Stop spreading PFAS-laden sewage sludge on farmland

UPDATE -- this bill is inactive for 2023.  It failed to pass through the funnel, where bills are winnowed if they have not moved through several steps of the legislative process.

Representative Chuck Isenhart introduced a bill – HF 145 – that requires wastewater treatment plants to test sewage sludge for the presence of PFAS.  Sewage sludge is the solid material that settles out of wastewater.  If any PFAS is detected, then the sludge would not be allowed to be spread on land where it is used to fertilize crops, on land with drainage tiles, on land that drains into a water of the state, or in a five-hundred-year floodplain. The bill also requires the environmental protection commission to adopt rules for the safe disposal of sewage sludge that contains PFAS.  This law carries a civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 a day for each day a person violates the law, plus a simple misdemeanor which can result in a jail sentence of no more than 30 days and a minimum fine of $105 but not more than $855.

PFAS persists in the environment and does not break down.  These substances are difficult to dispose of.   It makes absolutely no sense to allow sewage sludge that is contaminated with PFAS to be put on farm fields, where it can run off into Iowa's rivers, lakes, and streams.

What’s more, they can be found in human body tissue where they accumulate and are released from the body very slowly.  Exposure to PFAS has been linked to kidney and testicular cancers, immune system issues, fertility problems, low infant birth weights, low growth rates in children, learning concerns, and increased cholesterol levels.  Additionally PFAS has been linked to thyroid hormone disruption. 

This bill has been introduced to the Environmental Protection Committee of the Iowa House.  It has not been assigned to a subcommittee.   You can help by asking Representative Dean Fisher - dean.fisher@legis.iowa.gov - to assign a subcommittee to review HF145.