Tell the EPA to Ban Toxic Sludge from Farmland!

The Environmental Protection Agency should protect us from toxic sludge. 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.

For decades, the EPA has encouraged the disposal of sewage sludge on farmland, misrepresenting so-called “biosolids” to the public as a safe, cost-effective, and natural alternative to synthetic fertilizers when nothing could be further from the truth.

We need a ban now!

The EPA must ban the use of sewage sludge on farmland to prevent further contamination and sickness and instead promote organic and regenerative farming practices that prioritize human health, environmental protection, and safe food.

TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA to Ban Toxic Sludge from Farmland!

In the last days of the Biden Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency released a report on the health risks of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) 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.

Now, Trump's EPA is scrapping the Biden EPA’s Draft Risk Assessment for PFOA and PFOS in Sewage Sludge just like it did with its limits on PFAS in drinking water. In its place, it is offering a weak and voluntary draft guidance, Reducing Risk from Perfluorooctanoic Acid and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid in Biosolids.

Biden's EPA found that PFAS in sewage sludge dumped on farmland causes kidney and liver cancers, decreased birth weight, increased cholesterol, and diminished immune system function.

The EPA found that PFOA and PFOS are associated with numerous adverse health effects, including several types of cancer. According to the EPA, exposure is likely to cause liver, immunological, cardiovascular, and developmental effects in humans. It found PFOA and PFOS:

Harm the liver by causing liver necrosis, inflammation, and injury.
Harm heart health by increasing cholesterol levels.
Interrupt healthy development by decreasing birth weight in human infants. In animals, decreased offspring survival, decreased fetal and pup weight, delayed time to eye opening, and related pre- and post-natal effects have been observed.
Damage the immune system by causing changes to the spleen and thymus, the immune system’s most vital organs. The spleen produces lymphocytes and antibodies, while the thymus makes T lymphocytes (T cells), which are essential for adaptive immunity.

The EPA found PFOA and PFOS are Likely to Be Carcinogenic to Humans.

For PFOA, the EPA found epidemiological evidence of kidney, testicular, and breast cancer in humans. Liver, testicular, pancreatic, and kidney tumorigenesis is also associated with PFOA exposure in human and animal models.

For PFOS, the EPA found epidemiological evidence of bladder, prostate, liver, kidney, and breast cancers in humans. PFOS-exposed rats had liver cell tumors, pancreatic cell tumors, thyroid cell tumors, and multi-site tumorigenesis (liver and pancreas).

This is remarkable, because the Biden 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, not just PFOA and PFOS; or
Precursor degradation and mixture toxicity.

According to the Center for Food Safety, the EPA assumed sludge contains far lower levels of the two PFAS than tests show it does, it only looked at exposure from one source at a time (water, milk, beef, eggs, or fish) rather than combined dietary exposure, and it modeled only average exposure rather than looking at the highest levels people in sewage-sludge hotspots are exposed to.

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. These health risks were noticeable at any level above 1 part per billion (ppb). Since most sludge has more than 1 ppb of PFAS, if the EPA had finalized and enforced that threshold, it would have been a de facto ban on the disposal of sewage sludge on farmland.

TAKE ACTION: Tell the EPA to Ban Toxic Sludge from Farmland!

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PETITION TO THE EPA

To protect human health and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency should ban sewage sludge (what the industry calls "biosolids") from being spread on 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.

The Biden EPA's Draft Risk Assessment for PFOA and PFOS in Sewage Sludge wasn’t perfect—it underestimated the human health harms—but it should be improved upon, not scrapped.

The Biden EPA's model assumed sludge contained far lower levels of the two PFAS chemicals than tests show it does. It only looked at exposure from one source at a time (water, milk, beef, eggs, and fish) rather than combined dietary exposure. And, its data was limited to average exposure rather than looking at the high levels people in PFAS hotspots are exposed to.

And, yet, Biden’s EPA still found that PFAS in sewage sludge dumped on farmland causes kidney and liver cancers, decreased birth weight, increased cholesterol, and diminished immune function. These health risks were noticeable at any level above 1 part per billion (ppb). Since most sludge has more than 1 ppb of PFAS, if the EPA had finalized and enforced that threshold, it would have been a de facto ban on the disposal of sewage sludge on farmland.

The Biden EPA's Draft Risk Assessment for PFOA and PFOS in Sewage Sludge may have underestimated the human health harms, but what Trump’s EPA is doing now is far worse.

Trump’ EPA is abandoning Biden’s conservative scientific assessment. Instead of moving toward enforceable limits, in July 2026, it offered weak and voluntary draft guidance.

PFAS-contaminated toxic sludge should never be disposed of on farmland. The EPA should stop allowing sewage sludge, or what it calls “biosolids,” to be spread on farmland, sold to the public, or used on public lands, playgrounds, gardens, or parks.

More importantly, the EPA should stop the pollution at its source by banning the use of fire-retardant, non-stick, water-resistant, herbicidal, and insecticidal PFAS chemicals. PFAS chemicals shouldn't be used, not in consumer products, manufacturing, aviation, the military, agriculture, or in any other way.

At the very least, polluters should have to dispose of their own toxic waste and not be allowed to dump it into our environment to contaminate our food and water.

Thank you.