Latest news with #HollomanAirForceBase
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Land access near Holloman Air Force Base to temporarily close due to PFAS levels
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (KRQE) — To protect the public from potential PFAS exposure, land surrounding the Holloman Evaporation Pond near the Holloman Air Force Base will temporarily close starting Aug. 14. To some, it might look like a lake you'd want to go swimming in. However, taking a closer look shows otherwise. PFAS levels near Holloman AFB at record high 'Given the recent scientific evolution of it becoming a hazardous substance about a year ago and especially with it just last month being found in the soil surrounding the lake is what drove us to implement this closure that is coming up in 30 days,' said Colonel John Ethridge, Commander of the 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base. Also known as 'Holloman Lake,' the Holloman Evaporation Pond and the land around it near the air force base will be closing to public access on Aug. 14. The base said it's to protect people from forever chemicals called 'PFAS.' Which are linked to health problems. The land was initially transferred through the 1995 National Defense Authorization Act to the Department of the Air Force from the Department of the Interior. PFAS chemicals found in the soil and water are at least partly linked to the prior use of Aqueous Film Forming Foam products in firefighting operations and training programs on base, according to the public affairs office of Holloman Air Force Base. In June, UNM researchers found PFAS levels at the site are at the highest levels recorded anywhere. The area is a wastewater treatment facility and was not meant for recreational use. For years however, people have been allowed to visit Holloman Lake. Report reveals record-breaking levels of PFAS at Holloman Lake The air force base said concerns over PFAS levels have lead to changes over the years including more fencing to prevent animals getting access to the water. They also ended their hunting program in 2019 and prohibited all recreational activities in the water. Recent research showing PFAS chemicals in the nearby soil is what pushed the base to close the pond at least for the next two years. Wildlife at Holloman AFB have high levels of chemical contamination, UNM study says 'Ultimately the timeline for reopening the area will be dependent on the evolution of that science and our ability to clean up and remove the PFAS from the area,' added Colonel Ethridge. The base said their water and water for Alamogordo and surrounding areas has not been affected by the PFAS at the lake. Reacting to the closure, the New Mexico Environment Department sent KRQE this statement: 'This is a clear admission that the U.S. Air Force poisoned Holloman Lake with toxic PFAS. With world-record-breaking contamination documented in the lake's wildlife and plants, the time for cleanup is now.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
03-07-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
‘We thought we'd got the numbers wrong': Holloman Lake is a birder's paradise – and has the highest levels of ‘forever chemicals' on record
For years, Christopher Witt took birdwatchers to Holloman Lake in the Chihuahuan desert off the route 70 highway in New Mexico. By mid-morning the sun would beat down as they huddled in the scant shade of the van. There were no trees other than a collection of salt cedars on the lake's north shore. But the discomfort didn't matter when the peregrine falcons appeared, slicing through the sky. 'It was hard to leave that place,' says Witt. The lake – created in 1965 as part of a system of wastewater catchment ponds for Holloman air force base – is an unlikely oasis. Other than small ponds created for livestock it is the only body of water for thousands of square kilometres in an otherwise stark landscape. However, Witt says there was always something slightly weird about the foam that would form around the edge. 'But I only saw that stuff once I knew.' Few people live around here, but those that do enjoyed the lake. Online it was billed as a 'free, no-frills experience' for camping. On weekends, up to 20 people could be seen pitching tents and barbecuing on the southern shore. In 2009, plans were drawn up to construct a pavilion, beach area and nature trails to encourage more people to enjoy the area. But all that changed in 2017 when authorities discovered what was in the water. Since then an alarming picture has been building up of the extent of the chemical contamination at Holloman Lake. Last month, research co-authored by Witt showed the site has the highest Pfas concentration in water and plants ever recorded in peer-reviewed literature. Every part of the ecosystem is saturated in these 'forever chemicals', including the soil, algae, invertebrates, fish and reptiles. Pfas, which stands for 'per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances', are a group of thousands of human-made chemicals prized for their water, heat and grease-resistant properties. The same attributes that make them so useful in industrial and consumer products are what make them so bad when they leak into the environment, where they can persist for hundreds of years. Witt's birdwatching spot turned into a 'natural field laboratory' for understanding how forever chemicals affect ecosystems. He stopped going there for the pleasure of watching birds, and shifted to studying the area in his capacity as a professor of biology at the University of New Mexico. 'Honestly, I try not to spend too much time there,' he says. 'You can take up some of these Pfas compounds through skin contact, and you can breathe them in through the air and dust.' When the Pfas results came back from the lab, Witt assumed it was a mistake. 'There were no other analogs that we could find for this level of contamination,' he says. 'The orders of magnitude that we were dealing with were absolutely shocking. We thought we were doing something wrong with the converssion of units.' But the numbers were correct. Across 23 bird and mammal species tested, Pfas concentrations averaged tens of thousands of parts per billion, 2024 research found. For comparison, in 2019 thousands of dairy cows in Clovis, New Mexico were culled because their milk was contaminated with less than six parts per billion. The main cause of contamination is the firefighting foams used in training exercises by the US air force at the Holloman site from about 1970. The single most contaminated individual from the 2024 study was a 1994 specimen of a white-footed mouse, showing pollution had been high for decades. A dead killdeer chick was found by its nest on the ground near the lake. It was sent to the lab for testing, and its tissues had the highest Pfas concentration recorded to date in a bird, according to the 2025 paper. The revelations about Pfas in the lake water triggered lawsuits from New Mexico's Environment Department against the military. In the US there are more than 9,000 active legal cases related to the production or release of Pfas. But for Witt and other researchers on the ground, the scientific investigation was just beginning. He describes the state of current research as a 'hodgepodge of surveys here and there', all saying that we still don't know enough about how Pfas are moving through food webs globally, and how they could be affecting wildlife. Now, the body of evidence of the impact of Pfas on wildlife is growing. In Michigan, bluegill fish have been found to swim more slowly after Pfas exposure, suggesting they could be physically or neurologically impaired. Exposed black-legged kittiwakes are developing thyroid dysfunctions and hormonal imbalances. Sea turtles in contaminated sites in Australia are producing hatchlings with deformed scales and health problems. American alligators in North Carolina are more susceptible to infections, while dolphins in South Carolina are showing signs of chronic inflammation. More than 600 species on every continent are at risk of harm, according to a map by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) illustrating how harmful chemicals are filtering through ecosystems. When they began mapping the research, 'we thought: 'it'll be a quick one month project' – then you quickly realise there are hundreds and hundreds of studies,' says David Andrews, acting chief science officer at EWG. 'It turned out to be a significant amount of work.' It is likely that these chemicals are an additional stressor threatening species, along with climate breakdown and habitat loss. 'Nothing really escapes these chemicals – this is not something you can fly away from,' says Andrews. Health impacts in humans, such as cancers, hormonal disruption and immune system disruption, are increasingly well documented. Research shows there are parallels in wildlife. 'What we see is an overlapping pattern of health harm between both humans and the wildlife species that have been studied,' says Andrews. As sampling becomes cheaper and more accessible around the globe and more testing is done, the map of Pfas in wildlife will continue to expand, he says. The buildup of Pfas in wildlife also raises questions for those who hunt or consume wild meat. At Holloman Lake, even a single gram of duck meat would be too toxic to safely eat, based on average Pfas concentrations. Yet this is still a popular area for hunting. Researchers are testing 400 ducks across the state to work out whether contaminants are jumping from hotspots such as Holloman to other wetlands. The preliminary results are 'concerning', says Witt, showing widespread contamination. That could be because ducks from sites such as Holloman are spreading it, or because there are other contaminated sites across the US, or some combination of the two. 'When you are eating wild duck meat, probably anywhere in North America, you're kind of rolling the dice,' he says. Now, instead of watching birds, Witt is blending in with hunters in camo, capturing ducks and other birds and mammals to test their bodies for Pfas. 'I have really conflicted feelings about it; it's a beautiful place, it's so biodiverse, and yet really troubled,' says Witt. 'I feel a sense of urgency to figure out what is happening to the birds that are there.' Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian app for more nature coverage.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Hunters who have eaten game from Holloman Lake warned after record-high PFAS levels found
The New Mexico Department of Health issued an advisory Monday warning any hunters who ate or captured wildlife from Holloman Lake in the past decade about the possibility of contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The advisory came after the state Environment Department released a report earlier this month that found that some samples of plants and animals near Holloman Lake, located near White Sands National Park and Holloman Air Force Base, contained what may be the highest recorded levels of plant or animal contamination from the "forever chemicals" in the world. 'The levels of PFAS contamination in Holloman Lake are deeply concerning, particularly for hunters who may have consumed waterfowl from the area over the past decade,' Miranda Durham, the health department's medical director, said in a statement. 'PFAS exposure has been linked to serious health problems, and we encourage anyone who has consumed game from this region and has concerns to talk to their healthcare provider.' A sample from the liver of a Merriam's kangaroo rat clocked PFAS concentrations at 120,000 nanograms per gram; a salt cedar sample was at 30,000 nanograms per gram. Both are thought to be record-breaking concentrations in wildlife and plants, respectively. Other samples of local plants and animals ranged from 10,000 nanograms per gram to 120,000 nanograms per gram. But what could that mean for living things around the lake? PFAS report The study found symptoms that could be related to PFAS contamination in nearby wildlife, including high rates of ulcers and abnormal growths in some small mammals and a failure to hatch. Even a gram of duck meat — less than a bite size — from Holloman Lake included more PFAS than is recommended for a lifetime exposure to the chemical group for humans, according to a February 2024 University of New Mexico report. The land was acquired by Holloman Air Force Base in 1996 as a wastewater evaporation pond, wrote spokesperson Denise Ottaviano in an email to The New Mexican. The Defense Authorization Act of 1996 required that the area remain open to the public, although recreation in the water is prohibited. Hunting has been off-limits at the lake since 2019. That decision was made "out of an abundance of caution" and due to the presence of contaminants at the lake, Ottaviano wrote. The Air Force is currently going through the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability process to investigate contamination from firefighting foam that "may be associated with Holloman AFB mission activities," Ottaviano wrote. In 2022, the Air Force entered the remedial investigation phase, which will include an assessment of risks to human health and the local ecology. "The DAF has expended $2.9 million on the PFAS investigation at Holloman AFB to date and will continue to advance the remedial investigation ..." Ottaviano wrote. "Once RI is complete, and if unacceptable risks are identified in the RI PFAS are a group of chemicals known for their aversion to breaking down in the environment. Used for everything from nonstick pans and weatherproofing materials to firefighting foam, the chemicals have been linked to an array of health conditions including increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer, increased cholesterol and reduced birth weight. Chelsea Langer, acting bureau chief for the health department's Environmental Health Epidemiology Bureau, said she hasn't seen a direct study looking at how eating PFAS-contaminated meat may affect the human body. But she said people who are concerned should speak with their doctor or potentially get a blood test to measure the levels of PFAS in their blood. The PFAS found around Holloman are long-chain PFAS, which are more persistent in the environment and take longer to degrade, Langer said. They have some of those same qualities in the human body, increasing the health risks. There's currently no approved treatment to remove PFAS from the human body. But knowing risk factors can help people monitor for diseases associated with exposure to the chemical. "If you get a blood test and your results are low, then I would find that reassuring. ... Most everybody has some small level of PFAS in their bodies, because they are ubiquitous," Langer said. "If there are higher levels of PFAS, then that would be an indication for you and your doctor to monitor more carefully for cholesterol or for kidney and testicular cancer ... and just hopefully catch those early."
