Two Buckeye-area water wells, in farming zones, contain a cancer-causing “forever chemical” that exceeds the EPA’s maximum contaminant level, according to state data.
The chemical known as polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, is considered a “forever chemical” because it doesn’t break down over time and can accumulate in the environment and the blood of humans.
PFOS is a subcategory of PFAS.
Jamaine Berry, the owner of Clearwater Utility Company and a Buckeye city councilman, told InBuckeye that it’s tied to wastewater in general.
“PFOS is basically in areas where they have septic tanks, and all PFOS … it's like laundry detergent,” he said. “It's parts per billion, which is equivalent to a tablespoon of salt in an Olympic-sized pool, that's what they're detecting. To the state, it's not a big deal. It's just something that the EPA once tested.”
The City of Buckeye does not manage the specific area south of the Gila River. While the regions of the wells are considered “Buckeye” for mailing address purposes, they’re governed by Maricopa County alone, according to a city spokesperson.
Some sludges spread across croplands in Texas as fertilizers have been detected to contain high amounts of PFAS and PFOS, according to the EPA.
The EPA said in January that this type of sludge is cancer-causing.
The agency identified that the most at-risk people are those who drink milk from cows grazing on soil and water contaminated with PFAS. It also identified those who consume beef or eggs from pastures contaminated with PFAS.
Texas farmers sued fertilizer companies last year, alleging they sold them tainted sludge, which killed off young livestock.
They also sued the EPA, arguing that the federal agency had failed to implement restrictions on the chemical in fertilizers despite being aware of the risks.
The National Institutes of Health published research suggesting that PFOS can interfere with birds' immune signaling pathways. It concluded that “exposure to PFOS can worsen the outcome of an infection in a host" from some illnesses.
The study curiously concedes that the bird flu can mitigate PFOS' adverse immune effect.
Michael McDaniel can be reached at [email protected]. We invite our readers to submit their civil comments or opinions on this or any issue. Email [email protected].
5 Responses
I’m want a water test for our neighborhood on Watson and Broadway. My Daughter has alopecia and several girls here and boys have alopecia way above the national . My kids are always sick and we are finding a lot of our neighbors are always sick also. I see that these chemicals break down your immune system if we are showering in it everyday cooking with it is this the correlation between all of us here. Not to mention are water in our houses are all bad and all of our neighbors aswell. The water has corroded all of our piping in 10-15 year old homes. Something I not right and I keep thinking about the, “Erin brokavich story”. We need a public audit of these water companies that are built next to active or inactive cow farms. We have one directly across the street from our neighborhood.
Josh I did email you with the email you used. You can also reach me at [email protected]
Thank you, and ARM for bringing this to light, Mike!!
I would also like to know where we can purchase said water test, as we live in Rainbow Valley and have both a Well and Clearwater water.
This is being addressed in a future story. Bottom line: if you’re in a septic area and your wells are near septic release, they’re not considered safe anymore. This is new research that has been conducted in the eastern states. Many things like carpet cleaners or detergent could go into septic, be treated and not cleaned out and released into the water system.
I’ve spoken to many water experts, they never seemed to think, in years past, that effluent could risk drinking water.
Amazon has a PFAS test you mail back to a company. We do not endorse any product, of course; it’s up to you to decide if you’d like to use that product. We’d like to distance ourselves from liability.
More research has to be done!! This blurt about contaminated water sounds like some kind of a land/ water company situation especially south of the Gila River. We live in the area with a well, and drink the water regularly from faucet or fridge with a filter. Don’t jump to conclusion with the first article you read!!