PORTLAND (WGME) – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited a Portland company Thursday morning that’s focused on a new form of PFAS destruction technology.
The developers of Onterris, a global environmental solutions and services company, say it could help give smaller communities a cheaper way to remove PFAS from drinking water through regenerable ion exchange resin technology.
Zeldin says this technology could even expand beyond Maine and be deployed nationwide.
“There was concern about that local rural system that might be lower income,” Zeldin said. “They cannot afford to invest in the more expensive granular activated carbon solutions. And they’re looking for far more cost-effective ways to be able to remediate PFAS.”
“We can make these systems much more cost effective for these small towns, as well as the larger municipalities,” Onterris Chief Innovation Officer Steve Woodard said.
Though, as Zeldin highlights new technology to help remove PFAS contamination, Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree says she wants the EPA to do more to prevent it.
She sent a letter to Zeldin Thursday, demanding answers from the agency about PFAS contaminated sewage sludge spread on farmland.
Pingree says more than 50 Maine farms have contamination linked to the sludge.