Congress tries to shut down action on dangerous PFAS in fertilizer 'in the dark of night'
WASHINGTON (SOA) — Earlier this month, we reported on a potential health risk being spread on American farms and invading our food and milk supply. Fertilizer made from human waste, which often contains forever chemicals, is not regulated in the U.S. The EPA seemed poised to take action in 2025, but now, there's an effort to shut that down from within the halls of Congress. We wanted to know why.
Mike Lightfoot has been making his living on the water of Virginia's Chesapeake Bay for the last 14 years.
There, he pulls up cages of America's favorite seafoods like crabs and oysters.
"When I die and hopefully go to heaven, I hope it looks a little bit like this," he told us.
But the beautiful waterways can conceal a toxic secret that's raising alarm bells nationwide.
It starts on American farms treated with fertilizer made from human waste that can be loaded with a toxic class of chemicals known as PFAS.
Those forever chemicals pose serious risks to our health, like cancer and developmental problems in kids. Once applied to land, they don't stay in one place.
"When biosolids are applied on a farm field, and they are heavily laced with PFAS, those run downhill into the streams and creeks and into the Potomac, the Chesapeake, the Rappahannock and it's in our waterways," Lightfoot said.
He believes that poses a threat to Virginia's booming, billion-dollar seafood industry.
A study released in 2025 found that 80% of downstream sites from where biosolids were applied showed increased PFAS levels, some more than 5,000% higher than what would be typical.
"If the Health Department wanted to, they could issue consumption advisories for the public on not eating crabs," warned Lightfoot. "It's already occurring."
But action on the issue depends on the state. A handful of states are banning or limiting PFAS-laden biosolids to protect farms and waterways.
In Maryland, 100% of human-waste fertilizer tested was confirmed to contain PFAS. Maryland won't use it thanks to proactive rules, but Virginia has no such laws in place, meaning it could migrate there.
"We get the crap Maryland doesn't want," said Mike Lightfoot.
The feds were on track to take action in January 2025. That's when the EPA laid out serious risks associated with even small amounts of PFAS chemicals in biosolids applied to farmland.
But tucked in the text of a Congressional budget bill, a one-sentence rider that could put the brakes on it all.
It reads: "None of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce" that risk assessment by the EPA.
Lightfoot called the move "terrible" and likened it to taking the warning label off of cigarettes.
For Kyla Bennett with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, that budget rider poses a triple threat, harming farmers, food and water.
"It's appalling to me that these legislators are willing to trade human health, to trade clean water and a clean food supply for their re-election," Bennett said. "To me, that's despicable."
We wanted to understand how it happened, so we reached out to every member of the committee behind that bill, asking about the rider and how it was justified.
Only Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine responded and agreed to sit down with us. Her home state was the first to ban PFAS in biosolids after farmers saw their health and livelihood destroyed from contamination.
We asked Pingree who wrote the rider into the budget bill.
"These things often come in the dark of the night and you don't necessarily know where it comes from or how it was in the language," she replied.
When pressed about any possibility of tracking it back to an individual, she said sometimes there's no way to do it.
"This is what makes people really mad about Congress," said Pingree. "It's another case of where we're not protecting the people we're here to represent, and we're letting the big guys control the show in the dark of the night in language that very few people understand."
Big guys, she said, that can include industry giants and lobbyists who profit from unloading toxic sludge on America's farmland.
Pingree said she tried to strike the language with an amendment, but had no luck in the Republican-led committee. But, she said, there's hope.
Pingree believes that public pressure could turn the tide.
"Before this bill comes to the floor, we need a much greater level of awareness," she said. "So people can say, 'Wait, I'm going to call my member of Congress and say I need to get this rider out, this isn't right.'"
She said the best way to take action is to reach out to your member of Congress and urge that the rider be removed. You can find out how to contact your member of Congress by clicking here.
Pingree also told us she's working on legislation to address the issue of PFAS in biosolids on a federal level and we'll be watching that closely.
For Lightfoot, action can't come soon enough. He believes that, in partnership with farmers, legislation that protects all of us can pass.
"Farmers need to know that the dirty biosolids can significantly harm or maybe even condemn their land," said Lightfoot. "Farmers need to know that if farmers push back like watermen are pushing back, then I think we have a really good chance."
