State officials issued a “do not eat” advisory Thursday morning on wild deer and turkey after testing found unsafe levels of synthetic chemicals known as PFAS in central Maine wildlife. The advisory was issued for parts of Albion, Freedom, Unity and Unity Township. Above, a wild turkey crosses a road March 21 in Starks. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel file

UNITY — State officials issued a “do not eat” advisory Thursday morning on wild deer and turkey after testing found unsafe levels of PFAS in central Maine wildlife.

Two new advisory areas were established in parts of Albion, Freedom, Unity and Unity Township, which have high levels of synthetic chemicals known as PFAS — or per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances — that do not break down in the body or environment, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.”

The advisory areas include several miles near the Casella Organics facility in Unity, close to state Route 139, also known as the Waterville Road, and an area east of Albion along U.S. Route 202, commonly called the Albion Road.

Both areas are known to have high levels of PFAS in their soil, according to Mark Latti, communications director for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

“The advisory areas encompass areas that have been contaminated by high levels of PFAS through the spreading of municipal and/or industrial sludge that contained PFAS,” Latti wrote in an announcement to the news media. “Deer and turkey feeding in these contaminated areas have ingested these chemicals and now have PFAS in their meat and organs.”

The advisory comes near the height of Maine’s fall turkey hunting season, which ends Nov. 7, and more than a week before deer hunting kicks into full swing, with firearms season beginning Nov. 4.

Research shows that PFAS contamination could cause long-term health problems, including increased risk of testicular cancer, liver damage, pregnancy complications and other health risks.

The state has maintained a similar advisory near Fairfield and Waterville since 2021 due to unsafe amounts of PFAS found in deer and turkey meat.

PFAS contamination in Maine has been largely linked to the spreading of sludge on farms, which began in the 1970s as an alternative to fertilizer. Decades later, Unity-area farms were among the first in the state to be shut down after “forever chemicals” were found in produce and cows’ milk.

Many farmers in Unity spread PFAS-laden sludge onto their lands at the state’s encouragement, according to Gail Carlson, the director of the Buck Lab for Climate and Environment at Colby College in Waterville. She has studied the causes and effects of PFAS contamination in and around Unity for years.

“It was promoted as a win-win situation, a good situation for farmers because they could take the sludge and get basically free fertilizer from the state in many places, including in Maine,” Carlson said during an interview in December 2023. “Not all the lands that were spread were farmlands, but many are, including many in central Maine. I think other states have problems, but they may be behind in discovering the.”

Tests of water wells in Unity also found that more than one-third of the town’s homes have unsafe levels of PFAS in their water, with clusters of unsafe wells detected in the areas where the “do not eat” advisory was issued Thursday morning, according to data from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

“Areas with high PFAS soil concentration levels resulted in animals that had levels of PFAS in their muscle tissue that warranted an advisory,” Latti wrote in the announcement. “The Department and the Maine CDC recommend that no one eats deer or wild turkey harvested in these wildlife consumption advisory areas.”

The state Legislature has been aggressive in its response to PFAS. In 2022, lawmakers made Maine the first state to ban the use and spread of sludge. They have also passed a first-in-the-nation PFAS reporting law requiring manufacturers of products with intentionally added PFAS to report to the DEP beginning in 2025, before banning the sale in Maine of certain items containing PFAS, starting in 2030.

Testing groundwater sources for PFAS became mandatory after the Legislature passed a law in 2021 appropriating $3.6 million to test for and mitigate PFAS contamination.

The state also offers to pay for filters that remove the dangerous chemicals from the drinking water and parts of the cost of medical treatment for PFAS-related illness.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention and other state agencies plan to continue testing for PFAS in wildlife and environments near Unity and throughout the state, according to Latti.

“The Department will continue to test deer, and other wildlife in the area and beyond, to try and determine the extent of PFAS in Maine’s wildlife,” Latti wrote in the announcement.