Everything You Need to Know About PFAS...

"Everything You Need To Know About PFAS But Did Not Know What to Ask"

Cancer-Causing PFAS Quietly Contaminating Our Drinking Water

(PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances,  is pronounced "Pee-fas")

SITUATION

Across America and other parts of the world,  people are slowly becoming aware that they,  their family members,  friends and neighbors are getting sick or dying because unknowingly they have been drinking water laced with toxic PFAS,  unnatural chemicals that have been accumulating like time bombs in their bloodstreams.

PFAS have been  used in the manufacture of wide variety of  products including Teflon, Scotchgard, fire-fighting foam, fast-food wrappers...even cosmetics.  Waste disposal in the manufacturing process and at the consumer level has been done both legally and illegally over the past half century, Today, leakage from these dumps and landfills are infiltrating water supplies.  

Everyday,  new populations are discovering that they, too, are at risk and have a reason for the cluster of cancers and illnesses in their communities.  As they seek answers and corrective action,  they are confronted by resistance from regulators, agencies and other governmental bodies that refuse to react with  urgency citing lack of scientific evidence and outdated and inaccurate information.  

Meanwhile, the chemicals are taking their toll, especially on younger children whose body ratios make them more susceptible.

Telling the PFAS story by way of motion picture is extraordinarily complex . The issue came to light only a few years old, and the alarm is just being sounded.  The names of the chemicals comprising the PFAS group are difficult to pronounce, and only a few studies on human health  have been conducted.   Most were done inconsistently due to lack of history,  with results being inconclusive or kept under industrial cloaks of secrecy.  New procedures for collecting  water samples and human serum are rigorous and extensive making tests quite expensive.    Worse, there are but a handful of labs nationwide that will perform such tests.   Of the hundreds of the PFAS possibly in our water,  only two -- PFOS and PFOA --are primary targets yet they are the basis for safety levels.  Recently,  two others PFAS -- Gen-X and PFHxS  -- have added for testing and  study.   But setting a safe-level threshold for water still is arbitrary and arguable. Some states are setting their own numbers as low as 2 parts per trillion (ppt) or slightly above while the Administration and the U.S. EPA  remains fixed  at 70 ppt despite recommendations to lower it to the teens.

The driver of the stubbornness and foot dragging of our government and its agencies to act with greater urgency and priority,  seems to be money or lack of it. and the heavy influence of industry and its lobbyists.   Clean up and filtering the poisoned  water is expensive and finding new sources of clean water and tapping into them is time consuming as well as costly. Bottled water and source filtering are stop-gap measures and raise such questions as who pays for installation, who maintains the equipment and how and where are spent filters safely disposed ?
RATIONAL FOR A MOVIE 

Our goal in making a documentary is to alert and educate viewers about the dangers of PFAS contamination,  and to provide them with accurate information,  useful perspectives and possible solutions based on what four communities  have experienced and learned.  


Crowdfunding in 2017 and 2018 fell short of goal but did allow a team of two filmmakers to research and record  interviews in three states where contamination has been blamed for  devalued real estate, cases of associated cancers or illnesses, and where efforts to remediate have been either effective or thwarted. The results are compiled conceptually in a  feature-length, rough-cut movie entitled "Bad Water. Small Town. Deaf Ears."  

The link to the movie is: https://youtu.be/REGO8uqAT5o

HOW FUNDING WILL HELP

 o shoot backgound footage (B-roll) to be incorporated into the movie. Some of that is contained in the video linked below.
Day-by-day, the number of communties affected by PFASs  grows, and because most are below a federal threshold of 10,000 residents,  they have been getting a deaf ear when they try to tell legislators something needs to be done.   The number of people then at risk due to the lack of Meanwhile, the threat of illness grows and the value of real estate plummets.  As one resident says, " Who wants to buy a house with posioned water?"

To make matters worse, our government is diminishing the role and budget of the Environmental Protection Agency,  has been naming former heads of industry to leaderships of agencies meant to ensure clean water and land,  and is voiding lesgislation that regulated mining and drilling.
If what you have read so far has not shaken you, this fact should:  For every man, woman and child in the United States, 99.7 percent (that is you and me) have some level of PFASs in their bloodstream, and it may never leave, putting your health at risk long after a clean source of water is found.  
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Here are links to a trio of PFASs backgrounders 

The INTERCEPT.com          Detroit Free Press 

EPA's PFAS Summit May 2018
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 PART II

In Round One, we investigated the PFAS fouling  of drinking water in Hoosick Falls, NY and Oscoda, Mich.   What we learned is contained in the pitch video linked below.  However,  it is far from being the complete story, In putting it together, we learned that the PFAS crisis is ever-expanding,  and it is repeating in hundreds if not thousands of communities across  America  and around much of the globe.  

PFAS CRISES WORSENS

The PFAS story hits hard on everyone but few realize the danger, and the reaction of government and industry has been very slow.  After all, the problem originated in the 1950s. Now, every day brings  developments and announcements of new sites so our original storyline has gained in importance, complexity and a need for immediacy.

First planned as a straightforward documentary, the project has expanded to serve as a national alert, an activist's template, and a web-based, point-source of information for all things relating to PFASs.

We are adding two new communities where PFAS contamination his motivating resident to become activists and consider legal action.  They are Merrimack, NH and the Belmont/Rockford areas in Kent County Michigan.

PARTICIPATION IS CRUCIAL

The crises and health risks due to PFASs mount daily. The challenge for small communities is to learn how to talk the language of water treatment,  to understand the science and dangers  of PFASs , and the politics associated with the responsibilities and authority of our elected officials.  These tasks unfortunately fall on residents because no one else is acting. 

For us to produce an informative and timely documentary  that can be shown in theaters,  schools or at home,  and has a companion website that serves as an updated resource,  we are asking affected residents and other grassroot supporters to at least SHARE  this page on their Facebook  page and to POST links on other social media. 

AN EXPANDED GOAL 

Telling the broader story and answering community needs, requires an expanded team and budget.   We have added a writer/producer,  an social impact engineer and a technical professional to the project.  

NEW BUDGET

Our new  GoFundMe goal is $50,000 .

Your support will allow us to gather the materials needed to tell the story of four severely affected communities,  The purposed of the documentary goes beyond sounding an alarm to the contamination; it provides a shortcut to help for thousands of other communities urgently needing remediation and healthcare assistance.   By leapfrogging obstacles that predecessors have overcome,  we will be much closer to finding new sources of clean drinking water,  in a position to mitigate health risks, and to re-establish the value and wealth of our communities lost to the side effects of PFAS.

ROUGH TIMEFRAME

MARCH - APRIL :
       -- Re-Editing Accompanying Video
       -- GoFundMe Campaign 
       --On-going grant applications

APRIL - JUNE:
      --  Grant Appplications
      --  Round Two Initial Interviews and B-Roll
                 Hoosick Falls, NY (update)
                 Merrimack, NH (new)
                 Oscoda, Mich. (update)
                 Kent County, Mich. (new)

APRIL - DECEMBER:  - Grants and Donations (PreProduction grants, Production grants , Finishing Funds)

JUNE - DECEMBER:  Building of Website resource

JUNE - AUGUST: Round Three Interviews/B-Roll (same communities)

AUGUST:  Editing/Scoring

SEPTEMBER: Festival Release, Launch of Companion Website

NOVEMBER:  General Release. updating Website

DECEMBER:  On going Website refreshments



WHEN
Funds are needed immediately so we can begin our second round of interviews, gather, sort and evaluate potential content that already has been collected or identified the past three years, and to talk to residents, government officials, reporters and others to determine what may be missing and factored into a filming budget.  Funds would also go to setting up a social media / marketing campaign including a single-source informational website.

WHERE
Funds raised will cover the expenses of planning, production and identifying best distribution options such as libararies, film festivals, video on demand and other online services.  We will identify and apply for grants in the next few weeks.

Thank you! 
As the producers, director and filming crew, we would be most thankful for any help in the financing of this documentary. We are not profiteers. Our goal is large but realistic. We have the gear, experience, skills and the passion to document what's happened in the four communities and to share what we learn with the rest of the world because lives are at risk.