Laura Dumais is staff counselor at PEER, which is currently working with two separate farmers outside of Dallas Fort-Worth. Following the spread of illness and loss of cattle, the families brought their concerns to the county.
“There was a huge dump of sewage sludge biosolids on a neighboring property and shortly thereafter all havoc broke loose like their the fish in their ponds all died, their cows started getting sick, birds were dying, everything was going wrong,” she said.
Soil samples taken by an environmental crimes investigator found unsettling levels of PFAS on the farms. The group of synthetic chemicals are commonly found in fire fighting foams used at airports or industry plants. Without being in close proximity to either and surrounded by farmland, investigators were able to narrow their search.
