Ban Toxic Sludge From Farmland

Sewage sludge contains toxic substances like PFAS “forever chemicals,” pharmaceuticals, hormone disruptors, microplastics, and heavy metals that contaminate soil, water, and food.

These toxins can lead to cancer, reproductive issues, developmental problems, and long-term environmental damage. PFAS “forever chemicals” persist in the environment and accumulate in the food chain. And yet EPA supports the disposal of sewage sludge on farmland, misrepresenting so-called “biosolids” to farmers as a safe, cost-effective, and natural alternative to synthetic fertilizers when nothing could be further from the truth.

TAKE ACTION BY SEPTEMBER 4: Tell the EPA to Ban Toxic Sludge From Farmland!

On January 14, 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency released a draft report on the health risks of PFAS in sewage sludge disposed of on farmland. It found that these toxic “forever chemicals” can cause cancer and other diseases in people who live near farm fields where sludge is spread, or those who consume tainted milk, beef, or other foods from these farms, including kidney and liver cancers, decreased birth weight, increased cholesterol, and diminished immune system function.

This is remarkable, because the EPA’s risk assessment was structured to underestimate the health harms of toxic sludge. As the Coalition for Sludge-Free Land has pointed out, the EPA didn’t consider higher real-world PFAS concentrations, repeated land applications, long-term exposure especially for children, all of the 23 PFAS chemicals the EPA has detected in sewage sludge rather than just PFOA and PFOS, or precursor degradation and mixture toxicity.

And, yet, even with all the downplaying and underestimation, it still found that PFAS in sewage sludge dumped on farmland causes kidney and liver cancers, decreased birth weight, increased cholesterol, and diminished immune system function!

Now the agency is walking away from its own science. In July 2026, instead of moving toward enforceable limits, it instead drafted weak, voluntary guidance.

The public can comment through September 4.

TAKE ACTION BY SEPTEMBER 4: Tell the EPA to Ban Toxic Sludge From Farmland!

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Water Protectors

*SAMPLE TEXT TO THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY*

You will be able to modify this text on the next page, after entering your information.

Dear [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency],

To protect human health and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency should stop industry from releasing harmful chemicals into waste water and at the very least ban contaminated sewage sludge from being disposed of on land or used as “fertilizer.”

Sewage sludge contains toxic substances like PFAS “forever chemicals,” pharmaceuticals, hormone disruptors, microplastics, and heavy metals that can poison soil, water, and food. These toxins can lead to cancer, reproductive issues, developmental problems, and long-term environmental damage. PFAS persist in the environment and accumulate in the food chain, and heavy metals like lead and mercury are absorbed by plants and also get into our food.

The EPA’s 2025 Draft Risk Assessment for PFOA and PFOS in Sewage Sludge underestimated the human health harms. Its model assumed sludge contains far lower levels of these two PFAS chemicals than tests show it does, looked at exposure from only one source at a time rather than combined dietary exposure, and used average exposure rather than the high levels people in PFAS hotspots actually face.

And yet the EPA still found that PFAS in sewage sludge spread on farmland can cause kidney and liver cancers, decreased birth weight, increased cholesterol, and diminished immune function. That is a serious risk to the people living near, or eating food from, sludge-contaminated fields.

Now, instead of improving or acting on its own findings, the EPA is walking away from them. In July 2026, it moved to end the effort to set enforceable limits on PFAS in land-applied sludge and proposed weak guidance instead.

Voluntary suggestions are not enough.

PFAS-contaminated toxic sludge should never be spread on farmland, and the EPA should ban the practice outright. More than that, it should stop the pollution at its source by banning fire-retardant, non-stick, water-resistant, herbicidal, and insecticidal PFAS chemicals across consumer products, manufacturing, the military, firefighting, and food and farming. Please protect human health from every harmful forever chemical, with enforceable limits, not voluntary guidance.

Thank you.

[Your Name]

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