JOHNSON COUNTY, Texas — Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo, who played an environmental lawyer suing over the dangers of forever chemicals in "Dark Waters," is calling on the Biden Administration to take stronger action against the widespread toxins in the weeks before President-elect Donald Trump retakes the White House.
The chemicals are the same ones that farmers and scientists said were concentrated in fertilizer and blamed for harming livestock and fish in Johnson County, according to a WFAA report.
In a virtual press briefing Monday hosted by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, Ruffalo called on the federal government to crack down on manufacturers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are manmade chemicals present in many consumer goods and also known to cause illnesses including cancer.
Some studies have shown the vast majority of Americans have PFAS chemicals in their bloodstream.
“The Biden Administration has done the right thing – more than any other administration in the United States in the decades that have passed – since knowing that these chemicals were there, and that's the good news,” Ruffalo said.
“Now the Biden Administration just has to close the loop and hold the people responsible … and put some limitations on them dumping this into our rivers, our lakes, and our streams.”
Earlier this year, WFAA reported that a group of landowners had filed a lawsuit alleging that a company’s fertilizer made from concentrated human waste contained high levels of PFAS and contaminated their property. The fertilizer company denied any wrongdoing.
The Environmental Protection Agency in April set first-ever drinking water limits for certain types of PFAS chemicals, and several water systems, including Dallas and Fort Worth, exceeded the limits for at least one, according to reports.
