Maine AG is looking for legal help as state pursues claims over hazardous chemicals

Maine Attorney General Aaron M. Frey is looking for law firms to help the state with potential legal claims over hazardous industrial chemicals.

The AG’s office is soliciting proposals for assistance with cases involving polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Maine, according to a news release Tuesday.

PCBs and PFAS are groups of man-made chemicals that have been used in a wide variety of commercial applications and detected in environmental samples across the state.

“There is strong evidence that these chemicals are harmful and threaten Mainers’ health and well-being,” Frey said. “It is important to hold manufacturers of these chemicals accountable for contamination they are responsible for. This is an important first step in that process.”

PCBs were commercially manufactured in the United States from 1929 until production was banned in 1979, and are still found in older products such as window caulking, floor finishes, thermal insulation and electrical equipment. PCBs do not readily break down in the environment and have been found in fish throughout Maine at levels high enough to warrant consumption limits for some rivers and streams.

PFAS have been manufactured since the 1940s for use in a wide variety of products, including nonstick cookware, firefighting foam and textiles. Like PCBs, PFAS persist in the environment and can be taken up by food crops. In 2020, a state task force recommended accelerated PFAS sampling and that the attorney general consider legal options to address PFAS contamination. Over the next two years, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection plans to sample 700 additional locations.

The DEP and the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry will cooperate with the attorney general’s office and its efforts to pursue legal claims involving PCBs and PFAS on behalf of the state, the release said.