EPA’s next PFAS headache: Sewage sludge
Six months after EPA warned about “forever chemicals” tainting sewage sludge, states are resorting to a patchwork of policies as the agency’s path forward on the widely used farmland fertilizer remains unclear. In the final days of the Biden administration, EPA inched toward regulating the toxic chemicals in sewage sludge, releasing a draft report outlining risks to people living near farms that use the foul-smelling, nutrient-rich material to grow crops. Now, as the Trump administration weighs options for addressing contamination concerns, states and localities are struggling with how to respond to growing evidence that sludge fertilizer can spread forever chemicals. … Also known as biosolids, sewage sludge is the partially dry byproduct of treated sewage from municipal and industrial sources. EPA has long touted selling the material to farmers, a practice that frees up landfill space and reduces reliance on chemical fertilizer.
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