The MDI Biological Laboratory has received a $160,000 grant to monitor arsenic in well water.
More than half of Maine homes get drinking water from private residential wells and about 10 percent of those homes have elevated levels of arsenic, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
But MDI Biological Laboratory said not enough homeowners test for the chemical. The grant will supplement a million dollar grant that MDI received in 2018 to monitor arsenic and stimulate interest in STEM among high school students, who will collaborate with the lab’s scientists to test for arsenic in their homes.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.