Tell Your State Legislators: Farms Shouldn't Be Toxic Sewage Sludge Dumps!

Sewage sludge is the solid waste leftover from treating water from homes and factories. It contains pathogens, heavy metals, and harmful chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. These "forever chemicals" -- they persist in the environment indefinitely -- increase the risk of cancer, birth defects, and developmental delays in children. Sewage sludge is disposed of on farmland under the pretext that it contains nutrients to fertilize crops, but using farms as toxic waste dumps destroys food safety and rural communities. Chemicals in sludge concentrate in the soil, get taken up by crops and farm animals, and wash off farmland into waterways, contaminating drinking water and fisheries.

In 2026, several states have introduced bills to ban sewage sludge from farmland. So far, Maryland and Virginia have passed laws this year to restrict the farmland disposal of PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge. They join Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Michigan.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Your State Legislators, Farms Shouldn't Be Toxic Sewage Sludge Dumps!

In a classic kick-the-can-down-the-road move, right before leaving office, the Biden Administration's Environmental Protection Agency finally admitted “forever chemicals” are contaminating U.S. farmland because of the EPA's own long-standing policy of promoting toxic sewage sludge "fertilizer" as the way to dispose of waste from water-treatment plants. The outgoing Biden Adminstration EPA marshalled the facts on why toxic sewage sludge shouldn't be dumped on farmland, but the Trump Administration's EPA is unlikely to take the logical next step and implement a ban.

Trump made David Fotouhi the second-most powerful person at the EPA. Fotouhi is a lawyer who spent his career defending polluters, including those responsible for making sewage sluge so toxic. In 2021, he successfully defended International Paper against a lawsuit brought by Nathan Saunders whose wife died from exposure to PFAS. Saunders' wife had kidney failure, but he didn't know why until more than a decade later, in 2021, when he found out their well water in Fairfield, Maine, had extremely high levels of PFAS. The toxins got into the well water through sewage sludge from the wastewater treatment plant being dumped on local farmland as "fertilizer," but it was paper-mill companies that had polluted the water with PFAS in the first place. There was no doubt that International Paper was among them, but the judge bought Fotouhi's argument that Saunders wouldn't be able to prove it was International Paper's PFAS that was in his well water.

Polluters like the ones Fotouhi represents are the reason why PFAS has been detected in the blood of 98% of Americans and is contaminating 45% of U.S. tap water. Companies like 3M and DuPont have always had (and, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, still have) a free pass to dump their waste right into streams, rivers and sewage systems.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of highly toxic man-made fluorinated chemicals used in a variety of products, including waterproof fabric, stain-resistant carpets, nonstick pans, flame retardant furniture, take-out containers, cosmetics and firefighting foam. PFAS kills. There is scientific evidence that it causes cancer, kidney disease, birth defects, and liver damage, and batters the immune system.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Your State Legislators, Farms Shouldn't Be Toxic Sewage Sludge Dumps!

Personal Information

First name

Last name

Address

Apt., ste., bldg.

City

State

ZIP Code

Water Protectors

*SAMPLE TEXT TO YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS*

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

Dear [State Legislator],

Maine, Minnesota, and New Mexico have passed broad bans on products containing PFAS.

Maine’s PFAS ban includes a prohibition on the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer (the industry name for it is “biosolids”).

Every state in the nation should do the same, but the legislation that has been passed so far leaves out a significant source of PFAS: pesticides.

Some sectors are transitioning away from PFAS, but the pesticide industry is doubling down. The Environmental Protection Agency recently approved four new pesticides that qualify as PFAS.

Chemical companies like DuPont and 3M have covered up evidence of the dangerous human health and environmental impacts of PFAS since the 1960s.

Today, overwhelming research links PFAS to a wide range of health problems, including kidney, testicular, bladder, and prostate cancer, as well as developmental, immune, reproductive, and hormonal dysfunction.

Chemical companies are replacing older PFAS with other chemicals in the PFAS family. Unfortunately, these replacements, such as GenX, act a lot like older PFAS, and studies show that they can present similar hazards. Short-chain perfluoroalkyl sulfonates and perfluoroalkyl carboxylates adversely affect rat livers and thyroid hormones just like their long-chain homologues do.

PFAS do not break down naturally and bioaccumulate in the environment and our bodies.

It’s time to ban all PFAS--including pesticides--and set to work cleaning up the water and remediating the land. Some plants, including hemp, have been shown to suck PFAS out of the soil, a process known as "phytoremediation."

For more information, please contact the National Conference of Environmental Legislators: http://www.ncelenviro.org/issue/pfas/

Thank you for your attention to this important issue.

[Your Name]

Organic Consumers Association is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization, under the section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All charitable donations are deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
EIN: 41-1908341

Donate • Privacy Policy • Contact

Designed with ♥ by 4Site Studios