Toxic PFAS Contamination Of Farms, Food And Water Sources Is Avoidable, SELC Says To EPA

Contaminated sludge used as fertilizer endangers farming families and communities, SELC comments on EPA risk assessment

Toxic PFAS contamination of food crops, livestock and drinking water from sewage sludge used as fertilizer could be avoided to protect farming families and other communities if wastewater treatment plants and industries used their ability to stop pollution from industrial sources, the Southern Environmental Law Center said in comments filed today with the Environmental Protection Agency.

“It is unacceptable that families who live off the land where this sludge has been spread as fertilizer now have to worry about the safety of their water, milk, meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables because industries have defiled it with toxic chemicals—and wastewater treatment plants allowed that contamination to happen,” said Jean Zhuang, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The industries that use and profit off forever chemicals should be treating their own pollution so that these chemicals do not end up in our food and drinking water in the first place and wastewater treatment plants can make this happen. If wastewater treatment plants acted, industries would be the ones paying for their own pollution—and not the families and communities that rely on farms and pastures for their food, water, and livelihood.”

SELC submitted the comments to EPA regarding its draft risk assessment of PFAS in biosolids that found PFAS pollution in sewage sludge applied to land as fertilizer exceeds acceptable human health risk to farming families and others who rely on those lands for their food and drinking water. As one of many examples, if PFOA levels are 9.4 ppb—a level seen in Maine—then more than 36 children out of 1,000 who drink 1-2 glasses of milk each day 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 just from drinking that milk than what is considered safe. A study conducted on sewage sludge from nearly 100 wastewater treatment plants throughout the country determined that levels may even be much higher.

SELC’s comments make clear that this pollution can be prevented if industries treated their waste to stop pollution and if wastewater treatment plants used their existing legal authority to limit pollution from their industrial customers so that PFAS chemicals do not end up in the sewage sludge in the first place.

While EPA’s risk assessment confirms that PFAS-contaminated sludge is dangerous for farms and drinking water, SELC’s comments point out that the sludge is likely far more dangerous than the risk assessment found. For example, the assessment failed to account for the fact that sludge actually contains far more PFAS than assumed, and that families living on farms where PFAS-polluted sludge is spread often eat more than one type of food from the land and/or rely on the land for their drinking water.

Stopping PFAS pollution at the source so that polluters pay is more cost-effective and safer for communities than treating contamination at wastewater treatment plants, where the waste stream is far larger. It also avoids displacing the health burden and costs of contaminated food and drinking water onto farming families and other communities nearby and downstream.

Throughout the country, industries that release PFAS pay municipal wastewater treatment plants to receive their industrial waste. Because wastewater plants do not remove PFAS, they release the harmful chemicals directly into downstream drinking water supplies and spread PFAS-polluted sludge onto farm fields throughout the country. Wastewater plants have the authority and obligation to stop their industrial customers from sending toxic chemical pollution like PFAS to their wastewater plants in the first place. As part of settlements with SELC, municipalities such as Burlington, N.C., and Calhoun, GA, are beginning to use their authority under the Clean Water Act to require their current and future industrial sources to control PFAS pollution before it enters their wastewater plants and contaminates food and drinking water sources.

PFAS are a class of thousands of human-made chemicals that include PFOA, PFOS, and GenX, and are associated with serious health harms. These contaminants are known as forever chemicals—they do not dissipate, dissolve, or degrade but stay in water, soil, and our bodies. PFAS are not removed by conventional water treatment, so it is critical to keep them out of drinking water sources. 

About Southern Environmental Law Center
The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region’s air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 200, including more than 130 legal and policy experts, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. selc.org