PFAS

https://wisconsinrivers.org/job-water-programs-manager/

Download the full job description for details and instructions on how to apply.

Job opening: Development and Administrative Assistant

On: September 14, 2026

In: Jobs, PFAS

Job opening: Development and Administrative Assistant

If you have strong administrative skills and are looking for a part-time way to support two statewide environmental protection nonprofits, apply for our new, shared position.

River Alliance of Wisconsin and Midwest Environmental Advocates are jointly seeking a Development and Administrative Assistant. The individual will be a part-time, hourly employee of both organizations. Hours per week between the two organizations are expected to range from 20-24 hours.

This is a unique opportunity for a talented development and administrative professional to support the work of both our organizations.

DEADLINE: For priority consideration, apply by September 27, 2026. Applications will be considered until the position is filled. No calls, please.

Expected start date October 19, 2026

The post Job opening: Development and Administrative Assistant appeared first on River Alliance of WI.

https://wisconsinrivers.org/job-development-administrative-assistant/

Grace Dugan’s inspired 328-mile Wisconsin River solo paddle

On: July 10, 2026

In: PFAS, Recreation

Grace Dugan’s inspired 328-mile Wisconsin River solo paddle

Paddlers, summer campers and Wisconsin River lovers will want to hear about Grace Dugan, a young woman who will embark on a 328-mile solo paddle on the Wisconsin River from Tomahawk to the Mississippi River Confluence near Prairie du Chien in August. She’ll even navigate the river with her own hand-drawn maps!

Read on for more about why she’s taking this trip, and why she is asking her supporters to contribute to the water protection efforts of River Alliance of Wisconsin.

The post Grace Dugan’s inspired 328-mile Wisconsin River solo paddle appeared first on River Alliance of WI.

https://wisconsinrivers.org/grace/

Hear an interview with leaders of the Friends of the Little Wolf with Communications Director Stacy Harbaugh on the VMO Show.

Paddling a free Little Wolf for the first time in nearly 150 years

On: July 8, 2026

In: Dam Removal, flooding, PFAS, Recreation

Paddling a free Little Wolf for the first time in nearly 150 years

On June 28, 2026, we joined supporters of the Friends of the Little Wolf River for a paddle near Manawa, WI.

On the July 4 weekend of 2024, Manawa received so much rain that the abutment of the dam on the Little Wolf gave away, effectively destroying a structure that had been in place for nearly 150 years. Since then, the greater Manawa community has debated the future of the dam, the mill pond the dam created, and the Little Wolf River itself.

Manawa dam in the Little Wolf River

Out of that community conversation formed a new friendship between Ben Hlaban and Nick Heise. They are calling for the Little Wolf to remain a free-flowing river. Both have deep family ties to the area and grew up fishing in the Little Wolf. They believe a free-flowing river is key to a more natural path to flood resilience in a changing climate where the next 100- or 500-year flood is no longer a matter of “if” but “when.”

The best way to learn about the beauty and benefits of a free-flowing river is to experience it first hand. So we loaded up our kayaks and helped a couple dozen fellow river enthusiasts join us on a guided trip.

A changing river

In between waving to neighbors, pointing out bird species, and picking up trash, Ben and Nick explained how much the riverbed has changed since the 2024 flood. What used to be a mill pond is now a flowing river with clear water, native mussels, cold water tributaries, and migratory sturgeon.

They pointed out good fishing spots, a train bridge that could be a future segment of the Tomorrow River trail, and how rain and the river have pushed sand and sediment into new places.

“The first thing I noticed was how quiet it was,” said River Alliance of Wisconsin Communications Director Stacy Harbaugh. “You just hear birds and the breeze. I also expected the gap between the former shoreline of the mill pond and the edge of the river to be more dramatic. What we saw was a river, a floodplain, and a lot of potential for restoration of this paddler’s delight.”

We stopped for lunch (catered by the friendly local diner, Sunrise Cafe) and a discussion at a local park where we heard from Ben and Nick about the options for the community. Undeterred by a little rain, we continued on to paddle past the former dam and into a more heavily wooded area that will be stunning in the fall. We wrapped up our trip with a visit to Linda Mae’s, a local ice cream parlor, for treats.

The future of the Little Wolf

The community of Manawa, WI is still debating what to do about the dam. The City of Manawa’s consultants say that the dam cannot be fixed. Rebuilding the dam would cost $8 million. Removing the remnants of the structure and letting the river flow freely would cost around $700,000.

What isn’t included in that estimate is how a healthy river and floodplain can help protect the community from flood damage in the future. There are still a lot of misconceptions about the role of dams in flood control.

The best place to learn about opportunities for public comments on the future of the Little Wolf River is by following the Friends of the Little Wolf on Facebook.

Other resources

Read an opinion piece in Silent Sports magazine that is a deep-dive into the history of the Manawa mill pond, why dams are contentious, and why a free-flowing river has value by Timothy Bauer of Miles paddled.

Timothy also documented the stretch of river we traveled back in October 2025 for Miles Paddled where you’ll find descriptions of where to put in and take out, the boulder gardens, and the little riffles that make the trip exciting. The included YouTube video gives you a good idea of what the river looked like in that snapshot of time.

The post Paddling a free Little Wolf for the first time in nearly 150 years appeared first on River Alliance of WI.

https://wisconsinrivers.org/little-wolf-river-paddle-2026/

New study traces PFAS in Great Lakes food webs over 40 years

On: July 1, 2026

In: Featured, Food, Grist, ipr, PFAS, University of Notre Dame, Water quality

By Vivian La, IPR

This story is made possible through a partnership between Interlochen Public Radio and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

Researchers from the University of Notre Dame have developed the most comprehensive look yet at how PFAS moves through the food web in the Great Lakes.

The study published this spring in the Journal of Environmental Quality analyzed 42 years of studies and combined nearly 2,500 samples of algae, fish, birds and other organisms — in what’s called a meta-analysis — to identify trends.

PFAS refers to a group of man-made and long-lasting compounds linked to a range of human health issues. It can enter waterways through landfills, wastewater and industrial facilities.

“What we’re finding is that the food web itself is a vehicle for transferring these chemicals from one organism to another,” said Gary Lamberti, aquatic science professor at Notre Dame and a study co-author. “So it’s a more holistic view than we’ve known before.”

The study identified a dramatic decrease over the last two decades of one PFAS chemical known as PFOS, following a voluntary phase out by industries in the early 2000s.

“If we stop manufacturing these chemicals, they will eventually reduce in concentration in the food web,” Lamberti said. “That’s kind of good news for how we can manage these chemicals.”

Those declines were seen in the lower Great Lakes — Ontario and Erie — likely because these areas are home to the heavy industries that used the chemical.

But there was little to no decline in PFOS in the upper Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron, most likely because the water bodies are larger that the lower lakes. In contrast to the shallower Lakes Erie and Ontario, water can stay in the upper lakes anywhere from about 60 to 170 years.

The study also confirmed that these chemicals increase in concentration as they travel up the food chain. Algae and plants have the lowest concentration, according to the study, because they grow and die quickly.

A map showing where samples included in the study were taken from the Great Lakes. (Image courtesy of the Journal of Environmental Quality)

But predators like salmon and eagles had the highest concentration because they’re eating a large amount of prey that have a lot of accumulated PFAS.

Potentially dangerous levels of these chemicals in fish have prompted warnings across the state on how much is safe to eat. Michigan has been testing fish for PFAS since 2012.

“If we can understand what the PFAS levels are in the food web, we can better communicate the risk of consuming those potentially toxic food sources,” said Katherine Manz, an environmental health professor at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the study.

But because PFAS chemicals are in everyday products and they’re very hard to avoid, Manz said her best advice is to use less. Online databases can help consumers avoid certain chemicals.

Manz said the study also pointed out some interesting gaps in research on PFAS dynamics, like a lack of data on certain species.

It was easy to find PFAS data on salmon, trout, and some birds, Lamberti said. But information on the “less glamorous” smaller fish, invertebrates or algae was harder.

The study only focused on six of the PFAS chemicals most commonly tested for, but there are more than 15,000 types out there, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Tools to analyze the range of these chemicals are still evolving, said Vernon Lalone, CEO of Traverse City-based startup Wave Lumina that’s developing a rapid testing kit for PFAS in water and soil.

“It’s like a chicken and an egg situation,” said Lalone, who wasn’t involved in the study. “You’ve got to have an analytical method that’s robust and reliable enough to measure these things before you can regulate them at certain limits.”

Lamberti said there’s still plenty of questions about how these chemicals will shift in the lakes as temperatures rise due to climate change, ice formation shifts and as industries introduce new chemicals.

“Anything we put into the Great Lakes will be there for an extremely long time, not only the water, but all the chemicals that it has, so we have to be very cognizant of how we treat the lakes and what we put into them,” Lamberti said.

The post New study traces PFAS in Great Lakes food webs over 40 years appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

Interlochen Public Radio and Grist

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/07/01/new-study-traces-pfas-in-great-lakes-food-webs-over-40-years/

North Bay’s PFAS problem: 5 things to know about a ‘forever chemicals’ hotspot in Ontario

On: June 30, 2026

In: forever chemicals, great lakes news collaborative, Latest News, North Bay, Ontario, PFAS, The narwhal, Water quality

By Leah Borts-Kuperman, The Narwhal

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS, Michigan Public and The Narwhal who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work HERE.

Gathered in an arena in North Bay, Ont., in summer 2024, federal officials told hundreds of concerned citizens how they planned to remediate longstanding contamination of the city’s waterways left behind by the Department of National Defence. A few months later, officials gave a similar presentation to a packed hotel conference room.

For nearly a decade now, residents have known about the contamination. Some have been told not to drink the water from their own wells, and everyone in the city has been warned not to drink water or eat fish from a creek outside town.

The creek is part of a system of waterways where carcinogenic “forever chemicals” run downstream from a military base, emptying into Trout Lake, the source of the city’s drinking water. It sits at nearly double Health Canada’s guideline for PFAS in drinking water, measured in nanograms per litre.

Health Canada published an “objective” level of 30 nanograms per litre in August 2024 for 25 chemicals in the PFAS family. That’s less than half of what Ontario currently recommends: 70 nanograms per litre, pertaining to just 11 PFAS chemicals. And that’s just a suggestion, not a binding regulation.

The city did not reply to The Narwhal’s detailed questions regarding the current state of the drinking water supply, but CBC reported in February 2026 that Trout Lake contained around 58 nanograms of PFAS per litre of water.

Thousands of substances classified as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, are used to make everything from medical equipment to waterproof clothing. They can generate hazardous waste which, if not disposed of carefully, contaminates air, water and soil — where it can remain for 1,000 years, hence their other nickname, “forever chemicals.”

Statistics Canada reports almost all Canadians already have PFAS in their bodies, including in remote regions such as the Arctic and subarctic.

In North Bay, the issue is top of mind, with a class-action lawsuit, a lengthy and expensive remediation plan and a new factory importing chemicals from the Teflon-like subgroup of PFAS, called PTFE. And the company behind that factory, Industrial Plastics Canada, is one of the 10 major importers of PTFE in Canada.

While PFAS have been making global headlines for years as an emerging threat to the environment and our bodies, North Bay knows the issue intimately; citizens fear for their water as politicians try to clean up the mess.

Here’s everything you need to know about PFAS in North Bay.

1. North Bay’s PFAS contamination comes from firefighting foam

From the early 1970s to the mid-1990s, the Department of National Defence used a fire suppression foam containing PFAS to train firefighters across Canada, including near the North Bay Jack Garland Airport. In 2016, after the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit learned PFAS had been identified by the Department of National Defence in waterways around the city, it commissioned consulting firm Stantec to assess the impacts on soil and groundwater.

It’s the invisible nature of these chemicals that are part of what makes them so insidious; you can’t see them or smell them, so you don’t know they’re there without testing.

“When you look at a mine, for example, you can see it and say, ‘That’s obviously disruptive to our ecosystem.’” North Bay-based environmental anthropologist Carly Dokis previously told The Narwhal. “But these things are invisible pollutants, which then tend to attract less public awareness.”

Stantec found PFAS from the foam had contaminated soil, bedrock, groundwater, private wells and several waterways in the region including Trout Lake, Lake Nipissing and Lees, Dorlan, Chippewa and La Vase creeks and surrounding areas.

Long-lasting “forever chemicals” known as PFAS have contaminated surface water, soil, bedrock and groundwater near the Jack Garland Airport, including the municipal drinking water system, private wells and waterways around Nipissing District. (Image credit: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal)

In 2025, reporting by the Investigative Journalism Bureau surfaced a report by the Royal Military College showing the Department of National Defence found elevated PFAS levels around the base as far back as 2012. That means the department knew about the contamination for five years before revealing it to the City of North Bay in 2016, and the public in 2017.

2. PFAS impacts health, environment and property values. Residents are seeking recompense

In late 2025, North Bay citizens filed a proposed class-action lawsuit asking for remediation, safe drinking water and $105 million in damages for residents living within a three-kilometre radius of the 22 Wing Canadian Forces Base and Jack Garland Airport. Some of the people who live closest to the contamination have been receiving bottled water from the government for years, but have had no other opportunity for recourse.

The proposed lawsuit, if certified by the court, would be against the City of North Bay and the Attorney General of Canada, on behalf of the Department of National Defence, focusing on the loss of property value and remediation costs. The case is also seeking punitive damages, contending that National Defence was aware of the contamination long before warning residents.

Not mentioned in the suit is the long list of health concerns associated with “forever chemicals.”

The United States Environmental Protection Agency lists potential health risks of exposure to PFAS, including reproductive problems like infertility, developmental effects in children, increased risk of certain cancers and weakening of the body’s immune system, including reduced vaccine response. The Canadian government says PFAS can be transferred through the placenta during pregnancy, and infants can be exposed through human milk.

Ecosystems are affected, too. Studies have shown exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances can stunt plant growth and cause reduced seed germination and ability to photosynthesize. The chemicals can build up in the organs of living creatures throughout the food chain. In the district of Nipissing, that poses a risk to people who hunt, fish and harvest from the land.

“These industrial areas are often surrounded by lower-income buildings and peoples and communities,” Curtis Avery, environment department manager with Nipissing First Nation, told The Narwhal in summer 2023. “We’re the most vulnerable group of people that utilize our lands — the lands are our grocery stores. … If these are being impacted, we need to know.”

NORTH BAY, Ont. (06/21/23) – Looking down onto the new Industrial Plastics Canada factory site from the top of Wallace Road in North Bay, Ontario. Beautiful forested area, Circle Lake, and important ecosystems for pollinators surround the site. Despite the effect the factory’s PTFE byproducts will have on North Bay’s environment, no assessments were required and the public has little awareness of its construction, due to open July 2023. (Photo credit: Vanessa Tignanelli / The Narwhal)

3. Cost of North Bay clean-up grew five-fold, to more than $100 million

In 2021, the City of North Bay announced plans to begin remediation under a “shared responsibility” agreement between the Department of National Defence and the city. The federal department would cover 97 per cent of the costs, or $19.4 million, and the city would cover the remaining three per cent, at $600,000. But costs have ballooned since then; in December 2025, National Defence announced it would contribute another nearly $100 million to the remediation, with the city’s share rising to more than $3.6 million. The total for the cleanup project has risen to more than $122 million.

The remediation, which began on the ground in 2024, includes excavating and disposing of about 26,000 tonnes of PFAS-impacted soil; injecting activated carbon material into particularly dense patches of PFAS to stop the underground plume from spreading; and installing a filtration system to treat water leaving the site.

“We remain committed to addressing and managing the operational legacy of the Canadian Armed Forces responsibly,” Minister of National Defence David J. McGuinty said in a news release.

As part of the process, a notice went up on the federal Impact Assessment Agency registry on April 28, inviting the public to comment up until June 5 on a proposal to install a 250-metre permeable barrier in the ground to help filter impacted groundwater. A spokesperson for the agency said its role in the project is to offer advice on determining its environmental effects, as well as providing the opportunity to post the project on the registry.

Local organizations, including the environmental group Northwatch, said in a press release that they were concerned about “very limited public engagement over the last ten years since the public disclosure of the contamination,” counting only the two forums in 2024 and 2025, where there was “limited opportunities for the public to ask questions.”

Northwatch’s project coordinator Brennain Lloyd told The Narwhal about the public notice period, which she said her organization only learned of in a daily bulletin from the Impact Assessment Agency listing multiple assessment notices from across the country.

“To the best of our knowledge there were no local announcements or invitations to comment issued to the many residents and organizations who have identified their interest in this program,” a release from Northwatch reads.

The Department of National Defence did not respond to questions from The Narwhal.

4. North Bay’s not alone: contaminated military bases affect communities across Canada

Contamination on federal sites is an issue across Canada. There are thousands of contaminated sites listed on the federal contaminated sites inventory, and PFAS are found on more than 100 of them. These include at least 26 National Defence sites including bases in Trenton, Ont., Gagetown, N.B., and Moose Jaw, Sask.

And contaminants don’t stop at the fenceline. Health Canada says some contaminants can travel long distances through soil, water and air: “PFAS can be found in fresh water and drinking water in areas that are far away from where they entered the environment,” according to the department’s website.

NORTH BAY, Ont. (06/21/23) – The main office building of Industrial Plastics Canada on Wallace Road in North Bay, Ontario, where construction is currently underway for the new factory opening July 2023. The factory plans to manufacture PTFE, Teflon-like chemicals harmful to humans, wildlife and ecosystems, no environmental assessment required. PTFE are commonly known as “forever chemicals,” because they can generate hazardous waste which, if not disposed of carefully, contaminates air, water and soil where it can remain for about 1,000 years. (Photo credit: Vanessa Tignanelli / The Narwhal)

5. Industry is still importing PFAS-class chemicals into North Bay

While the Canadian government no longer uses firefighting foam that contains PFAS, industry continues to bring these substances into the country. In 2023, The Narwhal reported on an international plastics conglomerate that opened its first Canadian location, Industrial Plastics Canada, in North Bay. The company has a presence across Europe as well as in India and China, billing itself as one of the “largest worldwide manufacturers of PTFE products.”

PTFE, or polytetrafluoroethylene, is a Teflon-like product in a subgroup of PFAS known as fluoropolymers, or fluoroplastics. A company spokesperson previously told The Narwhal the use of PTFE at the factory will not produce waste and poses “no risk.” The company also says fluoropolymers aren’t as dangerous as other PFAS and are “considered safe, non-bioaccumulative and non-toxic.”

But fluoropolymers have been found to be dangerous to human health, according to research published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology and others.

In 2023, Health Canada released a draft assessment of the state of PFAS in Canada to help decide how to regulate the class of chemicals. In it, the agency cited an industry-funded study that said fluoropolymers should be considered separately from other PFAS as “polymers of low concern.” A Health Canada spokesperson said the agency, along with Environment and Climate Change Canada, “examined information from a wide range of sources,” including scientific journals and reports while preparing the state of PFAS report.

The substances were ultimately excluded from the final report, released in March 2025, in which Health Canada proposed classifying the remaining PFAS chemicals as toxic substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

The Health Canada spokesperson said in an email that fluoropolymers “have specific properties that differentiates them from other PFAS,” which led to their exclusion from the final report. They added that the exclusion “should not be interpreted as meaning they are or are not of concern,” and that a separate fluoropolymer assessment is currently underway.

The exclusion of PTFE from that classification was a major priority for industry, Rémy Alexandre, toxics project lead at environmental law non-profit EcoJustice, told The Narwhal.

According to data collected by Alexandre, who studied Industrial Plastics Canada’s imports to North Bay, the company brought in almost 207,000 kilograms of PTFE from India and China from July 2025 to May 2026.

This puts the facility on the list of the 10 major importers of PTFE in Canada, alongside U.S.-based chemicals company Chemours, a spinoff of Dupont that has been arguing that the European Union should exempt fluoropolymers from their regulations, too.

“The decision to site this plant in a community that is an existing hotspot for PFAS raises concerns,” Alexandre told The Narwhal. “And so does the selection of a jurisdiction that isn’t regulating fluoropolymers.”

The post North Bay’s PFAS problem: 5 things to know about a ‘forever chemicals’ hotspot in Ontario appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/06/30/north-bays-pfas-problem-5-things-to-know-about-a-forever-chemicals-hotspot-in-ontario/

The Narwhal

Manawa: Paddle the Little Wolf River with us on June 28

On: June 11, 2026

In: Dam Removal, flooding, PFAS, Recreation

Manawa: Paddle the Little Wolf River with us on June 28

River Alliance of Wisconsin welcomes paddlers to join us on the Little Wolf River near Manawa, WI for a recreational opportunity to experience a free-flowing Little Wolf after the destruction of a dam after a storm and flood in 2024.

Join us on the Little Wolf River

On Sunday, June 28, we will meet up at 10 a.m. at a riverside location north of Manawa, Wisconsin. Location details will be sent to event registrants by email. Bring your own boat, and we will assist with a vehicle shuttle. A boxed lunch will be provided. Weather updates or an event cancellation will be shared with registrants the morning of the event by email. There is no rain date for this paddle.

Why paddle the Little Wolf

Paddling a free-flowing Little Wolf River is a significant action. There has been a millpond in Manawa since the 1870s when settlers dammed the river for the logging industry, and the dam was rebuilt in 1920s as a small hydropower dam. The segment of the river hasn’t flowed freely in 150 years.

On July 5 2024, heavy rains impacted the land around the Manawa Dam. The banks eroded, the flooded millpond destroyed part of the dam, and areas of the city including the annual Mid-Western Rodeo had to be evacuated. Since then, the Manawa community and their neighbors have debated whether to repair, rebuild, or remove the Manawa Dam, which had structural deficiencies even prior to the flood.

A feasibility study by the Cedar Corporation emphasized that repair was not feasible, replacement would cost $8.4 million, and removing the remnants of the dam and restoring the shoreline could cost as little as $700,000. From a cost perspective, the solution is clear. But what is harder to measure is the ecological and recreational value of the Little Wolf River.

That’s why we hope you’ll join us to see how the river has returned to a free-flowing state. We can witness the return of plants on its banks, scout for native mussels, and talk about what a river could do for the community’s future flood resilience in a changing climate. Bonus: we’ll get ice cream at the end of the trip!

This message is made possible by generous donors who believe people have the power to protect and restore water. Subscribe to our Word on the Stream email newsletter to receive stories, action alerts and event invitations in your inbox. Support our work with your contribution today.

The post Manawa: Paddle the Little Wolf River with us on June 28 appeared first on River Alliance of WI.

https://wisconsinrivers.org/little-wolf-paddle-2026/

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Madison: Fools’ Flotilla returns on June 14

On: May 28, 2026

In: Fools' Flotilla, PFAS, Recreation

Madison: Fools’ Flotilla returns on June 14

River Alliance of Wisconsin welcomes boaters to return to Madison’s Yahara River for the Fools’ Flotilla on June 14. The free community event is a part of the annual Marquette Neighborhood Association’s Waterfront Festival. The floating parade will include live music and costumes are encouraged. The gathering begins on the Tenney Park end of the Yahara River at 9:30 a.m. and the parade launches at 10:30 a.m.

“What began as a playful way for neighbors to float to the Waterfront Festival has become a beloved Madison tradition,” said River Alliance of Wisconsin Executive Director Allison Werner. “We keep it going because we think it’s as important to enjoy the river as it is to work to protect it.”

Fools’ Flotilla invites those with canoes, kayaks, or creative and sturdy floats to join a parade from Tenney Park Locks to Yahara Place Park. Costumes for people, pets, and boats are encouraged and celebrated. Boats may be registered online in advance to receive logistics emails.

Visit our FAQ page for maps and complete details.

NOTE: due to a new housing development in the Tenney Park neighborhood, parking near the park will be sharply limited. Those participating by boat are encouraged to put in at Yahara Place Park on Lake Monona, paddle up river to join us by 10:30 a.m., and float back towards Lake Monona.

The Marquette Neighborhood Association’s Waterfront Festival will celebrate its 37th year of live music, family-friendly events, an array of vendors from local businesses, artists, restaurants, and craft beer and wine tents.

Local businesses are invited to sponsor this high-visibility Fools’ Flotilla event. Contact Development Director Evan Arnold at earnold@wisconsinrivers.org.

The post Madison: Fools’ Flotilla returns on June 14 appeared first on River Alliance of WI.

https://wisconsinrivers.org/fools-flotilla-2026/

MSU study: PFAS can affect immune response

On: April 13, 2026

In: Michigan, PFAS, Water Quality and Restoration Efforts

By Sarah Cwiek, Michigan Public

The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit PBS; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work HERE.

Compounds from the family of chemicals known as PFAS can suppress the body’s ability to mount a defense against new pathogens — and the effects can last well into adulthood.

That’s one conclusion from a new Michigan State University study that looked at how people in two West Michigan communities that had PFAS-contaminated water responded to the virus that causes COVID-19.

Courtney Carignan, an environmental epidemiologist and the lead researcher for the MSU team, had already been conducting PFAS impact studies in Parchment and Cooper Township near Kalamazoo. Both communities were home to paper mills, and in 2018, state testing found that public water supplies had been historically contaminated.

Carignan said it’s well-established that PFAS chemicals are immunotoxic in children, but it’s been harder to study that impact on adults. That’s because adult immune systems have already been exposed to a number of pathogens that trained their immune systems to respond by producing antibodies, the frontline “soldiers” of immune response.

So when the COVID pandemic struck, Carignan and her team took the opportunity to look at the immune responses in adults participating in the existing research. And what they found was striking: a strong link between blood levels of a certain PFAS compound — perfluorohexanesulfonic acid, or PFHxS — and fewer defensive antibodies being produced in response to COVID exposure through vaccination.

“And so we infer then that people who have higher exposures, if they’re producing less antibodies, then their bodies are less able to fight an infection,” Carignan said.

“It reinforces what we know about these contaminants — that they have been phased out of use because they’re known to be harmful, that they are immunotoxic, and that these effects persist into adulthood.”

Carignan added that while some classes of PFAS have been phased out, including PFHxS, thousands more remain in use.

They’re known as “forever chemicals” because of how long they take to break down in the environment and in human bodies. In addition to immunotoxic properties, they’re also known endocrine disruptors and linked to multiple types of cancer.

PFAS are so prevalent in the environment that nearly everyone has some level of them present in their body. However, Carignan said there doesn’t appear to be a link to suppressed immune response correlated with those lower levels.

“Most of us, unfortunately, do have these chemicals in our body,” she said. “[But] at those levels, we don’t really see not producing enough antibodies to be protected.”

The study comes at a time when the U.S. is still debating PFAS standards for drinking water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized its first enforceable drinking water standards for certain PFAS chemicals in 2024, but implementation timelines and enforcement for some compounds have since been pushed back, according to Carignan. Michigan, however, has its own standards.

“I think Michiganders can know that our state is doing more than other states, and we have more protections,” Carignan said. “That’s a good thing.”

The post MSU study: PFAS can affect immune response appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/04/13/msu-study-pfas-can-affect-immune-response/

Michigan Public

Madison: join us for the 17th annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival

On: March 17, 2026

In: PFAS, Wild & Scenic, Wild and Scenic

Madison: join us for the 17th annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival

For the seventeenth year, River Alliance of Wisconsin and the Barrymore Theatre will be proud hosts of the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Madison. The evening of films, curated by River Alliance, is guaranteed to leave you inspired to get outside, paddle and be a voice for our waters.

Wild & Scenic Film Festival

Thursday, April 30

Barrymore Theatre, 2090 Atwood Ave. Madison, WI

Doors open at 6 p.m.

Program begins at 7 p.m.

Buy tickets online or skip the fees and buy tickets from Barrymore Theatre ticket outlets.

Buy 2026 Wild & Scenic tickets

2026 film program

A girl sits at the edge of a river on a rafting trip and journals about her experience.

Beyond Beliefs

A young woman from Cleveland, Ohio earns a scholarship to attend a 4-day river trip through the wild Green River’s Gates of Lodore Canyon. The only catch … she doesn’t know how to swim and is terrified of water. Join Danielle and her peers on this wonderful journey, and bear witness to her inspiring first-hand account of what it took to go beyond her beliefs about water, and how that expanded the vision for her future.

Who will love this movie: river rafting enthusiasts and those who know it’s never too late to learn a skill.

A man walks through a lush, green forest

HYPERSCALED

Increased energy and water demands from the rapid development of large data centers driven by technological advancements like AI are increasing threats to communities across the Southeast. HYPERSCALED unearths the real world cost of AI as residents fight to get answers about the costly impacts of this water and energy sucking industry. Much like a vampire, the proposed “Project Marvel” is projected to consume unprecedented amounts of water and energy from the backyards of concerned communities.

Who will love this movie: those who are concerned about the community impacts of data centers.

A man holds a book up so his child can see. His child is sitting and pointing a hair dryer at his dad.

A Little Story About Forever

This short film about forever unfolds from the POVs of father (max) and son (kip) as they attempt to write a book about what forever means. The father feels overwhelmed by all of the threats to forever, like forever chemicals, and calls an unlikely hero – Kenosha’s own Mark Ruffalo – to ask for help seeing the big picture.

Who will love this movie: people who love creative animation in film and parents looking for inspiration on how to talk to their kids about how to take care of our planet.

The Klamath River runs naturally through an area that once was the Iron Gate dam.

Native to the Klamath

The Klamath River is currently going through one of the largest transformations in history. “Native to the Klamath” intertwines environmental restoration, reconciliation ecology, social justice, and traditional ecological knowledge. Hear the story of this river renewal through the words of the Klamath River peoples who live by the sacred obligation of stewardship.

Who will love this movie: paddlers and those inspired by river restoration.

Gigiigemin Baaga’adoweyang “We are healed by stickball”

In its creation story, the game of Baaga’adowewin is given as a gift and tool for life. After forced assimilation, the game was suppressed and remained dormant for almost a century. This film shares the return of Baaga’adowewin, or stickball, as Ojibwe communities walk the path of cultural revitalization and exercise their treaty rights to continue to heal from historical traumas and overcome challenges of today.

Who will love this movie: la crosse players, athletes and Wisconsin historians.

A man uses an all-terrain wheelchair to hike a trail through the woods. — Accessible travel

Accessible, Inclusive Travel on the Oregon Coast

The Oregon Coast is leading the way in making travel more accessible and inclusive for everyone. From wheelchair-friendly beaches to thoughtful design in coastal towns, this stunning region is ensuring that people of all abilities can experience its beauty. Learn about the innovative programs and community-driven efforts that are changing the travel landscape on the Oregon Coast.

Who will love this movie: anyone who agrees that the outdoors is truly for every body.

Havasupai Tribal members perform traditional dances and songs in protest of the Canyon Uranium Mine on the south rim of Grand Canyon. "We are on the fronts lines of contamination if this mine leaks. It will contaminate our water and kill our people," says Carletta Tulusi, a former tribal council member attending the gathering below Red Butte, the Havasupai sacred peak.

Monumental Moment

For years, shy teenager Maya Tilousi-Lyttle has protested uranium mining near the Grand Canyon alongside her mother, Havasupai advocate Carletta Tilousi. In August 2023, Maya spoke at the podium as President Biden declared the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument — a landmark protection for land sacred to Indigenous peoples for millennia. But lawsuits filed in 2025 now threaten that designation. The fight isn’t over. Maya’s generation must make their voices heard.

Who will love this movie: youth climate justice activists, those who oppose extractive industries, and anyone inspired by Grand Canyon vistas

A man in a button-up shirt stands facing the camera in front of a wall with Explorers Club flags.

The Book of George

George McKenzie Jr. grew up in Brooklyn and found his calling through wildlife photography — swapping street life for the Everglades, capturing everything from city pigeons to elusive panthers. Now a National Geographic Explorer, George is on a deeper mission: empowering kids of color to engage with conservation. In a field that remains predominantly white, he’s living proof that your background shouldn’t limit your dreams or your impact.

Who will love this movie: wildlife photography enthusiasts and those who have a passion for mentoring youth.

The post Madison: join us for the 17th annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival appeared first on River Alliance of WI.

https://wisconsinrivers.org/wild-and-scenic-2026/

Data Center bills in the Wisconsin State Legislature

On: February 18, 2026

In: data centers, Drinking Water, groundwater, PFAS

Data Center bills in the Wisconsin State Legislature

On February 17, 2026 the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Utilities, Technology, and Tourism held a hearing on data center development bills. River Alliance’s Agriculture and Policy Director Mike Tiboris attended the hearing and submitted the following testimony on why our state should pause new data center construction until our leaders fully understand the implications of how industries with extreme energy and water demands will have on our resources.

Chair Bradley and the members of the Committee on Utilities, Technology, and Tourism:

Thank you for holding this hearing for several bills on the emerging issues related to data center development in Wisconsin. River Alliance of Wisconsin has registered neutral on SB 729 and opposed on both SB 843 and AB 840 as written. River Alliance is a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization that empowers people to protect and restore Wisconsin’s waters at a local level. The organization’s supporters include more than 5,000 individuals and businesses and nearly a hundred local watershed organizations.

All of these bills recognize that we must thoughtfully confront the sudden construction pressure from a rapidly evolving technology. Our concern is that we do not allow Wisconsin’s water, among our most valuable public assets, to be mortgaged for unproven benefits and without adequate protection. A medium-sized data center consumes as much water as 1000 households per year for cooling (110 million gallons). Rapid and improperly regulated data center construction poses a potentially serious threat to our natural water resources. The benefits to Wisconsin of data center construction are unproven, but the hazards to our water are quite clear. Data centers directly use water to cool servers that generate heat either through evaporative cooling or through the addition of contaminants that can be discharged in wastewater and enter the environment. Further, these facilities may invite the construction of new hydropower facilities on already taxed river systems and cause aging, outdated, facilities to stay online. Often touted as “green”, hydropower operations can cause myriad negative environmental impacts, from preventing fish migrations to reducing water quality and water quantity at critical times of the year, affecting aquatic life and recreation.

Our preference in this moment of uncertainty would be to pause all new data center construction until we can develop appropriate legislative mechanisms for managing its downsides. Legislators’ recently proposed moratorium on data center construction should be used to give the Legislature time to create thoughtful controls that ensure new data centers actually benefit Wisconsinites and do not cause problems we could avoid if we took the time to prepare for them. Our abundant natural water and land resources are an obvious attraction for companies that want to build projects in Wisconsin, but we should be very careful to make sure the benefits are not simply handed to companies to export from the state for their own profit at the cost of damage to an irreplaceable public good and, at best, uncertain employment or tax benefits.

SB 729

River Alliance has registered neutral on SB 729. We are supportive of the bill’s emphasis on making sure that data centers pay for the energy that they use and that their usage does not drive up the cost of energy for Wisconsin homeowners. Similarly, it is common sense that such large water users should be required to report on their usage when it accounts for 25 percent or more of the total water usage of all customers for a water utility. Enforcing transparency about usage will help communities, utilities, and municipalities respond appropriately to water demand increases that could have very negative effects on local water sources, ecosystem health, and the costs of water provision.

We support the idea of encouraging data centers to rely on renewable wind and solar energy sources. SB 729 would require that at least 70 percent of the total annual electric energy used by the buildings be derived from renewable resources, as defined under s.16.75(12)(a)4. The definition of “renewable energy” referenced, however, includes hydropower, and we do not support the construction of new hydroelectric generation facilities to power data centers.

Many people believe that hydropower, which uses dams and gravity to spin electricity generating turbines, is a clean, climate-smart, energy source. This is a misconception. While wind and solar power offer renewable low-carbon energy and are generally cheaper than fossil fuels, hydropower can cause environmental damage. Dams and reservoirs alter river flows, raise water temperature, degrade water quality, increase sedimentation in reservoirs, and prevent migrations of fish and native mussels harming aquatic ecosystems and Wisconsin communities. Reservoirs are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, predominantly methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas, that results from eutrophication and harmful algal blooms.

Again, River Alliance supports the approach that SB 729 takes to create water usage transparency and accountability, to ensure that the costs of new energy and water demand are borne by the data centers and not by other customers, and to encourage the use of renewable energy like wind and solar as power sources. We are concerned that, in its current form, the bill will encourage expansions of hydropower generation that will extensively damage aquatic ecosystems and may be more destructive to the climate than fossil fuel use in some cases.

SB 843 and AB 840

The above reasons also underwrite our opposition to both of these bills as written. The bills require that “any renewable energy facility that primarily serves the load of a data center must be located at the site of the data center.” (Section 2. 196.492(2), lines 16-17). Again, using the definition of renewable energy from s. 196.378 (1)(fg), we are concerned this will encourage the construction of new, environmentally damaging, hydropower facilities. Limiting the use of renewable energy to sources constructed on site is unnecessarily restrictive and would likely have the effect of discouraging renewable energy use entirely. Because the bills do not explicitly require that data center owners pay the full cost of their energy use, this will drive up the cost of energy for Wisconsin residents while increasing pollution.

However, the requirements to require reporting to the DNR about annual water usage and to ensure that the costs of reclamation and failure of the facility are borne by the data center owners are sensible.

We are encouraged by the serious interest the Legislature is taking in managing the environmental consequences of data center construction. Given the likelihood that the industry will expand rapidly in the coming years, we hope this is the beginning of a sustained conversation about how to ensure that the benefits of data centers accrue to Wisconsinites and that these do not come with irreparable harm to our land and water resources.

– Mike Tiboris, Agriculture and Policy Director

The post Data Center bills in the Wisconsin State Legislature appeared first on River Alliance of WI.

https://wisconsinrivers.org/data-center-bills/

Measuring the impact of PFAS on Wisconsin’s fish

On: February 3, 2026

In: PFAS, PFHxS, PFNA, PFUNdA, sturgeon, Tisha King-Heiden, UW-La Crosse, walleye

Video thumbnail showing a student working with zebra fish in a lab

Watch “How do PFAS affect Wisconsin’s fish?” (Video by Bonnie Willison / ASC)

In order to become big fish, baby fish face seemingly impossible odds. They evade predators, find food, and fend off disease — all while being smaller than the size of a fingernail. But what if contaminants in the water affect their ability to respond to those challenges and survive?

With funding from Wisconsin Sea Grant, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse Professor Tisha King-Heiden is studying how per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, impact the nervous and immune systems of young fish. PFAS are a family of chemicals found in non-stick and waterproof household products, from food packaging to dental floss. They’re widespread in lakes and rivers across Wisconsin.

“What I’m interested in is how exposure to environmental contaminants during early stages of embryonic development can lead to adverse health effects later on in life,” said King-Heiden.

Her work on the project is personal. King-Heiden lives on French Island in Campbell, Wisconsin, where the groundwater is contaminated with PFAS.

“It hit home pretty hard. I’ve been on bottled water now for going on five years,” she said. “So I just wanted to try to contribute a little bit more to understanding what the risks are and what they aren’t, because there’s still quite a few unknowns.”

New PFAS, new fish

With over 7,000 types of PFAS, King-Heiden is zeroing in on three newer chemicals: PFHxS, PFUNdA, and PFNA. Not much is known about how they affect fish, as past studies have primarily focused on older, “legacy” PFAS that are no longer used but remain in the environment.

”The vast majority of information we have is on PFOA and PFOS. So those are […] the original PFAS chemicals,” she said.

PFHxS, PFUNdA, and PFNA have slightly different chemical structures than the legacy PFAS, which may affect how they accumulate in and affect fish.

Another novel aspect of King-Heiden’s project is the type of fish she’s studying: fathead minnow, walleye, and sturgeon. Many PFAS studies use zebrafish, a popular lab species from southern Asia.

“I wanted to try something different and start working with some other prevalent species that are more ecologically and culturally relevant to people living in Wisconsin,” she said.

Measuring tail flicks and body bends

To evaluate the effects of PFAS on fish, King-Heiden and her team are collecting data on hatching success, growth, and immune system responses. They’ve also developed a series of behavioral tests to gauge how the nervous system develops.

The first test? Watching fish embryos for tail flicks.

“It’s the same thing that humans feel when they can start to feel the fetus moving,” said King-Heiden. “If they are flicking their tails too much, or if they’re not flicking them enough, it can give us an idea of how PFAS is impacting that nervous system development.”

After the fish hatch, the team then measures how well they can respond to stimuli. King-Heiden explained that during this time, fish develop neurons along their body that help them sense movement in the water. And when they do detect movement — a lurking predator, perhaps — the fish bends into the shape of “C” and swims away. It’s called a C-start response.

Video thumbnail showing Tisha King-Heiden and a student looking at a computer

Watch “The C-start: Sea Grant funded research.” (Video by Bonnie Willison / ASC)

“It’s an autonomic reflex, like the knee-jerk reflex,” she said.

Using a high-speed camera, the team measures how long it takes for a fish to respond to a vibration sent through the water. The longer the response time, the more likely the neurons are damaged.

The final behavioral test raises the stakes. Instead of contending with vibrations, a baby fish is placed in a container with a hungry adult fish.

“We give them a certain amount of time and see if the fish can actually escape that predator,” King-Heiden said. Cumulatively, the tests can indicate how the nervous system is developing and how baby fish might survive in the wild.

Protecting wild fish and people

While PFAS concentrations in lakes and rivers may not be high enough to kill baby fish, they could make them more susceptible to predation and disease. King-Heiden said that could spell trouble for wild fish populations, especially if they’re dealing with other issues, like invasive species.

“If you add other environmental contaminants and stressors like disease to that mix, you can exacerbate the problem,” she said.

Human health is also a concern, as people catch and eat fish from contaminated water. Understanding if and how the new PFAS accumulate in tissues of fish can help set consumption advisories that keep people safe. King-Heiden is also developing a communication campaign to engage local communities around PFAS, fish, and human health.

“We can try to help explain why it’s important for us to spend the money to clean up PFAS, to spend the money to support the research that’s going to find the most cost-effective way of cleaning up our drinking water for both human health as well as our wildlife,” she said.

The post Measuring the impact of PFAS on Wisconsin’s fish first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/measuring-the-impact-of-pfas-on-wisconsins-fish/

Jenna Mertz

PFAS compromise bills must limit spills law exemptions

On: January 27, 2026

In: Drinking Water, PFAS

PFAS compromise bills must limit spills law exemptions

UPDATE – March 17: River Alliance of Wisconsin applauds the Wisconsin State Senate for unanimously approving PFAS bills AB 130 and AB131 to send the bills to Governor Evers to sign. On February 20, the Wisconsin State Assembly voted unanimously on bills that would release the long-awaited PFAS trust fund money to help fund PFAS remediation projects.

Clean water advocates voiced clear concerns during the years-long debate over spending the state budget funds and how to define innocent landowners. Ultimately legislators wrote a compromise that will make some needed progress in creating remediation grants and some limited exemptions to the state’s Spills Law.

It is because of people living with PFAS pollution who have tirelessly steered legislators into action to meaningfully release funds for drinking water remediation in Wisconsin. We encourage Governor Evers to sign this legislation and state legislators to continue to work to ban the use of PFAS-style chemicals.

On January 21, 2026, state legislators held another hearing on policies and funding for addressing PFAS contamination. The bills are the result of many months of debate and compromise. Through the whole process, we’ve listened to leaders of impacted communities and experts across the state and held firm on three core issues.

We insisted that since the 2023 state budget was passed, the Joint Finance Committee has always had the power to release the over $125 million of funds earmarked for action on PFAS. Though JFC leaders refused to release the money to communities with contaminated water, this legislation would finally move dollars out the door.

We insisted that our state should not make Swiss cheese out of our Spills Law with broad and vague exemptions for corporate pollution accountability. While we would prefer fewer exemptions to the Spills Law, we understand the need to exempt truly passive receivers, like farmers.

Finally, we insisted that there was no community left behind when it comes to accessing the funds needed to test, filter and remediate drinking water resources. We cannot support a bill that would create new policies and grant programs without hiring state experts to administer grants and enforce laws. The only way we would support this legislation is with an amendment to hire adequate DNR staff.

With the legislative session winding down and elections coming this fall, legislators are under pressure to have some progress to report to their constituents. Governor Evers has signaled his optimistic support for this compromise. However, from the start, this bill was an effort to exempt big businesses under the guise of helping innocent landowners. Adding further exemptions to protect already identified polluters is unacceptable.

It is only due to the many hours – years, in fact – of vocal members of impacted communities and clean water advocates that got PFAS contamination to be a household word and to push state leaders to do the right thing for our water.

We’re only at the beginning of providing remedies for communities living with water pollution. The people of Wisconsin cannot wait for funds from lawsuit settlements over PFAS pollution to get help for their drinking water. The state legislature must release the funds, hire the staff, and set their sights on the next step which is to ban PFAS-style chemicals and prevent further damage to our water.

Contacting your legislators will make an impact.

Please contact your State Representative to let them know the people of Wisconsin have waited for action on PFAS for far too long and they should support Assembly Substitute Amendment 1 to AB 131, and Assembly Substitute Amendment 1 to AB 130 without further exemptions.

The post PFAS compromise bills must limit spills law exemptions appeared first on River Alliance of WI.

https://wisconsinrivers.org/pfas-bill-compromises/

PFAS levels are declining in Great Lakes fish, new research shows

On: January 26, 2026

In: Featured, PFAS, Water Quality and Restoration Efforts

By Kelly House, Bridge Michigan

In the years since Michigan’s PFAS crisis became public knowledge, widespread contamination has prompted a growing list of “do not eat” advisories in waterways across the state.

But a study published this month in the Journal of Great Lakes Research offers hope that, one day, the fish could be safe to eat again.

The study was conducted by researchers in the former US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development, which the Trump administration has since dismantled amid a broad push to curtail federal oversight and loosen regulations on a host of chemicals, including PFAS.

Using decades’ worth of archived lake trout and walleye samples originally collected to track older pollutants like mercury and PCBs, scientists discovered PFAS levels in Great Lakes fish have declined significantly since the late 2000s, when manufacturers began phasing out once-common compounds like PFOS and PFOA amid growing regulatory pressure.

“The ecosystem responded very quickly to these changes in industrial production,” said Sarah Balgooyen, a lead author of the study and former EPA chemist who is now a researcher at the Colorado School of Mines.

A growing body of research has linked certain PFAS (an acronym for a class of thousands of chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) to cancer, thyroid problems and developmental, fertility and immunity challenges.

The research team tested for 45 compounds, using fish taken from the Great Lakes between 1975 and 2020. They found that average contamination levels by 2020 had reached their lowest since the 1980s.

In Lake Erie, for example, PFAS levels in the freeze-dried tissue samples peaked at close to 450 nanograms per gram in 2005 but were closer to 50 nanograms per gram in 2020. In Lake Michigan, levels reached a high of about 150 nanograms per gram in 2010 before drifting down to about 80 nanograms per gram in 2020.

“We hope to see that trend continue,” Balgooyen said.

That’s welcome news to Chris Matteson, a 76-year-old from Muskegon who has been fishing in the Great Lakes since the days when factories lined the shore, spewing effluent so foul that, “if you could see a foot into the water, that was pretty good.”

“I’ve been through a lot of fish warnings,” Matteson said.

Although PFAS manufacturers have known their products are toxic since at least the 1970s, the public wouldn’t learn until decades later. Unregulated use of the so-called “forever chemicals” allowed them to escape into the environment, poisoning drinking water and embedding in the bodies of humans, fish and wildlife.

Only in recent years — after a series of contamination scandals — have state and federal governments begun regulating PFAS and investigating the extent of the pollution.

In 98 Michigan water bodies, some fish species are so full of PFAS that state health officials say it’s not safe to eat them. Health advisories in hundreds more water bodies call for limiting meals to anywhere from 16 servings a month to six a year.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said agency staff are reviewing the study.

For now, she said, “our advice for anglers remains the same: To learn how to choose safer fish to eat, follow the Eat Safe Fish Guides.”

Find out whether your local fishing spot is affected here.

Gary Ankley, a former EPA research toxicologist and coauthor on the study, said the declining PFAS levels are encouraging. But there is no way to know how low PFAS levels will ultimately fall.

Known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down readily in the environment, some amount of PFAS will remain in the lake indefinitely, Ankley predicted.

Balgooyen cautioned that the study offers only a partial picture of PFAS risks in the lakes.

While manufacturers have largely stopped using the so-called “long-chain” PFAS compounds that tend to bioaccumulate in fish, many have switched to new “short-chain” compounds that do not.

The health risks of those newer compounds have not been well-studied.

“We’re seeing decreases in these compounds that we know are harmful, which is great,” Balgooyen said. “But there’s still this unknown component of the replacement chemicals.”

Citing evidence that PFAS is more toxic than previously thought, state and federal regulators in recent years have lowered allowable PFAS levels in drinking water and taken other steps to discourage the chemicals’ use.

Seeking to make the EPA more business-friendly, the Trump administration has reversed some of those actions, announcing plans to loosen PFAS drinking water standards and requirements for manufacturers to report their PFAS use.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called those “commonsense” changes that would lower costs for industries and water providers while still protecting the public.

But Matteson, the Muskegon fisherman, views the administration’s loosening of environmental regulations differently.

“The companies will go back to the easiest, cheapest way to do anything,” he said. “Most likely, it isn’t environmentally friendly.”

The post PFAS levels are declining in Great Lakes fish, new research shows appeared first on Great Lakes Now.

https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2026/01/26/pfas-levels-are-declining-in-great-lakes-fish-new-research-shows/

Bridge Michigan

Dispatches from a sentinel species: Measuring PFAS and overall health in bald eagles

On: January 6, 2026

In: bald eagle nestlings, Brian Dhuey, Dan Goltz, Emily Cornelius Ruhs, Great Lakes Eagle Health Project, Lindsey Long, PFAS, Wisconsin River

It hadn’t been a successful morning for the Great Lakes Eagle Health team.

Traveling by boat, truck, and foot, the team was searching for active eagle nests along the Wisconsin River in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. Tree one was a dud, and tree two, a heartbreaker. Dan Goltz, one of the team’s climbers and a wildlife biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, scaled a 70-foot tree only to be met with a gentle breeze blowing through an empty nest.

“It’s always a nice view,” he sighed, coiling his rope for the next climb.

The team, however, had reason to be optimistic about tree number three, located on the grounds of a paper products factory on the river.

For one, it was streaked with whitewash, or eagle poop. Loathe to defecate inside their nests, baby eagles poop off the sides, spraying the ground with what looks like white paint. Fresh whitewash usually indicates an active nest.

The second promising sign was that the tree was a white pine — Goltz’s favorite. Unlike cottonwoods, whose deeply furrowed bark could chip off under the pressure of spurred boots, white pines are smooth and offer stability. Goltz’s footholds would be more secure, and his climb, safer. Snapping on a hot pink helmet, he spiked his shoes into the trunk and began to haul himself upward.

And then there was what was happening above Goltz’s head. A bald eagle, clear against the high-noon sky, flew into view and began to circle and chirp. A second soon joined to voice its displeasure at the man approaching the nest.

“That’s a great sign when you hear the bird chirping at you like that,” said Brian Dhuey, WDNR research technician, peering through the trees. “It means there’s something to protect.”

A professional tree climber begins to climb a tree.

Learn about tree climbing from Great Lakes Eagle Health Project team member Matt Stuber. (Video by Bonnie Willison / ASC)

The presence of the eagles energized the team on the ground. Lindsey Long, a WDNR wildlife veterinarian, kneeled on a blue tarp and began to unpack her sampling equipment: tubes, syringes, glass slides, a small machine that repels mosquitoes. Two volunteers huddled closer and listened as she explained protocol for taking blood. Dhuey shuffled among the dry leaves.

Now, they waited. Necks craned toward the sky, the team watched Goltz climb, hoping for news of a bird.

What eagles can tell us

The Great Lakes Eagle Health Project has tracked contaminant levels in bald eagles across Wisconsin since 1990. Currently funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Geological Survey, the project brings together federal, state, tribal, and academic partners to test eagles for a variety of pollutants, like heavy metals and PCBs, and investigate how they’re affecting eagle health.

In 2023, Wisconsin Sea Grant’s emerging contaminants specialist Gavin Dehnert joined the project to investigate a new problem: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Dubbed “forever chemicals,” PFAS don’t break down easily and are found in common household products like non-stick pans and water-repellant clothing. They’re harmful to human health and have been found in high concentrations in drinking water in communities across Wisconsin, like French Island and Marinette.

Dehnert, who has studied PFAS in maple syrup, wild rice, and fish, said eagles are what’s known as a “sentinel species,” organisms that can alert humans to environmental toxins — like a canary in a coal mine. Due to their diet, bald eagles are particularly good indicators of how much PFAS are in the environment.

“They eat a lot of the same foods that we do,” said Dehnert, like fish and deer. “And because they also eat both aquatic and terrestrial food sources […], they give us a really good idea of how much contamination is in the area.”

Two young eagles with entirely dark brown bodies in a nest.

Eaglets in the nest. (Photo by Matt Stuber)

The team exclusively takes blood samples from baby eagles, called nestlings, that are younger than 12 weeks old. Because they cannot fly, the nestlings’ main exposure to PFAS is from the food their parents bring. This means that their blood samples provide clues to how contaminants are moving through and accumulating in the food web.

Each year, the team chooses different sampling sites. In May of 2025, they focused on the Wisconsin River, spending two weeks sampling eagles from Prairie du Chien to Minocqua.

“Because the Wisconsin River is so long and vast, it gives us a really good gradient of how these PFAS levels are changing,” said Dehnert. The team expects levels to be higher in the middle section of the river due to the presence of industries that have historically used PFAS.

In addition to measuring PFAS levels, Dehnert and Emily Cornelius Ruhs, an ecoimmunologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum, are studying how the contaminants affect eagle health, specifically their physical bodies and immune function. Do PFAS weaken eagles’ ability to fight off illness? Do they impact hormone levels? How are eagles growing and developing?

“We don’t know a lot about it or how it impacts wildlife,” said Cornelius Ruhs.

But a lot of information can be gleaned from a blood sample.

Landing the bird

The news was good. Secured to the tree with ropes, Goltz had peered across the eagles’ platform of sticks and declared there was not one, but two nestlings in tree number three. The task now was to safely transport the birds through the canopy to the team below.

Long mused at the feat from her spot on the blue tarp.

“The climber has to get that in a bag by himself,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing, the skillset that they have. Both of our climbers are also really, really, good at bird handling and are really conscientious.”

The climbers use what’s essentially a chicken hook — a tripod leg with a hook on the end — to coax the eagles toward their bag. Goltz’s hook had green glitter on it, which, he deadpanned, mesmerized the birds.

A joke, perhaps, but sometimes the rally cap prevails. Goltz’s bag lowered into view, and Dhuey swiftly claimed it.

Bird in tow, Dhuey walked back over to the team. He weighed the bird, still in its drawstring pouch, and knelt next to Long. With blue surgical gloves on their hands, they peeled back the bag to reveal the fluffy bundle they’d been chasing all morning. Dhuey held the bird as Long made final preparations for the blood draw.

“Want to see a baby dragon?”

See the scientists sampling eaglets on the ground in this video. (Video by Bonnie Willison / ASC)

Chocolate brown with sulfurous yellow feet, the nestling was no less striking than its parents. Its talons were curved and black, and under Dhuey’s strategic grip, they looked positively reptilian. The eaglet looked around at the team, a breeze riffling its feathers.

Long was ready. She helped Dhuey lay the nestling on its back and covered its head to keep it calm. One hand holding the feet, one hand unfurling the wing, Dhuey secured the bird. Long grabbed the syringe. The choreography between them was familiar and swift, two researchers practiced in the art of data collection.

Long crouched over the wing. Earlier, she said taking blood from an eagle is like taking blood from a human. Cold temperatures and dehydration can make the draw harder.

“Sometimes we have to do a little manipulation,” said Long, “just like if you’re at the hospital and they’re like, can you pump? Or, you need to move your arm a certain way or make a shift.”

On this unusually warm day in early May, the eagle wasn’t cold or dehydrated. Dark red began to spiral through a thin tube into the syringe.

Keeping eagles in the sky

Once collected, the blood samples are smeared onto slides and prepared for further testing. That’s where ecoimmunologist Cornelius Ruhs comes in. Her job is to decode what the blood says about the nestlings’ health.

“The blood sample is used for many things. The first one is a white blood cell count,” she said. “And that’s pretty much the same as what you would get at a doctor’s office, like a CBC or blood panel.”

Cornelius Ruhs also measures total antibody levels in the bird’s blood, levels of two different thyroid hormones, and corticosterone, a stress hormone. Additionally, the team is running a new test that’s only been done on humans and other primates. Known as an “ex vivo blood challenge,” the test mimics bacterial and viral infections in a tube containing live blood from the bird. The blood can then be sent off and analyzed for how it responded to the challenges.

Gloved hands holding glass slides with single drops of red blood on them over a container of glass slides.

Emily Cornelius Ruhs smears blood samples onto slides. (Photo by Bonnie Willison / ASC)

All these data points tell a story about how well a baby eagle can fight off infection, like bird flu. The hypothesis is that “being exposed to high levels of PFAS might cause [eagles] to not respond as well or mount a response to a viral or a bacterial challenge,” said Cornelius Ruhs.

And that’s a concern for an iconic bird that was, in the 1960s, nearly extinct. “Bald eagles have been hit so hard by contaminants in the past, like DDT,” said Cornelius Ruhs.

Prior to being banned in 1972, DDT was widely used to kill mosquitoes, but it also weakened the eggshells of birds like bald eagles that ate contaminated fish. The eggs cracked under the weight of the incubating birds, causing reproduction rates to fall.

Long-term studies like the Great Lakes Eagle Health Project, however, can sound the alarm before something like that happens again. Bald eagles are beloved birds, and many folks want to continue seeing them thrive.

“This project is really special, I think, to all of us, not just because we get along so well and we all enjoy working with each other, but just because of the uniqueness to it,” said Cornelius Ruhs. “I don’t think a lot of people get to work with these large, majestic animals.”

A good day’s work

In under 10 minutes, the team had taken blood and measured beak, wings, and feet. Dhuey then snapped a lightweight metal band to the eagle’s ankle, a way to track and identify the bird. The cuff glinted like new jewelry above the outsized yellow feet.

Long and Dhuey then gently folded the bag over the bird to be ferried back up the tree as quickly as it came down.

The experience at tree number three went unrivaled. After lunch — the team had gotten ice cream, they claimed, to ensure their good fortune — they found an unoccupied nest in a cranberry bog and ended the day with another eagle-less climb up a tall white pine near the river.

Gavin Dehnert takes an eaglet out of a bag to start sampling.

It’s not every day that you get to handle baby bald eagles. Team co-leader Gavin Dehnert reflects on the awe he feels every time he’s in the field in this video. (Video by Bonnie Willison / ASC)

It was clear that camaraderie kept the team going, even during the busts. They work two weeks together every year, crammed in aluminum boats, fighting heat and mosquitoes, processing blood samples in hotel parking lots. Several team members said they spend the weeks following field season looking out of car windows, looking for nests. They can’t help it.

This spring, it’s the Mississippi River.

“Every day is just getting us back to eagle sampling field season,” said Cornelius Ruhs.

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The University of Wisconsin Aquatic Sciences Center administers Wisconsin Sea Grant, the Wisconsin Water Resources Institute, and Water@UW–Madison. The center supports multidisciplinary research, education, and outreach for the protection and sustainable use of Wisconsin’s water resources. Wisconsin Sea Grant is one of 34 Sea Grant programs supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in coastal and Great Lakes states that encourage the wise stewardship of marine resources through research, education, outreach, and technology transfer.

The post Dispatches from a sentinel species: Measuring PFAS and overall health in bald eagles first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.