EPA abandons risk assessment of toxic PFAS contamination of farms, food and water sources

WASHINGTON—By dropping its risk assessment, EPA today abandoned clear scientific evidence regarding the dangers of PFAS contamination in sewage sludge used as fertilizer, putting farming families and rural communities at risk, the Southern Environmental Law Center said.

“It is unacceptable that EPA is walking away from its own science showing that PFAS-contaminated sludge threatens people’s food and drinking water,” said Jean Zhuang, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “This administration is tossing aside a comprehensive, science-based assessment of the dangers of PFAS and replacing it with a thin, watered-down document that trivializes real harm. That administration decision puts polluters first and leaves farming families and rural communities to bear the consequences.”

EPA’s prior 272-page draft risk assessment—grounded in dozens of studies and extensive scientific literature—found that PFAS pollution in sewage sludge applied to farmland as fertilizer poses serious health risks to people who rely on that land for food and drinking water. The agency is now abandoning that analysis in favor of a drastically shorter nine-page document that ignores those findings and minimizes the harm of toxic PFAS pollution.

“EPA’s own analysis made clear that PFAS in sludge is dangerous, that it contaminates food and water, and that it disproportionately harms farming families,” added Zhuang. “Instead of following that science, EPA is folding to political pressure and issuing hollow guidance that will not protect communities or meaningfully reduce PFAS contamination. It creates the appearance of action while rolling back real protections and accountability.”

SELC previously submitted the comments to EPA regarding its draft risk assessment of PFAS in biosolids that found PFAS pollution in sewage sludge applied to land as fertilizer exceeds acceptable human health risk to farming families and others who rely on those lands for their food and drinking water. As one of many examples, if PFOA levels are 9.4 ppb—a level seen in Maine—then more than 36 children out of 1,000 who drink 1-2 glasses of milk each day could get cancer later in life from drinking that milk alone. Their risk of developing non-cancer health problems is also more than 319 times higher just from drinking that milk than what is considered safe. A study conducted on sewage sludge from nearly 100 wastewater treatment plants throughout the country determined that levels may even be much higher.

SELC’s comments make clear that PFAS contamination is preventable if industries treat their waste and wastewater treatment plants use their existing authority to stop pollution at its source—before it ever reaches sewage sludge, farmland, or drinking water. Source control is the most effective and cost-efficient way to protect communities and ensure polluters bear the cost of their pollution. EPA’s current guidance, however, fails to require or meaningfully advance these measures, allowing avoidable contamination of food and water to continue while putting the burden onto farming families and downstream communities.

This shift comes amid a broader pattern of this administration weakening protections against PFAS pollution and limiting accountability for polluters. Federal agencies recently entered into a weak settlement with Chemours that imposes minimal penalties and allows the company to largely avoid meaningful responsibility for widespread contamination, while EPA leadership has elevated industry influence by appointing Chemours executives to its Science Advisory Board. At the same time, EPA has moved to eliminate and delay national drinking water standards for several PFAS chemicals, threatening the safety of communities nationwide. Together, these actions signal an alarming retreat from science-based safeguards and a troubling pattern of prioritizing polluters over people.

PFAS are a class of thousands of human-made chemicals that include PFOA, PFOS, and GenX, and are associated with serious health harms. These contaminants are known as forever chemicals—they do not dissipate, dissolve, or degrade but stay in water, soil, and our bodies. PFAS are not removed by conventional water treatment, so it is critical to keep them out of drinking water sources. 

### The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region’s air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 200, including more than 120 legal and policy experts, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. southernenvironment.org