JOHNSON COUNTY, Texas — Ranchers here say their cattle, fish and horses are dying and getting sick because of a fertilizer spread on nearby farmland.The company that makes the fertilizer says its products meet government standards.
Ames said she found what she later learned were piles of fertilizer made from biosolids, which come from human waste and are full of what researchers call PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals.”For a year, Detective Ames partnered with scientists and experts to try to figure out how toxic manmade chemicals ended up on ranchland in rural Texas.“The contamination that has occurred on our victims’ properties is pervasive,” she told commissioners in her presentation., or PEER, say happened.
“It’s scary and I think our clients are hopeful there will be some relief for them,” said attorney Mary Whittle, “but they are looking at having to abandon their farms and potentially euthanize all their animals, which is extremely emotional and hard to face.”In an emailed statement, Layne Baroldi, Synagro’s vice president of government affairs, told us that the company denies the allegations in the lawsuit, and said its fertilizer is safe.
The farmers who buy it “are led to believe this is safe and it’s cheap fertilizer and they have been victimized as much as anybody,” said Johnson County Commissioner Larry WooleyDetective Ames saidtested the tissue of the cows, fish and horses that died on Coleman’s ranch. She said they found extremely high levels of PFAS in animal tissue. Tests also found it in the well water in Johnson County. Eurofins is a TCEQ state approved certified lab.
The TCEQ told WFAA that “biosolids that have met rigid requirements to prevent contamination from metals... and significantly reduce pathogens may be approved for land application.” “This stuff should be banned all across America,” said rancher Tony Coleman. “I mean, what are our children going to do? You are ruining their land. You are ruining their water source... This has to stop.”