State officials found toxic chemicals in the wastewater of the Perdue AgriBusiness factory more than a year before neighboring residents in the Salisbury area were informed about any contamination, according to emails between the company and state environmental officials obtained by The Baltimore Banner.

Tests taken by the Maryland Department of the Environment on Aug. 8, 2023, showed high levels of PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, at Perdue’s plant on Zion Church Road. Used in items like stain-resistant carpets and food packaging, PFAS are more commonly referred to as “forever chemicals” for their inability to break down in the environment and in our bodies. The chemicals, even in small amounts, may be linked to cancers, fertility issues and other health effects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other scientific studies.

Four months after the August test results, a state environmental official ordered a well-drilling contractor doing routine work on Perdue’s site to not drill into the ground. An email from the MDE on Dec. 20, 2023, said “high” levels of a man-made forever chemical known as PFOS forced the work stoppage. The next day, Perdue posted notices for its employees not to drink the water onsite.

But county residents living in residential communities and farms surrounding the plant — some only feet away — say they were not made aware of the potential presence of toxic chemicals until the fall of 2024, when Perdue sent letters warning of groundwater contamination.

The notice came about a month after the environmental department named Perdue responsible for the pollution and directed the company to investigate the chemicals’ spread.

Residents argue that the notice came too late. Jessica Lee, who lives on family plots of land that border the plant, was stunned that state regulators and the county’s health department did not inform the community when PFAS were first found. Like Lee, many in the Salisbury area rely on private wells that share water with the multibillion-dollar company. Tests showed that one of her wells had 40 parts per trillion of PFOS, about 10 times the EPA’s maximum limit for public drinking water.

She said when Perdue, a leading employer for the region and top exporter of soybeans for Maryland, sought to raise its water usage on Dec. 1, 2022 and drill more wells, public notices soliciting community feedback were posted — a customary practice for neighbors looking to build, drill or impact the shared water source.

“They put each of us through countless tests and permits,” Lee said of the oversight residents face when it comes to their own use of water or land. “They should have told us [about these test results].”

The water Perdue uses for manufacturing is sourced from a 92-foot-deep well and then treated on site through the company’s sanitary wastewater treatment plant, emails show. Perdue disposes of the wastewater in three ways: applying it to a field typically used to plant corn, spraying it over neighboring woods to irrigate the area, or dumping it into the Peggy Branch, a tributary of the Wicomico River that flows through multiple communities, according to draft documents that Perdue shared with the MDE in June 2023 as part of its wastewater permit application. The documents were a part of the company’s bid to raise the amount of wastewater the MDE permitted them to dump into the river from 170,000 gallons per day to 1 million.

Former MDE division chief Adam Corry said in a phone call that local health officials were made aware of the PFAS contamination by December 2023, when he was brought in to investigate why the levels were so high. The results from Dec. 28 tests showed that a well between the woods and field tested for 1370 parts per trillion of PFOS, and a well between the company’s lagoons and Peggy Branch tested for 709 parts per trillion.

Carsten Prasse, a Johns Hopkins University associate professor of environmental health and engineering who researches PFAS in waste, described the levels as “very high.”

“I’d be concerned if these were going into a river,” he said.

Wicomico County Health Officer Matthew McConaughey, who heads the local health department, said they were following the state’s lead in the investigation. He declined to comment on residents’ frustrations and the timing of the PFAS announcement. But emails show show McConaughey expressed concern over having to restrict drilling permits in a shifting contaminated area without residents knowing why. “There is also only so long a delay of permitting can last without a justifiable reason,” he wrote to an environmental department official on Sept. 20.

“I really think that after the testing MDE should have said, ‘There’s a problem here,’” said Republican Del. Wayne Hartman of Wicomico County, which includes the impacted area. “Once they [residents] had the awareness, they could have taken precautionary action earlier.”

The “key moment” dictating when the MDE provided detailed information to Wicomico County residents came in late August 2024 when tests confirmed that the PFAS in the groundwater could move toward the community, said agency spokesman Jay Apperson. The tests came as part of an effort to proactively test water systems for contaminants across the state. By the next month, the MDE directed Perdue to take “immediate action.”

Perdue has acknowledged the high levels of PFAS on its property, said company spokeswoman Andrea Staub. Within 14 days of its designation by the MDE as a “responsible person” in October 2024, Perdue distributed bottled water to nearly 500 homes, she said. Within three weeks, the company began testing private wells in impacted areas, leading to the installation for residents of free POET filtration systems, which involve a tank and pre-filter to remove PFAS.

Perdue is continuing to search for the source of the contamination with oversight from the MDE and denies that any PFAS were used in manufacturing at the facility. There has been a decrease in the amount of PFAS being released into the groundwater, and the POET systems should help, Staub said. The company continues to funnel its wastewater into the Peggy Branch.

A class action lawsuit filed in October 2024 by the law firm Brockstedt Mandalas Federico involves more than 400 clients who say their health and homes in the affected area near Salisbury have been hurt by the alleged water contamination from Perdue. Perdue has denied wrongdoing, and its second motion to have the suit dismissed is still pending.

An environmental firm assessing Perdue’s plant reported that it found multiple potential sources of contamination, including firefighter foam that was discharged in 2019 and decades-old sewage reservoirs that may be leaking, according to a report filed with the District Court of Maryland on April 14.

Apperson called PFAS an emerging environmental and public health issue across the country with “few established regulatory requirements.”

Public water systems nationwide are being given until 2029 to bring the levels of PFAS in water down to 4 parts per trillion, as part of a March 2023 directive issued by the EPA. Last month, though, the EPA launched an effort to roll back existing programs focused on regulating industrial pollutants.

In Maryland, PFAS have been found in schools and water treatment plants. A number of lawsuits have been filed by the state and its municipalities against companies’ accused of polluting local groundwater with the chemicals. Increased monitoring, testing and a renewed focus on setting standards for how waste is disposed have become part of Maryland’s plan to stem the spread, though so much of how the chemicals are transferred remains unregulated.

As of now, the state does not legally require facilities to monitor wastewater long-term for forever chemicals.

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that Maryland does not have a long-term legal requirement for facilities to monitor wastewater for forever chemicals.