A local environmental group has been raising a stink of sorts about the dangers of using sewage sludge on farmlands throughout Carbon County.

Save Carbon County has been asking county boards, municipalities and commissioners to adopt resolutions asking that the product stop being used on Pennsylvania’s farmland and calling for local regulations and oversight - including the ability to ban its use.

The group says the substance is applied by county farmers from processing companies in Lehigh and Northampton counties.

The group, which says it will be attending Thursday’s Carbon County commissioners meeting, claims farmers get the stuff for free, adding that “besides human excrement, it contains heavy metals, pathogens including COVID and other viruses and bacteria as well as levels of ‘forever chemical’ perfluoroalkoxyalkane or PFAS.”

These chemicals, they say, never decay and contaminate the soil and plants grown in it.

In addition, the group claims “big agriculture” successfully lobbied to remove all regulation and oversight from the farm industry so that material like sewage sludge could be used without standards. Already, about 20 local governing bodies have thrown their support behind the proposal. More are expected. At the county level, there hasn’t yet been a firm commitment pending meetings with representatives of both sides of the issue.

On the surface, the proposal has some merit. But let’s look a little deeper.

Sewage sludge is what’s left over after wastewater is handled at treatment facility. It contains a bunch of good stuff like nitrogen, phosphorus and other elements that promote plant growth.

The water heads downstream after meeting federal quality standards, but what’s left behind must be dealt with.

These days that happens in three ways, and none of the results have perfect outcomes.

Simply put, the next steps are incineration, land use or burial in a landfill. No matter the method, all of the sludge is treated and expected to meet federal standards.

Only the biosolids that meet the strictest standards against pollution, pathogens and vermin attraction can be used for beneficial purposes.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Environmental Resources enforce those standards with testing on a regular basis.

Of course, even the leftover biosolids aren’t perfect. Some contain metal concentrations that have decreased over the last 20 years because of stronger treatment standards. Many of the trace metals help plants grow and are common in commercially produced fertilizers used on farms and local lawns.

The other substances - the “forever chemicals” - are still being studied and more are found as time goes on.

The EPA says the threat of polluting groundwater is low if biosolids are applied properly.

The process has been around for centuries, but only came to the forefront in the 1970s when efforts began to clean up water supplies. Before that, regulation was sporadic, if at all. In the 1990s, biosolids helped Blue Mountain begin to recover from the effects of a zinc smelter in Palmerton. Their chemistry has reclaimed countless mine scarred acres across the state and nation.

Over the years, using biosolids has been challenged in courts across the country.

In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court has upheld farmers’ rights to use them, as long as they follow the rules. Opponents in the area point to what’s happening in other states as a warning of what might happen here.

Biosolids for land use have been banned in Maine, where officials there are dealing with how to dispose of them. They’re filling up the only landfill in the state qualified to deal with them, and now they’re being shipped to other states.

In Michigan, biosolids are used only on mine lands, forest lands and farms where crops aren’t used for food.

No matter where the biosolids are, all those “forever chemicals” are still there.

So how do they get into sludge in the first place?

Non-stick cookware, clothing, cleaning products, waterproofing chemicals, lipstick, mascara, foundation, furniture, food packaging, artificial turf, food, firefighting foam and building products all have them. They’re part of manufacturing processes for everyday items. Many of these things are used all over the county - and the world - all the time.

They’re already in our water, our air, our sewer plants, septic tanks and sand mounds.

It’s a good bet that if any one of us was tested, they’d show up in even the smallest blood sample.

It’ll be a long time before scientists and regulatory agencies catch up with ways to control them, especially since testing turns up new chemicals every day.

New technology is being tested. Some of it shows promise.

For now, though, as long as the state allows their use on farms, biosolids are here to stay.

And the battle to eliminate the issues they create could go on forever.

ED SOCHA/TNEDITOR@TNONLINE.COM

Ed Socha is a retired newspaper editor with more than 40 years experience in community journalism. Reach him at tneditor@tnonline.com.

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.