Without explanation, EPA restores some grants for PFAS research in Maine

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency restored two of the three Maine-based grants for forever chemical research that it terminated this spring.

Without explaining why, or first considering the researchers’ appeals, the EPA notified teams led by the Mi’kmaq Nation and the University of Maine that their grants have been reinstated this month, however the agency has yet to notify the Passamaquoddy Tribe about whether their grant will be restored. 

After Maine Morning Star reporting revealed conflicting agency stances on the terminations, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine requested EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin address the inconsistencies by May 30. Pingree has yet to receive a response. 

Pingree told Maine Morning Star she was pleased to see the grants restored but that they shouldn’t have been terminated in the first place. 

“Unfortunately, this is just one example of a much broader problem,” Pingree said. 

Pingree pointed to other proposed cuts to environmental programs, such as a 55% funding cut to the EPA budget and the elimination of other PFAS grants that support cleanup and prevention efforts in vulnerable communities. “While I’m glad funding for this project was reinstated, we’re still fighting to protect the many others that remain on the chopping block,” she said.

The researchers also expressed cautious optimism as they plan to forge ahead.

Despite saying PFAS contamination is a priority, EPA cut millions in funding for research in Maine

“Because of this whole situation, I don’t feel as totally sure about [the funding] as I did when we first got the grant,” said Chelli Stanley, co-founder of an organization committed to cleaning contaminated land, Upland Grassroots, which is part of the research team headed by the Mi’kmaq Nation. “But of course, we are just going to go forward and do all of our work, I’m sure maybe at an accelerated pace in some ways, just to do as much testing as we can.” 

In May, the EPA terminated all of the four-year grants it had awarded in September for research into reducing per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, otherwise known as PFAS, in the food supply, including to the three Maine-based teams. The three grants for Maine projects amount to almost $5 million. 

The termination notices read, “The objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.”

However, the agency later gave conflicting responses about why it terminated the grants. 

In a statement to Maine Morning Star, the EPA Press Office equated the grants to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion measures. 

“As with any change in administration, the EPA has been reviewing all of its grant programs and awarded grants to ensure each is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and to understand how those programs align with administration priorities,” the EPA Press Office wrote. “Maybe the Biden-Harris administration shouldn’t have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and ‘environmental justice’ preferencing on the EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment treating tribes and Alaska Natives as such.”

However, Zeldin publicly stated the grants were important and already congressionally appropriated. In the weeks leading up to the terminations, the agency also named combating PFAS contamination as a priority.

All three of the Maine-based research teams appealed their grant terminations. However, in the emails the EPA sent the UMaine and Mi’kmaq Nation teams, the agency said the reinstatement decisions were made by agency leadership unrelated to their appeals. 

UMaine had formally appealed the termination on June 5, but the EPA wrote in a June 6 email, “The reinstatement was directed by agency leadership on June 4, 2025, prior to the issuance of a decision on a dispute filed by the University of Maine on June 5, 2025.”

The Mi’kmaq Nation filed their appeal earlier and received an email on June 5 acknowledging receipt. On June 18, the team received another email notifying them that their grant had been reinstated. But that email stated that the restoration was directed by agency leadership prior to the issuance of a decision on the dispute, and that the dispute was now moot. 

While acknowledging receipt, the EPA did not respond to requests for comment regarding why agency leadership reinstated these two grants, or whether the agency intends to reinstate the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s grant.

Citing Maine Morning Star reporting, Pingree presses EPA on PFAS grant terminations

For Stanley, the reinstatement underscored the power elected leaders can yield to push back on cuts, noting Pingree’s letter to Zeldin. 

“I do feel like in this case, the representatives and senators can play a big role,” Stanley said. 

Bryan Berger, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Virginia, which is working in partnership with the Mi’kmaq Nation on its grant, said for him the termination and subsequent reinstatement illustrated the convoluted political fault lines within federal research funding. 

“I was shocked when it happened just because of how it’s a topic that I think really is very non-political,” Berger said. “I have friends who are very conservative to very liberal and everybody agrees that nobody wants perfluorinated chemicals in their food and water.”

Berger said he was heartened that Zeldin seemed to want to prioritize PFAS research when Pingree had questioned him on the terminations during an appropriations subcommittee hearing on May 15. But at the same time, Berger said, “What he was saying seemed to be the antithesis of what was happening.” 

However, Berger added, “I think to be a scientist, you have to be relentlessly optimistic.”

A scientist’s work constantly grapples with struggle and failure, he explained, “so if you’re not an optimist, you can’t do this job.”