of-entry to perform PFAS sampling on city-owned airport property and surrounding parcels. A committee member moved and a member seconded; the committee agreed to put the request on the next city council agenda as a committee recommendation to authorize right-of-entry and to collaborate on sharing sampling data. The committee did not record a roll-call vote in the minutes.
Smith and base representatives outlined broader context: EPA has issued lifetime drinking-water health advisories for certain PFAS compounds while wastewater-specific standards are expected later; Maine DEP has run municipal and wildlife sampling programs and provided voluntary follow-up funding to some communities. Smith said PFAS lab analysis measures parts per trillion, is costly and technically demanding, and that only a few laboratories currently perform the analyses. She warned that large-scale removal at municipal plants is not currently practical, making source control and targeted industrial pretreatment the primary tools available.
The committee did not take further action on regulations or funding at this meeting; members asked staff to continue coordinating sampling and data-sharing with the Air National Guard and DEP and to bring any required agreements to the city council for final authorization.
