Dairy farm ‘ruined’ by PFAS contaminants

By Donna Buttarazzi dbuttarazzi@seacoastonline.com

Posted Mar 19, 2019 at 5:57 PM

ARUNDEL, Maine — More than two years after learning drinking water and milk tanks on his 100-year-old Stoneridge Farm were contaminated with a class of chemicals linked to cancer and other health concerns, farmer Fred Stone still can’t sell his milk and is losing hundreds of dollars a day, every day.

Stone said he never knew the wastewater sludge he was licensed by the state to spread on his fields and other fields across York County contained PFAS, a class of industrial chemicals linked to cancer, fertility issues, hormone disruption and more.

More ...

Groundwater contamination devastates a New Mexico dairy – and threatens public health

By Amy Linn, Searchlight New Mexico

Don J. Usner/Searchlight New Mexico

Art Schaap looking over some of the 1800 Holstein cows on the Highland Dairy in Clovis.

For months, Clovis dairy farmer Art Schaap has been watching his life go down the drain. Instead of selling milk, he is dumping 15,000 gallons a day – enough to provide a carton at lunch to 240,000 children. Instead of working 24/7 to keep his animals healthy, he’s planning to exterminate all 4,000 of his cows, one of the best herds in Curry County’s booming dairy industry.

The 54-year-old second-generation dairy farmer learned last August that his water, his land, his crops – even the blood in his body – were contaminated with chemicals that migrated to his property from nearby Cannon Air Force Base. 

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NY passes a ban on the sale and use of AFFF

In Michigan we are currently working through legislation to ban training with AFFF, we need to get a place like NY and ban the sale of these foams too. So far their bill has made it through their Senate...

North Kent County PFAS Exposure Assessment

Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 15, 2019

CONTACT: Lynn Sutfin, 517-241-2112, SutfinL1@michigan.gov

North Kent County PFAS Exposure Assessment participants starting to receive results
Invited residents can still participate, urged to call 844-464-7327 

LANSING, Mich. – Blood test results are starting to be sent to participants in the North Kent County per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) Exposure Assessment. The PFAs Exposure Assessment is being conducted by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and Kent County Health Department (KCHD) and there is still time for selected residents to participate.

MDHHS and KCHD have been collecting blood samples and surveying residents of North Kent County who were exposed to PFAS through their drinking water since November 2018. Lab tests are measuring 24 PFAS analytes in the blood and it takes about 16 weeks for participants to receive test results. Drinking water samples from wells of participants’ homes are also being analyzed for the same 24 PFAS analytes to compare to the blood levels.

The PFAS Exposure Assessment is evaluating the relationship between drinking water with PFAS and the amount in the body. The assessment has included collecting blood samples and information on their activities that could result in PFAS exposure. Kent County was chosen for this assessment because no other area in Michigan has as many wells exceeding the advisory level nor are any test results as high.

Households were chosen from those that have a drinking water well located within the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) North Kent County environmental investigation area and whose drinking water well has been tested by EGLE or by Wolverine Worldwide’s contractor and found to have PFAS. Two groups were identified to participate – those who had drinking water levels over the US Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water lifetime health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion and those who had drinking water levels of less than 70 parts per trillion. A sampling of homes in each of these two groups were invited to participate.

Residents of selected homes were mailed letters by MDHHS and contacted by phone to confirm their eligibility and enroll them in the assessment. MDHHS staff will soon be visiting selected homes that have not yet enrolled to drop off information about the assessment and how to participate. There are a limited number of planned dates left for selected residents to participate. If you received a letter or phone call from MDHHS and have not responded, MDHHS urges you to call 844-464-7327 to sign up before the assessment ends.

Although knowing your individual PFAS blood level will not predict or confirm any personal health problems, this study will provide much needed data the state can use to assess the impact of drinking water levels on human blood levels, and over time, perhaps contribute to the greater understanding of PFAS-related health issues at the population level.

PFAS have been used globally during the past century in manufacturing, firefighting foam and thousands of common household and other consumer products. These chemicals are persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and can accumulate over time. In recent years, experts have become increasingly concerned by the potential effects of high concentrations of PFAS on human health. Given the widespread use of PFAS, most humans and animals have some amount of PFAS in their blood, even without exposure directly to contaminants from a specific hazardous site. The public health implications of consuming elevated levels of PFAS are being studied worldwide.

MDHHS and KCHD are working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the EGLE to investigate PFAS contamination in the county.

For more information about PFAS and the State of Michigan's PFAS response, visit the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team website Michigan.gov/pfasresponse.

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• Kent County Assessment results NR.pdf

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STAY CONNECTED:

Questions about PFAS? You've come to the right place.

Hello! My name is Christy McGillivray, and I’ve joined the Michigan Chapter to work on PFAS and other threats to our Great Lakes. This is the introductory blog post for the Michigan Chapter’s PFAS work. This blog will help us: learn how we can work together to clean up toxic hot spots and end the use of these chemicals; get information on developments at the local, statewide, and national level; and inform citizens about this emerging health threat. Welcome. 

There is a lot of news about PFAS in headlines this week. The Governor has announced a scientific review panel to pursue administrative rulemaking to set a standard for PFAS in drinking water that is more protective of human health, and the MDEQ and the USEPA are holding a hearing in Rockford to discuss the investigation into Wolverine Worldwide's PFAS dumping. I'll have an update on those two news items later. As an introduction, we are going to take a step back to November of 2018. I was teaching chemistry and physics at Eastpointe High School. I noticed that the Department of Natural Resources, (DNR), had issued a “do-not-eat” advisory for deer harvested within a five-mile radius of Clark’s Marsh. A deer had tested at 547 parts per billion for PFOS. My partner grew up hunting in Northern Michigan, and we eat venison whenever we can, so this caught my attention. As a frame of reference for the measurement of 547 parts per billion: it is almost twice what the DNR considers an actionable do-not-eat advisory for fish, and significantly higher than the 70 parts per trillion lifetime health advisory for drinking water issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. PFAS chemicals are also in our fish. Do-not-eat advisories for fish have been extended to include stretches of the Au Sable River. This is particularly heartbreaking, given that the Au Sable is one of the most scenic and pristine rivers for trout fishing in the country.

My students in Eastpointe don’t spend a lot of their time hunting and fishing from our just-east-of-8-mile suburb, but I knew that if wildlife were affected, people would be affected too. I ran a science literacy project in which we learned:

• PFAS should be thought of as a family of thousands of chemicals--it’s not just one particular toxic chemical.
• PFAS chemicals are used in literally thousands of products that we use every day, including food packaging, cosmetics, dental floss, clothing, and cookware.
• PFAS has been found in the blood of almost all Americans, and typically at concentrations about 100 times those in drinking water.
• The State of Michigan had been informed of the danger of PFAS hotspots in 2012, and ignored the report drafted by Dr. Robert Delaney.
• A whistleblower in Minnesota was also ignored in 2006.
• And yes, it’s not just the deer and fish: Michiganders are affected by PFAS contamination.

My students seemed to take the news of PFAS contamination in Michigan in stride. It’s not accurate to over-generalize, but I think it’s fair to say that my students are cynical about the future. I can’t blame them. So, I jumped at the opportunity to work the Sierra Club on PFAS contamination in Michigan. In part because I had been learning about the problem with my students, in part because it broke my heart to see my students stoically facing down yet another source of chemical contamination in their lives, and in part because I have a history of working as an environmental advocate and I wanted to start doing something about PFAS.

PFAS contamination is just the newest symptom of our broken chemical regulatory system, and we are all affected, regardless of whether or not we have been drinking contaminated well water. 

Please email me at christy.mcgillivray@sierraclub.org if you would like to help with efforts at the Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club. There will be many opportunities to get involved: stay tuned!