Every day, Mainers awaken to the nightmare of PFAS contamination across our state, a result of the gross negligence of the Maine DEP, the agency that issued the permits to dump toxic sludge. According to the DEP, they will be investigating all 700 sludge sites for PFAS contamination. Unfortunately, the DEP is crawling at a turtle’s pace, because they plan on completing the testing in 2025, leaving Maine residents vulnerable to further consuming these toxic substances, which the DEP acknowledges causes cancer, lowered immune systems, and affects child development.

In the meantime, our misguided politicians who are underfunding the PFAS investigations and not holding the DEP accountable are on a mission to takeover CMP and Versant. Instead of accepting responsibility for their failures, these politicians claim the government who created the PFAS environmental disaster can do a better job operating our electrical grid, than the professionals at CMP and Versant. How irrational is that?

These politicians are OK with the three-year timeline of the PFAS investigations, which leaves us to wonder when a severe storm rolls through and causes hundreds of thousands of power outages, will it take three years to restore power should these misguided politicians succeed in their government takeover of our electrical grid? Their failed record indicates Mainers would go from reliable power to no power with a government run utility.

Our state government created and owns the PFAS mess, and they have a responsibility to make it right. It’s time for our government to begin accepting responsibility for this colossal failure and it’s time to stop misleading Maine people that the government can do a better job operating our electrical grid, when they aren’t able to perform the basic function of protecting our environment and our health.

Gary Maheux

Waterville