- Sewage sludge ‘poisoned’ drinking wells in Steuben County
- PFAS and you: A look at how ‘forever chemicals’ impact people
- Solving the complex PFAS problem
- Sludge spreading raises liability concerns, fertilizer questions for farmers
- 5 takeaways from the Spectrum News 1 sewage sludge investigation
- 'Suffering the consequences': Why Maine banned sewage sludge spreading and how farmers are adjusting
- 'Don't spread on me': Steuben County neighbors clamor for a ban on speading sewage sludge
- Why New York plans to double sewage sludge spreading as EPA issues health risk
Leslie Smith, better known as Skip, no longer drinks the water from his well. The 69-year-old retired veteran says he can’t after tests found dangerous contaminants in it that he says came from the next-door farm that spread sewage sludge — the byproduct of human waste — for decades.
Smith now purchases bottled water after tests done by the Sierra Club on his drinking water and pond revealed high levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also dubbed “forever chemicals.”
“Besides the fact that it’s expensive as heck and at our age, trying to get the water in and out [is difficult],” Smith said. “My wife does everything now because I can’t, it makes it hard on her.”
Sewage sludge is a common fertilizer for farms and one that New York state wants to increase to meet its climate goals.
Despite their negative consequences, biosolids do improve nutrients in the soil and is a cheaper fertilizer option for farmers. Commercial fertilizers can cost up to $800 per ton whereas sewage sludge can be a low-cost option or even free for farmers. The United States Department of Agriculture has worked to increase domestic fertilizer production, however, the war in Ukraine and Russia caused prices to increase in 2022 as they produce much of the world's fertilizer supply.
But Smith, his Steuben County neighbors and environmental advocates are sounding the alarm about the potential adverse health effects. The state continues to focus on heavy metals and controlling PFAS at its source rather than remediation of the land impacting residents now.
PFAS exposure has been linked to human health issues, including increased risk of cancer and impacts on fertility, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Maine and Connecticut have both banned the use of biosolids on farmland.
New York state and the EPA have supported its use as fertilizer on farmland, citing nutrient benefits for soil and to reduce dumping it at landfills.
Smith’s 40-acre property on Bonny Hill Road in Bath is nearly surrounded by fields fertilized with sewage sludge — also known as biosolids — since the 1980s, records show. Sewage sludge is the solid material leftover from the treatment of wastewater coming from sewer lines connected to homes and businesses.
The issue gained more attention over the past three years when Casella, a waste management company based in Vermont, reached an agreement with a landowner nearby to spread sludge on 2,800 acres of farmland. In April 2022, Casella applied for a permit from the Department of Environmental Conservation that would allow them to take sewage sludge from the Bay Park Water Pollution Control Facility on Long Island and spread in Steuben County. That only raised more red flags for neighbors. Smith wrote letters to Gov. Kathy Hochul expressing his frustration.
“I asked Hochul, ‘is this another example of the rich dumping their s--- on the poor? You know, we have been described up here as Appalachia of New York, is that why it's getting dumped here?’” Smith said.
About 13,000 dry tons of biosolids are spread on 33,000 acres of land annually in New York, which accounts for 21% of all biosolids, according to data released in 2018 by the state DEC.
Mary Bohrman, another lifelong resident of Bonny Hill Road, said her drinking well was found to be contaminated, and she installed a water filter system that cost $10,000. She said it hasn’t done much to eliminate her fears of exposure.
“I’ve been dealing with this basically all my life. We have four generations that lived where I live or next door, and it started back in the 1980s,” Bohrman said.
Prior to Casella purchasing and leasing the farm, it was operated by the Dickson family, which was originally a dairy farm. The family is still listed as the owner of the land, according to county records.
Phil Dickson, an owner of Leo Dickson & Sons and Dickson Enviornmental Services, said they began spreading biosolids in the later 1970s to early ’80s.
“We did it agronomically,” Dickson said. “In all [the DEC’s] testing, they found very little, if any, over-application. If you look at it from an economic standpoint and regulatory, it’s a nice way to basically use the nutrient.”
The Dickson family still farms about 2,000 acres of corn and 1,200 acres of soybeans across multiple properties.
“It’s good, productive fields. If you’re depending on those fields for your livelihood, you sure as the devil would not do anything to be detrimental to it,” Dickson said.
State climate goals
State leaders want to expand the practice to hit its climate goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – 12% of which comes from the waste management sector.
According to a solid waste management plan released by Hochul’s office, the state aims to increase the use of biosolids from 22% to 57% by 2050, while acknowledging the state needs to do more to tackle its PFAS problem. Biosolids that are not used for “beneficial use” are put in landfills and contribute to landfill leachate, according to the DEC.
Currently, New York ranks among the top five states using biosolids on land, according to data from the National Biosolids Data Project. Nationally, about 40% of all biosolids are spread on agricultural land. Using state data, the Environmental Working Group, a national nonprofit organization, estimates that farmers have spread 20 million acres with sewage sludge across the United States.
The DEC did not grant an interview with Spectrum News 1 on the topic of biosolids, but Denis Slattery, a spokesperson for the department issued a statement:
“New York remains a national leader in responding to the threats posed by emerging contaminants like PFAS and DEC continues to advance efforts to regulate these contaminants. Biosolids are nutrient-rich organic materials that can be recycled and utilized as a soil amendment in New York state when properly treated and processed. As the science behind PFAS exposure pathways continues to evolve, DEC recognizes the potential for PFAS to re-enter the environment and negatively impact natural resources and public health with the land spreading of biosolids that may contain excessive levels of PFAS. To address this concern, DEC enacted a policy to specifically address biosolid use that includes sampling requirements for biosolids recycled in New York state and actions DEC will take based on those results.”
PFAS gets into wastewater through a variety of sources, such as food packaging, cleaning products, non-stick pans and other products that use these chemicals that are then flushed down toilets and drains. Industrial contributors bring in higher levels of PFAS than municipal contributors to wastewater treatment plants, however, both contain these chemicals.
Where to stop it
During a special meeting held on sewage sludge in Steuben County in December, Molly Trembley, a representative of the DEC, explained how the department regulates biosolids for land spreading.
“There are site-specific permits for land application, so they’re actually addressed per farm field, as opposed to one blanket acceptance, and then continual testing and monitoring in accordance with the regulations,” Trembley said.
However, these reports only test heavy metals, nutrient levels and pH levels of the soil and don’t include PFAS testing.
Records found on the DEC website didn’t include the Bonny Hill Road properties. The DEC has not yet responded to a Freedom of Information Act request for access to those inspection reports.
Researchers are working on ways to eliminate PFAS in the treatment process but are still trying to find a cost-effective solution.
PFAS chemicals are known as forever chemicals for a reason – because they don’t easily break down in the environment, Trembley said. Currently, the DEC is focusing on how PFAS can be reduced by determining and eliminating the sources of these chemicals.
“Getting it at the source doesn’t really help any of us at the end, which is what’s going on now because it’s a long time before you can get that source and get them to stop doing it,” said Lisa Hargrave, a Cameron Mills resident who attended the Dec. 4 special meeting. “In the meantime, we have all that contamination that’s still going on our fields.”
PFAS: Farm to table worries
The terrain in this area of the state has many hills and valleys. As gravity goes, what is dumped on the top of the hill — where the Dicksons’ farm sits— travels to the base of it where Tim and Lisa Hargrave own a little over 100 acres.
“We have the small farm that I grew up on, and we put a lot of money into it. We put water sources throughout all the pastures and all the fencing. We had an arrangement set up with a relative of mine and he has an organic beef farm, and he used our property one year to run beef,” Tim Hargrave said.
The main source of water for the beef cattle, however, would have been the creek that runs through the Hargrave’s property, which was found to contain seven PFAS compounds totaling a concentration of 23.4 parts per trillion.
New York state doesn’t have regulations on PFAS contamination in drinking water sources for livestock, but experts say it can contaminate the livestock. The state Department of Health says the maximum contaminant levels in drinking water sources for humans for PFOA and PFOS — two types of PFAS — are 10 ppt of each.
“I reached out to him and said, ‘Look, here’s the problem...’ and he didn’t want to chance it,” Hargrave said.
Hargrave hasn’t raised beef on his property for the past three years because he’s concerned PFAS would contaminate the meat, he said.
Murray McBride, an environmental toxicologist and professor emeritus at Cornell University, has spent years researching the impacts of spreading sewage sludge on land. His original area of study was looking at heavy metals in sewage sludge, but that shifted to PFAS in recent years.
“PFAS is a good example of where nobody knew this was being applied. These were being applied in sludges up through the 1970s through the 1980s and ’90s, even into the 2000s with no discussion of PFAS,” McBride said.
McBride said PFAS exposure can pose a risk to farmers and livestock who live on the land.
“Maybe even the more insidious problem is that the cattle are picking up some of these chemicals in the forage that’s getting into their body. PFAS will concentrate into milk fat and consequently, there have been quite a few dairy farms now that have been ruined by these kinds of chemicals getting into milk,” McBride said.
In addition to the known toxic chemicals in sludge, McBride said there are also unknown chemicals, and these should not be applied to agricultural lands.
“That’s the only land we’ve got to grow our food, and it just seems insane to me, but admittedly, when you look at what you’re going to do with this [waste], there aren’t really any great options. That’s part of the problem,” he said.
Testing for sludge
In 2023, the Sierra Club, a national grassroots organization that advocates for the protection of environmental resources, tested about 85 samples of water in three Steuben County towns: Thurston, Cameron and Bath. Overall, their results showed drinking wells on land adjacent to biosolids landspreading were nine times more contaminated with PFAS. The average total PFAS in wells adjacent to land spreading was 15.2 parts per trillion (ppt), with the highest being 82.1 ppt. Wells that were not adjacent to land spreading had an average of 1.6 ppt.
PFOA and PFOS were measured in the samples as well with one sample containing 10.9 ppt of PFOA, which violates the EPA’s enforcement limit and DEC’s drinking water maximum contaminant level. Most of the samples contained some levels of PFOA and PFOS, which would exceed the EPA’s advisory limits, and some violated the EPA’s enforcement limits.
The EPA sets limits on an individual level for certain PFAS compounds that are known to be linked to human health impacts such as PFOA and PFOS, and some additional compounds known as GenX Chemicals can be measured as a mixture of them.
There are thousands of PFAS chemicals, but there is little known about each of them. The Food and Drug Administration identifies eight that are of current concern to human health.
The EPA announced in April new standards for PFAS in drinking water that went into effect on Jan. 1. Additionally, the agency declared PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act in April.
Earlier this month, the EPA released a long-awaited risk assessment of PFOA and PFOS in sewage sludge. Risk estimates from the assessment found those living on or near sites where biosolids have been spread and those who rely on products such as food crops, animal products or drinking water near those sites exceed the acceptable human health risk threshold set by the agency, sometimes by several magnitudes.
Contamination levels for products like milk, meat and vegetables depend on many different factors like land geography, amount of sludge applied, number of applications, climate, agronomic factors and more. PFOA and PFOS levels in sewage sludge can vary too.
“EPA’s analysis does not suggest a risk to the general food supply but in the limited number of acres and farms that do use biosolids on agricultural land, there could be risks posted to either the farm families that consume a lot of products that come off of those farms or to the adjacent people who live right near them,” Schafer said.
The assessment looked at these risk factors individually but not at the combined risk of consuming multiple products from the impacted properties. In an interview, Spectrum News asked Gov. Kathy Hochul about the state's plan to use biosolids following the risk assessment findings.
"New York remains a national leader in responding to the threats posed by emerging contaminants like PFAS. My State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is actively reviewing this assessment to integrate its findings into our policies and regulations. We’re committed to advancing strong measures to protect our communities and natural resources from harmful substances," Hochul said in a statement.
Janine Burke-Wells, executive director of the Northeast Biosolids Association, believes the practice is safe.
“I believe the way we’re practicing it, the way my members are practicing it, it is safe. No one is just putting biosolids down on a field and just throwing it down there. Everything’s being done very carefully,” Burke-Wells said.
The organization promotes the beneficial use of biosolids. However, they provide information on the potential risks of biosolids highlighting the concern of PFAS.
“We’re providing information to the farmer, including concentrations of the PFAS and then it’s their own risk comfort level as to if they want to use it or not when you show them what’s in it,” Burke-Wells said. “Some farmers have stopped using it because it’s their own personal risk and risk tolerance varies.”
PFAS exposure from biosolids and residuals is minimal and unlikely, according to the Northeast Biosolids Association’s website.
Lots of research, few answers
The state has some regulations for biosolids, such as they must be injected into the ground versus placed on the surface, and they are required to be treated under certain conditions. It allows biosolids to be spread without additional testing if they have levels of PFOS and PFOA less than 20 parts per billion when tested at a wastewater treatment plant.
“Twenty parts per billion is where we determined that there’s a large industrial impact to that wastewater treatment plant that needs to be addressed. They will now need to go back and look at their upstream sources and address those. Twenty parts per billion is not some magical safe number,” Trembley said.
The DEC environmental engineer explained that biosolids, water and soil all hold PFAS differently, so they require different levels of measurement. However, the DEC will use the risk assessment from the EPA to determine a “safe” level of PFAS.
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry is assessing PFAS levels in biosolids at every wastewater treatment plant using $500,000 from the New York DEC. This will help determine factors that influence PFAS content coming into and leaving the facilities.
Other regulations include restricting public access to land for at least one year after biosolid application and banning growing food crops for at least 14 months. Feed and fiber crops must not be grown for 30 days after land application.
But those regulations don’t go far enough for landowners in this pocket of upstate New York.
Worries about cancer
Tim Hargrave, along with his neighbors Wayne Wells and Eva Turner, have fought the PFAS-laden sludge battle for years. Wells and Turner both have contaminated creeks that run through their properties, according to testing they paid for.
“I think we first noticed it by this ungodly smell and that progressed into us seeing what it was because the smell, it was all around us. You couldn’t hang your clothes out because they stunk when you brought them inside,” Turner said.
The DEC has outlined procedures for sampling soil, water and land for PFAS but hasn’t released plans for remediation efforts. But it does review them on a case-by-case basis.
Wayne Wells, whose creek is contaminated with PFAS, has been documenting these fields over the years and noticed the corn and soybeans looking brown and discolored.
“These fields, the crops were obviously poisoned by whatever they were putting on them,” Wells said.
As a Vietnam war veteran, Wells is battling two cancers that were attributed to Agent Orange. However, he now wonders if the exposure to PFAS chemicals has worsened things for him.
“My leukemia was attacking my kidneys in a way that my doctor couldn’t understand,” Wells said.
While drawing a direct connection between medical problems and PFAS in sewage sludge is challenging, Turner believes the contamination has led to increased health issues among residents.
“There’s cancer all around these hills. Cancer, cancer, cancer, cancer, cancer. Can you prove it? No. Is it happening? Yes, it is,” she said, pointing to surrounding properties.
About 490 people per 100,000 in Steuben County have cancer, which is consistent with other New York counties, according to data from the New York DOH.
Current research suggests that exposure to PFAS can increase the risk of certain cancers, such as prostate, kidney and testicular. Other impacts of exposure to these chemicals include decreased fertility, developmental effects in children, reduced ability to fight infections, interference with hormones and increased cholesterol levels, according to the EPA’s website.
The town of Hoosick Falls was told last August that it will receive $3 million from a settlement with 3M and DuPont, manufacturers of PFAS chemicals, who contaminated their water supply.
A local fight
Seven neighbors of the Dickson farm interviewed for this story live at the crossroads of three different Steuben County towns. So far, government action has only taken place at the individual town level, causing inconsistent policies within just a few miles.
The town of Thurston passed a law against land spreading in 2023, and the town of Cameron is in the process of doing the same. But Bath hasn’t taken any action.
Thurston Town Supervisor Michael Volino said the discussion around the moratorium that eventually became law began in 2022 when they learned that the nearly 2,800 acres owned by Leo Dickson & Sons either bought or leased to Casella.
“Their plan was to expand the land application of sewage sludge in the town of Thurston and primarily bring it from Long Island here to be land applied,” Volino said.
Residents spoke out, clamoring for town and county officials to stop Casella from increasing the PFAS contamination problem on their land and in their drinking water.
“It’s a constitutional right in New York state, as of 2022, that every New Yorker has the right to clean water and a healthy environment,” Volino said. “Thurston is not a rich community, 20% of residents live on Social Security and they can’t afford bottled water.”
Casella initially fought the local law, appealing to the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, which so far has not weighed in. The company argued that the spreading of sewage sludge should fall under the Right to Farm law, which protects farmers in agricultural zones from so-called nuisance laws that would restrict farming practices.
Jola Szubielski, a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture and Markets, said the department protects nutrient management practices on farms from “unreasonable local restrictions.” These practices include land application and/or composting and storage of animal waste, food waste, sewage sludge and septage that have beneficial uses as fertilizer and soil amendments for crop production.
In August, Casella withdrew litigation against the town of Thurston.
“In the past, this was a farming family doing this. But now we're talking about Casella, this is a waste management company. This isn’t a farming practice, it’s just a way for them to get rid of waste,” Volino said.
Jeff Weld, vice president of communications for Casella, declined an on-camera interview but released a statement:
“Casella is currently assessing the potential for future compositing operations at Bonny Hill Organics while continuing our work to revitalize the facility, including the closure of existing lagoons and other improvements to the site’s infrastructure. We’re proud of the work we have accomplished in improving the site and bringing the facility up to modern standards thus far and we look forward to engaging with the appropriate local, state and federal agencies on the potential for restarting composting operations.”
Volino, other area town officials and residents are pushing Steuben County to take action against sewage sludge spreading countywide, but to date, the county has yet to proceed.
“I think there should be significant concerns,” Steuben County chairperson Kelly Fitzpatrick said. “I don’t understand how you can look at the research and think that this practice should be expanded.”
The county is bound by the state’s Right to Farm Act, too, she said.
“The Right to Farm allows farmers to put fertilizer on their fields and currently that sludge is classified as fertilizer,” Fitzpatrick said.
Farmers and industry stakeholders have expressed concern that they would be held unfairly responsible for contamination of land and water even though they do not create or use PFAS in typical agricultural practices.
New York lawmakers recently held a public hearing on PFAS contamination where biosolids were discussed. Assemblywoman Anna Kelles sponsored a bill that would ban the sale and use of biosolids, but it has not moved out of committee.
The Bonny Hill Road neighbors, including Eva Turner, are frustrated by the inaction on a statewide level as they say PFAS is contaminating their water and food supply for themselves, their children and grandchildren.
“It’s not just a Cameron and Thurston problem; it’s the whole state. Think about this, you’re pouring your kid or grandkid a glass of milk. Do you know if that has PFAS in it? You don’t know because you’re not testing it,” Turner said.
- Sewage sludge ‘poisoned’ drinking wells in Steuben County
- PFAS and you: A look at how ‘forever chemicals’ impact people
- Solving the complex PFAS problem
- Sludge spreading raises liability concerns, fertilizer questions for farmers
- 5 takeaways from the Spectrum News 1 sewage sludge investigation
- 'Suffering the consequences': Why Maine banned sewage sludge spreading and how farmers are adjusting
- 'Don't spread on me': Steuben County neighbors clamor for a ban on speading sewage sludge
- Why New York plans to double sewage sludge spreading as EPA issues health risk