North Florida has had enough.<\/p>\n
The region\u2019s flat, rural cattle pastures, longtime dumping grounds of South Florida\u2019s sewage sludge, will close their gates to feces-filled trucks by 2028. That\u2019s owing to a provision of Florida\u2019s Farm Bill<\/a>, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March.<\/p>\n Sewage sludge is what\u2019s treated from millions of toilet flushes. New state law bans municipalities from spreading the less-treated types on farm fields, a practice that\u2019s been prohibited south of Lake Okeechobee since 2013. Legislation to tighten regulations on the most-treated sludge, too, awaits the governor\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n Water quality advocates consider the ban a decisive victory for the St. Johns River. Farmland along the river receives more than two-thirds of the state\u2019s so-called \u201cclass B\u201d sludge, they say<\/a>, causing an estimated $1.1 billion in cleanup costs in the watershed<\/p>\n That sludge has potentially dangerous levels of \u201cforever chemicals\u201d, the Environmental Protection Agency told farmers in a draft report<\/a> published last year. Maine and Connecticut stopped smearing the stuff on farmland in 2022 and 2024, respectively, and a slew of other states are considering full or partial bans.<\/p>\n Across the country, local utilities are grappling with the fact that toilets don\u2019t stop flushing when farmers stop accepting the treated waste. The product they used to market as free fertilizer may actually be an expensive problem to solve.<\/p>\n State bans<\/p>\n Sewage sludge, known in the industry as biosolids, is made when wastewater goes through chemical tanks, bacterial pools and industrial dryers at treatment plants.<\/p>\n For decades, spreading it on land seemed like an ideal use for the stinky stuff. Paying haulers to truck sludge to the countryside was cheaper than burning it or burying it in a landfill.<\/p>\n The farmers who signed up to receive it got reliable batches of free fertilizer. But they didn\u2019t know exactly what was in it, later found to include everything from ibuprofen to meth to hormones from birth control pills, according to<\/a> a 2025 study.<\/p>\n St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman said phosphorus is the main chemical of concern in her watershed, spurring algae blooms that sicken pets and foul fish. Florida\u2019s ban, a \u201cmonumental move\u201d will cut a big source of the river\u2019s phosphorus pollution, she said, though impacts will linger from decades of nutrients built up in soil.<\/p>\n But the nationwide push to stop spreading sewage sludge isn\u2019t about any of those chemicals.<\/p>\n It\u2019s about PFAS.<\/p>\n Wastewater treatment doesn\u2019t destroy the manmade \u201cforever chemicals\u201d used in nearly everything non-stick and non-stain. Instead, the drying process concentrates them, leading the EPA to conclude that living near a site that spreads sludge or drinking water contaminated by it could pose human health risks.<\/p>\n A group of farmers in Texas alleged<\/a> sludge poisoned their calves, fish and other animals whose autopsies revealed high levels of PFAS. State-sponsored testing in Maine, which banned sludge because of contaminant concerns in 2022, has identified more than 100 farms<\/a> with unsafe levels of PFAS from past spreading.<\/p>\n While Florida\u2019s class B biosolids ban doesn\u2019t mention PFAS, legislation proposed this year in Virginia, Mississippi, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Illinois and other states does.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe have seen a growing concern of ranchers and farmers that this material is not healthy for their crops, it’s not healthy for their cattle, it’s not healthy for their way of life,\u201d Rinaman said.<\/p>\n Landfills<\/p>\n Though states are increasingly skeptical of spreading sludge, land application is often the cheapest disposal method and, according to the EPA, the main one.<\/p>\n That means bans hit local utilities hard, said Ian Pepper, professor and director of the Water and Energy Sustainable Technology Center at the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n With land application off the table, municipalities can burn their biosolids, put them in a landfill or further treat them until they\u2019re marketable to the general public as fertilizer.<\/p>\n Pima County, Arizona, imposed a moratorium on land application in 2020 because of PFAS concerns, Pepper said. The county, which had been spending about $1.3 million annually on land application, spent $3.3 million to bury the sludge in a landfill instead.<\/p>\n \u201cThat got their attention,\u201d Pepper said of wastewater managers. \u201cAnd so in response to that, we started a collaborative study.\u201d<\/p>\n The university and the utility tested sites where sludge had been applied in varying quantities since 1985 and found low levels of PFAS on the surface and underground. \u201cWe gave that data to the Pima County Board of Supervisors,\u201d Pepper said, \u201cand lo and behold, the moratorium was rescinded.\u201d<\/p>\n Maine\u2019s ban drove up rates, too.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s air regulations make incineration difficult, so landfilling \u201cwas the only option,\u201d said Rob Pontau, general manager of the Brunswick Sewer District and president of the Maine Water Environment Association.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as you’re left with only one option, then the market dictates what you’re gonna pay,\u201d Pontau said. Costs to drop off sludge at a landfill, about two hours away and close to capacity, rose from $80 per ton to $120 to $170, Pontau said, leaving ratepayers to foot the bill.<\/p>\n Maine\u2019s 2024 waste plan<\/a> says emerging tech that destroys PFAS could open the door for a “cautious return\u201d to sludge spreading, but Pontau is skeptical.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was dioxin and then there\u2019s heavy metals, and then comes PFAS,\u201d he said. \u201cWell, soon enough we’re going to have microplastics or whatever the next great pollutant is, and then we’re going to find out that that was in the sludge, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Pontau\u2019s advice to other states? \u201cExpect a ban to be coming one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n Advanced treatment tech<\/p>\n The City of Orlando heeded Pontau\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n Water reclamation division project manager Alan Oyler told WUFT<\/a> last fall he felt \u201ca bullseye painted on his forehead\u201d after hearing EPA staff discuss PFAS concerns in biosolids.<\/p>\n