I reported in the past year How ‘forever chemicals’, a group of poisonous contaminants that are known as PFAS, can end up in our sewerage and agricultural land.
It is not well known, but when waste water treatment plants treat our waste water or waste water, there is a thick sludge that remains. And much of that sludge is used as a fertilizer on farms throughout the country.
In my last article I looked at how a lack of action can mean at a federal level and a mishmash of state regulations the risk of becoming the landfill for polluted sludge. As a result, some of these communities push back.
You could call it A form of Nimby ISM. Every state produces sewer sludge and it has to go somewhere. And the reuse of waste water sludge as fertilizers has its advantages. It is rich in nutrients. And spreading on fields reduces the need to burn it or place it on landfills, which would have other environmental costs. The use of sludge fertilizers also reduces the use of synthetic fertilizers based on fossil fuels.
But when PFAS pops up in sludge that is used as fertilizers, this can become a problem. PFAS, or per and polyfluoralkyl fabrics, are linked to developmental delays in children, reproductive health damage, cancer and other diseases.
The federal government regulates some pathogens and heavy metals in sludge that is used as fertilizers, which is also known Biosolids, but not PFAS. That has left states, and some communities, to tackle the problem alone.
The more to learn
So what happens in your state or community?
To start with, you can look up what your state has done to tackle the problem. Maine has completely prohibited the use of sewer sludge on agricultural land. Connecticut has forbidden the use of sludge that contains PFAS.
Maryland has set tests in his waste water treatment plants and accepted guidelines for Biosolids that can be used on farms. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin have also adopted some limitations.
Some waste water treatment plants start to make known Whether they have found PFAs in their waste water or biosolids. You can find out which waste water treatment facility handles from your neighborhood. (If you live in a large urban area, start with the local municipal water use.)
Contact whether they test on PFAs and ask to see the test results. Interpreting what you return can be difficult and regulatory authorities are still trying to find out what safe PFAS thresholds can be.
In First of all, risk assessment From PFAs in Biosolids, the Environmental Protection Agency said that levels of two types of PFAs of more than 1 part per billion can lead to health risks. But Maryland only recommends that biosolids are not used in agricultural land if PfAS levels exceed more than 100 parts per billion. Ask your water treatment plant how they interpret their test results.
You can also go one step further and ask your local waste water facility what they do to prevent PFAs from entering their activities. Advocacy groups such as the Southern Environmental Law Center have forced treatment work to demand that factories and other industrial facilities clean all waste water that they remove from PFAs.
Kathleen Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the Law Center, told me that in one case a manufacturer puts pressure on a waste water treatment plant decided to stop PFAs completely.
Find out where sludge ends up
In most states, farmers must receive a permit to use biosolids and indicate on which fields they use the fertilizer. But states do not easily reveal the information in those permits, so it can be difficult to find out where sewer sludge is going in your community.
An exception is Maine, the only state that has prohibited the use of waste water. Maine claims An interactive map From well -known locations where sludge fertilizers has been used, as well as the results of PFAS tests of the state of water and soil.
Some news broadcasts have used permit data to map where the sewer sludge has been applied historically. The state, a newspaper in South Carolina, did that as part of An in -depth investigation In PFAS BESMATION OF BIOSOLIDS that is used by local farmers.
Finally, what about food about food?
The risk assessment of the EPA suggested that it was unlikely that the general food supply would run the risk. (Most people eat food from so many different sources that it is unlikely that they will eat a dangerous amount of PFAs from an infected source.)
But for households that depend on, say milk or beef from a family farm that is infected with PFAs from sewer sludge, the risks can be higher, the desk warned. I reported last year A family from New Hampshire who struggled with those worries.
Climate science
Large cities sink throughout America. This is why.
A new analysis of the 28 largest population centers in America showed that Everything except for two in generalAnd in many cases considerable. Several of the most affected areas are in Texas, especially around Fort Worth and Houston. But the problem is rural and finds cities as spread as Seattle, Detroit and Charlotte, NC
The sinking of land, also called subsidence, can aggravate the effects of the rise in sea level, intensify floods and intensify the foundations of urban infrastructure.
The new research, published in the scientific journal Nature Cities, built on earlier work with the help of satellite measurements to outline a detailed image of the rising and falling country. It also closely investigated the relationship between changes in land height and changes in groundwater, using data from individual monitoring wells. – Mira Rojanasakul
Related: A 2023 New York Times Research Discovered that untenable pumps of water from Aquifers can be an important cause of sinking land.
By the figures
More than $ 500 billion
The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to eliminate Energy Star, the popular energy efficiency certification for dishwashers, refrigerators, dryers and other household appliances, According to desk documents and a recording of an internal meeting.
Since its foundation in 1992, the Energy Star program helped to save more than $ 500 billion in energy costs and to get discounts and tax credits, according to the report of the 2024 program. Almost 90 percent of American consumers recognize the Energy Star label according to the government. – Lisa Friedman and Rebecca F. Elliott
Climate politics
Why 35 Huis Democrats joined Republicans when voting against a large climate policy
Last week, 35 Democrats voted to help Republicans to withdraw the milestone requirement of California All new vehicles that are sold in the state are electric or otherwise not -fulfilling by 2035.
The vote from 246 to 164 in the house was surprised environmental activists who said they had trouble understanding why almost three dozen Democrats voted to kill one of the most ambitious climate policy in the country. In recent years, Democrats have voted overwhelmingly for a stronger policy to tackle global warming.
Some wonder if that unity is starting to fray in the light of intense lobbying and worry about rising prices in the midst of Trump’s trade wars. – Lisa Friedman
More climate news from on the internet:
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More than half of the children born in 2020, or about 62 million people, will experience heat waves according to “unprecedented lifelong exposure”, according to A new study that is emphasized by a carbon letter.
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Orstead, a Danish company, has canceled plans to build the Hornsea 4 Wind energy project off the coast of Great -Britain, Reuters -reports. It would have been one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms.
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HeatMap News Investments A republican plan to revise the National Environmental Policy Act, one of the most important laws in the country for permits for development projects.
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