Read the full article by Anita Wadhwani (Tennessee Lookout)
“Processed sewage sludge from a Bristol, Tenn. wastewater plant contains among the highest levels of so-called forever chemical contamination detected in the U.S., according to a report released today by Sierra Club Tennessee.
The treated wastewater, discharged in local waterways, poses risks not only to drinking water, but to farmland across Sullivan County — and the resulting harvests that wind up on family dinner tables in Tennessee and beyond.
That’s because local farmers rely on the Bristol Wastewater Treatment Plant’s treated sewage sludge for fertilizer, spreading it on open lands throughout the largely rural county, where a $68 million agriculture industry fuels the local economy.
Environmentalists say the long term impacts of PFAS on farm fields and in lakes, streams and creeks is still an unknown.
‘As we continue to add PFAS to the environment, we don’t know what their impact will be,’ said Dan Firth, chair of the Sierra Club’s solid waste and mining committee and co-author of the report. ‘But if we wait before we start looking at them, it’s going to be too late.'” …