Across U.S., Eruptions of Toxic Algae Plague Lakes, Threatening Drinking Water and Recreation
Microcystins are poisonous toxins that can form in blooms of blue-green algae. In recent years, algae blooms – actually microscopic bacteria called cyanobacteria – have erupted in hundreds of lakes nationwide, putting at risk Americans whose drinking water comes from those lakes, or who swim, ski or fish in them. If ingested, microcystins can cause adverse health effects in people and animals, ranging from skin rashes to serious illness and even death.
Mapping the PFAS Contamination Crisis
The extent of American communities’ confirmed contamination with the highly toxic fluorinated compounds known as PFAS continues to grow at an alarming rate. As of July 2019, 712 locations in 49 states are known to be affected.
Explosion of Unregulated Factory Farms in Maumee Watershed Fuels Lake Erie’s Toxic Blooms
Outbreaks of toxic algae, fueled by pollution from manure and fertilizer from farm fields, are increasing in frequency and severity across the U.S. In 2014, a toxic bloom in Lake Erie imperiled the drinking water of 500,000 residents in Toledo, Ohio. The Lake Erie outbreak, now an annual event, is getting much worse.
Estimated Nitrate Attributable Cancer Cases for each State
Nitrate pollution of U.S. drinking water may be responsible for up to 12,594 cases of cancer a year, at a cost of up to $1.5 billion for health care, according to a new peer-reviewed study by the Environmental Working Group.
Iowa’s Private Wells Contaminated by Nitrate and Bacteria
Between 2002 and 2017, unsafe levels of nitrate, coliform bacteria and fecal coliform bacteria were found in thousands of wells across Iowa. Farms are among the main source of the contamination, especially in rural areas of the state.
Mapping PFAs Chemical Containation at 206 U.S. Military Sites
The Environmental Working Group has identified and mapped 206 military sites in the U.S. where drinking water or groundwater is contaminated with fluorinated chemicals, known as PFAS, at levels that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s health guideline. But this is only the tip of a toxic iceberg that is largely hidden and still growing.
Under the Radar: Pollution From Poultry Factory Farms Grows
In 2018, manure from 515.3 million chickens and other poultry raised in North Carolina factory farms was piled on top of the manure from nine million pigs that was already sickening people and fouling water.
Many Poorly Located Factory Farms Impaceted by Hurricane Florence
EWG’s interactive nationwide map shows locations of reported toxic algae outbreaks since 2010.
Florence Drenched Thousands of North Carolina CAFOs and Animal Waste Pits
Hurricane Florence’s torrential rains pelted areas of North Carolina that are home to more than 1,500 industrial animal operations with more than 1,000 nearby animal waste storage cesspools. These operations have the potential to annually produce as much as four billion gallons of wet swine waste and 400,000 tons of dry poultry waste.
How Much Does it Cost to Remove Nitrate From Tap Water?
America has a serious problem with nitrate contamination of drinking water – and it is most severe in the small communities that can least afford to fix it.
Municipal Ordinances Restricting Pesticide Use
More than 50 city and county ordinances banning the use of the toxic weed killer glyphosate on local playgrounds, parks and schoolyards could be overturned by a provision championed by House Republicans in their version of the farm bill, an EWG analysis found.
N.C. Residents Living Near Large Hog Farms Have Elevated Disease, Death Risks
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2018 Residents of communities near industrial-scale hog farms in North Carolina face an increased risk of potentially deadly diseases, Duke University scientists reported in a study released this week.
Senate Bill Would Improve Water Quality in Critical Watersheds Nationwide
A new EWG analysis shows that too little EQIP funding is going to the most effective conservation practices identified in the Booker-Lee bill, and too much is going to the least effective practices.
Estimated Agricultural Use for Chlorpyrifos, 2015
hanks to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, 30 million pounds of brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos will be sprayed on crops over the next five years.
‘A Civil Action’ Carcinogen Pollutes Tap Water Supplies for 14 Million Americans
Under Trump, EPA Retreats From Proposed Ban on Key Uses of TCE
Across U.S., Toxic Blooms Pollute Lakes:
EWG’s interactive nationwide map shows locations of reported toxic algae outbreaks since 2010.
170 Million in U.S. Drink Radioactive Tap Water:
Radium Contamination in Public Water Supplies Nationwide
Raccoon Watershed Riparian Buffer Losses and Gains:
Iowa Cities Struggle to Keep Farm Pollution Out of Tap Water
1,4-dioxane in nearly 90 million Americans' drinking water supplies:
Carcinogen 1,4-dioxane Taints Tap Water Nationwide
Mapping a Contamination Crisis
PFCs Pollute Tap Water for 15 Million People, Dozens of Industrial Sites
Environmentally Sensitive Land Lost to Agriculture
Almost three-fourths of the protected acres were lost in just 10 states.
N.C. Bill to Shield CAFOs’ Liability Would Curb Legal Rights for Hundreds of Thousands
North Carolina lawmakers are rushing to pass legislation to alter the legal rights of property owners.
Trump Plan to Gut Stream Protections Imperils Tap Water of 117 Million Americans
The Trump administration is threatening to remove safeguards that protect the drinking water of more than one-third of Americans.
Is Federal Crop Insurance Policy Leading to Another Dust Bowl?
Federal crop insurance policy is rewarding Southern Great Plains farmers’ failure to adapt to drought and hotter weather, and encouraging practices that could lead to another Dust Bowl, according to a new report by the Environmental Working Group.
'Erin Brockovich' Carcinogen in Tap Water of More than 200 Million Americans
EWG estimates that water supplies serving 218 million Americans – more than two-thirds of the population – contain unsafe levels of chromium-6.
Exposing Fields of Filth: North Carolina Animal Feeding Operations
Detailed, aerial descriptions of the CAFO operations themselves, including the exact locations of the manure and waste pits.
[By County]
Exposing Fields of Filth: North Carolina Animal Feeding Operations
[By Watershed]
Exposing Fields of Filth: North Carolina Animal Feeding Operations
[By Blockgroup]
Exposing Fields of Filth: North Carolina Animal Feeding Operations
Crop Insurance: An Annual Disaster
When you buy home or car insurance, you expect to collect only when there’s a disaster – a tornado, a hailstorm or a collision. If there was a policy that paid out year after year, you only had to pay less than half of the premium and you’d actually make money from buying it, you’d jump at it – but the insurer would be foolish.
[Wheat]
Federal Crop Insurance: A Lottery That's a Sure Bet
[Soybeans]
Federal Crop Insurance: A Lottery That's a Sure Bet
[Cotton]
Federal Crop Insurance: A Lottery That's a Sure Bet
[Corn]
Federal Crop Insurance: A Lottery That's a Sure Bet
Communities Near GMO Fields Sprayed By Monsanto's Glyphosate
EWG mapped corn and soybean fields located near almost 15,000schools and churches. Check out the map to see the amounts of glyphosate sprayed on farmland in each county.
[Lower 48]
Teflon Chemical Harmful at Smallest Doses
[Hawaii]
Teflon Chemical Harmful at Smallest Doses
[Alaska]
Teflon Chemical Harmful at Smallest Doses
Monsanto’s GMO Weed Killer Sprayed on Fields Close to 12,000 Churches
Genetically engineered crops, commonly called “GMOs,” have led to an explosion in the use of toxic weed killers linked to cancer and other health problems – and people in America’s heartland are most at risk of exposure.
Monsanto’s Glyphosate Blankets GMO Crops Near Schools
Genetically engineered crops, or GMOs, have led to an explosion in growers’ use of herbicides, with the result that children at hundreds of elementary schools across the country go to class close by fields that are regularly doused with escalating amounts of toxic weed killers.
[Union County]
Iowa's Low Hanging Fruit
[Plymouth County]
Iowa's Low Hanging Fruit
[Linn County]
Iowa's Low Hanging Fruit
[Hamilton County]
Iowa's Low Hanging Fruit
[Allamakee County]
Iowa's Low Hanging Fruit
"Washout" Revisited: Survey finds modest progress combatting Iowa soil erosion
In 2013, an Environmental Working Group report titled “WASHOUT” documented that soil erosion across Iowa farm land during that spring’s heavy rains had been far worse than previous estimates – in some cases carrying away a devastating 40 tons of soil in a single week from fragile and poorly protected fields. In many places, runoff carved “ephemeral gullies” as a result of growers’ inadequate conservation measures.
[District Map]
Elementary School Students At Increased Pesticide Risk
[County Map]
Elementary School Students At Increased Pesticide Risk
[Watershed Map]
Broken Stream Banks: Failure to maintain buffer zones worsens farm pollution
[Satellite Map]
Broken Stream Banks: Failure to maintain buffer zones worsens farm pollution
[County Map]
Broken Stream Banks: Failure to maintain buffer zones worsens farm pollution
Washout: Spring Storms Batter Poorly Protected Soil and Streams
Media attention has understandably focused on flooding, especially given the devastating floods that have repeatedly struck the region in recent years.This year, it looks as if the Midwest will dodge the bullet – flooding has been damaging and heart-breaking for those affected, but nothing yet has resembled the scope and devastation of the 1993 and 2008 floods. But the Corn Belt’s rich soil and streams, especially in Iowa, haven’t been as lucky. The storms that pushed streams and rivers out of their banks have battered largely unprotected cropland soils throughout the region, sending tons of mud and farm chemicals into road ditches and streams across the heartland.
Virgin Prairie Goes Under the Plow
Last month, the National Wildlife Federation reported that more than 398,000 acres – 620 square miles – of grasslands, forests and other land were plowed, cleared or otherwise converted to grow crops over a 12-month period from 2011 to 2012.
Subsidies and Ethanol Mandate Fuel Massive Dust Storms
Dust storms have re-emerged across much of Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas, fueled by the same combination of persistent drought, plowing up fragile land and poor public policy that led to the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s.
From Sea to Shining Sea: Subsidy Millionaires Are Everywhere
“Subsidy millionaires” are not your typical family farmers. They are individuals who each year collect more than $1 million each in crop insurance subsidies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Poverty Grows in Many Counties Alongside Higher Farm Subsidies
Many counties where federal crop insurance subsidies rose between 2008 and 2012 also had an increase in poverty over that period, a finding that undermines the oft-repeated arguments that farm subsidies help reduce rural poverty, an Environmental Working Group analysis shows.
Paradise Lost: Conservation Programs Falter as Agricultural Economy Booms
The reality is that the nation’s primary prairie and wetlands protection program – the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) – was not designed to meet the environmental challenges being created by record prices for farm commodities. Because the majority of the land in the program is taken out of agricultural production under 10- and 15-year rental agreements with the owners, cropland that had been “restored” with grasses and trees is increasingly being plowed under to grow crops again as soon as these agreements expire. As a result, the benefits of taxpayers’ investment in these short-term agreements have proved to be fleeting.
[Wetlands Map]
Going, Going, Gone! Millions of Acres of Wetlands and Fragile Land Go Under the Plow
