The fertilizer was promoted as an environmental win-win for years. An untold number of farmers and ranchers across Texas have spread it on their land.
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“This is destroying our lives,” Coleman said. “You never know what you're going to get every day when you get down here.” The Colemans have lost more than 35 animals. One went blind before dying, they said, a white film coating the pupil. A pair of calves died less than a week after birth. They found dead fish floating in their stock ponds. When an animal dies it's a race against time. Coleman and his neighbor James Farmer scramble to beat the buzzards and coyotes to the carcass, then drive it to a lab in College Station.They contacted the county with their concerns, triggering a nine-month investigation.
An untold number of farms and ranches across Texas and the rest of the nation may have also used fertilizer made from sewage tainted with these “forever chemicals” — which don’t break down in the environment — without knowing it.that have a singular ability to repel oil and water and resist heat. They are used in products like nonstick cookware, pizza boxes, waterproof mascara, toilet paper, soaps and rain jackets.
“Some people are saying, are isolated incidents. No, they're not. I guarantee that this is a problem in every single state that uses biosolids,” said Kyla Bennett, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employee who is now a science policy director for the nonprofit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
Coleman and Farmer have both decided not to sell any cattle. That means the men now run zombie farms. They pay to feed animals and harvest hay that they won’t sell — a single 900-pound steer could sell for $4,800, Coleman said. The tissue from a calf belonging to Farmer that died a week after being born tested at 320 ppt of PFOS.
“These people were led to believe this was safe and a cheap fertilizer,” County Commissioner Larry Woolley said at the meeting. “And this isn’t just isolated to this one incident or multiple counties. This is going on all over.” The company did not provide its test results to the Tribune, saying its analysis was still in progress.
Top left: In one of the last steps in the wastewater treatment process, the wastewater is injected with chlorine to kill any remaining bacteria. Fort Worth Water sends the recycled water to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport for industrial use. Top right: Mary Gugliuzza, spokesperson for Fort Worth Water, said forever chemicals enter the wastewater treatment plant from homes, businesses and industrial customers.
But the agency is now studying the presence of PFAS in wastewater and sewage sludge nationally and conducting a risk assessment on the use of biosolids and sewage sludge containing the two most widely used and studied forever chemicals — PFOA and PFOS — focusing on health risks through exposure to soil, water, crops, meat and dairy. It expects to publish the results by the end of this year, which will determine whether new federal rules are necessary.
Adam Krantz, the CEO of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, a group representing municipal wastewater treatment agencies, said the cost of remediation could be passed down to water utility customers, but argues that"polluters should pay."“It really is the corporate polluter that needs to foot the bill for this as the wrongdoer,” he said.
“I lay awake at night thinking of the magnitude of this whole deal. It’s just crazy,” Woolley said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. I think there's gonna be so much public outcry on this … it's gonna be hard for our state officials to ignore that.” So far, there have been no bills filed by state lawmakers regarding PFAS contamination in biosolids ahead of the legislative session that begins in January.
Environment Agriculture State Government Texas Commission On Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Johnson County Texas Legislature
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