\u201cI made it at home, and I ate the whole thing myself. And it was delicious.\u201d He stored the remainder of the meat in the freezer for a later date.<\/p>\n
LISTEN to the story That is, until he heard that Montour Run, a meandering stream recovering<\/a> from more than a century of pollution, may be coursing with a new type of pollution: PFAS chemicals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Montour Run is a 13-mile stream <\/a>that flows through the western suburbs in Allegheny County, including Moon, Findlay and North Fayette townships, to the Ohio River, and is flanked by the popular Montour Trail. Sections of it host bald eagles and great blue herons, and the stream is stocked with trout every spring by the state. Pittsburgh International Airport\u2019s stormwater drains into tributaries of Montour Run.<\/p>\n Since 2023, Three Rivers Waterkeeper<\/a>, an environmental watchdog group, has been doing sampling in the Montour Run watershed and found high levels<\/a> of PFAS, so-called \u201cforever chemicals,\u201d downstream of the airport, which had used PFAS-containing firefighting foam for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n PFAS \u2013 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances \u2013 are a group of thousands of chemicals<\/a> that contain the element fluorine. Because of fluorine\u2019s strong bond with carbon, these chemicals don\u2019t break down in nature, and are known to build up in the tissues of living things.\u00a0<\/p>\n Snapping turtles can live for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was a little concerned that I\u2019d eaten one of those turtles,\u201d Fellows said, on a recent morning along the banks of Montour Run.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fellows sent his remaining turtle meat to Three Rivers Waterkeeper. The group gave the meat to Carnegie Mellon University scientist Carrie McDonough for analysis. McDonough studies PFAS in the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like for the right test to be done, and for the results to be recognized and acknowledged,\u201d Fellows said.\u00a0<\/p>\n PFAS problems in Pennsylvania streams<\/p>\n The case of Montour Run highlights the mounting problem of PFAS pollution across Pennsylvania. The state began increased monitoring<\/a> for the chemicals in 2023, shortly after a U.S. Geological Survey found 76% of at least 161 rivers and streams<\/a> in the state contained one or more of the chemicals.<\/p>\n In 2021, the state stopped stocking trout and issued<\/a> a \u201cDo Not Eat\u201d advisory for fish caught in Neshaminy Creek in Bucks and Montgomery counties, near a military base<\/a> that used the firefighting foam.\u00a0<\/p>\n In February, the state issued a similar order<\/a> for two other streams: Briar Creek in Columbia County and Middle Spring Creek in Cumberland and Franklin counties. In the case of Briar Creek, the state suspects<\/a> PFAS came from the spreading of sewage sludge on farmland in the area.<\/p>\n The ubiquity of PFAS is likely due to their use in a wide range of products, from waterproof clothing to carpeting to non-stick cookware. One of its most prominent uses for decades was in the formulation of Aqueous\u00a0<\/a>Film-Forming Foam<\/a> (AFFF). The foam is excellent at putting out oil-based fires, like the kind airports have to contend with if a plane catches fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Federal Aviation Administration mandated that airports use AFFF. That changed in 2022<\/a>, when Congress directed the FAA to transition away from PFAS-containing foams.<\/p>\n For decades, the Pittsburgh International Airport\u2019s firefighting training facility used PFAS-containing foam to train first responders. Though the facility now uses non-fluorinated foams for firefighter training, the chemical is still showing up in the airport\u2019s stormwater drainage system, which discharges into tributaries that feed Montour Run.\u00a0<\/p>\n One outfall has recorded levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate<\/a> (PFOS), thousands of times the federal limit of 4 parts per trillion<\/a> in drinking water.<\/a> The most recent recorded level, submitted by the airport through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection\u2019s electronic discharge monitoring report database, was 42,700 parts per trillion<\/a> for the first quarter of 2026. A previous high mark from last year, the first for which data were available, was 62,900 parts per trillion.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n The highest recorded level of PFAS from Three Rivers Waterkeeper\u2019s sampling in Montor Run and its tributaries was 430 parts per trillion.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Alarming\u2019 levels of PFAS from Pittsburgh airport are being discharged into Montour Run watershed<\/a> These high levels have caught the attention of local researchers, including McDonough, the Carnegie Mellon scientist.\u00a0<\/p>\n On a recent afternoon, McDonough stood by the side of the stream as a trio of her grad students took water samples from Montour Run. Nearby, Duquesne University Professor Brady Porter and a student sifted through sediment looking for macroinvertebrates, tiny bugs that live in the stream, like damselflies. McDonough is testing the bugs that Porter catches for PFAS. The higher up the food chain, the higher the concentration of PFAS, McDonough explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey can accumulate in [plants and animals],\u201d McDonough said. \u201cBirds are eating fish. That\u2019s transporting it up the food web, and we know that these compounds are toxic and they\u2019re never going to break down.\u201d<\/p>\n McDonough is concerned that people may be consuming PFAS through fish they catch in the waterways around the airport.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not something I would recommend doing regularly \u2013 eating anything out of here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Some PFAS chemicals are known<\/a> carcinogens, while others have been linked<\/a> to developmental effects like low birth weight, decreased immune response, kidney disease and other serious health problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n All of these health effects are more of a risk because the chemicals don\u2019t break down.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSources like this, where AFFF was used in the past, can be continuous sources of PFAS to the water for hundreds of years \u2013 they\u2019re not going to go anywhere,\u201d McDonough said.\u00a0<\/p>\n No advisory yet for Montour Run<\/p>\n So far, the state has yet to issue a \u201cDo Not Eat\u201d advisory for Montour Run. In June, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection \u201cplans to conduct additional sampling of water, fish, and aquatic insects in Montour Run and nearby tributaries,\u201d said Neil Shader, a department spokesman, in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n Michael Parker, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, which stocks the stream with trout, says trout don\u2019t survive very long in Montour Run, either because they will be caught by people or other animals, or because they don\u2019t do well once the weather gets hot.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t
<\/p>\n \t\t\t
So he says it\u2019s unlikely that PFAS will build up to dangerous levels in the trout.<\/p>\n \u201cThe results that we are looking at when it comes to consumption advisories would be based on the amount of PFAS present in fish tissue or fish meat,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n Parker says the commission has a one-meal-per-week advisory for any fish caught in Pennsylvania. When it issues a \u201cDo Not Eat\u201d advisory, as it has for the three PFAS-polluted streams elsewhere in the state, it stops stocking those streams.\u00a0<\/p>\n But it has not done this for Montour Run.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The state tested fish in Montour Run in 2022 and found their PFAS levels were below health-based thresholds. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is planning to conduct more of this sampling later this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shader said the advisory will be activated if the samples surpass \u201cestablished health thresholds for human consumption.\u201d For PFOS, an advisory of \u201cone meal per month\u201d starts at levels of 50,000 parts per trillion. For a \u201cDo Not Eat\u201d advisory, that level is 200,000 parts per trillion.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Allegheny County Airport Authority, which runs the airport, said in an email that public safety is its \u201ctop priority.\u201d It has submitted a PFAS reduction plan to the DEP, which the agency is currently reviewing. \u00a0<\/p>\n But some in the area say the airport and other agencies should have done more to keep PFAS out of Montour Run.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have a concentrated and known source, there\u2019s no excuse for letting that happen,\u201d said Don McKee, board president of Hollow Oak Land Trust<\/a>. The trust conserves and manages land in Pittsburgh\u2019s western suburbs, including several plots around Montour Run.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it\u2019s been released, and it\u2019s spread across huge geographic areas, it\u2019s much harder to control, but when you can control it near the source, that should be something that\u2019s addressed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n McDonough doesn\u2019t have final numbers for the PFAS analysis she\u2019s conducted on water, sediment and animal samples, but said the preliminary data indicate that PFAS are present, \u201cand they look consistent with AFFF contamination.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nhttps:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media.alleghenyfront.org\/AF052926_RF_PFASMontour.mp3<\/a>
\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC03948-1.jpg\")
Ken Fellows at a bend in Montour Run, near where he recently caught a turtle. Photo: Reid Frazier \/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n![\"Seen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC03943-1.jpg\")
A fisherman in Montour Run, a trout-stocked stream that begins near Pittsburgh International Airport and runs to the Ohio River. PFAS has been found in the stream. Photo: Reid Frazier \/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/map.jpg\")
<\/a>A map showing 161 sites across Pennsylvania that were sampled for PFAS concentrations. The color coding indicates PFAS concentration levels at each site. USGS image. Source: U.S. Geological Survey<\/p>\n![\"Fish](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC03933-1.jpg\")
A trout is visible below the surface on Montour Run. Photo: Reid Frazier \/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n
\nLocal researchers step in<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC04038.jpg\")
Members of Three Rivers Waterkeeper and area scientists are sampling along Montour Run. Photo: Reid Frazier \/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC04055.jpg\")
Brady Porter, a biologist at Duquesne University, is looking for aquatic insects from sediment in Montour Run, April 20, 2026. The insects will be tested for PFAS. Photo: Reid Frazier \/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20186968098_dde779b5df_c.jpg\")
\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC03932-1.jpg\")
A fisherman stands in Montour Run, a trout-stocked stream that begins near Pittsburgh International Airport and runs to the Ohio River. PFAS has been found in the stream. Photo: Reid Frazier \/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DSC03937-1.jpg\")
A bald eagle soars above Montour Run, April 7, 2026. Photo: Reid Frazier \/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n