Tell EPA: Keep PFAS out of farms, food and water | Southern Environmental Law Center

Tell EPA: Keep toxic PFAS out of farms, food and water.

EPA just tossed aside its detailed scientific assessment of the dangers of PFAS contamination to replace it with a nine-page watered-down document that downplays risks and does not protect communities. It falsely creates the appearance of action while weakening real protections and reducing polluter accountability.

Simply put, ignoring the science on PFAS contamination in sewage sludge used as fertilizer to our food and water, puts families and communities at risk.

PFAS contamination is preventable. Industries can treat their waste and wastewater treatment plants can use existing authority to stop pollution at its source—before it ever reaches sewage sludge, farmland, or drinking water sources.

Preventing pollution at the source is the most effective and affordable way to protect communities and ensure polluters bear the cost of their pollution—not farms, families and communities.

Act now to tell EPA to hold polluters accountable and keep toxic forever chemicals out of our farms, food and water.

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Director

Lee

Zeldin

EPA

Dear EPA Administrator Zeldin:

A nine-page watered-down document that downplays risks and fails to protect communities is not a replacement for a comprehensive, science-based assessment of the dangers of PFAS contamination or the need for polluter accountability. These comments are in opposition to docket EPA-HQ-OW-2026-2509.

EPA’s decision to replace its scientific assessment of PFAS contaminated sludge used as fertilizer puts our food, water, families and rural communities at risk.

PFAS contamination is preventable if industries treat their waste and wastewater treatment plants use their existing authority to stop pollution at its source—before it ever reaches sewage sludge, farmland, or drinking water. Preventing pollution at the source is the most effective and affordable way to protect communities and ensure polluters bear the cost of their pollution—not our farms, families and communities.

EPA must hold industrial polluters accountable for treating their own waste before it reaches farmlands and contaminates water supplies. EPA should not allow preventable PFAS contamination of food and water to continue. Nor should it force farming families and downstream communities to bear the costs of pollution they did not create.

We are alarmed by EPA’s decision to replace its risk assessment. This action is part of this administration’s broader pattern of weakening protections against toxic PFAS pollution and limiting accountability for polluters. Federal agencies recently entered into a weak settlement with Chemours that imposes minimal penalties and allows the company to largely avoid meaningful responsibility for widespread contamination, while EPA leadership has elevated industry influence by appointing Chemours executives to its Science Advisory Board. At the same time, EPA has moved to eliminate and delay national drinking water standards for several PFAS chemicals, threatening the safety of communities nationwide. Together, these actions signal an alarming retreat from science-based safeguards and a troubling pattern of prioritizing polluters over people. Instead of abandoning its mission to protect human health and the environment, we urge EPA to act swiftly to finalize its draft risk assessment of PFAS in biosolids and use its full authority under federal law to protect people from PFAS-contaminated sludge.

Thanks,

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