‘We thought we’d got the numbers wrong’: how a pristine lake came to have the highest levels of ‘forever chemicals’ on record | Pfas

FOr years, Christopher Witt took Birdwatchers to Lake Holloman in the Chihuahuan desert off the 70s at New Mexico. In the middle of the morning, the sun was fighting while huddled in the shadow with the lightness of the van. There were no trees other than a collection of salt cedars on the north shore of the lake. But discomfort did not matter when the pilgrim falcons appeared, sharp in the sky. “It was difficult to leave this place,” says Witt.

The lake – created in 1965 as part of a system of wastewater watershed ponds for the base of the Air Force Holloman – is an improbable oasis. Apart from the small ponds created for livestock, it is the only body of water for thousands of square kilometers in a differently austere landscape. However, Witt says that there was always something slightly bizarre in the foam that would form around the edge. “But I only saw this thing once I knew.”

Few people live here, but those who loved the lake. Online, it was presented as a “free experience without frills” for the campsite. On weekends, up to 20 people have been seen as tents to throw and barbecue on the southern shore.

In 2009, plans were developed to build a pavilion, a beach area and nature trails to encourage more people to take advantage of the region. But all of this changed in 2017 when the authorities discovered what was in the water.

Since then, an alarming image has accumulated the extent of chemical contamination in Holloman. Last month, research co-written by Witt showed that the site had the highest PFAS concentration in water and plants never recorded in the literature evaluated by peers. Each part of the ecosystem is saturated in these “chemicals forever”, including soil, seaweed, invertebrates, fish and reptiles.

The PFAs, which represent “per- and polyfluoroalkyle substances”, are a group of thousands of chemicals made by humans appreciated for their water, heat and grease properties. The same attributes that make them so useful in industrial and consumption products are what makes them so bad when they disclose in the environment, where they can persist for hundreds of years.

The observation point of Witt birds has turned into a “natural field laboratory” to understand how chemicals forever affect ecosystems. He stopped going there for the pleasure of looking at the birds and moved to the study of the region as a biology teacher at the University of New Mexico. “Honestly, I try not to spend too much time there,” he says. “You can use some of these PFAS compounds by contact with the skin, and you can inspire them through air and dust.”

WThe results of the PFAS returned from the laboratory, Witt assumed that it was a mistake. “There was no other analog that we could find for this level of contamination,” he says. “The orders of magnitude with which we are dealing were absolutely shocking. We thought we did something wrong with the conversion of the units. ”

But the figures were correct. Through 23 species of birds and mammals tested, the concentrations of PFAS have an average of tens of thousands of billion, revealed research in 2024. By comparison, in 2019, thousands of dairy cows in Clovis, the New Mexico was shot down because their milk was contaminated by less than six parts per billion.

The main cause of contamination is the fire -fighting foams used in US Air Force training exercises on the Holloman site from 1970 around 1970. The most contaminated individual in the 2024 study was a 1994 specimen of a white foot mouse, showing that pollution has been raised for decades.

A dead killdeer chick was found by his ground nest near the lake. He was sent to the Laboratory for Tests, and his fabrics had the highest PFAS concentration recorded to date in a bird, according to the article of 2025.

The revelations concerning the PFA in the water of the lake have sparked prosecution of the environment of the environment of the New Mexico against the military. In the United States, there are more than 9,000 active legal cases linked to the production or release of PFAS.

But for Witt and other researchers in the field, the scientific investigation was just beginning. He describes the state of current research as a “meli-melo of polls here and there”, all saying that we still do not know enough about how PFA moves in food networks on a global scale and how they could affect fauna.

Now the corpus of evidence of the impact of the PFAS on fauna increases.

In Michigan, the fish of the Arlequin crapel turned out to swim more slowly after exposure to the PFAs, which suggests that they could be physically or neurologically altered. Exhibited black leg kittiwakes develop thyroid dysfunctions and hormonal imbalances. Marine turtles in contaminated sites in Australia produce newborns to distorted scales and health problems. The American alligators in North Carolina are more sensitive to infections, while the dolphins in South Carolina show signs of chronic inflammation.

More than 600 species on each continent are at risk of prejudice, according to a map of the environmental working group (EWG) illustrating how harmful chemicals filter through ecosystems. When they started mapping research, “we thought:” It will be a quick project of a month “- so you quickly realize that there are hundreds and hundreds of studies,” said David Andrews, acting director of EWG. “It turned out to be a significant amount of work.”

It is likely that these chemicals are species threatening with additional stress, as well as climate degradation and loss of habitat. “Nothing escapes these chemicals – this is not something that you can get away from it,” says Andrews.

The impacts on health in humans, such as cancers, hormonal disturbance and disturbances of the immune system, are increasingly well documented. Research shows that there are parallels in wildlife. “What we see is a health damage scheme that overlap between humans and wild species that have been studied,” explains Andrews. Since sampling becomes cheaper and more accessible worldwide and tests are carried out, the PFA card in fauna will continue to develop, he said.

The accumulation of PFAS in wildlife also raises questions for those who hunt or consume wild meat. At Lake Holloman, even a single gram of duck meat would be too toxic to eating safely, depending on the average concentrations of PFAS. However, it is always a popular field for hunting.

Researchers are testing 400 ducks through the state to determine if contaminants jump hotspots such as Holloman to other wetlands. The preliminary results are “concern”, explains Witt, showing generalized contamination. This could be due to the fact that sites of sites like Holloman distribute, or because there are other contaminated sites in the United States, or a combination of the two. “When you eat wild duck meat, probably everywhere in North America, you ride the dice in a way,” he said.

Now, instead of looking at birds, Witt mixes with camouflage hunters, capturing ducks and other birds and mammals to test their bodies for the APFs. “I really have feelings in conflict on this subject; It’s a beautiful place, it’s so biodiversity and yet really disturbed, ”explains Witt. “I feel a feeling of urgency to understand what happens to the birds that are there.”

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