Milk is Just as Vulnerable to “Forever Chemical” Contamination as Water

When a city discovers that a community’s drinking water is contaminated with “forever chemicals” and advises the residents to stop drinking the well water, they’re typically provided with bottled water as a replacement. But what about farms that need the use of sprinklers and hydrate their livestock from a pipe?

In a Huff Post article, Sara Van Note shared the story of Art Schaap’s dairy farm and his experience with PFAS in Clovis, New Mexico

“In September 2018, Schaap got an unexpected visit from an official with Cannon Air Force Base, which adjoins his Highland Dairy property. The official gave him a letter indicating that tests found his well water was contaminated with PFAS… Schaap and his family, the letter said, should immediately stop drinking the water… Schaap, 54, is a third-generation dairy farmer… and has been raising cows and crops here [New Mexico] since 1992. Air Force officials told him they’d supply his family with bottled water. But he wondered about his cows… Testing by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture showed that his milk was contaminated at levels 70 times above a federal advisory health limit for PFAS”. 

The PFAS threat was not just a threat to his health, but also to his livelihood. Where some farmers have been able to install filters on their wells, “the Schaaps have not — the price is simply too high for the level of contamination in multiple wells, with no guarantee of adequate purification”.

There is so much more to Art Schaap’s trying experience with PFAS, for the whole story, read here.