As the owner of Morrison Plumbing & Heating in Turner, I’m writing on behalf of other businesses and our growing employee base to express concern over Maine’s strict PFAS reporting law.
While we understand the urgency of addressing harmful PFAS in the environment, Maine’s current definition of PFAS is overly broad and makes compliance unrealistic for small businesses.
As a small business, we need to be thoughtful about how we use our limited resources and capital. Specifically, this new law, with its “one-size-fits-all” approach to defining PFAS, is asking us to dedicate existing resources to conduct onerous due diligence across numerous suppliers to, for example, identify something as small as a valve in a product.
The law as written could also result in restricting the sale or servicing of some heat pumps. These products are critical to providing environmentally friendly and affordable heating to thousands of households in our area. An unnecessarily broad definition of PFAS could result in the banning of these important products. This would run counter to Maine’s Heat Pump Program, and its goals for reducing polluting fossil fuel-reliant home heating and cooling.
Maine legislators and regulators should take a data-driven approach to determining which types of PFAS pose the greatest risks when defining PFAS regulations. We urge lawmakers to consider the implications of the current law and work with local businesses to minimize adverse effects on companies, employees, and customers.
Aaron Morrison, Turner
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