Keep Contaminated Sewage Sludge Off Our Farmland

Help protect farmers, communities, and our food from contaminated toxic sewage sludge spreading!

We need your help supporting a campaign to adopt a New York state law that prevents contamination of local communities and farmland from the spreading of potentially contaminated municipal sewage sludge. To accomplish this, we need to get S.5759 and A.6192, to the floor of the Assembly and Senate before the end of the legislative session.

Join us in calling on Assemblymember Glick and Assemblymember Heastie to support A.6192 and protect farmers, communities, and our food from toxic substances!

Help protect farmers, communities, and our food from contaminated toxic sewage sludge spreading!

We need your help supporting a campaign to adopt a New York state law that prevents contamination of local communities and farmland from the spreading of potentially contaminated municipal sewage sludge. To accomplish this, we need to get S.5759 and A.6192, to the floor of the Assembly and Senate before the end of the legislative session.

Join us in calling on Assemblymember Glick and Assemblymember Heastie to support A.6192 and protect farmers, communities, and our food from toxic substances!

Help Protect Farmers, Communities, and Our Food from Contaminated Biosolid Sewage Sludge Spreading

Sewage sludge, also known as biosolids, is a byproduct of sewage treatment and is spread on farmland in New York State as a cheap alternative to animal manure or fertilizer. EPA has published a list of 726 chemicals found in biosolids in the National Sewage Sludge Surveys. This list does not include PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, often referred to as “forever chemicals”). PFAS and microplastics in sewage sludge are present in high concentrations which are dangerous contaminants within municipal sewage. PFAS contaminates our bodies and ecosystems and have long-term adverse health impacts. The fact that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is allowing the use of sewage sludge on farms goes against common sense, and potentially ruins farmland for future use, as has happened from Maine to Texas.

Farmers depend on clean soil and water to grow crops and raise livestock. Spreading sewage sludge contaminants both. This means farmers are not only exposed personally, but also face the threat of producing goods that are unsafe or unsellable. Sewage sludge is not just biological waste from our bathrooms, it becomes a toxic slurry when mixed at huge municipal waste treatment facilities. Between 2019–2023, New York State landfills captured over 617 million gallons per year of PFAS-contaminated landfill leachate, nearly all of which went to the state’s wastewater treatment plants and was discharged in the sludge or treated wastewater along with all the other industrial wastewater generally mixed in at the public waste treatment facility.

Large volumes of pelletized or heat dried sludge are transported in from waste treatment facilities, like Boston's Deer Island facility, the second largest sewage treatment plant in the United States. In Albany County, a recent shipment of sewage sludge spread on farmland from out-of-state caused water contamination in private wells, a public reservoir, and has prompted a county-wide moratorium on spreading. The shipment of sewage sludge on farmland from out-of-state prompted several counties, Albany and Schoharie, to successfully pass local moratoriums this year in response to the crisis, with Steuben County passing a resolution calling for a state-level moratorium this month, representing broad, local opposition against this harmful practice.

It is time for New York State to protect all of our farmers and communities from land spreading of contaminated waste and forever chemicals. Join us in calling on Assemblymember Deborah J.Glick and Assemblymember Carl E. Heastie to protect farmers, communities, and our food from toxic substances!

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Dear Assemblymember Glick and Assemblymember Heastie,

Thank you for your continued leadership in addressing the dangers of PFAS contamination and for your work to eliminate these toxic "forever chemicals" from packaging, consumer, and personal care products. Your advocacy has been critical to protecting the health and well-being of New Yorkers.

Now, we urgently need your leadership to address another major source of PFAS pollution: the land application of PFAS-laden sewage sludge, also known as biosolids, on farmland. This harmful practice is not only polluting our soil and water but also putting New York’s farmers and their livelihoods directly in harm’s way.

Farmland is not a dumping ground. Yet for over four decades, sewage sludge composed of industrial and human waste and contaminated with PFAS, microplastics, heavy metals, pharmaceutical residues, solvents, and pesticides has been spread on agricultural land across the state. This has created a toxic legacy that endangers farmers’ health, undermines their ability to grow safe food, and threatens the economic viability of their farms.

Farmers depend on clean soil and water to grow crops and raise livestock. Spreading sewage sludge contaminants both. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s January 2025 Draft Risk Report, the land application of PFAS-contaminated sludge may create serious health risks for those near impacted sites or those who rely on products produced on contaminated land including food crops and animal products. That means farmers are not only exposed personally, but also face the threat of producing goods that are unsafe or unsellable.
Across New York State, farmers have been incentivized to use what was presented as a “nutrient-rich” fertilizer, unaware that they were instead being handed a cocktail of industrial pollutants.

Spreading sludge on farmland puts our health, food system, water quality, and our farming communities at risk. We must act now to understand and address the damage. The PFAS in Biosolids Management Act (A.6192) would require vital testing of soil, water, and sludge, giving us the tools to track and mitigate this widespread contamination.

Using farmland as a dumping ground for toxic waste is short-sighted. It places the burden of pollution squarely on the shoulders of farmers who are trying to make a living while nourishing their communities.

As Chair of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee, we urge you to stand with New York farmers and take decisive action. Please advance the PFAS in Biosolids Management Act (A.6192) this session so that we can put a pause on this harmful practice and develop a plan for how to address existing contamination.

Thank you for your attention and commitment.

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