Read the full article by Peter Mantius (WaterFront)
“Water wells, streams and ponds adjacent to fields spread with municipal sewage sludge have levels of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ roughly nine times higher than non-adjacent fields, according to Sierra Club test results from dozens of sites in a section of Steuben County.
The data was presented last night to the Thurston Town Board, which recently passed a town law banning the spread of sewage sludge on its fields.
The tests reportedly showed that 46 sites adjacent to spread fields had average PFAS totaling 15.1 parts per trillion, while 37 sites non-adjacent to spread fields averaged 1.7 ppt.
‘Based on the findings from 83 samples in the towns of Thurston, Cameron, and Bath,’ the Sierra Club said its slideshow report, ‘we urge the (state Department of Environmental Conservation) to investigate water contamination adjacent to land-spreading and in regions of associated runoff.’
Although other states have found that sewage sludge contains toxic chemicals, including PFAS compounds, that have contaminated crops, cattle and water on farms where it has been spread, the DEC promotes the practice. The agency refers to the sludge as ‘biosolids’ and advocates big increases in its use as fertilizer.
‘The premise of our program … is that these materials are beneficial to farms,’ the DEC’s Sally Rowland told town officials and Steuben residents in August. ‘It’s not a waste disposal activity.’
The municipal sewage sludge left over from the wastewater treatment process is a mix of human excrement and industrial wastes. Treatment plants pay to get rid of it.
The Thurston Town Board enacted its ban in October, roughly a year after board members learned that Casella Waste Systems Inc. had quietly bought or leased 2,790 acres from Leo Dickson & Sons Inc. or affiliates. The Dicksons had been spreading sewage sludge in the Bonny Hill area for more than 30 years.
After apologizing for not telling the Thurston board about their plan to assume control and continue the spreading, Casella officials said they intended to add a new source of sludge: the Bay Park wastewater treatment plant on Long Island. The DEC is weighing the company’s application to import from Bay Park.
The Thurston board, aware that Maine had banned sludge spreading statewide, encouraged the Sierra Club to test local water sources for PFAS and retained the pro bono environmental law group Earthjustice to help it draft its ban.
Last spring, the Sierra Club hired Illinois-based Cyclopure Labs to analyze samples from 35 sites, including 32 water wells. According to uncertified test results, the five samples with the highest total PFAS were adjacent to Bonny Hill fields that had received sludge since the 1980s.
Casella’s Mary Rayeski, supervisor of the company’s newly named Bonny Hill Organics unit, dismissed the PFAS levels from the springtime tests as ‘minuscule’ and stressed that the findings were uncertified.
This fall the Sierra Club’s Atlantic Chapter arranged for 48 new tests, including 42 more uncertified tests by Cyclopure and six certified tests by Eurofin Labs in Lancaster, Pa.
The spring and fall results were merged and then analyzed by area (Bonny Hill, Thurston or Risingville/Cameron) and source (well, stream or pond). The findings were reported in Thurston last night by Elizabeth Donderewicz, a Sierra Club volunteer who coordinated the testing initiative.
Three of five highest PFAS results, and five of the top 10, came from certified testing by Eurofin Labs. Those samples had been collected by the Sierra Club volunteers, who were instructed to follow a strict collection protocol.
Most of the highest readings — both certified and uncertified — were from sites in the Bonny Hill area, where the Dicksons have been spreading sludge since the 1980s. Spreading in the other two areas began after 2010.
Of the 46 Bonny Hill water samples, 31 came from sites adjacent to sludge-spread fields, while 15 did not. PFAS from the sludge-adjacent sites averaged 15.9 parts per trillion, while PFAS from the non-adjacent sites averaged 1.9 ppt.”