A farmer who spreads fertilizer expects it will nourish the soil, not contaminate livestock, crops and water — endangering family members, consumers and neighbors.
Yet across the country and right here in the Carolinas, farming families are discovering toxic "forever chemicals" lurking in sewage sludge used as fertilizer have seeped into soil, water and sometimes even food.
Instead of acting on scientific evidence that this so-called PFAS contamination has serious risks, this administration has chosen to bury it. The Environmental Protection Agency's scientists spent years studying what happens when PFAS-contaminated sludge is spread on farmland. Its conclusion was clear: the practice can contaminate food and drinking water, seriously harming communities.
PFAS compounds are a class of thousands of manufactured chemicals linked to cancer, liver disease, developmental harm to infants and children, cardiovascular disease and other serious health problems. Known as "forever chemicals," PFAS do not break down naturally. They remain in our water, soil, food and bodies for years, if not decades.
But instead of protecting communities from these toxic chemicals, the EPA recently tossed aside its detailed scientific assessment of the risks posed by PFAS-contaminated sludge and replaced it with a nine-page document that downplays those risks while offering little protection for affected communities.
One finding in EPA’s risk assessment is especially alarming. It found that at contamination levels already documented in places such as Maine, roughly one in 28 children who regularly drink milk from affected farms could develop cancer later in life from that exposure alone. At higher contamination levels, the risks increase dramatically: more than one in three children could develop cancer from drinking that milk. And milk is only part of the story. PFAS can also accumulate in beef, eggs, fruits, vegetables, fish and other food produced on contaminated land.
These are not risks that farmers created. The contamination begins when industrial facilities discharge PFAS into wastewater systems. Conventional wastewater treatment plants are built for household sewage and were never designed to remove industrial chemicals like PFAS. As a result, the chemicals can become concentrated in sewage sludge that is later used on farm fields as fertilizer. Once there, the chemicals can move into soil, groundwater and surface water, crops, livestock, and ultimately, the food and water supply.
An impact in South Carolina
The consequences are not hypothetical. In Darlington County, South Carolina, farming families were encouraged for decades to use free sludge from a textile manufacturing facility as fertilizer and were told it was safe. Years later, testing found PFAS contamination in wells throughout the community, including some with levels thousands of times higher than federal drinking water limits. Families who relied on those wells for generations now face uncertainty about their health, their farmland, and their livelihoods.
This pollution is preventable. Industries can treat their own waste to remove PFAS and municipal wastewater treatment utilities can use their existing authority to stop pollution at its source—before it ever reaches the utility, sewage sludge, farmland, or drinking water sources. Preventing contamination at its source is the most effective and least expensive solution.
Yet instead of protecting people, EPA's current approach buries the science on how harmful these chemicals are and allows avoidable contamination to continue. This shift is part of a broader pattern of the federal administration rolling back PFAS safeguards and shielding polluters from meaningful accountability.
The federal government recently entered into a weak settlement with Chemours, which operated in North Carolina, that imposes minimal penalties and allows the company to largely avoid meaningful responsibility for widespread contamination in N.C. and other states, 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.
Right now, EPA is inviting people to comment on its proposal through Oct. 5, 2026 so we invite you to take action at this link. Please join us in telling EPA to hold polluters accountable and keep toxic forever chemicals out of our farms, food and water.
Jean Zhuang is a senior attorney in the Southeastern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill, N.C. office.
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SELC link here.
