Read the full article by Jacob Wallace (WasteDive)
“The EPA’s new draft guidance has the potential to affect management practices at wastewater treatment plants, which receive leachate that may contain PFAS from landfills and other facilities. Any EPA action on the issue may also have ripple effects for compost facilities, landfills and other faciltiies that accept sewage sludge if acceptable management pathways shift, and especially if restrictions on land application expand.
The new guidance provides an overview of biosolids management practices that states have adopted to address PFAS contamination, but is careful to note that it was not endorsing those actions. Those practices include new monitoring requirements for wastewater treatment plant operators and, in some states, limited bans on land application of biosolids when the material is found to surpass a certain contamination threshold.
Emily Remmel, senior director of regulatory affairs at NACWA, thanked the agency for reaffirming its support for land application of biosolids during the August listening session. She also said the association appreciated ‘EPA’s candid discussion of the inherent flaws of the draft risk assessment.’
‘Public confusion remains widespread, and this draft guidance is helpful at clarifying misconceptions created by the draft risk assessment,’ Remmel said on the call.
Remmel noted that NACWA was still soliciting comments from its membership, which includes more than 360 publicly owned wastewater treatment works across the country. But she urged the EPA to collect national data on the occurrence of PFOA and PFOS in biosolids to better inform potential regulation.”…