Source: Children’s Health Defense

USA Has a Looming Sewage Nightmare, Potomac Wastewater Spill Shows

USA TODAY reported:

Officials and engineers have warned for decades of a growing crisis with the aging systems that handle the billions of gallons of water flowing from toilets, tubs and washing machines across the country every day. So when news broke of the untreated wastewater spill into the Potomac River in January, it wasn’t a surprise to industry experts.

“When you think about the number of miles of wastewater pipes in the ground, and the age of them, and the fact that for many, many years they have been underfunded, it’s not surprising that things like this can occur,” said Darren Olson, a professional engineer who chairs the Committee on America’s Infrastructure for the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The society produces a “report card” of letter grades for each category of the nation’s infrastructure every four years. Wastewater consistently earns a “D.” An estimated 3 to 10 million gallons of wastewater are spilled annually in the U.S., but no national data exists showing total discharges, USA TODAY previously reported.

U.S. Forest Service Stops Issuing Firefighter Pants That Contain PFAS, Following ProPublica’s Reporting

ProPublica reported:

Following a ProPublica article revealing that the U.S. Forest Service had for years issued clothing to wildland firefighters that it knew contained potentially dangerous “forever chemicals,” the agency has stopped distributing those garments. It also says that it will instruct its equipment manufacturers to avoid using PFAS in the future.

This month, ProPublica reported that until at least 2023 one of the Forest Service’s suppliers, TenCate, used finishing products made with a PFAS compound on a Kevlar-blend pant fabric. According to emails from the supplier, the finishes were used to repel gasoline and water. Despite knowing about the use of PFAS, officials with the Forest Service had not previously informed wildland firefighters about it.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have long been used in protective gear to repel substances like fuels. But many municipal fire departments have moved away from the chemicals as researchers revealed more about health risks associated with them. Firefighters in multiple states have filed class-action lawsuits against  manufacturers alleging they were harmed by PFAS in the gear they wore. Research specific to wildland firefighters has lagged, and wildland firefighting agencies have been slower to publicly address the issue.

Brown Water and Boil Notices: Small Towns Struggle With Failing Water Systems

Louisiana Illuminator reported:

The water looked like coffee as it ran from the tap. Even simple chores like laundry and dishwashing became nearly impossible, the water running like a medium roast brew from the faucet into the sink of Donald Wood’s home, staining clothes and appliances.

“I can’t recall the number of times I’ve driven to Vicksburg and rented a motel room just to take a shower,” Wood said, a drive of about 30 minutes each way. “Imagine bathing or showering or brushing your teeth in such filth.”

Wood is a longtime resident of the city of Tallulah. Nestled in Madison Parish, amongst expansive farm fields and venerable pecan groves, it’s known throughout the state for its decades-long struggle with poor quality drinking water. “Several people here, when the water became so bad, so frequently, bought very expensive filters that they would put outside their house and to filter the yuck out of the water,” Wood said.

That includes his brother, who Wood said spent $8,000 on a filter. But even such an expensive device, besides costing more than many in Tallulah could afford, would still need to be regularly fixed because of such poor water quality. “Every two or three days, you’d have to go outside, backwash the filter and start again,” he said.

Toxic Tap: Lead Detected in 6 of 10 New Orleans Homes Amid Delayed Pipe Replacement

Verite News reported:

Each morning, Katherine Prevost fills her coffee maker with water from her kitchen faucet and presses the button. Until recently, she didn’t know the water may have contained a potent neurotoxin — lead. She was shocked when a water test provided by Verite News found lead detected in the water coming from the tap.

“Now that means that I can’t do that anymore,” Prevost said. She already drank bottled water, but she relied on tap water for cooking everything from her gumbos and crawfish boils and other daily activities like brushing her teeth.

The New Orleans native moved to her block of Congress Street in the Upper Ninth Ward when she was a teenager. Nearly 60 years later, at 72, she still lives in the same home. Prevost replaced the plumbing inside her house after Hurricane Katrina, but modeling by the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans showed that the city’s pipes leading to her house likely contain lead.

Bay Area Refinery to Pay $10 Million Penalty for Multiple Health, Safety Violations

CBS News reported:

A Bay Area refinery will pay a multi-million-dollar penalty for a series of major violations, including fires, toxic emissions and leaking tanks that went on for years, prosecutors and air regulators announced on Wednesday.

A civil action against Martinez Refining Company resulted in a $10 million judgment against the company, along with $600,000 in mitigation payments for environmental projects in Contra Costa County, the district attorney and the Bay Area Air District said in a joint announcement. A judge signed the final judgment on the enforcement action on Wednesday.

The MRC refinery was issued 163 notices of violations at its facility on Pacheco Boulevard in Martinez between 2020 and 2024, which included offenses under the health and safety code, business and professions code, and fish and game code. One of the violations was the 2022 Thanksgiving Day release of spent catalyst, a toxic residue that left parts of the city and neighboring communities covered in a white ash-like substance with higher-than-normal amounts of heavy metals.

USDA Has ‘Sufficient Opportunities’ to Respond to PFAS Crisis on Farmland, Report Finds

The New Lede reported:

Federal regulators have a range of solutions available to tackle the widespread contamination of farmland with toxic chemicals, according to a new report by US academics.

The report, published Feb. 13 by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine and sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), offers a framework for the agency to address the contamination of US farmland with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of humanmade chemicals that accumulate in the environment and the bodies of humans and animals.

PFAS end up on agricultural lands when farmers apply tainted sewage sludge as a fertilizer, contaminating crops and soil with chemicals linked to certain cancers and other health harms.

Nearly 70 million acres of US farmland are potentially impacted, according to the Environmental Working Group. PFAS can also spread to farmland through pesticides laced with them – on average, 2.5 million tons of PFAS-containing pesticides are sprayed on crops in California alone.