Read the full article by Josh Landes (WAMC Northeast Public Radio).
“On Tuesday, the Northeast Waste Management Officials Association will hold its annual conference in Worcester, Massachusetts. Outside, a coalition of environmentalists say they’ll hold a protest demanding the state ban the land application of sludge containing toxic forever chemicals.
The Pittsfield-based Berkshire Environmental Action Team will be there. Its Executive Director Brittany Ebeling tells WAMC that every season of inaction is another of contaminants flooding into the commonwealth’s land, water, food, and ecosystem writ large.
EBELING: Industrial biosolids and waste and residential waste pass through wastewater treatment plants all across the country and communities. All wastewater treatment plants produce sludge, which the industry also refers to as biosolids, that contain dangerously high levels of PFAS, which refers to a class of thousands of compounds that are also referred to as forever chemicals. There was a draft risk assessment put out by the Biden administration by the EPA that was teeing up the administration to consider some kind of regulation of sludge and PFAS because of the known danger when soils, water, and bodies are exposed to forever chemicals.”…