Wildlife Wednesday Free Event: Biologist Discusses Holloman Lake PFAS Pollution

By Ben Neary

NMWF Conservation Director

A University of New Mexico researcher will give a free presentation about record-high pollution levels at a lake on Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo that’s affecting birds, other wildlife and the environment.

Chris Witt, a UNM biology professor and a newly appointed member of the New Mexico State Game Commission, is one of the chief researchers whose work has documented the PFAS levels at Holloman Lake. A lifelong fisherman, hunter and birdwatcher, he’s been on faculty at UNM since 2007.

Witt’s free presentation will explore continuing research into the pollution and its possible wider effects on waterfowl elsewhere in the state.

Witt is the featured speaker at the New Mexico Wildlife Federation’s monthly “Wildlife Wednesday” event for October. His presentation will start at 5:30 p.m., Oct. 8, at the Marble Brewery Northeast Heights Taproom, 9904 Montgomery Blvd., NE, in Albuquerque.

Research by Witt and other UNM biologists has found that birds and other wildlife as well as the overall environment at the small lake near Alamogordo hold the highest levels of PFAS contamination ever recorded worldwide.

“PFAS” is scientific shorthand for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, a group of manufactured chemicals that have been used since the 1940s on objects ranging from water-proof fabrics to non-stick cookware. Known as “forever” chemicals because of their longevity in the environment, PFAS chemicals have been linked to a range of health problems.

According to the New Mexico Department of Health, potential human health risks associated with exposure to PFAS include:

_ Increased cholesterol levels.

_ Reduced birth weight.

_ Kidney and testicular cancer.

_ Pregnancy-induced hypertension.

_ Liver enzyme changes.

Witt and his colleagues published an article last year reporting on the unprecedented concentrations of PFAS chemicals in waterfowl and other wildlife at Holloman Lake. A second article this summer confirmed the earlier findings and looked at contributing factors.

Witt and others are continuing to research the issue, looking at ducks and other waterfowl statewide to assess how pollution from the lake may affect them.

Holloman Lake impounds treated wastewater from Holloman Air Force Base. Researchers have determined that the PFAS contamination comes from firefighting foams that the Air Force has used there for the past 50 years or so.

“They have a huge problem on their hands,” Witt said of the Air Force. “And one of the reasons it’s so bad is that they’ve been so secretive about the details of their use of firefighting foams and environmental contamination that’s occurred.

“One of the things that’s shocking is that our data was so new,” Witt said. “Nobody had looked at contaminated birds around Air Force bases, anywhere in the United States.”

Several Air Force sites around the West have ground water contamination issues. New Mexico this summer announced a lawsuit against the Air Force over PFAS contamination from Cannon Air Force Base, near Clovis. Groundwater pollution from the base forced a local dairy farmer to euthanize thousands of cows a few years ago.

State and local authorities have been monitoring ground water pollution in Albuquerque’s South Valley for decades that officials say originated from a jet fuel leak at Kirtland Air Force Base.

In response to the PFAS findings at Holloman Lake, the state banned waterfowl hunting there last year and the state issued a health warning early this year to anyone who has eaten waterfowl from the lake. The Air Force closed the lake and surrounding area to all public entry on Aug. 14.

“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,” Dr. Miranda Durham, medical director of the New Mexico Department of Health, said early this year. “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.”

Witt said the Holloman Lake area has become polluted with PFAS chemicals over the last 50 years or so.

“We found extensive contamination of birds and mammals in that area, and it raises a whole lot of questions about its effect on populations and health, and also its impact on areas away from the immediate point source of pollution, specifically other parts of New Mexico where people hunt and fish,” Witt said.

“And so we studied the base and we studied the area around the lake and we studied a number of bird species and mammal species and the patterns and composition of the PFAS in that immediate area,” Witt said.

“We published two papers on that in the last year and a half,” Witt said. “And now, we’re working on a study of waterfowl, especially ducks, statewide, to try to figure out what’s happening away from the point source. And how are different species affected, and what are the chances of them encountering contamination in the different watersheds around the state.”

Witt said there’s evidence that PFAS contamination in the state is declining over time. “The composition has certainly changed over time at Holloman and we want to track that as various PFAS compounds break down into simpler components,” he said. “We want to see how that’s affecting the way birds are taking up PFAS.

“Secondly, there’s nothing known about sort of the biokinetics, or sort of the way these contaminants are passing through bird bodies and accumulating and being expelled,” Witt said. “So just collecting more data on organ-specific PFAS is going to lead to new insights about the impacts of contamination.

“The other thing we don’t know is really the impacts of contamination,” Witt said. “So collecting health indicators and histological assays and that sort of thing is another way to get insights on the impact of this contamination on wildlife. Now it’s sort of an experiment that’s sitting there to be used to understand impacts.“

Meanwhile, Holloman Lake continues to draw waterfowl as one of the few sources of water in the arid region.

“There’s 1,000 ducks there right now,” Witt said. “I was just there, and it’s loaded with ducks.”

Witt said it’s certain that the ducks using the lake are taking up a lot of contaminants. “But we don’t see too much of that signal going out to ducks at other sites in the state,” he said. “It certainly is, but it’s not a huge signal. It’s not something that would or should shut down duck hunting in other sites.”

Witt said he hopes that research into contamination at Holloman Lake will lead to a mitigation plan that can be applied to the site on a large scale.

“Maybe some kind of genetically engineered microbes or something like that that can accelerate the breakdown of these long carbon chain PFAS molecules,” Witt said. “So that’s one hope, but that would have to be developed at a big scale to process all the water and sediment that’s contaminated there. We’re hoping it will also break down naturally over time, and I don’t really have a good handle on the rate at which that can happen.

“It’s going to be slow,” Witt said. “It will be decades, but it will break down. And by continuing to monitor the wildlife there, and hopefully other people will continue to monitor the water and the sediment, we should see that process play out in the data that we get.”