You can help stop the expansion of sewage sludge laced with cancer-causing toxic “forever” chemicals – PFAS – on farmland in Virginia. But we need your help by January 10!
Authorities at Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) have been asked to grant a permit for expanded spreading of sewage sludge as fertilizer in the Northern Neck. This practice has been shown to contaminate crops, livestock, groundwater, drinking water wells, wildlife, and local waterways.
But DEQ won’t even hold a public hearing unless it receives 25 unique comments about why the expansion is a bad idea – and that is where you come in! We need you to use this Action Alert platform to write to DEQ before January 10 – everything you need is there. A public hearing will enable more to inform DEQ about the dangers of the proposed expansion and what it should do to protect human health
Help stop the expansion of this dangerous practice!
Background on PFAS as fertilizer
The Risks and What Is At Stake
Wall Street-backed Synagro makes money by taking millions of tons of residual solid waste – sewage sludge – from industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants and spreading it on farmlands as a form of fertilizer. This sludge, marketed as “biosolids,” is only partially treated to remove some heavy metals and pathogens. Environmental regulators have known for decades that this sewage sludge as fertilizer is contaminated by PFAS or “forever chemicals,” a class of persistent, toxic, and bioaccumalative chemicals that causes numerous developmental disorders, cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases, among others. In fact, Synagro is now being sued by ranchers in Texas and is actively seeking immunity from lawmakers for liability for knowingly contaminating America’s farmlands, drinking water, and food with toxic PFAS.
Synagro now seeks to expand its operations in Westmoreland County, by adding nearly 2,000 new acres of farmlands to the more than 2,500 already approved. This follows recently-approved expansions for Synagro in other counties, Frederick, King William, and Bedford to name a few, as well as other pending applications for expansion in Essex, Culpeper, Chesterfield and Dinwiddie counties, among others.
We know the harm caused by PFAS-laced sewage sludge, and so do DEQ and Synagro. But in spite of this, Virginia refuses to require companies like Synagro to disclose and test biosolids for PFAS and refuses to impose any limits on its application. Virginia farmers have a right to know that PFAS in sewage sludge can contaminate their farmfields. Unless you act now, DEQ will permit the company to expand its operations in Westmoreland and elsewhere, which will for generations contaminate thousands of additional acres of the Commonwealth’s productive farmlands with toxic PFAS – a substance the EPA jas designated as hazardous and regulates for contamination in drinking water. Indeed, DEQ is required by state law to protect human health and the environment from the harm of toxic contamination through the practice of spreading sewage sludge.
