House Plans to Stop Progress on Forever Chemicals in Sewage Sludge
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives want to block any action to protect farms, dairies, and ranches from exposure to toxic PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) contained within biosolid fertilizers made from sewage sludge. If enacted, the action would add to the already colossal agricultural losses and exacerbate mounting public health risks, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
Buried at the end of the House version of the FY 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies funding bill unveiled yesterday is this prohibition:
“SEC. 507. None of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce the draft risk assessment titled ‘‘Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid (PFOS)’’ published by the Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register on January 15, 2025 (90 Fed. Reg. 3859).”
The draft risk assessment was a long overdue review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) into PFAS found within sewage sludge-based fertilizer. That assessment found human health risks “exceeding EPA’s acceptable thresholds, sometimes by several orders of magnitude, for some scenarios where the farmer applied biosolids containing“ even minute amounts of certain types of PFAS found in these biosolid fertilizers.
“Preventing EPA from protecting public health and our food supply from toxic contamination epitomizes special interest politics at their worst,” stated PEER Science Policy Director Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formerly with EPA. “If finalized, this ban will leave ill-equipped state agricultural agencies to deal with a rapidly spreading chemical disaster.”
Maine has already banned fertilizer applications containing PFAS on farmlands, and Michigan is considering such a ban. The Texas Legislature recently tabled its own limits on PFAS in biosolids. Several other states are considering their own actions because EPA has been so slow to act.
EPA’s latest draft risk assessment springs from a provision of the Clean Water Act enacted in 1987 which requires the agency to identify toxic pollutants in biosolids on a biennial basis and adopt regulations to prevent harm to human health or the environment. EPA regulated nine heavy metals in 1993, but since then it has taken no action on the additional 250 pollutants of all types that it has subsequently identified in sewage sludge.
Last year, PEER sued EPA for its unreasonably slow pace in addressing PFAS in these fertilizers. EPA is using the 2025 draft risk assessment as its main defense against the PEER suit.
“Across the country, farms have had to be condemned and livestock slaughtered due to PFAS pollution from fertilizers,” added PEER Staff Counsel Laura Dumais, who filed the suit against EPA. “Further delay in preventing more of these needless tragedies would be unconscionable.”
The House will consider the bill in subcommittee today.
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Read the appropriations ban (Section 507)
Look at EPA’s Draft Risk Assessment
Examine PEER’s lawsuit over EPA’s failure to regulate PFAS in biosolids