[Above: giant storm drain that receives stormwater runoff from one of the most contaminated areas at Dane County Regional Airport and discharges it just west of Starkweather Creek. Photo-Maria Powell]
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A small consulting firm out of Verona, Orin Technologies [1], claims that it has done what no other scientists or engineers anywhere else in the world have done to date–break down or “biodegrade” high levels of PFAS by nearly 100% in the field, using microbes. This is earth-shattering news. PFAS are not “forever chemicals” after all! This should be in the New York Times.
According to this press release, “Dane County Regional Airport (DCRA) and the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs (DMA) have announced that the initial testing results of a pilot project to remediate the effects of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from a targeted affected area has demonstrated a removal rate averaging 99.597% at a downgradient testing well over the nine-month pilot study.”
Wow! This is huge. If true, this company will make untold amounts of money. As retired chemical engineer and long-time community environmental activist Mike Farin quipped upon hearing this news: “Can’t wait to see the patent application for this miracle treatment.”
And privileged, progressive Dane County, which loves to use public money to experiment with expensive, techno-fix solutions for its many significant environmental problems, is yet again touting itself as a leader and cutting-edge innovator. Airport director Kim Jones gushed, using a familiar Dane County trope: “Airports across the United States are all seeking solutions to combat this issue, and DCRA is proud to be on the leading edge of this innovative and promising technology.” The airport plans to try the technology on other parts of the airport and base.
Whether this “innovative and promising” technology actually works is apparently irrelevant.
“You kind of need to see the data” says PFAS expert. But, ahem…what data?
Jones said these “hopeful developments” are part of a “robust scientific process.”
“Science,” as most of us know, is supposed to be based on empirical evidence–in this case, data. But Chris Hubbuch’s excellent and amusing Wisconsin State Journal article on this big news featured two experts on PFAS who aren’t so wowed by these claims of “robust science,” especially without seeing data to back them up.
Environmental engineer Dr. Christy Remucal at University of Wisconsin Madison told Hubbuch “there’s little scientific evidence that biodegradation works on PFAS, whose strong molecular bonds make them difficult to break down and which tend to transform into other harmful substances.”
Controlled lab studies, she said, should be done before the technology is tested in the field. “You kind of need to see the data to see if that’s really happening.”
Yup. Indeed. You kind of need to see the data. Actually, you can delete “kind of,” especially when you are claiming to be following a “robust scientific process.” The problem is, Orin Technologies didn’t actually provide any data to support these bold claims–probably in part because their technologies are “proprietary,” even though we (people of Dane County) are paying for them to be tested for years in our public lands and waterways. Or maybe the data don’t really support their claims? Who knows.
Apparently the DNR hasn’t even seen the data. According to Hubbuch’s article, “Dane County Regional Airport spokesperson Michael Riechers said data would be released after it is presented to the state Department of Natural Resources, but did not say when that would happen.”
How much public money has been spent on the treatments so far? That information also wasn’t released.
Will these magical, miracle treatments create “something else that we have to worry about”?
Just as troubling, this is an experiment with unknown and possibly harmful environmental consequences. Northwestern University doctoral student Brittany Trang echoed Remucal in calling for more studies. “A reputable study,” Hubbuch wrote, paraphrasing her, “would account for what substances went in and what was recovered.”
“Show that it didn’t become something else that we have to worry about,” Trang said.
Right. What might “something else that we have to worry about” include? There are many possibilities to consider. When the miracle microbes break down longer chain compounds like PFOS and PFOA (assuming they do), what do they break down into? What about all the other PFAS compounds present at the airport and base, including the “fluorotelomer” compounds that largely replaced PFOS and PFOA in fire-fighting foams? (There are likely hundreds of PFAS compounds there besides PFOS and PFOA by now.) What volumes of miracle microbes (and other compounds included in the injections) would need to be injected to treat a PFAS plume the size of the one spreading from DCRA (which is still unknown, but must be assessed before designing any treatment approach)? What might happen to the mix of PFAS compounds in groundwater and soils when injected with these substances? How will they be transformed? How will the injections change their properties and their “environmental fate and transport” (where they move, how fast, etc.)?
The questions could go on and on…
PFAS aside, what happens when the miracle microbial mix is injected into soils and groundwater also contaminated with a complex mix of other toxic chemicals–like the Darwin burn pit which is not only contaminated with screaming high levels of many PFAS compounds, but also with perchloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), numerous toxic metals and petroleum compounds? What sort of toxic stew might be brewed up in the groundwater there? Will it be as or more harmful than what was there before? Will this toxic stew travel downstream, affecting the aquifer, surface waters, fish and wildlife?
Who knows? Perhaps Dane County could work with scientific experts to adequately study these questions before injecting these experimental substances into our environment? That would be a “robust scientific process.”
But Dane County has not even remotely fully characterized the range of chemicals in the soils and groundwater at the airport and burn pits and how far and wide they’ve traveled over decades (as required by state environmental laws, NR700). No, instead Dane County, military, city, and DNR officials have chosen to pretend none of these persistent chemicals (besides PFAS) are there anymore. They’ve repeatedly ignored MEJO’s questions about it. No testing has been done at the Darwin burn pit (other than PFAS, recently) since the late 1980s or early 1990s–and reports on that testing have disappeared.
By not testing for them, have these other regulated toxic chemicals magically gone away? No. But it’s comforting to believe they did, so we don’t need to worry about them anymore.
Voila! Problem solved. It’s a kind of magical thinking.
Who needs scientific data when you have “EcoMentality”?
But never mind any of these worries! You don’t need data when you have “EcoMentality” (along with a good dose of magical thinking). The press release explains: “Dane County Regional Airport’s ongoing initiative related to environmental, and sustainability is referred to as EcoMentality, which includes dedicated programs on energy savings, reductions in stormwater and wastewater, waste reduction, habitat and wildlife management and more.”
Amazing. “EcoMentality” means “reductions in stormwater and wastewater” at the Dane County Regional Airport? Even as Dane County sues DNR to get out of its PFAS requirements in the airport’s DNR stormwater permit, which include steps to prevent PFAS discharges in stormwater and ongoing creek PFAS monitoring? Even as the airport continually expands, spewing more phosphorus, petroleum products, and contaminated sediments into the creek and Lake Monona?
Even as the Wisconsin Air National Guard, the airport’s tenant, rips up PFAS-contaminated soils–spewing more PFAS into the creek–while building munitions storage buildings, hangars and other facilities for the coming high-tech toxic killer fighting machines (F-35s)?
But again, not to worry! The U.S. military–also apparently thoroughly infused with “EcoMentality”–cares about the community! According to the press release, “The Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs prioritizes the safety of our communities, our installations and the populations that live and work on or near our facilities and is committed to being good stewards of the environment that is shared with the local community.”
This is Orwell prize-worthy doublespeak from Dane County and the U.S. military. And who needs data? Empirical evidence? EcoMentality and magical thinking work just as well–and are much more comforting.
Meanwhile, real people in the real world–mostly low income people of color– are breathing, eating, drinking, and playing in the PFAS oozing from the airport and base
In the actual, physical world–not in DCRA’s and the U.S. Military’s EcoMentality delusions–MEJO and teens from the Truax neighborhood tested Starkweather Creek sediments just downstream of the airport for PFAS in 2020, because the city, county, and military have refused to do so and DNR has yet to require it, even though PFAS (especially PFOS) builds up in sediments and slowly releases into the creek water and fish indefinitely over time.
This refusal to test sediments is not a “robust scientific process.” We can’t take steps to clean up the creek–or work to prevent exposures to people in the community–unless we know what’s actually there.
Not surprisingly, MEJO and the teens found really high levels of PFAS in the sediments–the highest levels were just downstream of the airport. This the teens’ real, physical world–not the magical thinking EcoMentality of progressive, innovative, cutting-edge Dane County. Injecting experimental miracle microbes will do nothing to address these contaminated sediments.
While airport officials bask in their delusional EcoMentality, these kids and their families have been breathing, eating, drinking and playing in poisonous PFAS. It has been gushing down the creek flowing through their neighborhoods for their entire lives, and well before they were born.
But adopt EcoMentality–sprinkle on some Magical Thinking–and these kids, their families, and the consequences of all their toxic exposures disappear! If you’re not sure how to do this, contact Airport Director Kim Jones. She’ll explain.
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[Below–Truax teens at Starkweather Creek near where they found high levels of PFAS. Below that, MEJO and teens and community members talk about test results. Photos–Maria and Jim Powell]
[1] According to Hubbuch’s article, “The test cleanup was done by Orin Technologies, of Verona, and a Canadian company known as Fixed Earth Innovations, which have formed a new joint venture called Onur Solutions.”
Isn’t any reduction good? Isn’t a product that works in the real world more worthy then one that merely works only in a laboratory. Sounds more like this article was written with envy and a predetermined notion.