Thawing Permafrost Releases Industrial Contaminants into Arctic Communities

Short abstract

Long-sequestered pollutants—from both local and global sources—threaten Indigenous peoples’ traditional foods and drinking water, and the search is on for ways to protect both health and way of life.

For many, mention of the Arctic conjures images of polar bears, frigid temperatures, and vast expanses of snow. Yet, as the planet warms—and the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world¹—the permafrost underneath that snow thaws more deeply than in times past. Once-buried waste rises to the surface, and as the ground slumps, infrastructure damage may lead to spills and other releases.

An estimated 5 million people live on circumpolar permafrost in Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.² The land they call home holds chemicals and wastes from both active and shuttered industrial and military operations—including spent nuclear fuel from reactors and radioactive waste from Cold War–era test detonations and accidents³—even as it functions as a depository for plastics and chemicals mobilized by ocean and atmospheric currents.⁴ Given the vast geographical scope of potential exposures to chemical contaminants—as well as biological threats, such as anthrax spores from thawed carcasses⁵—Arctic communities⁶ and scientists⁷ are calling on policy makers to act before the worst potential effects of thawing permafrost come to pass. Although there is regional variation, in some areas permafrost temperatures have already increased by more than 0.5°C (as measured in the period between 2007–2017), and the surface layer that thaws each summer is deepening.⁸

In Ilulissat, Greenland, shown here, as elsewhere in the Arctic, most infrastructure is built in the fragile coastal zone environment, according to the Nunataryuk research project.²⁶ Effects of climate change, including permafrost thaw, are triggering coastal instability and increasing hazard exposure. Image courtesy of Leneisja Jungsberg/Nunataryuk (https://www.grida.no/resources/13556).

Indigenous peoples, including the Inuit, Yup’ik, Nenets, and Sámi, have practiced their ways of life under the midnight sun for millennia—fishing, herding, and foraging for what they needed. During brief growing seasons, lichens and sedges carpet the ground, providing grazing for reindeer and caribou. Bears and humans alike feast on vitamin C–rich mountain sorrel⁹ and bilberry, which has levels of the antioxidant anthocyanidin four times higher than those of cultivated blueberries.¹⁰ But traditional food sources are under threat from the atmospheric deposition of pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); pesticides; potentially toxic metals and metalloids, such as mercury, arsenic, and lead; and wastes released when the permafrost that once encapsulated them thaws.

The Arctic’s natural resources are not limited to its flora, fauna, and often breathtaking views. The gold rush in the Yukon, the nearly simultaneous iron rush in Europe, and related developments in Russia fostered the growth of infrastructure that opened the Arctic to industrialization—including mining (copper, nickel, titanium, diamonds, coal, and numerous rare earth minerals), fossil fuel development, military operations, and scientific research.^11,12 The Arctic is estimated to contain 13% of the world’s undiscovered conventional oil reserves and 30% of its undiscovered conventional natural gas.¹³ Along with resource extraction comes waste: drilling muds and fluids, mine tailings containing toxic metals, unearthed and dumped radioactive materials, and spilled fuels.⁷ There are now thousands of contaminated sites throughout the Arctic, and warming temperatures will uncover more.¹⁴ The chickens, as they say, have come home to roost, leaving Arctic communities with a big problem on their hands: exposure to contaminants in their air, water, and food.

The warming and thaw of (A) formerly stable permafrost near the surface unlocks frozen disposal sites and destabilizes foundations and containment structures. (B) Thaw intensifies erosion and increases water flow, allowing contaminants to disperse. Image courtesy of Langer et al.⁷ under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

What Lies Beneath

Permafrost is ground that remains frozen at 0°C for two or more consecutive years; an active layer at the surface thaws in the summer and refreezes in the winter.¹⁵ Depending on local conditions, the active layer may extend from a few centimeters to a meter or more down from the surface. Permafrost thaw may be gradual, effectively thickening the active layer, or abrupt, such as when riverbanks or coastlines erode and expose previously buried ground.¹⁶ Although some permafrost can be found in South America and Antarctica, most occurs in the northern hemisphere.¹⁷ Just as the ocean acts as a carbon sink, permafrost serves as a reservoir of mercury—the largest such reservoir on the planet.¹⁸ Adding to the products of natural decomposition, prevailing atmospheric currents and local winds transport mercury, released by fires and smokestacks across the globe, to the Arctic.¹⁹ There, the mercury settles to the ground and is encased in permafrost,²⁰ where microbial activity is held in stasis.¹⁷ Thawing may release inorganic mercury into salt- or freshwater, where microbial activity and chemical reactions convert it to methylmercury²¹—the form most toxic to humans²²—which then enters the food web.²³

The vast stores of mercury locked in permafrost are vulnerable to release over the next century as permafrost thaws.¹⁷ Image courtesy of Levi Westerveld/GRID-Arendal (https://www.grida.no/resources/16335).

Other common pollutants at active industrial and contaminated sites include lead, arsenic, PCBs, and pesticides.⁷ As permafrost thaws, the soil slumps and the legs of holding tanks can crumple, reservoirs holding back liquid waste become compromised, and building foundations crack. Gullies and streams develop, mobilizing contaminants⁷ and complicating overland travel.²⁴ A recent study estimated that a quarter of contaminated sites in the Arctic will thaw by the end of the century,⁷ releasing their contaminants into the air and water and, thus, into the food web.^25,26

In a project to document the extent of polluted and polluting sites, Moritz Langer and his collaborators estimated that potentially hazardous substances are stored or actively handled in permafrost zones at 4,500 sites across the globe.⁷ Langer is an associate professor at Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands and a researcher at Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. Analyzing global data sets—including OpenStreetMap and the Atlas of Population, Society, and Economy in the Arctic—as well as regional data from Alaska’s Contaminated Sites Program and Canada’s Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory, Langer's team extrapolated that across the Arctic region, 13,000–20,000 contaminated sites are associated with those industrial locations. Most (approximately 70%) are located in Russia, with about 18% in the United States and Canada, and the remainder in Greenland and Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.⁷

“The major problem we encountered in our study is that data and detailed information on what is where, in what quantity, and in what condition are largely unavailable,” Langer says, noting the pressing need for international policy collaboration. “Because Arctic countries have very different environmental legislation and data policies, there is no single database, and in some cases the data are not publicly available at all. This is the reason we had to limit our analysis to a first estimate.”

For people in medium- and high-hazard zones, permafrost thaw threatens severe consequences, including flooding, erosion, and subsequent exposures to contaminants, plus the costs of adapting to infrastructure failure.² Image courtesy of Ramage et al.² under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

As with locations of contaminated sites, Langer and his team say documentation is needed to measure types, quantity, and toxicity of industrial substances; their potential to leach and contaminate water; their proximity to streams, creeks, rivers, and rising water tables; and their storage or disposal conditions. Early warning systems would alert communities to sites in danger of becoming compromised by permafrost subsidence, he says. Ongoing remote sensing and modeling would establish a baseline from which to measure changing conditions.

“With the data we currently have, we cannot conduct a thorough risk analysis, either for specific regions and communities or for the entire Arctic,” Langer says. “An international agreement to document the transport, use, and fate of chemicals in the Arctic would give us much better insight, which we urgently need to plan mitigation and remediation measures.”

Academic researchers, nongovernmental organizations, local Indigenous activists, and other groups around the world are turning their attention to the issue of thawing permafrost and contaminant release:

• Federal agencies of the US government, including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Science Foundation

• Natural Resources Canada

• The Arctic Council (an intergovernmental forum of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States) and its subgroup, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme

• Arctic PASSION (Pan-Arctic Observing System of Systems: Implementing Observations for Societal Needs), a European Union–funded network of collaborators using data and both on-the-ground and remote observations to inform Arctic policy

• Nunataryuk,²⁷ a 12-nation collaborative permafrost research project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Programme

For some communities, the fledgling and time-intensive process required for nations to develop a joint strategy to address contaminant documentation and exposure may be too little, too late. Alaskan towns such as Niugtaq and Napakiak are staring the existential threat of thawing permafrost in the face. In late 2022, the Biden Administration committed $\$\mathrm{50\hspace{0.17em}million}$ in funds to begin relocating their residents ahead of flooding and building collapse.²⁸

This need to move villages has overshadowed other issues in Arctic communities, says Langer. “In my opinion, the issue of contamination should receive more attention [than it has]. There is a real threat to water resources and fishing grounds,” he says, acknowledging as well the very immediate threat to buildings from thawing permafrost. “The mobilization of contaminants combined with the general threat of infrastructure destabilization are factors that could exacerbate the problem of community relocation.”

Yup’ik children, such as Samuel John, left, and Thaddeus John, right, learn traditional ways of gathering foods. Residents of the children's hometown of Niugtaq, Alaska, were relocated further inland because of climate change–induced flooding and land loss. Such immediate needs can distract from the urgency of potential exposures to contaminants, says Langer. Both images © Andrew Burton/Getty Images.

Compounding Problems

Unfortunately, the double-barreled threat to Arctic peoples of thawing permafrost and exposed contaminants does not exist in isolation.²⁹ Traditional foods³⁰ and the availability and quality of drinking water³¹ in these far-northern communities are threatened. Climate warming accelerates the mobilization of chemicals and microplastics that are sequestered in sea ice and glaciers, in addition to those in permafrost.^32,33 Arctic ice is diminishing,³⁴ sea levels are rising,³⁵ and more intense storms can create greater storm surges than usual.³⁶ Health threats from contaminated soils and water are intensified by compromised dwellings and infrastructure.³⁷

“My experience in listening to elders in the communities that we work with is that permafrost thawing is having a profound effect, not only causing subsidence and erosion of homes and infrastructure but also affecting and limiting access to traditional food and water sources and travel for hunting and fishing,” says Pamela Miller, executive director of Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT), a nongovernmental organization that works closely with Alaskan Indigenous communities. For example, thaw interferes with travel over previously frozen land,²³ and changes in migration patterns and populations of such traditional food sources as caribou and whales mean harvest levels are declining in some areas.³⁸

Of the Alaskan sites identified by Langer’s study, more than 60% are associated with industrial or military activity; spilled fuels make up about half the pollutants found at these locations.⁷ (The remainder of the sites were associated with such varied activities as seafood processing, dry cleaners, railroads, illicit drug labs, and more.³⁹) One site identified in Langer’s study is a former US Air Force base at Northeast Cape on Sivuqaq (St. Lawrence Island) in the Bering Sea, mere miles from Russia’s Chukchi Peninsula.⁴⁰

Sea birds soar above the island’s cliffs, which are dotted with their nests.⁴¹ Whales and seals ply the cold, dark waters.⁴² A landscape of rugged beauty, Sivuqaq for millennia provided the sustenance its residents need to live—sustenance with contaminant levels that now threaten the health of its residents.^43,44 Traditional foods, such as seabird eggs, fish, walrus, and polar bear, have elevated levels of PCBs, mercury, and other bioaccumulated contaminants.^43,45

Following the abandonment of the military base at the end of the Cold War, its waste—including PFAS, PCBs, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers—was left aboveground. Those chemicals are leaching into soil and water and migrating into the food web.⁴⁶ A 2005 study found that the residents of Sivuqaq had blood levels of PCBs five to eight times higher than the general US population, although the proportion attributable to the military base was not clear.⁴² However, a 2022 health consultation from the US Agency on Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found “little evidence” that environmental exposures associated with Northeast Cape sites are contributing to cancer or birth defect rates.⁴⁷

Arja Rautio, who leads the Arctic Health research group at the University of Oulu in Finland, is a toxicologist by training. She also leads the Health and Pollution Work Package within the Nunataryuk research project.²⁶ Rautio’s group has published findings on temporal trends of contaminants in Arctic populations⁴⁸ and, more specifically, on pregnant women’s blood levels of pesticides—including organochlorine compounds—and metals; such contaminants are emitted by agricultural and industrial operations elsewhere and transported atmospherically.⁴⁹

Rautio notes that the health effects of exposure to contaminants go beyond ailments of the body; the mental health of people whose towns are becoming uninhabitable is also of concern. On top of physical changes to the landscape and risks posed by contaminated food and water, the knowledge that one’s community may soon cease to exist takes an emotional toll, she says. “Health effects are a large spectrum of different types of outcomes in humans, and many of those need a long time to develop,” Rautio says. “When we are talking about human health, we need to include health as a whole—mental, spiritual, physical, and social health together—and contaminants are one part of that.”

“Many things in our lives may challenge our mental health, such as problems related to economic, social, environmental—infrastructure and nature—and cultural issues,” says Ulla Timlin, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oulu, who has studied these issues in the context of Arctic communities.^50,51 “Therefore, it is very important to investigate this area, to understand how climate change and permafrost thaw affect people’s perceived mental wellness and well-being, and which factors may be connected to it when living in a changing environment.” She says it is essential to gather information from both non-Indigenous and Indigenous perspectives in the Arctic.

“We are overwhelmed with concern about the health harms associated with climate change—the loss of sea ice, melting permafrost, and the mobilization of chemicals and plastics,” wrote Delbert Pungowiyi, president of the Native Village of Savoonga, on Sivuqaq, in a September 2019 editorial published in the Anchorage Daily News.⁵² “We are running out of time!”

In Russia, left, workers conduct clean-up operations following a fuel reservoir collapse at a Norilsk Nickel power plant north of the Arctic Circle. Periods of permafrost thaw are thought to have played a role in the collapse.⁵⁸ According to one estimate, 550 km of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, shown right on the North Slope, are in areas in which near-surface permafrost thaw may occur by 2050.⁵⁹ Images © Irina Yarinskaya/AFP via Getty Images, left, and courtesy of Moritz Langer, right.

Searching for Solutions

Traditional knowledge and the latest scientific findings will both be necessary in the new reality Arctic communities are learning to navigate.⁵³ In the face of climate anxiety,⁵⁴ Timlin says empowerment to face changes related to thawing permafrost is enormously important to Indigenous peoples’ well-being and satisfaction with life, as is continuing to practice traditional ways of life, such as observing ceremonies and, to the extent possible, eating traditional foods.²

“The most important step is [for communities and governments] to discuss, listen, and talk about the possible future situation in environment, wildlife, water, and food security,” Rautio says. Research gaps also must be addressed. For example, a 2020 scoping review of research at the intersection of climate, water, and health found no studies (up to 2018) that projected future climate change impacts on drinking water in the Arctic.⁵⁵ Rautio underscores the importance of community input in solving coming challenges, such as developing methods to provide clean drinking water to settlements threatened by its loss. “Citizen science is an important element of future research,” she says. “Together with researchers, communities can find solutions.”

In Alaska, ACAT is working closely with the people of Sivuqaq to help community members study sources of contamination, engage in environmental activism, and influence state and national policy changes rather than waiting for help to arrive from elsewhere. Indeed, the continued existence of communities and their traditional ways of life on Sivuqaq may depend on their empowerment. “Our community-based research⁵⁶ focuses on measuring contaminant levels and health indicators in children through a project called Protecting the Health of Future Generations,” Miller says. “Another project aims to characterize the nature and extent of contaminant levels in the environment and people—and health outcomes—associated with the former military base at Northeast Cape on Sivuqaq.”

From left, Leigh Takak, Chris “Maalu” Noongwook, Vi Waghiyi, and Mellisa Johnson sort macroinvertebrates from Dry Creek, near Nome, Alaska, as part of a community-based participatory research project⁶⁰ to assess and prevent exposures to flame retardants and PCBs on Sivuqaq. Image courtesy of Samarys Seguinot Medina, Alaska Community Action on Toxics.

Miller says ACAT works at the international level on chemical treaties, such as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (the only global legally binding treaty targeting chemicals that disproportionately endanger the Arctic) and the Minamata Convention on Mercury. In addition, the organization urges limiting the production and use of harmful chemicals and addressing the full life cycle of plastics,⁵⁷ because ceasing to contribute to the source of a problem is a first step toward solving it. Miller says her team does not currently have the means to measure releases of contaminants from permafrost, but “we know it is a large problem that must be addressed through urgent action on climate. Chemicals, plastics, and climate must be [recognized] and urgently addressed as interconnected and existential threats.”

Echoing statements by Langer and Miller, Rautio notes that establishing basic monitoring is a great place to start. “Pollutants don’t recognize borders,” she says, “especially when they are re-evaporated from thawing permafrost.”

Biography

Kelley Christensen is a science writer and editor in Eugene, Oregon, where she is also the director of research communications at the University of Oregon.