What One Minnesota School’s Fight to Eliminate PFAS Says about Indian Country’s Forever Chemical Problem
Aug 16, 2023 09:50AM ● By Content Editor
Photo An aerial view of Tract 33 in Cass Lake, Minnesota, home to several of Leech Lake’s Indigenous families. Jerry Holt / Star Tribune via Getty Images / Native News Online
By ZOYA TEIRSTEIN FOR GRIST - Native News Online / Grist - August 16, 2023
Laurie Harper, director of education for the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School, a K-12 tribal school on the Leech Lake Band Indian Reservation in north-central Minnesota, never thought that a class of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, would be an issue for her community.
Late last year, tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that her school’s drinking water wells were contaminated with PFAS. Some of the wells had PFAS levels as high as 160 parts per trillion — 40 times higher than the 4 part-per-trillion threshold the federal government recently proposed as a maximum safe limit.
To read the full story, visit the Native News Online site here.
Related: PFAS are everywhere part 1: How we in Cook County & Grand Portage, Minnesota (and beyond) are exposed
By ZOYA TEIRSTEIN FOR GRIST - Native News Online / Grist - August 16, 2023
Laurie Harper, director of education for the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School, a K-12 tribal school on the Leech Lake Band Indian Reservation in north-central Minnesota, never thought that a class of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, would be an issue for her community.
Late last year, tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that her school’s drinking water wells were contaminated with PFAS. Some of the wells had PFAS levels as high as 160 parts per trillion — 40 times higher than the 4 part-per-trillion threshold the federal government recently proposed as a maximum safe limit.
To read the full story, visit the Native News Online site here.
Related: PFAS are everywhere part 1: How we in Cook County & Grand Portage, Minnesota (and beyond) are exposed
