States Grapple With Addressing PFAS In Biosolids, Touting Source Reduction
- By: AWMA
- On: 04/07/2025 10:32:56
- In: Press
- Comments: 0
In the News: Covering A&WMA's specialty conference, "The Science of PFAS", Inside EPA wrote, "RALEIGH -- States are grappling with how to address PFAS contamination from the land-application of biosolids, with regulators emphasizing the importance of regional collaboration and reducing PFAS at the source before it reaches wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), but alternative disposal methods, like landfilling, are fraught with concerns too."
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During a March 12 panel discussion at the Air & Waste Management Association's (A&WMA) “The Science of PFAS: Piecing Together the Puzzle” conference here, state officials and others outlined a series of concerns they are facing as they seek to address per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in biosolids.
Although states like Maine and Michigan have long regulated the land-application of PFAS-containing biosolids, speakers indicated that more states -- including Indiana and Texas -- are newly recognizing the severity of the issue, though officials in Tennessee last year
resisted calls from environmentalists to include PFAS limits in a general permit renewal for the land application of biosolids, insisting they need more data on the presence and impact of the chemicals in biosolids before acting.
States' concerns on the issue appear to have grown after the Biden EPA early this year released its
draft risk assessment of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) in biosolids, which found that two key methods of disposing sewage sludge -- landfilling and land application -- pose human health risks to nearby populations from the legacy PFAS.
In January, for example, shortly after EPA released its draft assessment, lawmakers in Indiana introduced a bill to prohibit the land-application of biosolids that contain a concentration of more than 100 parts per billion of one or more PFAS compounds.
And in Texas, lawmakers last month introduced a bill that seeks to make the production, sale and use of PFAS-containing biosolids a criminal offense.
Although EPA's risk assessment did not model risks for the general public and instead focused on communities particularly reliant on farms, “if you can safeguard these folks, then the people with the lesser exposures are also going to be safeguarded,” said Erik Martin, a risk assessor for consulting group Ramboll, during the panel discussion.
But regulators are also emphasizing the importance of reducing PFAS sources, including through consumer product prohibitions, before they even reach WWTPs to then be turned into biosolids.
“It is much more cost-effective to remove PFAS coming into your facility than it is to remove PFAS from biosolids,” said Stephanie Bolyard, senior engineer to the assistant secretary of North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Elizabeth Biser, former DEQ secretary, added, “It costs $50 to $1,000 per pound to . . . buy the PFAS to make consumer products. To destroy PFAS from municipal wastewater, it costs $2.7 million to $18 million per pound.”
“We've got to start thinking about upstream solutions to prevent PFAS from spreading by getting to the source of the problem, and I think one of the biggest tools we've got in that is surface water standards,” Biser said.
She added that EPA has encouraged communities to use pretreatment programs to mitigate PFAS, but even those efforts need target values, such as water quality standards, to determine regulatory levels.
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