EPA Should Intervene on Behalf of Towns for PFAs in Biosolids, Filings Argue

The EPA is required under Clean Water Act rules to create a review at least every two years of common contaminants in sewage sludge, also known as biosolids, and regulate those contaminants as needed. The agency has set ceiling concentrations for nine pollutants in sewage sludge applied to land: arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium and zinc.

The agency monitors hundreds of other contaminants in sewage sludge, including more than a dozen PFAS compounds. But it has argued in court it is not obligated to regulate those chemicals.

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies has backed EPA’s approach and is intervening on EPA’s behalf in PEER’s appeal. NACWA says that treatment technology for PFAS in wastewater is expensive, and in many cases that bill would be passed on to taxpayers through water rates. The trade group has also argued that biosolids policy should be “based on well-established Clean Water Act regulatory processes that provide for thorough analysis and public participation … not piecemeal lawsuits initiated by private parties.”