farmers

June 27, 2024

Rain-fed streams lacking federal protections are vital for water quality, study finds

By Shannon Kelleher

New data supports environmental advocates’ long-held position that small, rain-fed streams make major contributions to water quality in rivers and lakes across the US.

So-called “ephemeral streams,” which only flow after precipitation falls and are not currently protected under the Clean Water Act, contribute more than half of the water discharged from US regional rivers, according to the study, which published on Thursday in the journal Science. These streams are likely a major pathway for downstream water pollution, the study concluded.

The findings back concerns that a 2023 US Supreme Court decision in the case titled Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may put many US waterways and communities living downstream at risk of exposure to pollutants. The ruling effectively removed federal protections for ephemeral streams and wetlands, narrowly defining “waters of the United States” as “relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water.”

The study provides “some scientific confirmation that pollution would flow significantly downstream from these smaller waterways,” said John Rumpler, clean water director and senior attorney for the organization Environment America.

“That’s a really important finding,” he said. “If polluters are allowed to dump into ephemeral streams with impunity and there’s no federal recourse, then downstream water quality can be dramatically impacted.”

The Supreme Court’s move to limit the Clean Water Act has been met with alarm by environmentalists and sharp criticism from the Biden administration, with President Joe Biden saying in a statement last May that it “upends the legal framework that has protected America’s waters for decades.”

A 2022 brief filed in the Supreme Court by 45 senators and 154 House members expressed support for more limited federal control in the Clean Water Act, siding with petitioners in the then-pending Sackett v. EPA case.

May 14, 2024

Senate Farm Bill draft raises hopes for PFAS-impacted farmers

By Shannon Kelleher

As US lawmakers haggle over the renewal of the massive Farm Bill, which funds programs ranging from food access for low-income families to crop insurance for farmers, one new issue sparking debate is a proposed safety net for farmers whose land has become contaminated with dreaded “forever chemicals.”

A recent Farm Bill draft released by the US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry, includes language from the proposed Relief for Farmers Hit with PFAS Act, which would direct the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to designate $500 million in grants to states, territories, and Tribes to monitor and clean up per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on agricultural land and in farm products. The funds would partly offset financial losses a farmer can suffer due to PFAS contamination.

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture has said it sees PFAS as an “emerging risk” that poses a “major hazard” to US farmers and ranchers.

And last year, the US Department of Defense said it had notified almost 4,000 farms across dozens of states to warn that they were at risk for PFAS contamination. Many farmers in Maine have learned that their land is contaminated, as have farmers in Texas, New Mexico and elsewhere.

The US House of Representatives will hold a “committee markup” on May 23, a process that will result in a final draft, but neither an early overview of the House committee’s draft nor a more detailed version released Friday mention funding for PFAS-impacted farmers.

“We can find all kinds of money for increasing our defense budget and a whole host of other things,” said US Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine. “It seems unfair to not find the money for farmers who are in need. I think in the long run we will find that money.”

February 22, 2024

Texas farmers, watchdog group demand EPA act on PFAS in farm fertilizer

By Shannon Kelleher

In the wake of fresh evidence that US farms are being poisoned by PFAS-laden fertilizers, a watchdog group and two Texas farm families said Thursday they plan to sue regulators to try to force protective actions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has violated the Clean Water Act by failing to regulate at least 12 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in treated sewage sludge (biosolids) applied to agricultural lands, allege Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the farmers in a notice of intent to sue sent Feb. 22 to EPA Administrator Michael Regan. Studies have linked these particular PFAS chemicals to asthma, disrupted thyroid hormones, immune suppression, kidney problems, lung issues in children, and other health effects, the letter says.

The agency has also unlawfully failed to include in its regular biosolids reports at least 18 additional PFAS chemicals that scientific studies indicate are present in biosolids, PEER and the farmers allege.

PEER and the farmers will sue the EPA within 60 days if the agency does not take immediate action, said PEER executive director Timothy Whitehouse in the notice of intent to sue.

“EPA has deemed it acceptable for biosolids containing PFAS and other known toxic chemicals to be applied directly to soil as fertilizer, where these man-made contaminants then build up in the environment, exacerbating the PFAS contamination crisis,” wrote Whitehouse. “This is not protective of human health or the environment.”

“Because there are no standards, farmers, ranchers, and gardeners have no warning that they are potentially poisoning their soil, water, livestock, and pets with these biosolid fertilizer products,” Kyla Bennett, director of science policy for PEER, said in a press release. “Prompt, responsible regulatory action by EPA would prevent untold damage and heartache.”

August 29, 2023

Justices ring death knell for isolated US wetlands

By Judith Helgen
A recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court strips away protections from our nation’s remaining treasure of isolated wetlands. The court has reverted to the dark days when wetlands were viewed as dirty swamps to be drained — habitats with no value.

There’s a convoluted legislative and regulatory history which gave the U.S. Army Corps authority to oversee the nation’s navigable waters. The Corps protects waters that have a significant nexus, or connection, to a navigable water like a river. On that basis, the court removed isolated wetlands as Waters of the United States. Yet scientists have documented that most waters — including isolated wetlands — are connected, even when they don’t have an obvious nexus.

As a result, the justices have rung a death knell for these unique, watery environments.

Permanent and semi-permanent wetlands support an amazing diversity of underwater life: mayflies, dragonflies, small algae-eating crustaceans, and other quietly beneficial species. Isolated wetlands also provide physical services, such as holding water on the landscape and settling silt and pollutants.

Biologists like me who care about our watery environments are in shock.

Nationwide, less than half the country’s original 220 million acres of wetlands remain after vast areas were drained, primarily to create farmland. Farmers had no malicious intent; their crops are a major contributor to the Midwest economy. Minnesota has already lost half of its 20 million acres of wetlands because of drainage to create farmland.

Shouldn’t we protect those that remain?

August 11, 2023

“Polluter pays” debate heats up over toxic PFAS chemical cleanup plan

By Carey Gillam
As US regulators work to tackle the toxic threat posed by a class of widely used chemicals known as PFAS, debate is heating up over who could – and should – get hit with the cleanup costs.

Over the last several weeks, federal officials have received an onslaught of conflicting calls for action regarding a proposal to designate certain types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as “hazardous substances” under the nation’s so-called “Superfund” law. The designation would provide a pathway for the remediation of dangerously contaminated sites around the United States, including assigning liability for the hazardous waste cleanup.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is specifically proposing that PFOA and PFOS and seven other types of PFAS be designated for action under the Superfund law, known formally as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

The public comment period on the EPA’s proposal ended Friday, drawing fevered pleas from individuals, industries and agencies across the country.

It is the issue of potential liability for PFAS contamination under CERCLA that is sparking fierce debate, as an array of parties, including water providers, landfill operators and even farmers, say they worry they could be saddled with millions of dollars in costs to try to rid their operations of widespread PFAS contamination that they had no hand in creating. They want the EPA and members of Congress to carve out exemptions to protect them.

March 2, 2023

California pushes ahead with its new pesticide-reduction plan

By Pam Strayer and Carey Gillam

Amid mounting evidence of the risks some synthetic pesticides pose to human and environmental health, California regulators this week were pushing ahead with a recently announced “roadmap” aimed at transitioning the state to more sustainable options for managing weeds and insects,

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), in partnership with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), held two public webinars on Thursday seeking to explain the details of the plan – and bolster support for it – as the state nears the March 13 close of the public comment period on the proposal.

State officials announced the plan in January, saying the goal is to eliminate the use of “high-risk pesticides” by 2050 to “better protect the health of our communities and environment, while supporting agriculture, food systems and community well-being.”

That message was underscored in Thursday’s event: “The evolving science about risks and impacts from certain pesticide uses on our health and our environment, which too commonly impacts communities already overburdened by other environmental hazards, point to the importance of accelerating this system-wide shift,” Clare Mendelsohn deputy secretary for public policy at California Environmental Protection Agency, said in the evening webinar.

State officials say the Sustainable Pest Management (SPM) plan is visionary and will significantly overhaul harmful agricultural practices in the state, helping protect farmworkers and others put at risk through exposure to pesticides known to be harmful to human health.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross has said that once implemented, the recommendations would “ensure an abundant and healthful food supply, protect our natural resources, and create healthy, resilient communities.”

But some say the plan falls short in many respects, and that faster and more aggressive actions are needed to protect and enhance soil health, adapt to climate change, and protect human health.

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July 15, 2022

US workers face scorching heat, but few protections

During a scorching June heatwave last year, a worker in Oregon collapsed after climbing down from conducting a roof inspection. Hospitalized with heat stress, he died a few days later. In Washington state, a farmworker was found slumped against a tractor after his shift, dead from a combination of factors that included heat stress, according to a medical examiner.

Now, this summer is again turning potentially deadly for people around the United States as climate change brings dangerously high temperatures. Just this week, blistering temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit were recorded from Boise, Idaho to Tulsa, Oklahoma and millions of people living in the nation’s mid-section and southwest were under heat advisories, according to the National Weather Service.

Heat-related illness and death are known to disproportionally impact people of color and other disadvantaged populations, but the effects of triple-digit temperatures are particularly threatening to laborers whose jobs require long hours in sizzling heat.