Trump’s EPA guidance leaves farmers and families to navigate PFAS risks from sewage sludge without enforceable protections. Photo: Brad Tinker/Flickr, CC BY 2.0
July 2, 2026 (BOSTON, MA) – Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency releases disappointing draft guidance on how farmers, wastewater plants, and the public can reduce exposure to PFOA and PFOS in sewage sludge spread on farmland or sold as fertilizer. The guidance offers only voluntary tips and fails to protect families and farmers from two dangerous types of toxic “forever chemicals.”
“Trump’s EPA is turning a toxic threat into a burden for farming communities and consumers,” said Erica Kyzmir-McKeon, director of communities and toxics at CLF. “The EPA’s job is to protect people from harm – not hand them weak tips unsupported by science and walk away.”
When PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge is spread on land, the chemicals can move into soil, water, crops, livestock, and people. An earlier EPA draft scientific assessment under the Biden administration found that PFOA and PFOS in sewage sludge may pose serious health and environmental risks. Instead of building on that science with strong protections, the Trump administration is shifting the burden onto the people the EPA should protect.
The guidance offers only voluntary steps: asking people to research the source of soil products and fertilizer, advising them to avoid using sludge where children may touch the soil, and encouraging – not requiring – wastewater plants to cut PFAS at the source.
“It is outrageous that the EPA is telling families to keep children away from PFAS-contaminated sludge instead of doing its job and removing these toxic chemicals from sludge in the first place,” said Kyzmir-McKeon. “Parents should not have to protect children from pollution the federal government should have prevented.”
The public will have 60 days to comment on the draft guidance after it is published in the Federal Register, under Docket ID EPA-HQ-OW-2026-2509. CLF plans to submit comments urging the EPA to do its job and adopt stronger, enforceable protections.
CLF experts are available for comment.
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