Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID ME_2025_Kopec

Study of PFAS chemical interactions and movement in soil, statistical modeling, and surveys of PFAS influence on hunter and angler behavior in Maine

Institute: Maine
Year Established: 2025 Start Date: 2026-01-01 End Date: 2026-12-31
Total Federal Funds: $10,305 Total Non-Federal Funds: $10,433

Principal Investigators: Dianne Kopec

Project Summary: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances; forever chemicals), like all other environmental contaminants, do not respect boundaries and move across our environment just as water flows downhill. The agricultural application of wastewater sludge to agricultural fields inadvertently deposited toxic PFAS into farm soil. Rainwater can carry PFAS across the surface of the fields to streams and lakes or deep under the soil into the groundwater, often the primary source of drinking water. Yet the size and behavior of the many different PFAS chemicals determines their movement in soil. Our work is designed to predict how individual PFAS interact with different soil types and which PFAS are most likely to contaminate our surface or groundwater. Laboratory experiments define the behavior of specific PFAS in the presence of different soil types. Those findings are combined with geographic and statistical modeling to predict the ground and surface waters at greatest risk from PFAS contamination.