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. 

More ...