The PFAS problem may cause wastewater treatment that cleans up another bad problem: pharmaceuticals. Tara Lohan, The Revelator (Center for Biological Diversity), August 11, 2021, What Happens to Wildlife Swimming in a Sea of Our Drug Residues? Wastewater exposes plants and wildlife to hundreds of chemical compounds. Researchers are learning about potential side effects and […]
Register by May 2nd for this online Public Hearing on Thursday, May 4, 2023, from 11 AM to 7 PM EDT. PFAS testing, Withlacoochee River, 2022-06-30 Public hearing to present information and receive public comment on the proposed PFAS NPDWR: The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is hosting a public hearing to present information […]
Human sewage sludge used as fertilizer is a huge problem in Florida, causing algae blooms when it runs off into waterways. In Georgia, distributing sewage sludge as fertilizer may not be as common, but some Land Application Sites (LAS) rent their spray fields for growing hay or other crops. Plus such waste may also carry […]
“This stuff is in everything,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John Quarterman. In the Withlacoochee River, in fish in the Alapaha River, maybe in your house. Georgia, Florida, and U.S. EPA should do something about it. For what you can do, see: https://wwals.net/issues/pfas/ Sullivan Launch PFAS sample, US 41, Knights Ferry, State Line, Sullivan Launch, Withlacoochee River […]
Update 2023-05-27: EPA Proposed PFAS NPDWR Public Hearing 2023-05-04. They’re everywhere, they don’t break down naturally, and they cause disease: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals”. What you can do: Waterkeeper Alliance: Tell Congress to Pass the Clean Water Standards for PFAS Act! EWG: Ask Congress to Stop the Spread of PFAS Contamination! WWALS: […]
Largemouth bass caught in the Alapaha River at Statenville Boat Ramp had high concentrations of PFAS forever chemicals. EWG summarizes the risk: Eating just one PFAS-contaminated freshwater fish per month could be the equivalent of drinking a glass of water with very high levels of PFOS or other forever chemicals. Map and data: PFAS in […]
A new model indicates sources of PFAS “forever chemicals” may be much more widespread than usually thought. Presumptive Contamination Sites (n=57,412), Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2022, 9, 11, 983-990 That model was published while Waterkeeper Alliance was working up the report on the nationwide PFAS sampling, including the Suwannee Riverkeeper results on the Withlacoochee River […]
Update 2022-10-18: Forever chemicals contaminate Withlacoochee River in Georgia and Florida 2022-10-18. Update 2022-07-03: Withlacoochee River OK water quality except GA 133 2022-07-02. WWALS Science Committee Chair Dr. Tom Potter and I took PFAS samples at four locations on the Withlacoochee River Thursday. We shipped the samples to Cyclopure, a company with which Waterkeeper Alliance […]
We already knew E. coli was washing into the Withlacoochee (and other) rivers from cattle manure; that is one of the main reasons for our WWALS volunteer water quality testing program. We also need to worry about estrogens and the PFAS forever chemicals, not only washing off of fields with cow-applied cattle manure, but also […]
We requested much more labeling of chemical constituents of PFAS “forever chemicals”, to enable tracking PFAS contamination to its sources, when U.S. EPA held a public comment period about a PFAS rule. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution brought this problem to our attention back in 2018, due to PFAS contamination from all three Air Force bases in […]
