The EPA is retreating from stronger safeguards against PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge, leaving farmers, families, and the food supply exposed to toxic “forever chemicals.” Action Alert!
Listen to the audio version of this article:
THE TOPLINE
- The EPA’s new draft guidance replaces an earlier risk assessment that warned PFOA and PFOS in sewage sludge could create serious health risks, even at very low concentrations, with largely voluntary recommendations.
- Nearly 60 percent of sewage sludge is spread on land, including agricultural fields, where persistent chemicals can contaminate soil, private wells, crops, livestock, fish, milk, meat, and eggs.
- Federal lawmakers should mandate comprehensive PFAS testing, prohibit contaminated sludge from being used on food-producing land, hold industrial polluters responsible, and phase out nonessential uses of PFAS.
The fertilizer spread on American farms may be carrying toxic “forever chemicals” into our soil, water, crops, livestock, and food. Instead of stopping that contamination, the EPA is retreating from stronger safeguards and leaving farmers and families to deal with the consequences.
On July 1, 2026, the EPA replaced a warning about serious PFAS risks in sewage sludge with weaker guidance. The agency dismissed its own earlier findings as too focused on worst-case scenarios and defended continued use of contaminated sludge as fertilizer.
But make no mistake: this is another example of the EPA rolling back protections against a dangerous class of chemicals.
The Earlier Assessment Raised Red Flags
The January 2025 EPA draft risk assessment found that PFOA and PFOS in sewage sludge could pose human health risks when sludge is land-applied, surface-disposed, or incinerated. EPA said some modeled scenarios exceeded acceptable risk thresholds by several orders of magnitude when sewage sludge contained just 1 part per billion of PFOA or PFOS.
EPA identified possible exposure through contaminated drinking water, fish, milk, beef, eggs, and certain fruits and vegetables from impacted properties. The agency also said PFOA and PFOS are persistent chemicals linked to adverse health effects, and noted that EPA classified both as likely carcinogenic to humans in 2024.
EPA now stresses that the earlier assessment focused on people living on or near impacted properties, not the general public. That is true. But it should not be used to minimize the stakes for the very people who are most exposed: farm families, rural residents, people with private wells, children playing in contaminated soil, and consumers eating food grown on affected land. Remember our pilot study on PFAS contamination in kale? Even organic samples tested positive for the presence of PFAS, and contaminated sewage sludge is one vector by which this contamination can occur. This problem affects all of us.
Let’s also not forget the propensity for PFAS chemicals to travel, even to the most remote places on Earth: they have been detected from Antarctica to the Mariana Trench.
Sewage Sludge Is a Pathway into the Food Supply
Sewage sludge is the semi-solid material left over after wastewater treatment. EPA uses the term “biosolids” for treated sewage sludge intended for land application as fertilizer or soil amendment. Under existing federal rules, biosolids may be applied to agricultural lands, forests, tree farms, golf courses, turf farms, and other land; they may also be sold in bags for lawns and home gardens. EPA’s own data says nearly 60 percent of sewage sludge is land-applied.
That should alarm anyone who cares about clean food and clean water. PFAS are called “forever chemicals” because they persist. They do not simply disappear after a crop cycle. Once introduced into soil and water, they can move through the environment and into the food chain.
EPA’s new recommendations tell the public to research sludge suppliers and avoid applying sludge where children may contact soil, or in garden beds for foods such as leafy greens and root vegetables, or where egg-laying hens forage.
Read that again: the federal agency charged with protecting public health is telling families to figure out whether the fertilizer they bought may contain toxic forever chemicals. The EPA is abdicating responsibility and outsourcing its job to the American people.
The Bigger PFAS Rollback
This sewage sludge move is not happening in isolation. On May 18, 2026, EPA announced proposed changes to the national PFAS drinking water rule. One proposal would keep enforceable limits for PFOA and PFOS but allow some systems until 2031 to comply. Another would rescind drinking water regulations for PFHxS, PFNA, GenX chemicals, and a hazard-index mixture standard.
In other words, at the same time PFAS contamination is being found in water, food, sludge, soil, and consumer products, EPA is busy rolling back public protections.
EPA should require robust PFAS testing in sewage sludge, stop contaminated sludge from being spread on food-producing land, force industrial polluters to keep PFAS out of wastewater systems, and move toward a broad phaseout of nonessential PFAS uses.
Americans should not have to become chemical detectives to keep forever chemicals out of their gardens, wells, eggs, milk, meat, and vegetables.
Action Alert!
