Read the full article by Vivien Leigh (News Center Maine)
Property owners in Fairfield who were exposed to chemicals known as PFAS are suing the major players in Maine’s paper industry for continuing their toxic nightmare.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in Somerset County Superior Court asks for unspecified financial damages and medical monitoring on behalf of six property owners.
The source of contamination is leftover bio-solids from the paper making spread as fertilizer on farmland. The industrial compounds seeped into nearby private wells for decades.
This is the second lawsuit to be filed this year in connection with the PFAS contamination in Fairfield. A class-action lawsuit against the owners of paper mills is pending in Federal court in Bangor.
In June, a spokeswoman for Sappi North America strongly denied the allegations in the class-action lawsuit.
‘Sappi strongly disputes any contention that Sappi’s Somerset mill is the source of PFAS contamination in Fairfield. Sappi is well known for its record of environmental stewardship at the Somerset mill and at all of its manufacturing facilities,’ spokesperson Olga Karagiannis said in a statement.
Troy Reny and his fiance, Ashley Gooldrup are among the property owners who want the companies held responsible for the damage to the property value of their home.
‘Even if we want to sell the place who is going to come in and buy a place with poisonous water,’ Reny said.
Their dreams of raising children on their six-acre property were crushed.
‘Who would be be raising a child here? I barely want to raise myself here,” Gooldrup said.'”…