MAINE, USA — Several of the state's largest businesses including IDEXX Laboratories, are pushing back against a first-in-the-nation law, requiring Maine companies to report PFAS chemicals in products they sell.
The sweeping mandate would also effectively ban the toxic compounds in most products sold in the state by 2030. Maine State Chamber of Commerce officials say if the law is not amended, the economy will take a big hit and force some employers to leave the state.
"It thinks it's a very slippery slope we are on here, very worrisome to me," Chris Kilgur, the CEO and founder of C&L Aviation Group, said in a serious tone.
The company has 200 employees who repair aircraft from throughout the world.
Kilgour is concerned about a law that requires every Maine business to report PFAS in any product it makes or sells, including all the parts of any item.
C&L buys and sells more than more than 400,000 different components.
At a roundtable discussion with other companies sponsored by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce Kilgore told reporters trying to track down the PFAS compounds at a huge expense could make it impossible for the company to operate in Maine.
"I don't need to be in this state, so I can move to the state next door then I don't have to worry about this, but I have concerns about the livelihood of businesses that have to be in this state," Kilgour explained.
Jan. 1 of next year is the deadline to report the chemicals, a date that was pushed back by two years to give understaffed regulators time to work through the complex process.
A deadline that's still impossible for IDEXX Laboratories, an animal products company, and one of the state's largest employers. It can only test for a small number of the compounds the company uses at its worldwide manufacturing headquarters in Westbrook.
"We have identified only 7 laboratories and none in the US can perform these tests, to detect PFAS products on our products," Geoff Bauer, the tax director for IDEXX, explained.
Companies and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce are pushing for an amendment in this legislative session that would drop the reporting requirement. The law would ban PFAS in most products by the end of the decade, chamber officials are hoping the amendment would carve out exemptions for certain sectors of the economy.
"Those sectors would be semi-conductor industries, medical applications, aviation, and also for vehicular and marine vessels, " Patrick Woodcock, the president and CEO of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, added.
Defend Our Health, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group helped write the original bill and has been involved in concessions for businesses. But the Director of Advocacy Sarah Woodbury says the reporting requirement is key for public health.
"If we don't have this data, how do we know what's coming into our state? We believe Maine consumers have a right to know what they are buying," Woodbury stated.
The amendment could be presented to the Environment and Natural Resources committee in the next few months.