EPA scraps proposed PFAS limits on sewage sludge used as farm fertilizer

Agency tells public to research sludge companies on their own

The Environmental Protection Agency has scrapped proposed regulations that would have restricted the use of sewage sludge contaminated with PFAS — a class of about 16,000 compounds known as “forever chemicals” — on farmland, according to agency records and legal groups.

Sludge, also known as biosolids, is the byproduct of municipal wastewater treatment. The EPA began permitting its use as fertilizer in the early 1990s because it is rich in plant nutrients. Public health advocates have long condemned the practice, arguing that the nation spends billions annually treating water only to re-introduce the toxic byproduct into the food supply and re-contaminate waterways.

The proposed regulations would have largely ended the use of sludge in the nation’s food system, according to the agency’s own earlier work. In the final days of the Biden administration, the EPA issued a draft health risk assessment for some PFAS compounds in sludge, finding that any level above 1 part per billion increased cancer and other health risks to farmers. Most sludge tested has PFAS levels exceeding 1 ppb.

The Trump administration tossed out that assessment, with the agency declaring in a notice published in the federal register that sludge did not pose a widespread threat to the public. In the same notice, the EPA advised Americans to “research” sludge companies to protect themselves from PFAS contamination in home fertilizer products sold for gardens.

“It’s shocking for the EPA to take a scientific assessment and simply throw it out,” said Laura Dumais, an attorney with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or Peer, a non-profit legal group. “Basically, they’re saying: farmers’ lives don’t matter.”

PFAS compounds do not break down naturally and accumulate in the human body and the environment. They are linked to cancer, liver disease, kidney issues, high cholesterol, birth defects and decreased immunity, according to published health research cited by the EPA in prior assessments.

Current EPA rules only require monitoring for nine heavy metals in sludge, although biosolids can contain any of 90,000 human-made chemicals. Peer has sued the agency for allegedly failing to regulate PFAS in sludge under the Clean Water Act.

The Southern Environmental Law Center submitted comments to the EPA opposing the decision. The center cited research on the risks to farmers and their families, as well as to the public through contaminated food. One calculation examined the risk for a child drinking milk from a farm where sludge containing 9.4 ppb of PFOA — a level that has been exceeded in sludge tested in Maine — was spread on fields. The center found that more than 36 out of 1,000 children who drink one to two glasses of that milk daily could develop cancer later in life from that exposure alone, and that their risk of non-cancer health problems was more than 319 times higher.

MSI previously reported that a separate analysis found approximately half of California’s tested waterways were contaminated with PFAS pesticides, and that the FDA recently rejected a petition to set PFAS limits in food.

“This administration is tossing aside a comprehensive, science-based assessment of the dangers of PFAS and replacing it with a thin, watered-down document that minimizes real harm,” said Jean Zhuang, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.

The EPA in its new assessment claimed sludge is spread on only 1% of farmland. However, no government agency at any level has tracked where sludge has been spread, according to the agency’s own statements. Most states do not test land where biosolids have been applied, though the chemicals have been found to migrate into surrounding properties and pollute water sources.

The waste management industry, which profits from sludge disposal, has lobbied the EPA against regulations, according to the Guardian’s reporting on the agency records.

In Maine, more than 100 farms have been found to be affected by tainted sludge, with chemicals spread decades ago still contaminating land, including on organic farms where farmers unwittingly grew crops in chemical-laden soil.

“It’s shocking that the EPA is willing to throw all of these people under the bus and the EPA’s solution here is ‘do your own research — we’re not going to regulate anything, so if you think it’s dangerous then figure it out for yourself,’” Dumais said.