While\u00a0a\u00a0bill\u00a0to place a\u00a0five-year\u00a0moratorium on\u00a0spreading chemical-laden sewage sludge\u00a0on New York\u2019s farmland\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0get a vote in the\u00a0state\u00a0Assembly last year, lawmakers and environmental advocates are renewing their push to pass\u00a0it this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSewage sludge, a byproduct of wastewater treatment plants, has been marketed as an affordable fertilizer alternative to farmers and sold as compost in big-box stores to home gardeners,\u00a0but evidence shows sludge spreading puts\u00a0rural\u00a0communities, surface and groundwater, and food systems at serious risk,\u201d said Caitlin Ferrante,\u00a0conservation program manager for the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, an environmental advocacy group.<\/p>\n
Sewage sludge, also known as biosolids, often\u00a0contains\u00a0per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of over 10,000 chemicals that do not break down in the environment.\u00a0They are used for their\u00a0moisture-resistant\u00a0properties in different cleaning products, non-stick\u00a0cookware\u00a0and other household\u00a0items,\u00a0then they end up in wastewater treatment plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PFOA and PFOS are two\u00a0specific\u00a0forever\u00a0chemicals\u00a0linked to human health issues such as\u00a0an increased\u00a0risk of cancer, decreased immune ability, child development\u00a0issues\u00a0and birth defects, according to the\u00a0U.S. Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, residents in both\u00a0Steuben<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Albany<\/a>\u00a0counties found that their drinking wells were contaminated with PFAS, E. coli and coliform after sewage sludge was spread on fields near the\u00a0homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[The bill] would place a five-year\u00a0moratorium\u00a0on the spreading of sewage sludge on any land in New York, giving pause for the state to access where the sludge is coming from and to evaluate the practice of spreading in general. We should be protecting our remaining farmlands, our water\u00a0supplies\u00a0and our communities\u00a0as a whole as\u00a0we work to\u00a0better\u00a0understand a sustainable and responsible way to deal with our waste,\u201d Ferrante said during a press conference\u00a0Wednesday\u00a0in Albany.\u00a0<\/p>\n The legislation is currently\u00a0in\u00a0the environmental committee for both the state Assembly and\u00a0state\u00a0Senate. Last year, the\u00a0Senate\u00a0passed\u00a0it\u00a0but\u00a0stalled\u00a0in the Assembly and did not get a vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n New\u00a0York Water Environment Association, a member organization for wastewater treatment operators, advocated against the bill last year,\u00a0arguing\u00a0that there\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0good\u00a0options for disposing biosolids, and the moratorium would cost New Yorkers more money.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are three ways for us to deal with biosolids. We either burn it \u2013 which New York state is not\u00a0interested in\u00a0incineration anymore in any form \u2013 land\u00a0apply\u00a0on farm fields or other places, or put it on a landfill as daily cover,\u201d said NYWEA executive director Khris Dodson in an interview last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Adding biosolids to landfills has also seen opposition in New York state.\u00a0<\/p>\n Besides\u00a0the moratorium, lawmakers have proposed a group of bills that would\u00a0ban\u00a0the\u00a0use of\u00a0PFAS in\u00a0beauty,\u00a0consumer\u00a0and household products.\u00a0Another\u00a0bill would reduce the\u00a0maximum level of certain\u00a0PFAS chemicals that can be found in drinking water, bringing it from the current level of 10 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS to 4ppt. The federal government has said that by 2029, municipalities\u00a0must\u00a0be under\u00a0the new maximum\u00a0contaminate levels.<\/p>\n Under the Biden\u00a0administration, the\u00a0EPA released\u00a0a draft risk assessment<\/a>\u00a0that found people living on or near sites that were spread with sewage sludge\u00a0are at risk of contamination from PFAS chemicals. Particularly if they rely on food\u00a0crops, animal products or drinking water from on or near those sites.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n