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Nearly half of US drinking water contains toxic PFAS; cover crop incentives could help farms withstand climate change; poop pathogens threaten US beachgoers.

Nearly half of US drinking water contains toxic PFAS chemicals, study finds

At least 45% of US tap water is contaminated with harmful synthetic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a new federal study estimates.

The study, which was conducted by the US Geological Survey (USGS), also supports previous findings that people in urban areas are more likely to be exposed to PFAS in their drinking water than those in rural places. The analysis found similar PFAS concentrations in public and private water and marks the first study to test for the chemicals in tap water from both sources across the country, the USGS said in a press release last week.

“It’s valuable to have this study, which does have at least one data point in every one of the 50 states and Puerto Rico, to attempt to measure contamination at a truly nationwide level,” said Alissa Cordner, Co-Director of the PFAS Project Lab at Northeastern University and an associate professor of sociology at Whitman College. “There’s really a need for more systematic private well testing across the country,” she added. (Read the rest of the story.)

As climate change threatens farming, incentives for cover crops could help

Once a farmer understands how ecosystems function, planting cover crops is an obvious choice. At least, that’s what North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown believes. For nearly three decades, Brown has been planting his cash crops (barley, oats, wheat, rye, and others) alongside cover crops—plants that are not for sale but instead are planted among cash crops to help retain water, prevent erosion, and increase soil fertility.

“The reason we made the decision is simple—it’s profitable,” said Brown. Since planting cover crops, Brown’s farm has saved a fortune on fertilizer and water, and Brown said he has seen an increase in yield, too.

But in addition to boosting some farms’ profits, many climate and agriculture experts say that cover crops may help farms withstand the effects of weather extremes driven by climate change. As crops across the country suffer dramatic losses, less than a quarter of US farms currently use cover crops, leading some to call for federal farm programs to incentivize the practice more strongly. Yet other experts are less enthusiastic about cover crops’ potential, saying bigger solutions are needed to transform the farming system as climate change advances. (Read the rest of the story.)

Poop pathogens threaten US beachgoers nationwide, study finds

Beachgoers may be on the lookout for sharks and jellyfish, but one danger lurking beneath the waves this summer originated onshore — pathogens from human and farm animal waste. Over half of US beaches tested in 2022 harbored potentially unsafe levels of contamination, according to a new analysis by the organizations Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group.

The study found that 1,761 out of 3,192 coastal and Great Lakes beaches tested across the country last year showed fecal contamination levels above an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) benchmark on at least one day that year. 363 of the beaches showed potentially unsafe levels on at least a quarter of the days they were tested. Much of the contamination comes from stormwater runoff in developed areas, outdated and deteriorating sewage systems, and factory farming, the authors write.

Swimming in water contaminated with fecal bacteria can cause gastrointestinal and respiratory illness, as well as infections, according to the EPA’s website.

“If it [had] just rained the day before, that might not be the day to go to the beach, particularly if there are local sewage treatment plants that discharge anywhere [nearby],” said John Rumpler, Clean Water Director at Environment America Research & Policy Center and an author of the report. (Read the rest of the story.)