“Biosolids” is the industry euphemism for treated sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants. Sewage sludge has been proven to contain “forever chemicals” and loads of other toxins, yet it is still being spread as fertilizer on farmland in Virginia. We’re a grassroots group in Albemarle County working to stop this practice and educate people about it.
Biosolids = Sewage Sludge.
Graphic by Waterkeepers Chesapeake
The Flawed Argument
There’s a lot of money to be made in the sewage sludge business. That’s why you’ll hear industry propronents always say, “PFAS are everywhere and in everything! You should worry about the PFAS in your house, not the PFAS in biosolids!”
But all that PFAS that’s everywhere will eventually end up flushed down the toilet to wastewater treatment plants or put into landfills. That PFAS-contaminated leachate is trucked to those same treatment plants. It all ends up concentrated in the sewage sludge (biosolids) that gets spread onto farms.
Saying that PFAS are everywhere and in everything is not a good argument for continuing to spread biosolids.
It’s a good argument for stopping.
