Environmental Research Article Published on PFAS

Environmental Research, Volume 279, Part 2, 15 August 2025, 121872. DBS&A has been supporting the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) with an investigation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination at Holloman Lake in southern New Mexico since 2021. Expanding on a study published previously reporting alarming contamination levels in local wildlife, a team of scientists led by DBS&A’s senior biologist Jean-Luc Cartron examined the fate and transport of PFAS from soils and water into bioaccumulative foodchains. They showed soil sorption to be influenced by the number of fluorinated carbons in PFAS and by the abundance of mineral clays at the lake. They also detected the chemical fingerprint of each generation of PFAS-containing fire-fighting foam used at U.S. military installation since the 1970s. Contamination levels reached 120,000 ng/g in the liver of a kangaroo rat and 30,000 in a composite saltcedar sample. As stated by the authors, Holloman Lake can serve as a natural laboratory for studying PFAS environmental behavior due to the unprecedented local levels of PFAS contamination, the abundance of wildlife, and the complex hydrogeological setting. More details can be found in the article published in Environmental Research, Volume 279, Part 2, 15 August 2025, 121872. “Ecosystem-wide PFAS characterization and environmental behavior at a heavily contaminated desert oasis in the southwestern U.S.” was co-authored by: Jean-Luc E. Cartron a b c, Chauncey R. Gadek a b d, Jonathan L. Dunnum a b, Christopher C. Witt a b, Mariel L. Campbell a b, Samuel J. Romero c, Andrew B. Johnson a b, Julie Kutz c, Christopher Wolf c, Sarah J. Choyke e, Joseph A. Cook a b

Highlights of the Study:

  • Water-soil PFAS sorption increased with the fluorinated carbon count.
  • Plants tested had contamination levels as high as 30,000 ng/g ww of PFOS.
  • Animals tested had liver contamination levels as high as 120,000 ng/g ww of PFOS.
  • PFAS bioaccumulation in green algae increased with the fluorinated carbon count.
  • The chemical signatures of several generations of aqueous firefighting foam (AFFFs) were detected.

Learn more in the University of New Mexico (UNM) Newsroom.

Abstract

Record-high PFAS contamination levels were recently reported in birds and small mammals from Holloman Lake, a high-salinity wastewater oasis located in southern New Mexico, USA. We expanded the PFAS screening to surface water, soils, algae, invertebrates, fish, reptiles, and a larger number of plants, birds, and mammals to examine the fate, transport, and bioaccumulation of PFAS in the ecosystem and generate contamination profiles across both the water-land interface and multiple trophic levels. C5 and C6 perfluorocarboxylic acids, both of them known degradation products of 6:2 FTS, were the dominant PFAS in surface water in the lake. In contrast, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) was the main PFAS found in sediments along the shoreline, with the number of fluorinated carbons in the alkyl chain and clay minerals both appearing to play a key role in soil sorption. High soil PFAS concentrations up to 900 m from the edge of the water could not be explained by air transport of contaminated dust and instead seemed related to past inundation events involving contaminated water. Higher PFAS concentrations along the main body of the lake included an extraordinary 30,000 ng/g ww of PFOS recorded for a composite saltcedar (Tamarix sp.) tissue sample. Bioaccumulation pervaded the ecosystem’s food webs and trophic levels, with PFAS detection in all species and all types of animal tissue (blood, liver, muscle, and bone). Contamination involved mainly PFOS, followed by perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), with the observed concentrations of PFAS increasing concomitantly among tissue types but the liver bioaccumulating at a faster rate.

Authors’ Associations:

a Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

b Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

c Daniel B. Stephens & Associates, Inc., Albuquerque, NM, 87110, USA

d Environmental Stewardship, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

e Eurofins Environment Testing, Denver, CO, 80002, USA