Trump officials kill proposed rules for Pfas-contaminated sewage fertilizer

The Trump administration has killed proposed regulations for sewage sludge contaminated with Pfas and spread on farmland as fertilizer, a practice that has sickened farmers, destroyed their livelihoods, killed livestock, polluted water supplies, and poisoned meat and food products sold to the public.

The proposed regulations would largely have ended the use of sludge, also called biosolids, in the nation’s food system. But the Environmental Protection Agency tossed out its scientific research from less than two years ago that formed the basis of the proposed regulations. It justified the decision by declaring that sludge was not a wide threat to the public because it is mostly used on farms, and only a small percentage of cropland.

However, in comments published to the federal register, the EPA also advised the US public to “research” sludge companies to protect itself from the highly toxic chemicals contaminating home fertilizer widely sold for use in home gardens.

The decision is “a bit bonkers”, said Laura Dumais, an attorney with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) non-profit.

“It’s shocking for the EPA to take a scientific assessment and simply throw it out,” Dumais said. “Basically, they’re saying: farmers’ lives don’t matter.”

Pfas are a class of about 16,000 compounds dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, and accumulate in the human body and environment. The chemicals are linked to a range of serious health problems like cancer, liver disease, kidney issues, high cholesterol, birth defects and decreased immunity.

Sludge is a mix of human and industrial waste that is a byproduct of treating waste sent through the nation’s sewer system. Its disposal is expensive, and the EPA in the early 1990s began allowing it to be spread on cropland because it is also rich in plant nutrients.

But public health advocates have condemned the practice because the nation spends billions of dollars annually to treat water, only to take the toxic byproduct, insert it into the food supply, and re-pollute water. Regulators in Maine and Michigan have found Pfas in every sample they have tested, as did a 2001 federal review of the nation’s sewage sludge.

While biosolids can teem with any of 90,000 human-made chemicals, EPA rules currently only require monitoring for nine heavy metals. Peer has sued the EPA for allegedly failing to regulate Pfas in sludge under the Clean Water Act.

In the Biden administration’s final days, the EPA issued a “draft health risk assessment” for some Pfas in sludge, finding that any level above 1 part per billion (ppb) increases cancer and other health risks to farmers.

Most sludge does not have less than 1ppb of Pfas, and the threshold is low enough that it would have dramatically limited the use of the substance, if finalized and implemented.

The proposed regulations included risk assessments for Pfoa and Pfos, two of the most common and toxic Pfas compounds. The assessments were based on cancer and health risks to farmers, but did not examine how the chemicals may affect the public via contaminated produce, dairy and meat.

In comments submitted to the EPA, the Southern Environmental Law Center noted research showing the risk to farmers’ and their families, as well as the public. Among its calculations was the increased risk for a child who drinks milk from a farm where sludge that contained Pfoa levels of 9.4ppb was spread. Pfoa levels have exceeded 9.4ppb in sludge tested in Maine.

It found more than 36 children out of 1,000 who drink one to two glasses of the contaminated milk daily could get cancer later in life from drinking that milk alone. Their risk of developing non-cancer health problems is also more than 319 times higher.

The EPA decision “puts polluters first and leaves farming families and rural communities to bear the consequences”, said Jean Zhuang, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.

“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,” Zhuang said.

The waste management industry, which profits from sludge, strongly opposes regulations, and has lobbied the EPA on the issue.

The EPA in its new assessment claimed sludge is spread on only 1% of farmland, but no government agency at any level has tracked where it has been spread. Most states do not test land where sludge has been spread, though it has been found to migrate into surrounding properties, and pollute water sources.

The government has also not carried out meaningful testing of food products grown in Pfas-contaminated sludge. In Maine, where more than 100 farms so far have been found to be affected by tainted sludge, chemicals that were spread decades ago were discovered to be still contaminating the 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.