Are PFAS Regulations Becoming a Trojan Horse for Government Land Grabs?
Government to shut down South Carolina Farmers "They promised us it was good for the soil..."
Something deeply troubling is unfolding across America’s farmland, and it’s cloaked in the language of environmental safety. While the threat of PFAS—so-called "forever chemicals"—is very real, we must take a hard look at how government agencies are responding. In states like Maine and South Carolina, PFAS contamination is becoming a backdoor method for removing productive land from agriculture and transferring ownership to the state.
Let’s start with Maine. In 2022, the state set a contamination threshold of 20 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFAS in soil and water—a level likened by experts to a drop in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Any land testing above that threshold could no longer be used for farming.
The state of Maine offered a $60 million compensation fund for affected farmers (source), with state-led appraisals based on hypothetical "uncontaminated" values. While this may sound fair, over 56 farms were effectively shut down (source), not for violating a new law, but for following state programs that encouraged the use of municipal sludge on farmland.
Yes, that same sludge—the one farmers were told was "eco-friendly"—was the very delivery mechanism for the contamination. The state had a record of every farm that took the sludge, making it easy to target and test. Now, these farmers are being told: you can keep your land, but you can't farm it. And of course, there's a buyout option… conveniently managed by the state.
This is not just about Maine. South Carolina is now under the microscope, with the EPA investigating over 10,000 acresof farmland around the Galey & Lord textile mill site (source). Between 1993 and 2013, the mill shipped more than 45,000 dry tons of sludge to more than 300 fields. Farmers were told the waste was rich fertilizer. Now, that same sludge may render their land unusable.
The EPA’s recently updated limit for certain PFAS compounds in drinking water is just 4 parts per trillion (source), a number even stricter than Maine’s. As we tighten the acceptable limits, more farms are bound to fall out of compliance, even if they’ve never actively polluted their land.
This creates a terrifying precedent: landowners who participated in government-endorsed recycling programs may suddenly find themselves unable to use their land, forced to sell to the state, or labeled a public hazard.
We should absolutely work to end the production and spread of PFAS. But let’s not ignore the fact that many of the products responsible—Teflon pans, fast-food wrappers, waterproof clothing—are still widely used and legally sold. If PFAS are truly everywhere, then no soil is safe from potential scrutiny.
Eastern Oregon is facing similar environmental scrutiny, where Governor Tina Kotek has approved sludge spreading programs (source). If history repeats itself, these areas could be flagged as contaminated and regulated out of agricultural use in the coming years.
This pattern—encourage a practice, track it, then punish landowners later—is a dangerous cycle. Whether intentional or not, it provides a regulatory path for the state to quietly remove private lands from agricultural production.
Is this the biggest land grab in U.S. history? It could be. When contamination thresholds are set so low that no land is ever truly safe, the government can wield this invisible threat like a sword. The result: fewer working farms, more public land, and more central control over food production.
The solution is not to deny that PFAS are harmful. They are. But we need rational, measured mitigation that doesn’t bankrupt farmers or destroy local food systems. There is no justice in punishing landowners for participating in government-promoted programs. There is no fairness in appraising land as “uncontaminated” while effectively deeming it unusable.
We must tread carefully. Environmental reform must not come at the cost of sovereignty, livelihood, and rural life. Otherwise, we may find that in trying to clean our soil, we’ve stripped it from the hands of the very people who’ve stewarded it for generations.
Defend the right to farm. Defend the right to own. Defend the right to grow.
Video Summary:
Farmers in Maine and South Carolina are facing significant challenges due to PFAS pollution and government regulations, leading to land buybacks, shutdowns, and concerns over agricultural sustainability.
00:00 Maine is buying back contaminated farmland due to PFAS pollution, offering farmers compensation while claiming it's for public health.
01:18 South Carolina farmers face shutdowns and buyouts due to government restrictions linked to environmental safety concerns from a state program. Expand
03:23 Farmers in South Carolina face risks from harmful Pifos chemicals and government regulations that threaten land ownership and farming practices. Expand
04:43 The government plans to designate 10,000 acres of South Carolina farmland as a superfund site due to contamination from previously promoted waste products, which were falsely marketed as beneficial fertilizers.
06:09 South Carolina farmers face land grabs due to PFA chemical contamination from sludge dumped on their land, raising superfund site concerns. Expand
07:52 Farmers in South Carolina face potential land seizure and loss of arable land due to government regulations on sludge and PIOS chemicals. Expand
09:27 Industrial waste threatens South Carolina farmers' livelihoods, raising concerns about balancing pollution management with agricultural sustainability.