The agency obtained research from 3M in 2003 revealing that sewage sludge, the raw material for the fertilizer, carried toxic “forever chemicals.”In early 2000, scientists at 3M, the chemicals giant, made a startling discovery: High levels of PFAS, the virtually indestructible “forever chemicals” used in nonstick pans, stain-resistant carpets and many other products were turning up in the nation’s sewage.The researchers were concerned. The data suggested that the toxic chemicals, made by 3M, were fast becoming ubiquitous in the environment. The company’s research had already linked exposure to birth defects, cancer and more.That sewage was being used as fertilizer on farmland nationwide, a practice encouraged by the Environmental Protection Agency. The presence of PFAS in the sewage meant those chemicals were being unwittingly spread on fields across the country.3M didn’t publish the research, but the company did share its findings with the E.P.A. at a 2003 meeting, according to 3M documents reviewed by the The New York Times. The research and the E.P.A.’s knowledge of it has not been previously reported.Today, the E.P.A. continues to promote sewage sludge as fertilizer and doesn’t require testing for PFAS, despite the fact that whistle-blowers, academics, state officials and the agency’s internal studies over the years have also raised contamination concerns.“These are highly complex mixtures of chemicals,” said David Lewis, a former E.P.A. microbiologist who in the late 1990s issued early warnings of the risks in spreading sludge on farmland. The soil “becomes essentially permanently contaminated,” he said in a recent interview from his home in Georgia.The concerns raised by Dr. Lewis and others went unheeded at the time.The country is starting to wake up to the consequences. PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, has been detected in sewage sludge, on land treated with sludge fertilizer across the country, and in milk and crops produced on contaminated soil. Only one state, Maine, has started to systematically test its farms for PFAS. Maine has also banned the use of sludge on its fields.Read More
The San Rafael Democrat said it was “the honor of my lifetime” to lead House Democrats on the panel, where he’s vowed to fight Trump’s rollback of President Biden’s environmental policies.Rep. Jared Huffman won an important victory Tuesday, earning support from fellow House Democrats to lead their caucus on the powerful panel where many of the most pitched environmental battles with the incoming Trump administration are expected to play out in Congress.The incoming president and his allies have made no secret of their determination to undo many of the advances on climate action and other environmental safeguards put in place under President Joe Biden.As Democrats’ newly named ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, which will remain under Republican control, Huffman is poised to use his position and extensive environmental chops to make that work difficult.“If we have a Trump administration, it’s all defense,” Huffman told The Press Democrat a week before the Nov. 5 election. “Defense of democracy and against all of the rotten policies they will try to advance.”Read More
The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District, the Port of Long Beach and the State Lands Commission announced an offshore wind agreement.The nine-page agreement puts into ink a commitment to generally work together to develop offshore wind power and the associated port facilities in California. The agreement touts the need for responsible development and the positive attributes of renewable energy and reinvestments at the ports.“This is about giving people a voice, the ability for people to want to invest because they can see that it’s a project that the people believe in and that the people want. There’s no better signal to investors than that,” he said.The deal includes commitments like aligning development and permitting of the ports, community engagement and workforce development. At previous harbor district meetings, the port in Long Beach was sometimes seen closer to a competitor — a purportedly better-funded and more developed port that could compete with Humboldt Bay as a hub for offshore wind turbines.Read More
California has accelerated its pace of reducing emissions in recent years, putting the state’s aggressive climate goals within grasping distance, according to a new report.Still, report authors warned that some of the biggest gains are in sectors that are vulnerable to backsliding under the incoming Donald Trump administration. They also said California will have to accelerate the pace even further to reach the goal of cutting planet-warming emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.The annual report, published Thursday by nonprofit Next 10, found that total emissions fell by 2.4% from 2021 to 2022, which is the most recent year of data assessed.“California’s progress in cutting emissions is accelerating,” Next 10 founder F. Noel Perry said. “We’re seeing real-time proof that the state’s climate policies are working.”In recent years, state emissions were at their lowest in 2020, when much of California came to a standstill amid COVID-19 restrictions. While 2022 numbers did not reach that low, they moved close to it and were just 0.8% higher than they were in 2020.Keep Reading
Humboldt Bay supplies the entire West Coast with an outsized number of oyster seeds, making it arguably the most important place in California for oyster production. Climate change could threaten that.Warming waters — under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 projection, Humboldt Bay is expected to heat up by an average of 3 degrees Celsius over the next 70 years — introduce new disease vectors that could wreak havoc on local oyster farmers, but their concerns are more immediate. As Eureka and Arcata become increasingly developed and the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District builds an offshore wind terminal, oyster companies are wary of the potential impacts on water quality and plankton productivity.“We’re all for wind development, but there are environmental changes, associated dredging and other changes that are going to be associated with that project. There’s just still a lot of questions about what those impacts will be,” Gary Fleener, the science, education and policy director for Hog Island Farms, which has oyster nurseries and a farm in Humboldt Bay, said. “When I am referring to water quality, I want to make sure that it’s clear that I’m referring to it in the largest sense: water quality related to agricultural runoff, urbanization, and certainly development like shipping and wind energy.”Oyster production companies face a twofold issue: warmer waters induced by climate change could have catastrophic impacts on local farms but the offshore wind effort meant to combat climate change’s impacts presents several known and unknown impacts that could end up degrading local water quality.The harbor district is conducting several studies, including a measurement of the specific short-term water quality impacts of offshore wind terminal construction. Drafts of the studies should be made public by May 2025, Rob Holmlund, the harbor district’s development director, said.“I think it’s pretty safe to forecast that, in the long term, there won’t be impacts to water quality because of the project, but during the construction period, there’s dredging and there’s a water construction, but there are very tight regulations about turbidity, what you can do during construction and what you cannot do, and the times of year that you can do in-water construction,” Holmlund said. “Between all of the environmental regulations that already exist and our efforts to minimize water quality impacts, it’s not something I’m really worried about, but I do want to take the company’s concern seriously, so we’re doing extra studies.”Aquaculture companies operating in Humboldt Bay have been meeting with the harbor district every other month for roughly a year, which Holmlund said allowed the district to hear concerns and identify areas of improvement. One such concern, Holmlund said, was disease infiltrating the bay.Ostreid herpesvirus, a disease deadly enough to induce die-offs among oysters, was recently found in the warming ocean waters near San Diego. The disease thrives in water at about 15 degrees Celsius, which Humboldt Bay is expected to reach under the RCP 8.5 projection. In an April symposium, Northern Hydrology and Engineering civil engineer Jeff Anderson estimated that by 2095, the waters in Humboldt Bay will have heated from an average of 13 degrees Celsius to 16 degrees Celsius.If the disease emerges in Humboldt County, the farms might be hit hard, but oyster seed facilities — baby oysters grown in a hatchery resembling an aquarium — might fare better. Fleener said robust biosecurity measures at the hatcheries significantly alleviate his concerns about introducing disease vectors; measures taken because Humboldt County supports the entire West Coast with oyster seed.However, the existence of rules and regulations doesn’t mean slip-ups never happen. In early November, golden mussels — an invasive bivalve native to eastern Asia — were found in a reservoir near the Port of Stockton despite laws mandating inspections of ballast waters before they’re discharged into local waters.“Those regulations failed, so it just points to the need to do a much better job of considering how to limit that risk as we’re increasing vessel traffic related to the offshore wind industry,” Jen Kalt, executive director of Humboldt Waterkeeper, a local environmental advocacy group said.Given Humboldt Bay’s salinity — generally incompatible with the freshwater living requirements of golden mussels — Fleener said the area’s aquaculture companies are not particularly concerned about the species colonizing local waters.Washington state is the largest shellfish producer in the nation, but much of its seed is supplied by Humboldt Bay companies, which altogether sell about 10 million oysters per year and net $6 million in sales, according to harbor district estimates.Keep Reading
