I have been a private consultant in New Mexico, throughout the United States and internationally for 50 years. I hope you caught the “60 Minutes” on PFAS and PFOS compounds that are showing up in everyone’s drinking water.
There are thousands of these compounds. They are carcinogens. They cause cancer, and cancer kills. They are in every home in stain- and water-resistant textiles; fire retardant in your clothes, rugs, slip covers; the no-stick coating on frying pans. They are forever compounds, and they contaminate water and anything that ingests water – forever. They are inert and non-degradable.
PFASs have been detected in Albuquerque’s drinking water source, at the San Juan-Chama Drinking Water Treatment Plant (WTP) in 2019. The levels detected were below the federal health advisory concentration of 70 parts per trillion (ppt) then, and the city has stated the drinking water is safe to drink. … My sources report the samples from the Albuquerque WTP were only 2 ppt. Happily, groundwater from our deep wells has been free of these compounds.
If you live near airports or military installations, it is a fire-retardant foam. Perhaps your town or city fire departments have them on hand and use them. When we excrete it, septic tanks discharge these contaminants to our groundwater systems. If the sewage is treated in our municipal treatment plants, the sludge from these plants is land farmed or sold as fertilizer. Remember Milorganite sold by the Milwaukee Municipal Sewage District? They sell 45,000 to 50,000 tons annually.
Our food chain is in jeopardy. Imported foods with less regulations and enforcement are particularly worrisome. The produce finds its way into the food chain. Herds of cattle have been euthanized because it is in the cattle feed and water, the meat and the milk. It is passed from mother to calves and newborn human infants as they breast feed. They are as common as the water we drink.
So, you ask is anything safe to eat or drink. There are some bottled waters that are safe if the water is ancient, artesian groundwater that recharged the aquifer before the damn stuff was invented by 3M company in the 1930s. This also goes for Freon 12 that was invented by chemists working for General Motors in 1928 and for Tritium that was created by nuclear fission from atom bombs during the atom-bomb testing.
The PFOS and PFAS problem is larger than any one person or group can solve. It demands government testing and certification and product labeling that the water we drink and the food we eat is certified as PFAS- and PFOS-free. We are killing our planet, our home. Our demise is certain unless we end the PFAS Polka immediately and implement granular activated carbon (GAC) filters of our drinking water.
