The Times dug into the widespread use of sewage sludge as fertilizer, which is sometimes heavily contaminated by “forever chemicals.”

A field in Texas where sludge-based fertilizer had been applied. Neighbors claim it led to animal deaths.Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

By Hiroko Tabuchi

Aug. 31, 2024

For decades, the government has encouraged farmers across the United States to spread sewage sludge on their cropland and pastures. But now there’s a growing awareness that sludge fertilizer can contain heavy concentrations of “forever chemicals” linked to cancer, birth defects and other health risks.

This sludge is a byproduct of the nation’s wastewater-treatment plants. It’s the solid stuff that remains after city sewage is treated. But because it’s essentially concentrated waste, those toxic chemicals, known as PFAS, can become concentrated in it, too.

Here are the key findings from The New York Times’s examination of sludge fertilizer use and the consequences for farmers and the food supply.

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A new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine about the relationship between soil and human health has been issued. The report repeatedly cites the toxicity of sewage sludge (aka 'biosolids') upon soil and human health.

A video presentation and the published report can be found at The National Academies Press

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: CHRIS GRIGGS/CONSUMER REPORTS, GETTY IMAGES

A Consumer Reports investigation highlights gaps in how the U.S. tests and regulates PFAS in food

By Lauren Kirchner Data visualizations by Andy Bergmann
May 2, 2024

It was November 2016 when one of the earliest warning signs flashed, in the form of an unassuming and very unlucky dairy farm in Arundel, Maine.

That’s when Fred Stone learned that water on his farm contained high levels of PFAS. The source of the pollution was later found to be recycled sewage sludge, which he had been told for many years was a safe fertilizer. But per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—otherwise known as “forever chemicals” for their persistence in the environment and in humans—have been linked to cancer, immunity and endocrine problems, and infertility.

The chemicals had contaminated not just his body but his cows and their milk. The land that three generations of his family had worked on for over a century was now toxic.

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Intent to sue federal regulators charges they have failed to address dangerous levels of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ known to be in sludge
Dairy cows rest outside the home of Fred and Laura Stone at Stoneridge Farm in Arundel, Maine. The farm was forced to shut down after sludge spread on the land was linked to high levels of PFAS in the milk. Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP

New legal action could put an end to the practice of spreading toxic sewage sludge on US cropland as a cheap alternative to fertilizer, and force America to rethink how it disposes of its industrial and human waste.

A notice of intent to sue federal regulators charges they have failed to address dangerous levels of PFAS “forever chemicals” known to be in virtually all sludge.

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Doing the right thing – cost them everything. “Sludge” tells the stories of farmers who are speaking up about “forever chemicals” poisoning their land, water, and livestock, only to lose everything in the process. Who’s to blame? And what’s being done now to ensure our land and water is safe for future generations?

Further information...

S.L.U.D.G.E. (Stop Land Use Damaging our Ground and Environment), a group of citizens in southwest Missouri, had a float in a recent Christmas parade.Learn more about the group at https://www.stopsludgespreading.com.

A temporary compromise reached by lawmakers means Maine communities are once again burying sewage sludge in the state-owned landfill at Juniper Ridge near Old Town, and don't have to pay extra to haul the waste to New Brunswick, Canada.

BY PENELOPE OVERTON, STAFF WRITER

Maine’s sludge disposal crisis is over for now, but the search continues for a permanent solution.

Maine communities are once again burying sewage sludge in the state-owned landfill at Juniper Ridge near Old Town and no longer have to pay extra to haul the waste to New Brunswick, Canada. The last truckload of Maine sludge headed to Canada on July 7.

“Our last bill was down, but we should see the full effect in our next bill,” said Dave Hughes, superintendent of the Scarborough Sanitary District. “We’re better off than most. The district has reserves, so we didn’t have to raise rates right away, but it was hugely expensive, and reserves don’t last forever.”

Before the sludge crisis, Scarborough was paying Casella Waste Systems, the contractor that operates Juniper Ridge for Maine, about $400,000 a year to dispose of its sludge at the state landfill. After Casella started trucking sludge to Canada, Hughes put Scarborough’s annual disposal rate at $600,000.
Casella started hauling sludge to Canada in February after it concluded that the landfill could no longer safely accept sludge from its three dozen municipal customers. That much wet material posed a threat to the landfill’s structural integrity, putting the pit itself in danger of collapse, Cassella said.

Casella blamed the sludge crisis on two new laws intended to protect Maine’s environment: one prohibited the use of sludge as an agricultural fertilizer due to elevated levels of potentially dangerous forever chemicals and the other banned out-of-state waste from Maine landfills.

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This video is of testimony given in 2017 in Pennsylvania by several experts on the impacts of sewage sludge spreading on farmland beginning with Dr. Murray McBride.