Why Aren’t PFAs Compounds in Land Applied Biosolids Prohibited by EPA?

As of mid-June 2025, agricultural stakeholders are increasingly aware of claims by clean water advocates and regulatory concerns that land-applying municipal sewage waste (biosolids) may contaminate soil and groundwater with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). In 2023, approximately 60% of U.S. biosolids were land-applied, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  Also,  according to the EPA, PFAS exposure may pose health risks, though ongoing research continues to assess the impacts of low-level, long-term exposure, especially in children.

Federal and state regulators are working to eliminate PFAS compounds considered the most dangerous to our environment and our health, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) or perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), from consumer products.  However, reducing environmental PFAS loads will also require alterations to current practices which may simply be recycling existing environmental loads, including agricultural uses of biosolids. Legal changes are expected.  Farmers, who own or rent most of the land involved in applications of biosolids, will be a central focus.

What we have seen over the last few years has been a smattering of individual state government actions restricting and limiting the practice of land application of biosolids in various ways.  In some extreme instances, these have included quarantine orders of entire tracts of farmland preventing or limiting further agricultural production.