Around half of California waterways tested by regulators are contaminated with pesticides considered Pfas, “forever chemicals”, a new analysis of state and federal records shows, highlighting a risk in the substances’ wide use that is only beginning to come into focus.

The pesticides are linked to a range of health problems, including cancer, and the review is the first to systematically check for the dangerous substances in streams and rivers, which include drinking water sources.

More than half of sediment samples also showed some levels of the pesticides, which are increasingly applied to California and the nation’s food crops.

The review of California department of pesticide regulation and United States geological survey data was released this week, just days before a proposal to eventually ban Pfas pesticides failed to make it through the state assembly. However, pieces of the legislation, including a moratorium on approvals of the new pesticides, passed.

The findings are “alarming but not surprising”, said Varun Subramaniam, one of the report’s co-authors with the Environmental Working Group (EWG) non-profit.

“It’s concerning that we’re finding these levels of Pfas pesticide … but they were applied at really high rates on produce, so it makes sense that they’re in the streams and sediment,” he said.

Pfas are a class of at least 16,000 compounds most frequently used to make products water-, stain- and grease-resistant. They have been linked to cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, high cholesterol, kidney disease and a range of other serious health problems. They are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they can persist for thousands of years in the environment, and are designed to be indestructible.

The chemicals are added as an active ingredient to food crop pesticides to kill weeds or insects, or used as an inert ingredient. At least 60% of active ingredients in pesticides fit the most widely accepted definition of Pfas, a 2023 analysis of EPA data found.

California farms applied an average of 2.5m lb of Pfas per year on cropland from 2018 to 2023, a review of state records last year revealed. Recent regulatory testing found the pesticide residues on 37% of all produce. But about 90% of peaches, plums and nectarines contained Pfas, while 80% of strawberries and grapes showed them.

Public health advocates have said the pesticides almost certainly pollute nearby water sources, and the new analysis confirmed their theory. Regulators only tested streams from 10 counties, and found the highest concentrations in agricultural areas, including Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.

Previous research showed the highest applications of Pfa pesticides in Fresno and Kern counties, but water pollution data was not collected in those regions. The results are “almost certainly an undercount” because of the limited scope, Subramaniam said.

At least 10 Pfas in pesticides were identified across the state. The pesticide bifenthrin, which is among the most toxic and linked to cancer, was found in all San Luis Obispo waterways, and more than 80% of samples in Stanislaus county, which holds Modesto and portions of the Central valley.

The health threat is difficult to determine because pesticide laws do not require companies to assess many of the health threats common to Pfas, like immunotoxicity, reproductive harm, or hormone disruption, in part because the regulators do not have proper resources, Subramaniam said. Regulators also do not consider the cumulative effect of drinking water contaminated with the Pfas, then eating produce containing its residues.

“The fact that the chemicals are permitted is largely because we’re not considering all the ways that they can harm us,” Subramaniam added.

Amid pressure from the powerful agricultural lobby, the proposal to fully ban Pfas pesticides by 2035 failed, but the moratorium on new pesticides survived. The California Farm Bureau, in its opposition to the bill, wrote that the legislation is an “overly broad and unworkable approach that departs from science-based regulation”. It argued that California farmers would be put at an economic disadvantage with little health benefit to the public.

The legislation still includes a new requirement that pesticides come with warnings to farmers that alert them that they are using Pfas with health and environmental risks. Susan Little, California legislative director for EWG, said most farmers are unaware that they are spreading Pfas on food crops.

The legislation also gives local leaders more power to limit the pesticides’ use, and defines the pesticides as Pfas, which is in line with most scientific definitions. California’s pesticide office currently uses a narrow definition of Pfas that is favored by industry in part because it excludes smaller compounds like those used in pesticides.

Advocates say the legislation is especially needed with the Trump administration rushing to approve more Pfas pesticides for use. California’s pesticide office also recently reapproved the Pfas insecticide sulfoxaflor despite that its approval has repeatedly been struck down by state and federal courts over its high toxicity to honeybees and other pollinators.

Little said advocates are “disappointed” the ban did not make it into the final bill, but added the bill, if approved by the state senate, “will continue to address and reduce the use of Pfas pesticides in California”.

Imagine a world where the gas pump knows your credit score

Re: “Polis vetoes ‘surveillance pricing’ bill,” June 3 news story

Gov. Jared Polis’ veto of the anti-surveillance pricing bill proves once again he’s just a Republican wearing a liberal costume. His excuse? The bill, which would have banned companies from using AI and “big data” to manipulate prices and wages based on your personal circumstances, might “interfere with the free functioning of markets.”

Sure. Because nothing says “free market” like corporate algorithms tracking your every vulnerability to extract maximum blood from your stone. This isn’t capitalism; it’s corporate sharecropping scaled to the state level.

Consider this hypothetical: A software engineer gets laid off but has some savings. On the way to a job interview, he pulls up to a gas pump. Between inserting his card and pumping, the oil company runs an instant “wealth check.” Seeing his healthy savings balance, the algorithm spikes his price per gallon.

He arrives at the interview. Instead of offering a salary based on market value and experience, the employer scrapes data on his time out of work, his dwindling savings, and his chronic illness. They craft an offer just high enough to keep him from drowning, complete with a health plan that conveniently excludes his condition.

Is this the “free functioning of markets?” No. It’s an asymmetric data war where citizens are completely outgunned. But hey, as long as Gov. Polis can keep defending the “freedom” of monopolies to pickpocket your data, who cares about the actual people?

For someone who just moved from Florida in part to escape this nonsense, Polis disappoints.

Tom Gawronski, Evergreen

Climate crisis is front-page news

Re: “U.N.: Next five years could smash temperature records,” May 29 news story

Banging the climate crisis drum: Last Friday, The Denver Post relegated a major U.N. climate report to page 12. Ho-hum, the world scientific community keeps banging that old drum about the climate. No big deal. We haven’t gone off the cliff — yet.

But there is a cliff there. Scientists just don’t know when the edge — the tipping point — will be reached.

Have you noticed all the floods, droughts and temperature records we are experiencing (again) this year? Are you concerned about this being a really bad fire year? Drill, baby drill continues as President Trump says we have to produce more oil, while the report concludes that oil and gas is the major contributor to the issue. Ho-hum.

As a committed climate activist, I plan to keep banging that old drum and supporting the rapid transition away from oil and gas to renewable energy.

Marc Alston, Denver

Sarah Woodson for House District 42

Sarah Woodson is a breath of fresh air for the residents of House District 42. A new voice of reason and common sense for everyday Aurorans stressed out by politicians on the far right and left who only support special agendas, not their constituents.

It was 40 years ago that Aurorans trusted another homegrown centrist political newcomer who went door to door to listen to his neighbors and represent them, not the special interest lobbyists that swarm over our Capitol like the miller moths and locusts of summer.

The Hawaii County Council voted 7-1 Wednesday in favor of a resolution calling for the acquisition of 3.74 acres of land along Government Beach Road in Puna using eminent domain — a move that has angered the property’s owner.

Resolution 567-26 authorizes the county’s condemnation and acquisition of a long, thin strip of land running along the edge of two separate parcels located in the Keonepoko Iki subdivision just north of the Hawaiian Shores neighborhood from its owner, Lum Family Enterprises LLC.

Vice Chair Dennis Onishi cast the lone “no” vote during a meeting that saw no discussion of the resolution by council members. Puna Councilman Matt Kaneali’i-Kleinfelder was absent.

The measure had unanimous support during committee hearings on May 19, when the Committee on Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions voted 9-0 in favor.

Together, the two parcels in question add up to roughly 230 acres. The county is trying to seize a 55-foot-wide, 1.5-mile-long strip abutting the road that would allow the Department of Public Works to make improvements.

Introduced by the Office of the Corporation Counsel, the resolution is the final step in a decade-long, protracted fight over the land, which began in 2014 when the county laid asphalt outside of the road’s right of way onto private property on the western side of the winding, one-lane seaside route. Since then, negotiations with the properties’ owner have failed to reach an agreement.

“We paved onto — a little bit onto the mauka property,” Deputy Corporation Counsel Sinclair Salas-Ferguson told council members during the resolution’s committee hearing last month. “And for years, the county has been trying to negotiate with the landowner … and it’s never come to fruition, so in order to resolve the issues, we have to go through condemnation.”

At that meeting, Onishi clarified with Corporation Counsel that the issue began with the county’s error.

“The county made a mistake and paved into their property,” Onishi said.

Salas-Ferguson replied that the county has authority to take private property for a public purpose, and that seizing land for a roadway is “almost indisputable that it’s a public purpose.”

He said the case will most likely go to court, where the county will negotiate a settlement with the landowner.

In an email to the Tribune-Herald following the vote on Wednesday, Onishi said he changed his mind on the resolution since the last hearing because he felt the county hadn’t done enough to treat the owner fairly.

“Today I felt the county should do more to help with compensating the landowner since the county did pave the road into their property,” he said.

The appraised value of the land, he said, was insufficient compensation for its seizure.

“Right now the county is allowed to settle on the appraised value only,” he said. “I feel this situation is different because the county was partially to blame for what happened. I will be investigating how Corporation Counsel will have more of an authority (to) compensate depending on the situation.”

Wayland Lum is the manager of Lum Family Enterprises and travels back and forth between Oahu and his country homestead in Puna located on the properties in question. Lum is a 72-year-old organic farmer and rancher whose land originally belonged to his grandfather and has been in the family since the early 1920s.

Since the paving blunder in 2014, he said he’s been anxious about liability issues since most of the road in that section lies squarely on his property.

“If someone should get hurt … they’re going to find out it’s not county land,” he said. “It’s private land, and they’re going to be suing me because I own the road. I own the land where the road is.”

The council will vote on the resolution for the second and final time on June 17 during a meeting which Lum has said he will fly from Oahu to Kona to attend in order to testify in person.

“I need to say my piece and to look at these people face to face,” he told the Tribune-Herald after Wednesday’s vote. “It’s passion, in a sense, because we were born there … we didn’t buy it 10 years ago and go start a farm. It’s been a century.”

He said he was told by a council clerk he’d have only three minutes to testify like any other member of the public.

“How do you do that in three minutes?” he said. “It’s impossible. I think I should be receiving an adequate amount of time because we’ve been so cooperative all these years trying to resolve this matter, and at this junction, it’s really a matter of whether we lose our land or not. We should be given an adequate amount of time to state our case on all the different levels, from the history to what the county has done to the liability.”

The kupuna said he’s hopeful that by testifying in person he can convince other council members to oppose the resolution.

“There was no representation for the other side of this issue except good thing for Mr. Onishi. Thank you to him,” he said. “If I can get there and hopefully influence three people and maybe show them a little bit different side of the picture instead of just following the whole program with each other — you know one votes yes and they all vote yes — maybe it’ll create a little bit of thinking on their part so that they can kind of evaluate and see the whole picture.”

When asked if he feels the county has treated him fairly throughout this drawn-out process, he was quick to respond.

“Not at all. Not one bit,” he said. “They abused their rights as the county on a private landowner who really has no way to defend themselves in this kind of situation except for legal action, which is happening.

“When you have people taking over and coming into your land, it really feels like you’re getting violated,” he added. “You’re taking — you’re ripping out, just ripping out a part of your heart. So, it’s very difficult for me and my family to see this happen.”

Email Stefan Verbano at stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com.