Dangerous chemicals found in well water across the state. Farmers forced to recall products and reporting that “they don’t know how they’ll survive.” Maine people worried that even local produce might pose a cancer risk. This is the reality of the crisis of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Maine. Yet just as Governor Mills is hard at work cleaning up a mess that popped up under her predecessor’s watch, that predecessor—Paul LePage—is running for governor once again, and threatening to bring reckless deregulation of harmful substances back with him.

During his eight years as Governor LePage took a laissez-faire approach to regulating toxic chemical usage in the state, including prohibiting Maine cities and towns from enacting tougher regulations to protect their own communities from toxic sewage byproducts. In 2011 he launched an “assault” on Maine’s environmental regulations that critics said would “increase [Mainers’] exposure to toxic chemicals.”

LePage actually tried to go even further to prevent regulations that might have protected Mainers from chemical exposure. He tried to preemptively repeal a proposed ban on Bisphenol-A (BPA)—a chemical which poses risks to developing children and fetuses— and then refused to sign the nearly-unanimously supported bipartisan ban. It became law without his signature. He vetoed bills to protect children from lead poisoning and create a program to help low-income Mainers test their wells for arsenic contamination. And he instead proposed a system where taxpayers would be more likely to shoulder the cost of cleaning up pollution and environmental violations than the polluters.

“As we learn more about just how widely PFAS and other dangerous chemicals have been spread around our state, it’s clearer and clearer that Paul LePage’s refusal to regulate toxic substances put Mainers at risk,” said Drew Gattine, Chair of the Maine Democratic Party. “Governor Janet Mills is finally cleaning up the toxic mess that LePage left behind. We can’t let him back in the Blaine House to reverse that progress and put our health in jeopardy once again.”

Since taking over from LePage in 2019, Mills has worked with the legislature to:

  • Require the world’s first phase-out of PFAS and implement strong drinking water standards against the chemicals.
  • Invest nearly $40 million total in the effort to identify and clean-up PFAS around the state
  • Ban other chemicals which posed risk to the health of Maine people.
  • Propose $60 million to help farmers affected by PFAS contamination

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