*Below is a draft with much of the bulk being taken from my civic issues blog*

Title: How Banning Land Application and Landfilling of Human Biosolids can Mitigate their Risk on the Environment.

Introduction:
Americans use a lot of water, and almost all of it ends up as wastewater to be treated at a wastewater facility. “Currently, [in the United States] 62.5 billion gallons of wastewater per day are being treated by centralized WWTPs” (https://infrastructurereportcard.org). All of this water gets filtered, and there is little to no harm done on the environment by the water returned to rivers. Although, the sludge that gets removed from the water has a plethora of problems. The Center for Food Safety says that exposure to the sludge can result in, “respiratory distress, headaches, nausea, rashes, reproductive complications, cysts and tumors,” while also mentioning that, “despite the danger of using sludge in food production, federal regulations are unsettlingly inadequate. Today the sludge from wastewater treatment facilities is typically land applied or landfilled, letting all of the harmful substances leach into the air and ground water. Both of these methods are dangerous and the government needs to take action before the wastewater poses too much of a threat to public health.

Subtitle 1: The Growing Risk of PFAS in Wastewater
Overall, the problem we face is that we live in a world where people tend to fend for themselves first. A world where money is the motivator for all things. We live in a world where greed rules over us. The Dupont corporation is one of the many greedy, but in this case, it is at the expense of human health, wellbeing, survival, and happiness. Have you ever heard of Teflon? Even if you haven’t, you sure do use it. Teflon was once regarded as a wonder chemical. It was used in cookware, carpets, clothes, firefighting foam, hair products and more. The idea is that Teflon reduces friction without reacting to anything. This allows for pans to stay slippery, carpets to stay stain-free, and fires to be smoldered.

The problem with Teflon is that it contains Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, also known as PFAS. “PFAS are a large, complex, and ever-expanding group of manufactured chemicals that are widely used to make various types of everyday products” (niehs). These PFAS consist of long strands of carbon-fluorine bonds. As we have learned in chemistry class, carbon-fluorine bonds are the strongest bonds that exist in the known universe. This means that PFAS do not break down by themselves in nature. They are so strong in-fact, that scientists cannot even calculate PFAS half life or the time that it takes for 50% of a substance to degrade.

The issue with PFAS is that they are incredibly dangerous to human life. When the Dupont corporation was beginning to manufacture PFAS, they discovered that it had the ability to easily mutate cells. The study was conducted by officials within the Dupont corporation, but the data had been covered up. The Dupont corporation was making too much money for them to willingly stop production, even if the PFAS was harmful to the public. Years later, people began to see the effects of PFAS. The families of the people producing the Teflon began to give birth to their children. All of the newborn children had severe birth defects. “The children were born with single nostrils, serrated eyelids and keyhole pupils where their iris and retina were detached” (organic). The animals in the nearby farms also began to show illness and birth defects.

Families began to piece the puzzle together and started to attack the Dupont corporation. These attacks went on for years with little change from Dupont. After many years the Dupont corporation finally released documents stating that PFAS was directly linked to six diseases. These diseases included: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, preeclampsia and high cholesterol. Today, the Dupont corporation has been hit with over 3,500 lawsuits regarding the inclusion of PFAS in Teflon (organic). Many of these cases have been solved, but there are many more still pending. After Dupont started to lose a high volume of cases, they decided to phase out their PFAS named “C-8” in 2015. Today they continue to produce Teflon using a similar but different PFAS named Gen-X. Gen-X once again has been claimed to be safe for the public, but early studies have already linked it to the creation of tumors in rats.

At this point, PFAS has already made it to every corner of the world. Other companies are creating their own PFAS, Dupont is modifying theirs, and it is found in the air, the fish, the humans, the plants, and the ground. It has been measured that over 99% of Americans have been found to have PFAS in their bloodstream. It is quite literally coursing through the veins of almost every single person on this planet. This is a serious problem. Teflon continues to be used in shampoo, dry-fit clothing, household plumbing, carpet, sheets, cookware, and more everyday items. It also doesn’t help that Dupont’s new Gen-X chemical is already being found in high volumes in American water supplies. The problem doesn’t seem like it will be ending anytime soon. We, as a society, are at the point where the levels of PFAS are preventing us from farming in certain areas, eating certain animals, and the inability to survive in ways we used to be able to.

Currently, the government is starting to research PFAS more heavily. PFAS’s link to increased cancer, disease, and birth defects has caused the government to take expedited action into finding a solution. The EPA is researching ways in which PFAS can be detected more efficiently in the air and water, how much people are exposed to PFAS, how harmful PFAS are to people and the environment, how to remove PFAS from drinking water, and how to manage and dispose of PFAS.
Ultimately, it is really unfortunate that PFAS are found in the concentrations they are found in. Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances are honestly wonders of human invention, but they have their drawbacks. The slippery pan surfaces are responsible for causing cancer, the stain proof clothes and carpets are linked to high cholesterol, and the PFAS in the water is linked to many diseases. All that we can do now is fight against the corporations making PFAS and offer an alternative. The government is working hard to find solutions, and we desperately need one.

Subtitle 2: The Dangers of Contaminated Biosolid Disposal
Humans are animals. We eat food, breathe the air, and generate waste. According to theGuardian.com, Americans generate roughly 300 million pounds of feces each and every day. These feces have to go somewhere in order to keep the surface clean and liveable, so they are transported to a network of wastewater treatment plants. At the wastewater treatment plants, the feces, water, toilet paper, and any other flushed objects, are treated and cleaned. After the water treatment process is done, the input is reduced by almost 99%, leaving behind a substance called sludge or biosolids. The leftover sludge is simply concentrated feces. Humans are then left with the challenge of disposing of the sludge. The problem is, in today’s world, the sludge is filled with harmful substances like heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and PFAS.
In the past, there have been many methods of disposing of the sludge. We used things like landfill dumping, incineration, and land application. These methods all had their pros and cons, but let’s begin by talking about their pros. The most common way to handle biosolids was through landfill dumping. The sludge was removed from the wastewater, loaded into trucks, and driven to the nearest landfill. The sludge would then be mixed in with the rest of the trash. Companies preferred landfill dumping to other methods because the cost of transportation was low along with the low dumping costs. Companies also preferred landfill dumping because they knew that they could continue to dump years into the future. Landfills had no end in sight since no one was working hard to find other ways of waste disposal. Finally, landfills were preferred because they seemed to have few known environmental risks.

Another method wastewater companies used to dispose of sludge was through land application. This method consisted of sludge being transported to farms for the farmers to fertilize their crops with. Sludge is packed full of plant-growing nutrients. It allowed farmers to grow more food in less space, and greatly increased the yield farms had. This method was also liked because of the scalability it seemed to have.
The final major method of sludge removal is through the use of incineration. Wastewater companies will haul sludge to massive incinerators where the sludge is incinerated. This method of sludge reduction is great because it greatly reduces the volume of the sludge. The output of an incinerator is between 10% and 20% of the initial sludge input. The output sludge has been stripped of its organic compounds and pathogens. Incineration also generates a small amount of energy out of the sludge.

These methods are great, but now that we are learning so much more about PFAS, the quality of our waterways, and the hidden dangers of our wastewater, we are forced to rethink these methods. To start, landfilling the sludge is no longer a viable option. Over the years of landfill dumping sludge, the structural integrity of the landfills is degrading. Biosolids are organic compounds and they break down over time. The breakdown of the sludge releases methane gas. This is a problem for two reasons. For one, the methane gas creates pockets of air deep inside the landfill, this causes risk of cave ins. Landfill operators and their machines are no longer being supported well by the lack of structural support. In addition, the release of methane is not helping the problem of global warming. Methane is a greenhouse gas and greatly contributes to the rise in global temperatures. Besides the methane problem, landfill dumping biosolids is smelly and potentially harmful for groundwater and the surrounding ecosystem. Finally, landfills aren’t accepting sludge anymore. Waste water companies have been seen shipping their sludge all of the way from NYC to Texas just to dump their sludge in a place that accepts it.

Land application also has its newfound problems. Because our sludge is now filled with such high concentrations of harmful pharmaceuticals and PFAS, the crops grown in the sludge are unsafe to eat. The USDA is now regulating the levels of PFAS and pharmaceuticals found in farmland. Because of this, farmers are no longer accepting sludge because they will get shut down by the government if they do. In addition, the harmful chemicals get transported into the waterways via runoff. This causes ecological problems in the waterways and surrounding lands.

Finally, incineration also has its discovered drawbacks. The biggest problem of incineration is the cost. Incineration is incredibly expensive because the sludge needs to be shipped to an incineration facility, incinerated, shipped to a landfill, and then dumped. Besides the reduction in size and organic matter, the sludge is still the same as regular landfill dumped material. The process of incineration is known to release heavy metals into the atmosphere, as well as carbon dioxide. The heavy metals and gasses in the atmosphere are harmful to life and can have long term effects on population health. The carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere contributes heavily to global warming. Also, due to the nature of incineration, all nutrients and energy in the biosolids are lost.

Subtitle 3: How the Government can Help

In order to solve this issue, the government needs to take immediate action. The problem that the nation faces is that there is little to no motivation to stop landfilling or land applying the sludge from wastewater treatment facilities. The government can prevent this by heavily taxing landfilled or land applied sludge.