High levels of “forever chemicals,” including poly-fluoroalkyl, or PFAS compounds, have been found in northeastern Tennessee rivers and drinking water supplies, likely from wastewater sludge that is spread on farms as fertilizer, the Sierra Club’s Tennessee Chapter said in a new report.
The contamination may be more widespread than previously believed, and could potentially lead to new lawsuits and liability claims against wastewater treatment authorities and manufacturers. The environmental group said samples taken from sludge produced by the Bristol, Tennessee wastewater plant had some of the highest concentrations of PFAS chemicals found in sludge in the United States.
“This is a big problem because the sludge from Bristol WWTP is spread as a fertilizer on open lands, where it could be a major source of local water pollution and pose a risk to local food crops,” reads the report, authored by Dan Firth and Sonya Lunder.
The report said the sampling also found two unusual chemicals in the Bristol sludge, ones that are not usually found in sewage. These were PFAS compounds used in metal plating and firefighting foams and some consumer products.
The group also analyzed other samples from around the corner of Tennessee and found unacceptably high levels of the toxic compounds, compounds that are not broken down over time. One drinking water system contained so much of one PFAS chemical that it likely will require a costly cleanup, the report noted.
Spreading sewage sludge on farmlands is not unusual in the United States, but some sites have been shown to poison cattle and other operations, the group said. The Sierra Club said it is time to stop the practice. It also also urged federal and state authorities to ban the use of PFAS chemicals in most applications and set new limits for some industries that use them.
It also called on Tennessee regulators and lawmakers to require testing for PFAS in wastewater, to survey the state for hotspots, and to investigate legacy contamination sites, including military bases.
“Ultimately the companies that made and used PFAS must pay for the damages that their chemicals pose to people and the environment, including costly cleanups of contaminated places,” the report said.
State and federal officials have taken some actions on the chemicals in recent months. The Tennessee attorney general last year filed suit against 20 manufacturers, alleging that they knew their products contained harmful substances, the Tennessee Lookout news site reported. Connecticut filed a similar suit in January.
Major manufacturers 3M, DuPont, Chemours and Corteva have reached settlements in some cases but thousands of suits remain in courts. A group of 22 states has opposed as inadequate the biggest of the settlements, a deal by 3M that would provide $10.3 billion over a 13-year period to cities, towns and other public water systems.
In the face of the litigation, 3M Co. announced in late 2022 that it would stop making forever chemicals and aim to discontinue their use in products by the end of 2025.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also is developing regulations to require water utilities to use better treatments to remove PFAS chemicals from supplies.
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