Youth at ditch bridge

By Oona Mackesey-Green, Northside News (photo by Garth Olmanson)

When the test results came back in February showing high levels of PFAS in the sediment at Starkweather Creek, a foot of snow buried the ground where two months earlier East Madison Community Center (EMCC) youth and the Midwest Environmental Justice Organization (MEJO) had scooped samples from the muck along the creek bed.

“I wasn’t surprised,” said Elijah Smith about the results. Even without the numbers, “You can tell because of how people treat the water, and treat the land.”

Smith is 14 years old and is one of the youth, along with James Xiong, Kenyan Harper and Mack Rimson, who are part of EMCC’s collaboration with MEJO to address pollution at Starkweather Creek. When the project first started, said Maria Powell, MEJO’s director and an environmental scientist, “it wasn’t intended to be all about PFAS,” but a big picture look at environmental justice issues and their impact on local communities.

EMCC primarily serves families who live at Truax Apartments, public housing located just down the street from Madison College, the Air National Guard base and Dane County Airport. Just across Wright Street from the apartments, a grassy embankment slopes down to a tributary of Starkweather Creek. In February, I walked with Smith, Xiong, Harper, Rimson, Powell and Ida Jammeh, one of the project’s leaders and a MEJO board member, through the snow, following the tributary to a small bridge over the creek.

When the project began, Powell knew that Starkweather was contaminated by pollutants. The Wis. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) designated the creek as “impaired” in 1998. But as Powell began her own research into PFAS and the issue started to hit headlines in Madison when municipal water tests showed low levels in several wells, it also caught the attention of Smith, Xiong, Harper and Rimson. If the group was going to talk about contamination in the creek, they wanted to understand this chemical that was suddenly in all of the newspapers.

PFAS are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and refer to a group of chemicals often used in stain, water and heat resistant products. They’re sometimes called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down. When people absorb PFAS through exposure to contaminated water, food or consumer products, PFAS stay in the body for a long time. There is evidence linking PFAS exposure to health concerns including certain cancers and reproductive and developmental effects.

Over the last year, tests conducted by the DNR have shown high levels of PFAS in the water and foam of Starkweather Creek, as well as in fish caught in Starkweather and Lake Monona. One of the known sources of PFAS contamination is Dane County Airport and Truax Field Air National Guard Base, where firefighting foam containing PFAS is used to extinguish burning jet fuel.

Standing on a small bridge overlooking the creek where the Bridge’s Golf Course ditch flows into Starkweather, Xiong spoke about the most recent test results. MEJO sent samples of sediment gathered from five locations along the creek to the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene to test for PFAS. The second highest level, 24,482 parts per trillion (PPT), was found at the golf ditch.

PFAS have “been here for a long time,” said Xiong, and have already affected many aspects of the local ecosystem. “You’ll get sick from eating the fish.” Contamination through fish consumption is a particular concern for subsistence anglers who catch fish from Starkweather Creek and Lake Monona to feed themselves and their families. In January, the DNR issued an advisory to limit consumption of certain types of fish because of PFAS contamination.

“In the future,” Xiong said, referring to the group of teenagers all peering over the bridge, “it’s going to affect us too.”

The group fundraised to test sediment samples from Starkweather for PFAS after realizing that a planned hands-on science activity, looking at muck from the creek under a microscope to better understand that local ecosystem, might not be safe. Powell didn’t want the youth to risk exposure to the chemicals, and said she was also concerned about the sediment because it can act as a reservoir for PFAS, accumulating contamination and slowly releasing it into the water over time. Madison and Dane County officials, as well as the DNR, declined to pursue sediment testing.

Although the collaborative project to understand and address pollution in Starkweather Creek was initiated by MEJO, it is the youth at EMCC who live and play near the creek. And although they’re young, Smith, Xiong, Harper and Rimson understand the situation well.

Even before the group started having conversations about PFAS and other pollutants, Jammeh said, the youth “were aware that there was something in the lake, but they didn’t have the knowledge to talk about it.”

During our walk to Starkweather together in late February, that had clearly changed.

They noted the lack of response to growing data about PFAS in the creek. “They think it’s not a big deal,” said Rimson. I asked what they hoped would come as a result of the sediment testing, and Rimson said, “I just hope it gets better.”

“I hope they know that it’s dangerous for everyone,” said Xiong.

“They should try and get someone to clean out this water,” said Smith. “It’s affecting everything.” He stood on the bridge and pointed at the small flock of ducks sifting through the muck along the shore, sieving sediment through their beaks. “At least attempt. I feel like it’s everybody’s responsibility.”

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