Sludge with forever chemicals spread on US farms threatens food supply, livelihoods
WASHINGTON, D.C. (7News) — Every year, more than one million tons of sewage, sludge or biosolids are applied to U.S. farmlands.
For decades, it's been used as fertilizer to provide nutrients to the soil. But this sludge often contains PFAS, toxic "forever chemicals" that have been linked to cancer, and are now invading our food supply through the very farms that nourish us. And now, just as the United States was on the verge of action to address the risk, there is a high-level effort to stop it entirely.
An invisible enemy is being welcomed onto American farms.
"This is a forever chemical. It's not leaving," said Robb Hinton, a fourth-generation Virginia farmer trying to alert others to a crisis already playing out in places like Michigan, Maine and Texas.
Fertilizer teeming with toxic PFAS is being spread across tens of millions of acres, where it's absorbed by crops, eaten by livestock, and showing up in the produce, milk, and meat Americans consume.
"All a farmer wants to do is grow a good healthy crop, do right by the land, feed the public in a responsible manner," Hinton said. "And when something is injected into his world like this and he has thrown that balance off, it's going to devastate him."
In Maine, farmer Fred Stone was forced to close his dairy farm and euthanize 80% of his herd after milk from his cows had PFAS levels 350 times higher than the current limit for drinking water. More than 80 farms in Maine are now contaminated, and Stone is battling extremely high levels of PFAS in his blood.
The chemicals are tied to serious health issues, including cancer, reproductive problems and developmental effects in children. Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that high levels of PFAS exposure can even decrease a person’s response to vaccines.
It was enough evidence for Hinton to say no to sludge, which is used on about one-fifth of all U.S. farmland.
"I passed on using it," Hinton said. "We gave it a good hard look twice and we walked away from it."
Here's how it works: Wastewater treatment facilities pay companies to haul away tons of human excrement or "biosolids." These companies then have to get rid of the waste and often give it to farmers for free, who then spread it on their land.
Kyla Bennett, Director of Science Policy at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), warned of the widespread exposure.
"All conventional farms are allowed to use biosolids," Bennett said. "So that's hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. eating food from farms that use biosolids. So the exposure is incredibly high and very, very concerning."
For the first time ever, this year, the Environmental Protection Agency identified risks from sludge containing PFAS being spread on farms. The agency found that food and milk produced on those farms could be unsafe for human health, with elevated cancer risk being one of the markers for safety.
"It can give you cancer and kill you, but there's going to be a lag time," Bennett said. "And the more that you eat, the more you're exposed to. And because it's so persistent, it just builds up and up and up in your body. So every time you're exposed, it makes it worse."
Only a handful of states are testing for PFAS in biosolids, and their findings are so alarming that they're considering statewide bans. Investigations in Michigan revealed levels of PFAS 2,000 times higher than the EPA's safety limit. In Colorado, 95% of samples exceeded that limit. Most recently, a Texas county declared a state of emergency over PFAS contamination from sludge.
But in the absence of federal regulation, farmers are on their own. We asked Hinton, 'Who is left to fix the problem?'
"No one," he said. "I don't know what I can do about it. This interview is about all I can do about it. I'm not saying shut this whole thing down. Let's say do your due diligence. Do your job. Be a government. Regulate this stuff. Educate the people who are affected and let's figure it out. That's all I want."
We discovered calls for regulation from farmers like Hinton are falling on deaf ears on Capitol Hill.
We've learned that there's a high-level effort in Congress, originating in the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee under the leadership of Chairman Mike Simpson, to actually stop working on this issue entirely, shut down the process and prevent any future similar investigative assessment action by the EPA.
In our next report, we track down answers from key lawmakers.
