PFAS and Catalysis Laboratory

The unprecedented occurrence of PFAS in local farmlands drew attention to a primary public health concern and is poised to have a significant economic impact on the State. More recently, the detection of PFAS in public water sources, private wells, soil, game meat, fish, agricultural products, and maple syrup extends the boundaries of this issue and adds new stakeholders to the complex PFAS problem. PFAS is the short name of a large class of harmful, fluorinated synthetic organic chemicals recently found at high environmental levels. PFAS are also known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down in the environment or via conventional engineering strategies. Amidst this nationwide environmental crisis, Maine has been at the forefront of the PFAS debate since these chemicals were detected in local farmlands, a legacy of applying PFAS-laden wastewater biosolids (sludge) to agricultural lands and forests since the 1980s. One critical bottleneck of PFAS research is access to analytical services to identify and quantify FAS compounds at environmentally relevant concentrations in complex matrices. Currently, a limited number of labs are capable of this type of analysis, and even fewer can provide analysis of more complex matrixes. Due to increased demand, the processing time and cost can be prohibitive for applied and fundamental research. Creating a PFAS analytical laboratory on the UMaine campus would serve the monitoring needs of the State while advancing the flagship’s national leadership in PFAS research.

The project is to renovate a portion of the 2nd floor of Jenness Hall for a PFAS laboratory and a Catalysis laboratory. Renovations for the two labs are anticipated to start this summer, with substantial completion in early 2026. The design firm selected for this project is LaVallee Brensinger, and the construction manager is Landry/French Construction. $5 million in Congressionally Directed Spending secured by U.S. Sens. Collins and King at the request of UMS will come from the National Institutes of Standards and Technologies (NIST) for the construction of the PFAS laboratory and $2 million by HAF/UMS TRANSFORMS Maine College of Engineering and Computing (MCEC) for the construction of the Catalysis laboratory.