By admin 
Chemicals that can cause cancer and other illnesses have been discovered in six different types of crops that people and livestock in South Carolina eat, a rare finding in a state where little research has been done on the dangers of the toxic compounds on farms.
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Scientists from Yale University recently documented forever chemicals in collards, okra, corn, squash, butter beans and hay on a Darlington County farm that used contaminated sewer sludge as fertilizer before farmers knew about the hazards.
Some of the forever chemicals found by Yale in plants were at relatively low amounts, but two crops showed levels high enough to spark concern from the lead researcher. Hay eaten by cattle, as well as collards that are popular food for people’s dinner tables, had noticeably high levels, said Jake Thompson, the Yale researcher who spearheaded the work.
“I’m not sure yet how South Carolina or federal agencies may approach this in the future, but it is something I think is important to keep an eye on,’’ Thompson said in an email to Darlington County farmer Robbie O’Neal, an outspoken critic of using sewer sludge as fertilizer.
Yale’s research, conducted on O’Neal’s farm, is believed to provide one of the first looks in South Carolina at crops threatened by forever chemicals from soil and groundwater. The work is significant because it provides information that could help farmers decide whether to switch to other crops or whether they should plant in other fields.
While Yale focused on one Darlington County farm that had been a disposal site for waste sludge, up to 10,000 acres of surrounding land also were approved by the state for sludge disposal from the old Galey and Lord textile plant from the early 1990s until 2013.
Statewide, South Carolina regulators have approved sludge from a variety of sources, including public wastewater plants, for use as fertilizer on at least 80,000 acres of farmland, The State and McClatchy reported in 2023.
Before recently releasing the test results, Yale researchers discovered forever chemicals in the dirt of O’Neal’s land where crops have been planted. The presence of forever chemicals in the crops suggests a relationship between the polluted soil and the tainted plants.
O’Neal, who lives near Society Hill, is one of the few farmers in South Carolina to raise concerns about forever chemical pollution on agricultural land. The O’Neals, like other Darlington County farm families, were persuaded in the 1990s to let an industrial plant spread waste sludge as a low-cost fertilizer on agricultural land. Years later, they learned the sludge was contaminated with forever chemicals.
Forever chemicals, formally known as PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, were manufactured and routinely used for more than 60 years in a variety of products because of their durability. They have been used in textiles and non-stick frying pans, and as key ingredients in foam used to fight fires.
But the same properties that helped make for durable and reliable products also were eventually found to be hazardous.
Among other things, forever chemicals can cause certain types of cancer, create thyroid problems and make people less able to fight off disease. They are called forever chemicals because they last so long in the environment.
Elevated PFAS found in hay, collard greens
Yale’s test results show forever chemical levels of more than 19,000 parts per trillion in hay and 4,000 parts per trillion in collards on O’Neal’s land. All the fields with contaminated crops registered elevated PFAS levels in the soil, researchers found.
There are no standards to directly compare the results of PFAS in plants in South Carolina, but to gain some perspective, the federal government plans to limit two types of forever chemicals in drinking water to 4 parts per trillion.
The levels for hay also exceeded by more than 10 times a recommended level in Maine, a state that has spent considerable energy studying the risk of PFAS in crops, Thompson said. The amounts in collards were above a recommended weekly health standard in Europe, as well, he said. The amount of PFAS people can take in without health effects varies under that standard because it is based on a person’s weight, according to the European Food Safety Authority.
Thompson said hay and collards carry slightly different risks.
Cattle can take in forever chemicals by eating contaminated food, then passing that along in milk and in beef that goes to market.
Contaminated milk from cows that grazed on pastures fertilized with tainted sludge has been documented in other states, most notably in Maine. The sludge put on Maine fields was found to contain forever chemicals like those in cattle.
“I think the story is that this is impacting food systems,’’ Thompson said an interview. “The beef and milk industry is affected by this. One of the highest risks of PFAS in agriculture, right now, is that transfer from hay to dairy and beef.’’
Collards are a direct food source, and at the levels Yale scientists discovered in South Carolina, ‘’I’d start to be concerned. I’d want to limit consumption of that,’’ Thompson said.
Thompson said the levels in the other crops he and fellow researchers examined were much lower and of less of a concern – but they are worth noting. Any intake of forever chemicals can, over time, cause a buildup in people.
Thompson is an environmental engineer at Yale who is with the university’s Center for Natural Carbon Capture.
His research is part of an effort to clean up PFAS on farmland. The research team is collecting information from farms as part of that research. The cleanup method under study would involve burning certain plants at high temperatures, which kills PFAS, then spreading the material back on cropland as a soil amendment. Over time, that could clean up the soil, according to plans.
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O’Neal, who has spoken to policy makers and Congressional staff in Washington about the threats his farm faces, said Yale’s findings were not unexpected because his family used sludge from the old Galey and Lord textile plant for years — with the approval of state regulators — beginning in the early 1990s.
The O’Neals and other farmers learned decades later the gunky material contained forever chemicals. The same chemicals were found in drinking water wells, raising concerns about their impacts on people’s health. Two of Robbie O’Neal’s uncles died after drinking from wells later found to contain PFAS. The Galey and Lord plant is now a federal Superfund site targeted for cleanup.
O’Neal said the information from Yale is an important guide for him.
Because of what Yale found, he has switched to another type of cattle feed than the Bermuda hay he had been providing to the animals. Some research shows that over several months, PFAS levels in beef cattle will drop if cows are provided food that does not contain forever chemicals.
At the same time, O’Neal said he plans to use fields that did not receive Galey and Lord sludge when he plants collards, a winter crop, this fall. He did not sell collards last year because of concerns that PFAS might show up in the leaves, he said.
“This doesn’t have to be a death knell for farmers,’’ O”Neal said. “It can be worked around. We can do things to fix it. We just have to know what to do.’’
Both O’Neal and Thompson said more research and action are needed in South Carolina. The S.C. Department of Environmental Services is well aware of contamination from the Galey and Lord textile plant, but hasn’t done enough, O’Neal said.
The state environmental department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have tested only a few farm fields where Galey and Lord spread textile sludge. The state agency does not require testing for additional sludge being spread in the state. Sludge going on farmland today comes from multiple sources, including wastewater treatment plants and chicken processing factories.
“I think DES needs to get off their rear end and test,’’ O’Neal said. “They need to at least test what these people are spreading and on the land it’s being spread on.’’
South Carolina officials monitoring ‘national conversation’
The department has done extensive testing of rivers and water supplies, finding forever chemicals in most places tested. But it has shied away from requiring sludge used as fertilizer to be tested or regulated. The state also hasn’t focused on testing crops or fields where sludge has been applied as fertilizer.
In a June 4 email to The State, the S.C. Department of Environmental Services said it is not conducting soil sampling on farmland, although the agency has checked the soil at a Darlington County elementary school. The agency noted there are no state or federal rules that establish safe levels of PFAS.
“We’re planning to work collaboratively with S.C. Department of Agriculture and academia to focus on opportunities to address challenges presented by background levels of PFAS throughout the state’s natural environment,’’ the agency’s email said.
Eva Moore, a spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Agriculture, said she’s not aware of any testing underway in South Carolina for forever chemicals in crops, other than the Yale work. But she said the agency is “monitoring the national conversation’’ and it is in touch with state and federal regulatory agencies.
Researchers at the University of Maine said the country needs more information on how PFAS affects farmland and crops. What’s been found in South Carolina sounds familiar, they said.
‘’It very much resonates with what’s happening up here in Maine,’’ university scientist Rachel Schattman said. “It’s an unfortunate situation.’’
One study Schattman, student Alex Scearce and other researchers conducted said sludge and contaminated irrigation water threatened human health and the viability of farms over the long term.
A key finding was how hay and lettuce tended to accumulate PFAS. In the University of Maine study, the research team found that lettuce leaves took in more forever chemicals than the roots. The Maine researchers have done multiple studies.
South Carolina’s farm community has had little to say about PFAS threatening crops. But several years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Environmental Services documented high levels of forever chemicals in the dirt of three farm fields that once were used for Galey and Lord’s sludge. Galey and Lord had state permission to spread sludge on more than 300 fields in and around Darlington.
Yale’s previous testing also found elevated levels of forever chemicals in the soil of 15 other fields that had been used for sludge disposal, with about half exceeding a limit used in Maine. Among those is a field where some of the highest levels of PFAS in crops were found most recently. The field showed levels of one type of forever chemical, called PFOS, in excess of 17,000 parts per trillion in the soil and in the hay that was planted in the field.
O’Neal said it’s remarkable that a contaminant embedded in the industrial sludge that was spread on farm fields is still a threat. Many farmers today aren’t clued into the threat, he said.
“All this stuff happened 30 years ago, and now a lot of people aren’t here anymore,’’ he said. “If you don’t know it’s on your land, it’s not going to bother you a bit.’’
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