Unite • Be HeardAbout
Our Nation will care about biosolids when our Nation knows about biosolids. Awareness is our first challenge. Explore our research findings, slideshow and resources below. It’s time to Get Informed—then Spread The Word.
Our testing & research demonstrates the harm from biosolids far outweighs the narrowly-perceived “benefits.”
DNA evidence linking biosolids
to illness
Hundreds of harmful pollutants in biosolids identified in our primary testing
Statistically significant, increased relative risk of disease in my “biosolids community”
Pathways by which communities are exposed to pathogens and toxins from biosolids
Antibiotic Resistant Pathogens growth on biosolids farmland
Biosolids Pollutants detected in deer lung tissue near my home. & Much More
Whether biosolids are discarded on farmland, landfilled, composted, or bagged for retail, the 503 Rule creates harmful pollution-pathways into our lives.
Please Get Informed, Spread the Word, and Get Involved with Mission503 today. Together, we can do this.
Clicking on resource links and pdf documents will take you out of our website. Please return to get more informed and get involved. Thank you.
U.S. EPA oversees biosolids. Learn the basics of biosolids and the 503 Rule. Read the decisions to not regulate harmful pollutants. The historical documents are troubling, yet insightful.
Read the highly critical 2018 EPA OIG Report on biosolids, as well as expert testimony, health warnings, critical assessments, and scientific critiques.
View EPA’s published reports on known pollutants in biosolids, as well as other credible reports on biosolids’ pollutants. Then consider these are just some of the knowns. What about the unknowns?
Biosolids are classified as a pollutant by EPA’s NPDES program. Biosolids contaminate life and life-sustaining resources as shown by these real examples and scientific studies. Then consider this… labeling is not required for food that’s grown, or grazed, on biosolids.
In the age of COVID-19 there is global acceptance that exposure to an airborne pathogen poses risk to human health. Because no one knows about biosolids there is little knowledge that biosolids create exposure, not only to airborne pathogens, but to airborne toxins, carcinogens, and other harmful pollutants, oftentimes simultaneously, each having known risk to human health.
The Class B biosolids disposed in my community meet the standards of the federal 503 Rule. We’ve tested it. You be the judge. Does this look like fertilizer to you, and would you want it near your home or your child’s school?
The files below are our independent lab results of Class B biosolids showing mercury, hexavalent chromium, highly poisonous metals, dioxin, flame retardants, VOCs/SVOCs, viable pathogens, antibiotic resistance, cryptosporidium, industrial solvents, and the real amount of phosphorus, as well as other harmful pollutants. We’ve also posted additional key findings of our testing and research, like PFAS in farm soil, dioxin next door to a middle school, and the analysis of biosolids metals in animal tissue.
You can also read our pediatrician’s 2016 letter of concern, which was ignored. It’s time you know the truth about biosolids.
Often disguised by the term “compost”, Class A and Class A EQ are biosolids containing harmful pollutants despite the claims they are safe and protective of human health. Converting Class B to Class A and continuing with current land-disposal methods is not a viable solution. Read these facts.
Decades of funding and influence have generated volumes of pro-biosolids “science” in the name of beneficial-reuse, water environment stewardship, improving soil structure, carbon sequestration, crop yields, cost-savings for farmers, saving the landfills, nutrient replacement, waste innovation, conservation, and the list goes on.
Beware. These are partial stories that can be very misleading. For example, a crop study will not monitor for spreading antibiotic resistance, nor will it tell you about the respiratory infections of downwind neighbors.
And do not be fooled by claims of biosolids being “organic”. Organic literally means “carbon-containing”, which includes things like bacteria, benzene, and gasoline. Organic does not mean “USDA Organic”, nor does it mean clean or safe.
Millions of dollars are spent to convince us that land-disposal of sewage sludge is a good idea. The evidence says it is not.
The National Biosolids Data Project (NBDP) is administered by a consortium of biosolids advocacy enterprises. Although we do not share their position on biosolids, their important work of cataloguing national biosolids data is excellent and informative. Find your state’s biosolids disposal practices on the pdf below or use the link to the NBDP website.
Community stories of biosolids concerns can be found across our Nation and go back for many years. The age of a story does not diminish its relevance, but rather illustrates that Americans have been impacted by biosolids for decades. From various perspectives, these are just a few examples.
Biosolids are a global issue. Unfortunately, many nations have taken the path of land-disposing on agricultural farmland. Below are stories from other nations, as well as the global atlas on biosolids where you will find an abundance of the same concerning practices and “beneficial claims”.
Silencing dissent is unfortunately a cornerstone of biosolids policy and still exists today. Scientists are warned and intimidated. Concerned citizens are harassed. These tactics have been highly effective in keeping biosolids off the national radar and stifling broad research. This is yet another unsavory but important truth about biosolids that you need to know.
Biosolids are also disposed in landfills, nationally and globally. Landfilling is often the convenient alternative to farmland-disposal, but even the EPA acknowledges the risks. Disposing biosolids in the landfill creates exposure through leachate and aerosolization, as well as contributes to methane emissions. Landfilling is not a solution. It is a problem.
Now let’s apply some common sense. Explore these resources and consider their implications to land-disposed biosolids.
Additional resources for more biosolids information.
Biosolids can no longer be disposed into our lives and life-sustaining resources. The trucks must keep running, but they need a new destination.
We need two solutions working in tandem: 1) A new federal rule that abolishes the land-disposal of biosolids, while providing for the safe utilization of extractible resources, safe and sustainable conversion of biosolids to energy for new wastewater infrastructure, and responsible destruction of remaining waste; and 2) Next-Tier National Infrastructure (NTNI) that accommodates our Nation’s widely diverse, existing municipal wastewater framework by providing new destinations for biosolids haulers at scientifically and mechanically-advanced, energy self-sufficient, environmentally-responsible, new and retrofit installations.
Mission503 will lead the way with a working group of collaborative scientists, engineers, researchers, citizens, as well as industry and policy leaders. We must first, however, establish national awareness that there is a problem worth solving. We need your help. Please join us! Get involved today!
Simply stated, farmers use biosolids because the 503 Rule gives the illusion that biosolids are a safe and appropriate fertilizer—at little to no cost. They are also enticed by beneficial claims, partial scientific truths, and sometimes lucrative incentives.
The enticements range from promises of improved soil and greater yields to cost savings on commercial fertilizer. Many, not all, are paid to receive biosolids. And unfortunately, some biosolids disposal operations appear to be farms, but the crop is secondary to the biosolids operation. Read example here.
Not all farmers use biosolids. Many are strongly opposed. Legitimate farmers that use biosolids would likely not use them if the 503 Rule disclosed what was in them. And consumers would not knowingly buy products grown, or grazed, on biosolids (remember, it is sewage sludge). Bottom line is… the 503 Rule does not sell the whole truth to the American farmer or the American consumer.
