The ruling comes amid ongoing questions about how to handle contamination from upstream sources.
By Jacob Wallace, Waste Dive
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Monday that attempted to force the U.S. EPA to regulate contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in sewage sludge. The suit, brought by farmers and public health groups last year, is one of several seeking to address growing concerns about contamination from the family of chemicals collectively called PFAS.
More than half of sewage sludge produced in the U.S. is applied on agricultural land as fertilizer, according to EPA data. The rest is composted with other organic material or sent to landfills and incinerators for disposal. The question of what to do with the material, which can be contaminated by upstream sources such as manufacturing plants and mills, has become more pressing as farmers fear that contaminated sludge can ruin their livestock or crops.
In Johnson County, Texas, farmers allege that their land was contaminated by the spreading of biosolids on a neighboring plot. The farmers, who brought the case against the EPA, allege that some of their animals had tested with PFAS levels hundreds of times the limits set by states like Michigan and Maine to protect public health. They argued that the EPA has a responsibility under the Clean Water Act to regulate harmful PFAS chemicals in sewage sludge, and that it has avoided doing so despite being aware of health risks.
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