The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and Johnson County, Texas, to join lawsuit against EPA seeking to limit PFAS levels in sewage sludge spread on America’s farms and gardens
Help MOFGA stop PFAS contamination on farmland. Donate today to help MOFGA hold the EPA accountable and turn off the PFAS tap.
Today, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) and Johnson County, Texas, seek to become plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failure to regulate the land application of sludge contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under the Clean Water Act.
With this lawsuit, MOFGA and Johnson County are holding the EPA accountable for its inaction. These plaintiffs will join a lawsuit filed in June by ranchers in Johnson County, Texas, whose land and water were contaminated by PFAS from sewage sludge spread on neighboring land. The plaintiffs are all represented by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), an organization that shines the light on improper or illegal government actions and supports the work of other organizations.
“Farmers across the country count on the EPA to ensure that sewage sludge that gets applied on land as fertilizer is safe,” notes PEER staff counsel Laura Dumais. “EPA has ample information about the dangers of PFAS in sewage sludge and should have regulated it long ago, as the Clean Water Act requires.”
To date, the primary source of PFAS contamination in Maine has been traced to the use of sewage sludge applied to farmland. Similarly, Johnson County has found the spreading of sewage sludge to have caused serious PFAS contamination problems in multiple locations.
“Through no fault of their own, farms have been contaminated with PFAS, and we’re holding the EPA accountable for regulating PFAS in sludge,” says Sarah Alexander, executive director of MOFGA. “The EPA has the responsibility to make sure that sludge that contains harmful PFAS don’t contaminate our water, ecosystems, and our food. The EPA should stop PFAS from ending up on farm fields and on our plates. We need to take action for ourselves and for future generations.”
Since learning about PFAS on farms in Maine, MOFGA has been at the forefront of addressing farmland contamination from PFAS. In addition to testifying and working with legislators on over a dozen bills in Maine, MOFGA is fighting for the health and safety of farmers and consumers through federal action; suing the EPA; and pushing for a federal safety net for farms found to have PFAS in their soil, water, crops, and livestock.
Under a Clean Water Act provision enacted in 1987, EPA must biennially identify toxic pollutants in biosolids and adopt regulations to prevent harm to human health or the environment. In the over 35 years it has been examining biosolids for emerging threats, EPA has identified more than 250 pollutants of all types, yet has promulgated only nine sewage sludge regulations for land application. Because the EPA has been so slow to regulate PFAS in sludge, farmers across the country have had to shoulder the burden. This lawsuit calls on the EPA to step up and fulfill its regulatory role.
”This is an agricultural issue,” commented Larry Woolley, Johnson County Commissioner for Precinct 4. “It is not a matter of politics; it is a matter of stewardship. Generations of family farms, and our food supply, are at risk unless we take action.”
To read the complaint and for more information about MOFGA’s public policy work, visit mofga.org/pfas. Help MOFGA stop PFAS contamination on farmland. Donate today to help MOFGA hold the EPA accountable and turn off the PFAS tap.
To learn more about the suit as originally filed by the affected ranching families, as well as Johnson County’s criminal investigation into PFAS contamination on agricultural lands, read “EPA Sued to Remove PFAS from Biosolid Fertilizers” at peer.org.
