We’re in the middle of sweet corn season: Here are some easy ways to cook, store it
Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press – August 29, 2022
Sweet corn.
When it comes to produce that is fresh, sweet, and tasty, it doesn’t get any better than sweet corn. And we are smack dab in the middle of sweet corn season.
Loads of yellow, white, and bi-color corn are landing at many metro Detroit local farm markets, independent stores and farmers’ markets.
Fred Block of Block’s Stand and Greenhouse in Romulus said the crop is big and it’s coming in good.
“It’s (corn season) in full swing with good varieties, good size ears, and good flavor,” Block said.
At Block’s, corn is sold by how many you can fit in a bag. The bags are two for $5 and easily hold a dozen ears of corn.
Ben Phillips, a Michigan State University Extension vegetable specialist, also said this year’s corn season in Michigan is excellent.
While there was a little dry stress early, Phillips said rains were well timed, pollination happened and pests were low.
“There’s a lot of high-quality ears out there,” Phillips said. “Conditions have been good for tip fill.”
For good tip fill, Phillips said, when you’re holding that ear of corn, the tip has to feel “stubby, not pointy.”
“That means all the kernels to the end have filled out,” he said.
Cooking corn
Ever have cooler corn? It’s an easy way to cook corn for a crowd. Yes, that same cooler that keeps beer, pop and foods cold can keep things hot, too.
Cooking corn in a cooler is quick and easy.
Here’s how:
Clean your cooler, making sure you wash and rinse it out well.
Make sure you have a lid.
Shuck the corn and place it in the cooler. You can line them up in a single or double row — depending on the size of your cooler.
Boil some water — enough to completely cover the ears by an inch or more.
Cover with the lid. Let sit at least 30-45 minutes or until the corn is cooked. If you like you can throw in a stick of butter too.
Silk-free microwave corn
A few minutes in the microwave and how you remove the husk leads to silk-free corn.
Here’s how:
Leave the corn in the husk but remove as much of the silk as you can. I use scissors to trim it away.
Place the corn on a microwave-safe plate or dish. Microwave on high for about 3 minutes, depending on the size of the ear.
The corn will be hot so use oven mitts or a towel to remove it from the microwave.
Place corn on a work surface and cut about ½-inch off the larger end.
Holding the silk end, squeeze or twist the husk so the ear of corn slips out. The silk stays in the husk.
Storing corn
Store freshly picked corn in a bag in the refrigerator and use it within a few days. Do not remove the husk.
Corn also freezes beautifully. Cut the kernels from the cob and place them in a freezer-quality bag and in the freezer. There’s no need to blanch the corn. You can also freeze cooked corn.
You can also freeze the whole cobs of corn. Remove the husk and silk and blanch in boiling water 3-4 minutes. Place in an ice bath to stop the cooking. Pat corn dry and place in a freezer bag, pressing out as much air as possible.
To easily cut corn from the cob, break the ear in half. Stand the ear on the cut side and slice kernels from top to bottom. Having two smaller pieces standing upright is easier than trying to cut the kernels from a whole ear.
While the supply-chain has been in a state of disruption since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, the dislocations have been compounded by the war between Russia and Ukraine, both of which are major wheat exporters. This has contributed to food inflation that’s hitting the most vulnerable especially hard, according to Mercy Corps, a humanitarian organization that distributes aid to the needy globally.
“Skyrocketing food prices in 2022 have meant that the cash assistance we provide vulnerable families doesn’t go as far,” Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, the CEO of Mercy Corps, told Insider. “The main constraint to accessing food is decreased purchasing power coupled with increased food prices.”
Last month, Ukraine and Russia reached an agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that allows Ukraine to restart grain exports out of the Black Sea. The move has offered some relief to global markets: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization Food Price Index — which tracks a basket of commonly trade commodities — fell for the fourth consecutive month in July after hitting a record high earlier in 2022.
But, the price declines are unlikely to trickle down to the consumers immediately.
“While many food prices have been decreasing in recent weeks, with some returning to prewar levels, markets will continue to be volatile and even if global prices come down, local markets may not see price adjustments for upwards of a year,” said McKenna.
And by then, we could see a new chapter in the food crisis that could push up prices again. Here’s how the food crisis could change — for the worse — in 2023.
This year, it’s a logistics problem. Next year, it could be a supply issue.
This year’s food crisis is mostly due to a logistics disruption tied to issues in shipping Ukrainian and Russian grains out of the countries. But next year, the food supply itself could be in peril — particularly in Ukraine.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24, threw a wrench into the annual farm cycle anddisrupted the spring sowing season in April and May. Another sowing cycle takes place from September to November.
In July, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to Twitter to warn that the country’s farm harvest could be halved this year due to the war. “Ukrainian harvest this year is under the threat to be twice less,” Zelenskyy tweeted.
In an August 17 report, consultancy firm McKinsey forecast a sharp drop in harvest volumes: It estimates Ukraine’s production of grains, such as wheat, will drop by 35% to 45% in the next harvesting season.
“The ongoing conflict is interfering with farmers’ ability to prepare fields, plant seeds, and protect and fertilize crops, which will likely result in even lower volumes next harvest season,” McKinsey wrote in the report about global food security amid the Ukraine war and impact from climate change.
Per McKinsey forecasts, Ukraine’s harvest will be 30 to 44 million tons below normal levels this year. This is due to fewer plantings on an acreage basis, reduced farmer cashflow as much of their last harvest can’t be shipped, and the possibility of grain left untended or unharvested, the consultancy firm said.
“In the next planting season, due to the war’s disruption of Ukrainian planting and harvesting and combined with less-than-optimal inputs into Russian, Brazilian, and other growing countries’ crops, supply will likely tighten,” wrote McKinsey. The consultancy interviewed local growers and reviewed local data for its report.
Soaring fertilizer prices and climate change add to supply shock
Russia accounted for almost one-fifth of 2021 fertilizer exports, but the war in Ukraine has caused severe disruption to the supply of crop nutrient. Prices of urea, a common nitrogen fertilizer, have more than doubled from a year ago, according to Bloomberg’s Green Markets service. As a result, farmers around the world are using less fertilizer.
“Fertilizer shortages and higher prices for fertilizers are also expected to reduce yields in countries that depend heavily on fertilizer imports, such as Brazil. This will likely further decrease the volume of grain on the world market,” McKinsey wrote in its report.
Mercy Corps has observed the same trend. “Farmers we work with in Guatemala have been unable to invest in the next production cycle either because they cannot afford to buy fertilizers and other inputs derived from oil, such as plastics for padding and pipes for irrigation systems, or because they cannot find agricultural inputs in the market,” said McKenna.
Given that the shocks to farming and supply come at a time of extreme climate conditions, including severe droughts in Europe and floods in Australia, McKinsey expects the next food crisis to be worse than those in 2007 to 2008, and from 2010 to 2011.
“The conflict in Ukraine is shaking important pillars of the global food system in an already precarious context,” the consultancy said.
Tips for harvesting and storing summer vegetables | Gardener State
William Errickson – August 28, 2022
This is an exciting time of the year to be a gardener as many summer vegetables are at peak ripeness and ready to harvest. There is nothing like slicing into a vine ripened Jersey tomato or enjoying an ear of sweet corn that was picked that day.
Whether you grow your own vegetables or purchase them from a local farmer, it is important to know when and how to pick vegetables at the right time, so they are at their highest quality. Once you have harvested your vegetables, or brought them home from the market, they must also be stored properly so they retain their freshness for as long as possible.
With these tips for picking and storing summer vegetables, you can be eating Jersey Fresh all throughout the harvest season.
Tomatoes
This photo of a table of cherry tomatoes of different colors, taken by Sarah Licata, a food blogger based in Merchantville in Camden County, was awarded the Grant Prize in the 2019 #FindJerseyFresh Challenge photo contest.
For the best flavor, tomatoes should be allowed to ripen on the vine. This means that their full color has developed before they are picked. While most of the time we are talking about a red tomato, there are also many varieties of tomatoes that are different colors such as yellow, orange, pink and even striped! Once the tomato has turned color, gently grasp the fruit (yes, a tomato is a fruit) and twist it away from the plant. Be careful not to damage the skin of the tomato when you are picking them or when you are bringing them home from the market because this can cause them to rot prematurely. Try not to stack too many ripe tomatoes on top of one another in your harvest basket either, as this can also damage them.
Tomatoes should not be refrigerated and store best at temperatures over 50degrees. Don’t wash tomatoes until you are ready to eat them and if you must store a tomato that has already been sliced, then you can put it in an airtight container and put it in the refrigerator. Remember, this is the only time that a tomato should go in the refrigerator as they will get soft, and their quality will decline rapidly.
Corn
“If I filled this cart, I’d get about 60 burlap bags full. I don’t think I ever picked that much in one day. Most we did was 50 bags.” Fresh-picked sweet corn from the fields of Tom Sutton, a third-generation farmer in Burlington County, New Jersey.
It can be tricky to choose the best and ripest ears of sweet corn. The silks at the top of the ear will turn brown and die back when the ear is mature and ready to harvest. If you wrap your hand around the ear, it should feel plump, and you should be able to feel the individual kernels through the outer husk. If you are picking sweet corn in the field and you have identified a fully ripened ear, grab the ear in your hand and twist it away from the plant in a downward motion. It should break off from the stalk easily and you will now be holding some of the best that Jersey has to offer.
The husk should not be removed until you are ready to cook and eat sweet corn because it protects the kernels and prevents them from drying out. Corn can be stored in the refrigerator, but it will have the highest quality if it is eaten on the same day that it was picked. If corn is stored for too long, then the sugars in the kernels start to turn to starch and it will not be as sweet.
Melons
Cantaloupes and other melons must be allowed to ripen on the vine to develop their full sugar content and flavor profile, so it is important not to get impatient and attempt to harvest your melons before they are ready. The skin of a cantaloupe will turn from green to yellowish orange when they are ripe, and the fruit should slip easily off the vine. They will also smell sweet and fragrant like floral honey when they ripen, so don’t be afraid to use your nose. Ripe melons can be stored in the refrigerator for a short time but should be eaten within a week of harvest.
Watermelons will not necessarily slip off the vine the way that cantaloupes do, and they do not give off a heavy fragrance, but there are other clues that we can use to determine when they are ready. Look for ripe watermelons to have a yellow spot on the bottom, where the fruit was in contact with the ground. Those with a trained ear also say that if you tap on a ripe watermelon it should sound “hollow” when you put your ear up to it. Watermelons have a longer shelf life than other melons and should be refrigerated, especially after they are cut.
If you are looking for Jersey Fresh vegetables this harvest season, be sure to check out Cook’s Market every Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Rutgers Gardens, 130 Log Cabin Road in New Brunswick.
William Errickson is the Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent for Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Monmouth County.
Dried-Out Farms From China to Iowa Will Pressure Food Prices
Kim Chipman and Tarso Veloso – August 28, 2022
(Bloomberg) — Drought is shrinking crops from the US Farm Belt to China’s Yangtze River basin, ratcheting up fears of global hunger and weighing on the outlook for inflation.
The latest warning flare comes out of the American Midwest, where some corn is so parched stalks are missing ears of grain and soybean pods are fewer and smaller than usual. The dismal report from the Pro Farmer Crop Tour has helped lift a gauge of grain prices back to the highest level since June.
The world is desperate to replenish grain reserves diminished by trade disruptions in the Black Sea and unfavorable weather in some of the largest growing regions. But an industry tour of US fields over the past week stunned market participants — who had been more optimistic — with reports of extensive crop damage due to brutal heat and a lack of water.
Meanwhile, drought is taking a toll in Europe, China and India, while the outlook for exports out of Ukraine, a major corn and vegetable oil shipper, is hard to predict amid Russia’s invasion.
“Even before this week’s news from the crop tour, I have been concerned that we would not see much stock rebuilding until 2023,” said Joe Glauber, a former chief economist at the US Department of Agriculture who now serves as a senior fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. The “opening of Ukraine ports is a welcome sign, but volumes remain far below normal levels.”
Read more: Smallest US Corn Crop Since 2019 Signals Higher Food Costs Ahead
Traders always watch weather forecasts closely but this year the vigilance has intensified — every bushel matters. While corn, wheat and soybean prices have cooled off from record or near-record highs seen earlier this year, futures remain highly volatile. Bad weather surprises from now until fall harvests are finished could send prices soaring again.
An index of grains and soybeans is trading almost 40% above the five-year average and the surge in crop prices has been a major contributor to global inflation. Already, food shortages helped lead to the downfall of Sri Lanka’s government earlier this year when the country ran out of hard currency needed to pay for imports.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s index tracking food prices fell last month from June, though remains 13% higher from the same period last year.
In the US, corn is the most dominant crop and a lackluster harvest will have ripple effects across the global food supply chain, adding pressure on South America to produce bumper crops early next year. That’s especially the case if China, which is suffering its worst drought since the early 1960s, is forced to import more grains to feed its massive livestock herds and shore up domestic inventories.
After the recent crop tour, officials now estimate that US production will be 4% lower than the formal government forecast. The pinch follows drought-driven shortfalls of US winter wheat as well as soybeans in Brazil, the top grower.
The global farming outlook going into 2023 has market watchers worried. For the first time in more than 20 years, the world is facing a rare third consecutive year of the La Nina phenomenon, when the equatorial Pacific cools, causing a reaction from the atmosphere above it. This could have dire consequences for drought across the US as well as dryness across the vital crop regions of Brazil and Argentina.
And while it’s hard to link the weather in any given year to long-term climate patterns, analysts warn that global warming will be a growing drag on agricultural output in years to come.
READ: Drought Threatens China’s Harvest When World Can Least Afford It
For now, Europe is in the throes of a drought that appears to be the worst in at least 500 years, according to a preliminary analysis by experts from the European Union’s Joint Research Center. Several EU crops are being hit particularly hard, with the yield forecasts for corn 15% below the five-year average, the latest data show.
“With energy prices remaining elevated at least through this coming winter, any major shortfall in corn supplies will have devastating impact on food and feed sectors,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, a food market analyst and a former economist with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.
In China, historic drought has hit regions along the Yangtze River and the Sichuan basin, hurting rice crops, the country’s top food grain.
India’s rice planting has shrunk 8% this season due to a lack of rainfall in some areas. The government is discussing curbs on exports of so-called broken rice, which is mainly used for animal feed or to produce ethanol in India. Top buyers include China, which uses it mostly to nourish its livestock, and some African countries, which import the grain for food.
India accounts for about 40% of global rice trade and is the world’s biggest shipper.
‘This Climate Thing’
In the US, Nebraska farmer Randy Huls, a participant in the crop tour, is staring down a smaller corn harvest this year due to lack of rain. In the longer term, he’s concerned how changing weather patterns might impact the farm he leaves behind.
“They are predicting the Corn Belt to move north,” said Huls, 71, who raises corn, soybeans, wheat and hogs in southern Nebraska. “We could be a lot drier yet and that’s this climate change thing they are talking about.
“I doubt in my lifetime I’ll see that, but I always wonder about my son and especially my grandsons,” he added. “What are they going to see?”
(Adds food-price index in eighth paragraph. A previous version of this story was corrected to fix a reference to the Black Sea in the third paragraph.)
‘There’s simply not enough water’: Colorado River cutbacks ripple across Arizona
Debra Utacia Krol, Arizona Republic – August 23, 2022
A view of the Hoover Dam and the Colorado River.
Up and down the Colorado River last week, the state, local and tribal leaders in charge of water supplies for more than 40 million people waited to see if the federal government would impose deeper cuts to river allocations.
The Bureau of Reclamation had given states and tribes an Aug. 15 deadline to find ways to conserve 2 to 4 million more acre-feet of water to stabilize the drought-stricken river and its two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. Without such a plan, the bureau said, it would act.
The deadline passed with no agreement in place.
And on Tuesday, the government presented its 2023 water forecasts and said based on projected water levels at the two reservoirs, it would institute the next level of water reductions already agreed upon by the seven states and 30 federally recognized tribes within the Colorado River basin. The Drought Contingency Plan outlines specific steps Reclamation would take if the river flows continue to decline.
The next round of cuts to the three lower basin states and Mexico means that Arizona will have to do with 21% less water than in previous years. Nevada lost 8% of its delivery and Mexico’s allocation was reduced by 7%. The only lower basin state to be spared cuts is California, which holds senior rights to the river.
The bureau did not impose the deeper cuts as some had anticipated. Instead, Interior Department officials said talks would continue to come up with additional reductions as needed. The agency noted that the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act included $4 billion in money to address drought.
Few people were entirely satisfied with the government’s announcement, but one stakeholder went further than the others in expressing disappointment, introducing a new wrinkle in talks among the river’s water users.
The Gila River Indian Community said it would no longer voluntarily leave part of its Colorado River allocation in Lake Mead, an arrangement that helped Arizona meet the requirements of a regional agreement last year. Instead, tribal officials said in a statement Tuesday, Gila River would return to banking its water.
Tribes, agencies upset
In December 2021, the Gila River Indian Community and the Colorado River Indian Tribes signed onto an agreement to leave a combined 179,000 acre-feet of their river allotment in Lake Mead as a way to prop up the reservoir.
The agreement was part of a larger pact by several states and water districts to conserve 500,000 acre-feet per year in Lake Mead, where water levels were dropping rapidly. The pact was in addition to other conservation measures and was known as the 500+ plan.
The initiative was a pledge by the Interior Department as well as water agencies and tribes in the three Lower Basin states and stretched through 2023. The two tribes’ contributions made Arizona’s contribution to the effort possible.
Hoover Dam (top right) and Lake Mead on May 11, 2021, on the Arizona and Nevada border. A high-water mark or bathtub ring is visible on the shoreline. Lake Mead is down 152 vertical feet.
The Arizona Department of Water Resources committed up to $40 million to the plan over its two-year period, while the Central Arizona Project, the Metropolitan Water District in California and the Southern Nevada Water Authority each ponied up $20 million. The federal government matched those contributions for a $200 million pool to fund fallowing fields and other conservation measures.
But the failure to move forward on a longer term plan to firm up water supplies didn’t sit well with Gila River.
“The Community has been shocked and disappointed to see the complete lack of progress in reaching the kind of cooperative basin-wide plan necessary to save the Colorado River system,” said Gila River Governor Stephen Roe Lewis.
“We are aware that this approach will have a very significant impact on the ability of the State of Arizona to make any meaningful commitment to water reductions in the basin state discussions,” Lewis said, “but we cannot continue to put the interests of all others above our own when no other parties seem committed to the common goal of a cooperative basin-wide agreement.”
“What has been a slow-moving train wreck for twenty years is accelerating and our moment of reckoning is near.” Entsminger wrote. “The unreasonable expectations of water users, including the prices and drought profiteering proposals, only divide common goals and interests.”
Entsminger also outlined several steps the states, tribes and water agencies could take to minimize their use of Colorado River water, including agricultural efficiency enhancement, removing lawns, investing in water reuse, recycling and desalination programs and habitat restoration.
“We appreciate the support of Governor Lewis and the Gila River Indian Community for the recommended actions Nevada has put forth,” Entsminger said in an emailed statement. “Nevada stands ready to work with any partners who seek solutions based upon real world, equitable and sound scientific principles to the monumental challenges facing the Colorado River.”
In Arizona, officials looked for ways to repair the rift.
“The Gila River Indian Community has a been a big part of the positive actions Arizona has taken to protect Lake Mead in recent years,” the Central Arizona Project said in an emailed statement.
The agency praised the tribe for their work to develop the Drought Contingency Plan and in conserving water.
“We are understanding of the Community’s position that others need to be part of the Colorado River solution,” the CAP statement said. “We are hopeful that if a broader plan for taking action comes together that Arizona can support, the Community will choose to participate along with other Arizona water users.”
The Arizona Department of Water Resources declined comment on the statement.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes said it would continue to make water available for conservation through 2023.
“The Colorado River Indian Tribes are also development a multiyear farming and fallowing plan that includes additional conservation measures to be implement during 2023 and for many years thereafter,” said CRIT Chairwoman Amelia Flores.
Other water agencies and elected officials said they would continue to work with Reclamation to develop a longer-term plan to stabilize the reservoirs and assure at least some water would continue to flow.
Phoenix officials said in an emailed statement that although their water customers would not be affected by the cuts, the lack of action by federal officials was “disappointing.” The city gave up 23% of its river allocation to stabilize Lake Mead and support Pinal County farmers who lost river water when the first round of cuts was announced a year ago, the statement said.
The city is acting to ensure water deliveries and reduce dependence on the Colorado, officials said. A $300 million pipeline will move water to North Phoenix, which currently relies on the Colorado River for water. Phoenix is also restoring ecosystems in the Salt River, which provides 60% of the city’s water, the statement said. And, the city is beefing up infrastructure.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., said she would work with her newly-created water advisory council, state stakeholders and neighboring states to ensure a secure water future.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis (Gila River Indian Community) talk during the Water Advisory Council meeting, Aug. 8, 2022, in the Hoover Dam Spillway House, 75 Hoover Dam Access Road, Boulder City, Nevada.
“Arizona’s future depends on the strength and resiliency of our water supply,” she said via a spokesperson. “As the West continues experiencing historic drought, Arizona has led the way identifying short and long term solutions while shouldering a disproportionate share of this crisis.”
Sinema said that $13 billion had been secured for drought resiliency funding over the past year through several bills including the most recent act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and other legislation.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., wrote the Interior Department last week calling for the agency to outline its options to implement mitigation actions to prevent “drastic consequences for Arizona and other Colorado Basin states.” If the reservoirs’ levels continue to drop, those consequences could include the loss of hydropower generation and even to deadpool conditions, where no water would flow out of Lake Mead.
“In 2022 alone, Arizona farmers, cities, and tribes have pledged resources to conserve over 800,000 acre-feet of water — an amount equal to nearly one-third of our state’s full allocation,” Kelly said in the letter. He added that Arizona has offered to put more “wet” water on the table to be conserved than other states.
At least one congressman also called for more action from the federal government.
“The Colorado River is in crisis, and talks among basin states to fairly spread the pain of much-needed cutbacks are going nowhere,” said Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz.. “The federal government must play a stronger role. I’m urging the Administration to take immediate action to avoid catastrophe.”
Stanton said in a letter to President Joe Biden that the cuts announced Aug. 16 were already mandated by the Drought Contingency Plan, while in June, Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said that unless another 2 to 4 million acre-feet were cut, the government would take action.
“Yesterday’s announcement proved that commitment hollow,” Stanton wrote.
One of the largest single water users on the river said it was ready to collaborate on further solutions. The Imperial Irrigation District in southern California manages an allocation of 3.1 million acre-feet, including pass through water, larger than Arizona’s entire Colorado River allocation of 2.8 million acre-feet.
Since 2003, the utility has conserved more than 7 million acre-feet of water according to an Aug. 16 statement. The district said it would work to conserve water and to help restore the Salton Sea, which has declined rapidly in recent years as the utility slashed agricultural runoff that fed the lake.
A view of the Colorado River as it flows through the Colorado River Indian Tribes’ Ahakhav Tribal Preserve in Parker on Nov. 13, 2021.
At least one water expert said he doesn’t believe the situation will improve in a year.
“The Colorado River is going to continue to decline,” said David Feldman, a professor at the University of California, Irvine and director of Water UCI, an institute that studies water problems facing the nation and the world.
He said many of the problems that have arisen from the plunging levels of Lake Mead and Lake Powell will be ongoing.
“So you have to start from the baseline that is simply not going to be any more surface water available from this point forward, at least not for the foreseeable future,” Feldman said. “The next steps, I believe, should be that each state should figure out a way to get user groups, local governments, water agencies, irrigation districts together in conversations about how they would negotiate targets for prescribed cutbacks based on water availability figures.”
Feldman said he understands Gila River’s stance.
“The drought did not cause the angst of tribal nations towards allocation agreements,” he said, but the drought has exacerbated it. “The tribes have been frustrated. The Navajo Nation, Hopi, others have been concerned for decades now about water allocation agreements on the Colorado and its tributaries.”
He also said the West is still not quite at the point to have a serious conversation about the future of water, “about our children and our children’s children.” Feldman said that if, as many forecasts predict, climate change is permanent and not just cyclical, water officials will need to plan far ahead.
“What are we going to do about the the water and the water needs and how are we going to plan to aggressively conserve?”
Strategies from recycling and reuse to landscaping all need to be on the table, he said, since outdoor irrigation accounts for one-third to one-half of urban water use. But just reducing urban outdoor use won’t be enough to address the shortages to come.
He also disputed some assertions that cities shouldn’t exist in arid lands. “The Mesopotamians did okay,” Feldman said, as well as the Huhugam in the Salt River Valley. Living in the desert, or having a lot of people, doesn’t by itself cause the problem, he said. “It’s how we live in that environment.”
Feldman pointed out that other arid parts of the world have done well, including Israel. “The Israelis have really become very savvy in the sense of not only developing the technologies, but then realizing there’s a market for it,” he said.
“We can live in a water scarce environment without sacrificing our quality of life,” Feldman said. “But we have to take it seriously.”
Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West.
Coverage of Indigenous issues at the intersection of climate, culture and commerce is supported by the Catena Foundation.
Chinese farmers struggle as scorching drought wilts crops
Mark Schiefelbein – August 20, 2022
Gan Bingdong uses a hose to water plants near a dying chili pepper plant at his farm in Longquan village in southwestern China’s Chongqing Municipality, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022. Drought conditions across a swathe of China from the densely populated east across central farming provinces into eastern Tibet have “significantly increased,” the national weather agency said Saturday. The forecast called for no rain and high temperatures for at least three more days from Jiangsu and Anhui provinces northwest of Shanghai, through Chongqing and Sichuan in the southwest to the eastern part of Tibet. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)Gan Bingdong walks through the basin of a community reservoir near his farm that ran nearly empty after its retaining wall started to leak and hot weather and drought conditions accelerated the loss of water, in Longquan village in southwestern China’s Chongqing Municipality, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022. Drought conditions across a swathe of China from the densely populated east across central farming provinces into eastern Tibet have “significantly increased,” the national weather agency said Saturday. The forecast called for no rain and high temperatures for at least three more days from Jiangsu and Anhui provinces northwest of Shanghai, through Chongqing and Sichuan in the southwest to the eastern part of Tibet. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) In this aerial photo, a community reservoir that ran nearly empty after its retaining wall started to leak and hot weather and drought conditions accelerated the loss of water is seen in Longquan village in southwestern China’s Chongqing Municipality, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022. Drought conditions across a swathe of China from the densely populated east across central farming provinces into eastern Tibet have “significantly increased,” the national weather agency said Saturday. The forecast called for no rain and high temperatures for at least three more days from Jiangsu and Anhui provinces northwest of Shanghai, through Chongqing and Sichuan in the southwest to the eastern part of Tibet. (AP Photo/Olivia Zhang)
LONGQUAN, China (AP) — Hundreds of persimmon trees that should be loaded with yellow fruit lie wilted in Gan Bingdong’s greenhouse in southwestern China, adding to mounting farm losses in a scorching summer that is the country’s driest in six decades.
Gan’s surviving eggplants are no bigger than strawberries. A reservoir beside his farm has run dry, forcing him to pump groundwater.
“This year’s high temperatures are very annoying,” Gan said.
Drought conditions across a swath of China from the densely populated east across central farming provinces into eastern Tibet have “significantly increased,” the national weather agency said Saturday.
The forecast called for high temperatures and no rain for at least three more days from Jiangsu and Anhui provinces northwest of Shanghai, through Chongqing and Sichuan provinces to the east of Tibet.
Local authorities were ordered to “use all available water sources” to supply households and livestock, the weather agency said.
The biggest impact is in Sichuan, where factories have been shut down and offices and shopping malls told to turn off air-conditioning after reservoirs to generate hydropower fell to half their normal levels.
The province of 94 million people gets 80% of its electricity from hydropower dams.
Factories that make processor chips for smartphones, auto components, solar panels and other industrial goods were shut down for at least six days through Saturday. Some say output will be depressed while others say supplies to customers are unaffected.
The shutdowns add to challenges for the ruling Communist Party as President Xi Jinping, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, prepares to try to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as leader at a meeting in October or November.
Growth in factory output and retail sales weakened in July, setting back China’s economic recovery after Shanghai and other industrial centers were shut down starting in late March to fight virus outbreaks.
The economy grew by just 2.5% over a year earlier in the first half of 2022, less than half the official annual goal of 5.5%.
State-run utilities are shifting power to Sichuan from other provinces. Authorities used fire trucks to deliver water to two dry villages near Chongqing.
In Hubei province, east of Chongqing, 220,000 people needed drinking water, while 6.9 million hectares (17 million acres) of crops were damaged, the provincial government said Saturday. It declared a drought emergency and released disaster aid.
In Sichuan, 47,000 hectares (116,000 acres) of crops have been lost and 433,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) damaged, the provincial disaster committee said Saturday. It said 819,000 people faced a shortage of drinking water.
Authorities in Chongqing say an estimated 1 million people in rural areas will face drinking water shortages, the Shanghai news outlet The Paper reported.
Gan, the farmer south of Chongqing, said he has lost one-third of his persimmon plants.
Farmers in the area usually harvest rice in late August or September but plan to finish at least two weeks early before plants die, according to Gan.
A community reservoir beside Gan’s farm is nearly empty, leaving a pool surrounded by cracked earth. After supply canals ran dry, it sprang a leak and heat accelerated evaporation. Gan is pumping underground water for irrigation.
“If the high temperature comes every year, we will have to find a solution such as to build up nets, daily irrigation or to install a spray system to reduce the loss,” Gan said.
Flooding in the northwestern province of Qinghai killed at least 23 people and left eight missing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing local authorities.
Mudslides and overflowing rivers late Thursday hit six villages in Qinghai’s Datong county, the report said. Some 1,500 people were forced out of their homes.
Northeastern farmers face new challenges with severe drought
Jennifer McDermott – August 14, 2022
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Vermont farmer Brian Kemp is used to seeing the pastures at Mountain Meadows Farm grow slower in the hot, late summer, but this year the grass is at a standstill.
That’s “very nerve-wracking” when you’re grazing 600 to 700 cattle, said Kemp, who manages an organic beef farm in Sudbury. He describes the weather lately as inconsistent and impactful, which he attributes to a changing climate.
“I don’t think there is any normal anymore,” Kemp said.
The impacts of climate change have been felt throughout the Northeastern U.S. with rising sea levels, heavy precipitation and storm surges causing flooding and coastal erosion. But this summer has brought another extreme: a severe drought that is making lawns crispy and has farmers begging for steady rain. The heavy, short rainfall brought by the occasional thunderstorm tends to run off, not soak into the ground.
Water supplies are low or dry, and many communities are restricting nonessential outdoor water use. Fire departments are combatting more brush fires and crops are growing poorly.
Providence, Rhode Island had less than half an inch of rainfall in the third driest July on record, and Boston had six-tenths of an inch in the fourth driest July on record, according to the National Weather Service office in Norton, Massachusetts. Rhode Island’s governor issued a statewide drought advisory Tuesday with recommendations to reduce water use. The north end of the Hoppin Hill Reservoir in Massachusetts is dry, forcing local water restrictions.
Officials in Maine said drought conditions really began there in 2020, with occasional improvements in areas since. In Auburn, Maine, local firefighters helped a dairy farmer fill a water tank for his cows when his well went too low in late July and temperatures hit 90. About 50 dry wells have been reported to the state since 2021, according to the state’s dry well survey.
The continuing trend toward drier summers in the Northeast can certainly be attributed to the impact of climate change, since warmer temperatures lead to greater evaporation and drying of soils, climate scientist Michael Mann said. But, he said, the dry weather can be punctuated by extreme rainfall events since a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture — when conditions are conducive to rainfall, there’s more of it in short bursts.
Mann said there’s evidence shown by his research at Penn State University that climate change is leading to a “stuck jet stream” pattern. That means huge meanders of the jet stream, or air current, get stuck in place, locking in extreme weather events that can alternately be associated with extreme heat and drought in one location and extreme rainfall in another, a pattern that has played out this summer with the heat and drought in the Northeast and extreme flooding in parts of the Midwest, Mann added.
Most of New England is experiencing drought. The U.S. Drought Monitor issued a new map Thursday that shows areas of eastern Massachusetts outside Cape Cod and much of southern and eastern Rhode Island now in extreme, instead of severe, drought.
New England has experienced severe summer droughts before, but experts say it is unusual to have droughts in fairly quick succession since 2016. Massachusetts experienced droughts in 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2022, which is very likely due to climate change, said Vandana Rao, director of water policy in Massachusetts.
“We hope this is maybe one period of peaking of drought and we get back to many more years of normal precipitation,” she said. “But it could just be the beginning of a longer trend.”
Rao and other water experts in New England expect the current drought to last for several more months.
“I think we’re probably going to be in this for a while and it’s going to take a lot,” said Ted Diers, assistant director of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services water division. “What we really are hoping for is a wet fall followed by a very snowy winter to really recharge the aquifers and the groundwater.”
Rhode Island’s principal forest ranger, Ben Arnold, is worried about the drought extending into the fall. That’s when people do more yardwork, burn brush, use fireplaces and spend time in the woods, increasing the risk of forest fires. The fires this summer have been relatively small, but it takes a lot of time and effort to extinguish them because they are burning into the dry ground, Arnold said.
Hay farmer Milan Adams said one of the fields he’s tilling in Exeter, Rhode Island, is powder a foot down. In prior years it rained in the spring. This year, he said, the dryness started in March, and April was so dry he was nervous about his first cut of hay.
“The height of the hay was there, but there was no volume to it. From there, we got a little bit of rain in the beginning of May that kind of shot it up,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything since.”
Farmers are fighting more than the drought — inflation is driving up the cost of everything, from diesel and equipment parts to fertilizer and pesticides, Adams added.
“It’s all through the roof right now,” he said. “This is just throwing salt on a wound.”
The yield and quality of hay is down in Vermont too, which means there won’t be as much for cows in the winter, said Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts. The state has roughly 600 dairy farms, a $2 billion per year industry. Like Adams, Tebbetts said inflation is driving up prices, which will hurt the farmers who will have to buy feed.
Kemp, the president of the Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition, is thankful to have supplemental feed from last year, but he knows other farmers who don’t have land to put together a reserve and aren’t well-stocked. The coalition is trying to help farmers evolve and learn new practices. They added “climate-smart farming” to their mission statement in the spring.
“Farming is challenging,” Kemp said, “and it’s becoming even more challenging as climate change takes place.”
Tourist boats marooned, farm land parched as drought lowers Europe’s rivers
Denis Balibouse – August 9, 2022
Drought affected Doubs river in Arcon
VILLERS-LE-LAC, France (Reuters) – Business for Francoise Droz-Bartholet has reduced to a trickle, just like stretches of the Doubs River straddling the French-Swiss border that her cruise boats usually ply.
Water levels in rivers, lakes and reservoirs across western Europe are running low, or even dry, amid the severest drought in decades which is putting stress on drinking water supplies, hampering river freight and tourism and threatening crop yields.
The Doubs river should coarse through a forested canyon and cascade over waterfalls before spilling out into Brenets Lake, a draw for tourists in eastern France’s Jura region. After months without meaningful rain, the river water has receded up the canyon and sluggishly reaches the lake in a narrow channel.
“We hope this drought is an exception to the rule,” said Droz-Bartholet, whose bookings are 20% lower than usual for the time of year.
She now has to bus clients along the gorge to a starting point further upstream to a point in the river where there is enough water for her cruise boats to navigate.
Asked how his boat tour had gone, holidaymaker Alain Foubert said simply: “It was a lot shorter than normal.”
Conditions have deteriorated across Europe as multiple heatwaves roll across the continent.
In Spain, farmers in the south fear a harsh drought may reduce olive oil output by nearly a third in the world’s largest producer. In France, which like Spain has had to contend with recent wildfires, trucks are delivering water to dozens of villages without water.
In Germany, cargo vessels cannot sail fully loaded along the Rhine, a major artery for freight, and along Italy’s longest river, the Po, large sandbanks now bake in the sun as water levels recede sharply. In July, Italy declared a state of emergency for areas surrounding the Po, which accounts for more than a third of the country’s agricultural production.
As France contends with a fourth heatwave this week, many scientists say the blistering temperatures so far this summer are line with the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather episodes in Europe.
Britain’s weather service on Tuesday issued an amber “Extreme Heat” warning for parts of England and Wales, with no respite in sight from hot dry conditions that have sparked fires, broken temperature records and strained the nation’s infrastructure.
On the Doubs River, fewer boat tourists means fewer meals to serve for restaurateur Christophe Vallier – a painful blow just as he hoped to recover from the COVID-19 downturn. And he sees little cause for hope in the future.
“All the Doubs experts say the river is getting drier and drier,” Vallier lamented.
(Reporting by Denis Balibouse; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Susan Fenton)
‘Biblical’ insect swarms spur Oregon push to fight pests
CLAIRE RUSH – June 26, 2022
April Aamodt holds a Mormon cricket that she found in Blalock Canyon near Arlington, Ore. on Friday, June 17, 2022, while OSU Extension Agent Jordan Maley, far right, looks at more of the insects on the road. Both are involved in local outreach for Mormon cricket surveying. (AP Photo/Claire Rush)In this photo provided by rancher Diana Fillmore, grasshoppers swarm around the dog of rancher Diana Fillmore on her land in Arock, Ore., on July 6, 2021. Growing grasshopper outbreaks in recent years have slammed ranchers and farmers across parts of southern and eastern Oregon.. Farmers in Oregon already battling extreme drought and low water supplies are bracing for another grasshopper and Mormon cricket infestation. Severe outbreaks in recent years, fueled by drier, warmer conditions, have wreaked havoc. (Diana Fillmore via AP)In this August 2021 photo provided by rancher Diana Fillmore, Grasshoppers feed on rancher Diana Fillmore’s land in Arock, Ore. Farmers in Oregon already battling extreme drought and low water supplies are bracing for another grasshopper and Mormon cricket infestation. Severe outbreaks in recent years, fueled by drier, warmer conditions, have wreaked havoc. (Diana Fillmore via AP)In this August 2021 photo provided by rancher Diana Fillmore, Grasshoppers feed on vegetation on rancher Diana Fillmore’s land in Arock, Ore. Farmers in Oregon already battling extreme drought and low water supplies are bracing for another grasshopper and Mormon cricket infestation. Severe outbreaks in recent years, fueled by drier, warmer conditions, have wreaked havoc. (Diana Fillmore via AP)In this photo provided by rancher Diana Fillmore, grasshoppers cover rabbit brush that they’ve eaten bare on rancher Diana Fillmore’s land in Arock, Ore., on July 15, 2021. Farmers in Oregon already battling extreme drought and low water supplies are bracing for another grasshopper and Mormon cricket infestation. Severe outbreaks in recent years, fueled by drier, warmer conditions, have wreaked havoc. (Diana Fillmore via AP)
ARLINGTON, Ore. (AP) — Driving down a windy canyon road in northern Oregon rangeland, Jordan Maley and April Aamodt are on the look out for Mormon crickets, giant insects that can ravage crops.
“There’s one right there,” Aamodt says.
They’re not hard to spot. The insects, which can grow larger than 2 inches (5 centimeters), blot the asphalt.
Mormon crickets are not new to Oregon. Native to western North America, their name dates back to the 1800s, when they ruined the fields of Mormon settlers in Utah. But amidst drought and warming temperatures — conditions favored by the insects — outbreaks across the West have worsened.
The Oregon Legislature last year allocated $5 million to assess the problem and set up a Mormon cricket and grasshopper “suppression” program. An additional $1.2 million for the program was approved earlier this month.
It’s part of a larger effort by state and federal authorities in the U.S. West to deal with an explosion of grasshoppers and Mormon crickets that has hit from Montana to Nevada. But some environmental groups oppose the programs, which rely on the aerial spraying of pesticides across large swaths of land.
Maley, an Oregon State University Extension Agent, and Aamodt, a resident of the small Columbia River town of Arlington, are both involved in Mormon cricket outreach and surveying efforts in the area.
Video: Mormon crickets invade Idaho village
Mormon crickets have invaded the Village of Murphy in Owyhee County
In 2017, Arlington saw its largest Mormon cricket outbreak since the 1940s. The roads were “greasy” with the squashed entrails of the huge insects, which damaged nearby wheat crops.
Rancher Skye Krebs said the outbreaks have been “truly biblical.”
“On the highways, once you get them killed, then the rest of them come,” he explained. Mormon crickets are cannibalistic and will feast on each other, dead or alive, if not satiated with protein.
The insects, which are not true crickets but shield-backed katydids, are flightless. But they can travel at least a quarter of a mile in a day, according to Maley.
Aamodt fought the 2017 outbreak with what she had on hand.
“I got the lawnmower out and I started mowing them and killing them,” she said. “I took a straight hoe and I’d stab them.”
Aamodt has organized volunteers to tackle the infestation and earned the nickname “cricket queen.”
Another infestation last year had local officials “scrambling,” Maley said.
“We had all those high-value crops and irrigation circles,” he explained. “We just had to do what we could to keep them from getting into that.”
In 2021 alone, Oregon agricultural officials estimate 10 million acres of rangeland in 18 counties were damaged by grasshoppers and Mormon crickets.
Under the new Oregon initiative, private landowners like farmers and ranchers can request the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) survey their land. If ODA finds more than three Mormon crickets or eight grasshoppers per square yard it will recommend chemical treatment. In some areas near Arlington surveyed in May soon after the hatch there were 201 Mormon crickets per square yard.
State officials recommend the aerial application of diflubenzuron. The insecticide works by inhibiting development, preventing nymphs from growing into adults. Landowners can be reimbursed for up to 75% of the cost.
Diana Fillmore is a rancher participating in the new cost-sharing initiative. She says “the ground is just crawling with grasshoppers” on her property.
ODA recommended she treat her 988-acre ranch in Arock in southeastern Oregon. As the program’s protocol calls for applying insecticide to only half the proposed area, alternately targeting swaths then skipping the next one, this means nearly 500 acres of her land will actually be sprayed.
Fillmore decided to act, remembering last year’s damage.
“It was horrible,” Fillmore said. “Grasshoppers just totally wiped out some of our fields.” She was forced to spend $45,000 on hay she normally wouldn’t have to buy.
Todd Adams, an entomologist and ODA’s Eastern Oregon field office and grasshopper program coordinator, said as of mid-June ODA had received 122 survey requests and sent out 31 treatment recommendations for roughly 40,000 acres (16,187 hectares).
Landowners must act quickly if they decide to spray diflubenzuron as it is only effective against nymphs.
“Once they become adults it’s too late,” Adams said.
Oregon’s new program is geared toward private landowners. But the federal government owns more than half of Oregon’s total land, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has its own program for outbreaks on Western public land.
The U.S. government’s grasshopper suppression program dates back to the 1930s, and USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has sprayed millions of acres with pesticides to control outbreaks since the 1980s.
APHIS National Policy Director William Wesela said the agency sprayed 807,000 acres (326,581 hectares) of rangeland across seven Western states in 2021. So far this year, it has received requests for treatment in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada and Arizona, according to Jake Bodart, its State Plant Health Director for Oregon.
In a 2019 risk assessment APHIS recognized the main insecticide used, diflubenzuron, remains “a restricted use pesticide due to its toxicity to aquatic invertebrates,” but said risks are low.
APHIS says it follows methods to reduce concerns. It instructs pesticide applicators to skip swaths and apply the insecticide at lower rates than listed on the label.
But environmental groups oppose the program. Last month, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) sued APHIS in the U.S. District Court in Portland. In their filing, they accuse APHIS of harming rangeland ecosystems and not adequately informing the public about treatment areas.
They also allege the agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not assessing all the alternatives to pesticides or analyzing the cumulative effects of the program.
Federal officials declined to comment on the suit because it is pending before courts.
Environmentalists say the reduction of grasshoppers diminishes the food source of other wildlife that prey on them.
“We’re very concerned about the impact of these broad, large sprays to our grassland and rangeland ecosystems,” said Sharon Selvaggio, the Xerces Society’s Pesticide Program Specialist.
Selvaggio added the sprays can be “toxic to a wide variety of insects” beyond grasshoppers and Mormon crickets, expressing particular concern for pollinators such as bees.
The two environmental groups want the agency to adopt a more holistic approach to pest management, by exploring methods such as rotational grazing.
“We’re not trying to stop APHIS from ever using pesticides again,” said Andrew Missel, staff attorney at Advocates for the West, the nonprofit law firm that filed the suit. “The point is really to reform” the program, he added.
In Arlington, the “cricket queen” Aamodt said residents had experimented with pesticide alternatives. During 2017, some covered trees in duct tape to trap the insects. The following year, local officials brought in goats to graze hillsides.
For now, those fighting against future infestations hope the new state program will bring much-needed support.
“Keep in mind that these are people that are taking time out from their own lives to do this,” said OSU Extension Agent Maley. “The volunteers made a huge difference.”
Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
EPA finds no safe level for two toxic ‘forever chemicals,’ found in many U.S. water systems
Kyle Bagenstose, USA TODAY – June 17, 2022
The Environmental Protection Agency stunned scientists and local officials across the country on Wednesday by releasing new health advisories for toxic “forever chemicals” known to be in thousands of U.S. drinking water systems, impacting potentially millions of people.
The new advisories cut the safe level of chemical PFOA by more than 17,000 times what the agency had previously said was protective of public health, to now just four “parts per quadrillion.” The safe level of a sister chemical, PFOS, was reduced by a factor of 3,500. The chemicals are part of a class of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals due to their extreme resistance to disintegration. They have been linked to different types of cancer, low birthweights, thyroid disease and other health ailments.
In effect, the agency now says, any detectable amounts of PFOA and PFOS are unsafe to consume.
The announcement has massive implications for water utilities, towns, and Americans across the country.
The Environmental Working Group, a national environmental nonprofit, has tracked the presence of PFOA, PFOS, and other PFAS chemicals in drinking water. Because the chemicals are not yet officially regulated, water systems are not required to test for them. But their use for decades in a range of products such as Teflon and other nonstick cookware, clothing, food packaging, furniture, and numerous industrial processes, means they are widespread in both the environment and drinking water.
Scott Faber, senior vice president with the group, said this week that at least 1,943 public water supplies across the country have been found to contain some amount of PFOS and PFOA. And there are likely many more that contain the chemicals but haven’t tested, Faber said, potentially placing many millions of Americans in harm’s way.
“This will set off alarm bells for consumers, for regulators, and for manufacturers, who thought the previous (advisories) were safe,” Faber said. “I can’t find the words to explain what kind of a moment this is. … The number of people drinking what are, according to these new numbers, unsafe levels of PFAS, is going to grow astronomically.”
Hundreds of barrels of dirt sample collected from a former Wolverine World Wide tannery site in Rockford, March 1, 2019.
Previous research has found Americans have already faced widespread exposure to the chemicals for decades.
More than 96% of Americans have at least one PFAS in their blood, studies show. Dangers are most studied for PFOA and PFOS, which were used heavily in consumer goods before a voluntary agreement between the EPA and industry phased them out of domestic production in the 2000s. Since then, the amount of PFOA and PFOS in the blood of everyday Americans has fallen, but scientists are now concerned about a newer generation of “replacement” chemicals that some studies show are also toxic.
Indeed, EPA on Wednesday released two additional, first-time health advisories for PFAS chemicals GenX, which has contaminated communities along the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, as well as PFBS.
For years, scientists have grown increasingly concerned about how the entire class of chemicals, which number in the thousands, may be impacting public health in the United States. In highly contaminated communities like Parkersburg, West Virginia, studies have linked PFOA to kidney and testicular cancers, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, and other serious ailments.
But other studies have found a range of PFAS may be toxic even at the extremely low levels found in the general population, potentially impacting the immune system, birth weights, cholesterol levels, and even cancer risk.
Philippe Grandjean, a PFAS researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who has called for extremely protective limits on PFAS, said the chemicals don’t have acute toxicity. Consumers shouldn’t expect to fall instantly ill from consuming amounts common in drinking water.
Instead, PFAS work in the background, with risks building up over a lifetime of consumption. His work shows PFAS can decrease the immune response in children. They may come down with more infections than they would otherwise. Vaccinations aren’t as successful, an effect that may even extend to COVID-19 vaccination, a question research is now exploring.
No single individual is likely to know when PFAS caused their illness. But public health officials can detect its presence when studying overall rates, Grandjean said.
“If increased exposures have been in a community, then there will be an increased occurrence of these adverse effects,” Grandjean said.
Equipment used to test for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known collectively as PFAS, in drinking water is seen at Trident Laboratories in Holland, Michigan. As part of its attempt to clean up the chemical, the military is spending millions on research to better detect, understand and filter the chemicals.
Even with deep experience studying PFAS, a primary reaction among Grandjean and other experts to the EPA’s Wednesday announcement was surprise. The agency has grappled with how to handle PFAS for decades and has often been criticized for a perceived lack of action. The thorniest problem is the sheer scope of PFAS: regulating the substances, particularly at very low levels, has nationwide implications for water utilities, industry, and the public.
But the EPA under the Biden administration, Faber said, is signaling they are serious about moving in that direction.
“This administration has pledged to do more, and has accomplished more, than any other,” Faber said.
In releasing the new health advisories, EPA said they fit into a larger picture under the agency’s “Strategic Roadmap.” That includes an intention to propose a formal drinking water regulation for PFOS, PFOA, and potentially other chemicals this fall. The agency also says it is taking a holistic approach to PFAS, with measures planned to clean up contamination hotspots, address PFAS in consumer products, and offer support to impacted communities.
In a press release, the agency says it is making available the first $1 billion of a total of $5 billion in grant funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year to assist communities contaminated with PFAS. Another $6.6 billion is potentially available through existing loan programs for water and sewer utilities.
“People on the front lines of PFAS contamination have suffered for far too long,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in the release. “That’s why EPA is taking aggressive action as part of a whole-of-government approach to prevent these chemicals from entering the environment and to help protect concerned families from this pervasive challenge.”
PFAS foam floats along Van Etten Creek after being dumped from a storm pipe of water treated at a granular activated carbon GAC plant from the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda on Wednesday, March 13, 2019.
But the EPA is already receiving pushback from various corners.
The American Chemistry Council, an industry group representing many of the companies that use PFAS, said it believes the agency’s new advisories are “fundamentally flawed.”
“ACC supports the development of drinking water standards for PFAS based on the best available science. However, today’s announcement … reflects a failure of the agency to follow its accepted practice for ensuring the scientific integrity of its process,” the council said in a release.
Meanwhile, utilities remain skeptical the agency will ultimately do enough to tackle industry and other sources of pollution.
In 2016, Tim Hagey, general manager of the Warminster Municipal Authority in southeast Pennsylvania, came face to face with a nightmare for anyone tasked with providing safe drinking water to the public.
PFOA and PFOS — invisible, odorless, and dangerous — had slipped into the town’s water supply after leaking from nearby military bases. The discovery set off a years-long struggle in Warminster and neighboring communities, which decided to go beyond the EPA’s prior advisory and filter out the chemicals entirely. Hagey said they saw the writing on the wall.
“The EPA told us over the years that the more they study the chemicals, the uglier they are,” Hagey said. “Our local leaders had the courage to say, ‘We’re going to filter to zero.’”
Tim Hagey, left, general manager of Warminster Municipal Authority, speaks with residents during a public information session about water quality in Warminster. The meeting followed the announcement that public and private wells in Warminster (and nearby Horsham) were contaminated by two chemicals used when the Navy was operating the Naval Air Warfare Center.
But the decision was costly, adding up to tens of millions of dollars and requiring significant surcharges on customer water bills.
Hagey said the EPA’s new advisories are a “pleasant surprise” when it comes to protecting public health. But he’s frustrated that the Department of Defense has not yet addressed the contaminated groundwater beneath his town, contributing to ongoing cost fears.
“The aquifer has not been cleaned up. There needs to be leadership on that,” Hagey said.
Emily Remmel, director of regulatory affairs for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, which represents wastewater authorities, said water and sewer utilities across the country are facing similar dilemmas. In many ways, PFAS contamination is unprecedented. The chemicals are everywhere, and the EPA has now found they are dangerous at levels smaller than can even be detected.
“We can’t measure to these levels, we can’t treat to these levels,” Remmel said. “So how do you deal with this from a public health standpoint?”
Remmel said she’d also like to see EPA take more action to get rid of PFAS at the source. Often they come from everyday consumer products that people use and wash down the drain.
“Washing your clothes, washing your face, washing your dishes,” Remmel said.
The costs to remove and dispose of PFAS are astronomical. A filter on a single water well can cost $500,000. Remmel said while the new funding is helpful, it’s also just a “drop in the bucket” for what’s needed across the country.
Ultimately, costs will need to be passed onto water consumers, who have already seen rates rising steeply over the past decade as utilities have invested in other priorities such as replacing lead pipes and outdated sewer infrastructure. Remmel said she wants the EPA to do a better job engaging at the local level to assist with the public health and financial burdens PFAS create.
“This should not be on the backs of municipalities, of ratepayers,” Remmel said.
Kyle Bagenstose covers climate change, chemicals, water and other environmental topics for USA TODAY.
