Sludge comes from wastewater treatment plants, different kinds of factories, and large farms and poultry processing facilities. Wastewater treatment plants collect water from homes, businesses, and sometimes factories. Factories can also produce sludge from their own manufacturing processes. Large farms create animal manure and poultry litter, which some people consider a type of sludge, although it is regulated under different rules.

State regulators have approved at least 80,000 acres of agricultural land and more than 3,500 farm fields across South Carolina for the application of sewage and industrial sludge. The sludge itself amounts to tens of millions of gallons spread annually, on farms across the state - but seven counties receive 63% of the sludge coming into the state, despite only comprising 12% of the land area of South Carolina. These counties are Chesterfield, Darlington, Lancaster, Lee, Kershaw, Marlboro, and Sumter Counties, but sludge can be and is applied anywhere the Department of Environmental Services approves a permit.

Good question! Why is South Carolina the dumping ground for other state’s waste? Out-of-state waste companies offer this sludge to South Carolina farmers for free, marketing it as a "natural" fertilizer, because disposing of it is cheaper than managing it in their own states. South Carolina has historically lacked strict statewide testing and reporting requirements for certain contaminants compared to other regions.

Sludge comes from a variety of sources - city water treatment plants, poultry processing factories, other food manufacturers, textile and chemical companies, and more. Overall, there is a big lack of transparency when it comes to exactly what materials and contaminants are in sludge, which is why there needs to be stricter rules about testing and application.

Industrial sludge comes from factories and other industrial uses, while manure and litter are produced directly by animals and the raising of animals for food. One notable situation where industrial sludge was used in South Carolina happened in Society Hill, South Carolina. Between 1993 and 2013, the now-abandoned Galey and Lord textile plant spread over 45,000 tons of wastewater sludge across 10,000 acres of farmland. Promoted to farmers as free fertilizer, this sludge was heavily contaminated with PFAS ("forever chemicals"), which have now leached into drinking wells and crops like collards and squash.

Manure is animal feces and urine, but litter is a drier mixture of bedding material, feathers, dropped eggs, spilled feed, mixed in with smaller amounts of manure. Litter can sometimes contain chicken parts or dead birds. While manure comes directly from the animal, litter is the byproduct cleaned out of coops and barns. Both are used as fertilizer for crops.

It varies widely based on the source of the sludge. From animal processing sources, it may include manure or litter that is nutrient rich, but also contaminated with bacteria, viruses, pharmaceuticals used to treat the animals, and pieces of dead chickens. From industrial sources, it might contain harmful chemicals or metal residue.

Germs found in poultry sludge can also cause serious health problems. When these wastes get into drinking water, wash onto crops, or become dust in the air, they can expose people to harmful bacteria and chemicals. The recent Cyclospora outbreak tied to lettuce, while not yet linked to a specific cause, is just one example of how bacteria in untreated manure can harm humans.

True to their nickname, “forever chemicals”, PFAS unfortunately are very persistent and can remain in soil, water, crops, animals, and human bodies for a long time. Traditional remediation is incredibly destructive and expensive, though new emerging methods offer more practical ways to remove the risk. There are also questions over who is responsible for paying for cleanup: the industrial source, the company that distributed the sludge to the farmers, the landowners themselves, or the regulatory agencies that allowed it all to happen?

Sometimes. Human wastewater treatment facilities must treat sludge - converting it into "biosolids" - to reduce pathogens and pollutants prior to disposal. However, state and federal regulations do not require testing for PFAS-contaminated sludge before applying it to farmland, nor do they require testing for poultry manure or litter.

Another great question! In short, state and federal regulations just haven’t caught up with all that we know about the potential harms of using sludge on crops. We are advocating for common sense regulations to protect farmers, communities, and landowners - both now and in the future.

Long-standing contamination, like what happened with sludge from the Galey and Lord plant, creates difficult questions about records, cause, and who is responsible for cleanup. These are all key questions that should be answered as new legislation and regulations are created to solve these problems.

Based on our conversations with farmers here in South Carolina, they are not informed about the risks. The standard landowner contract includes information about properly storing manure, but nothing about potential contaminants. Farmers do have the ability to seek out their own information through research, records, and former and existing contracts, but they would have to submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, which can be time consuming and expensive.

Unfortunately, there’s no clear answer to this one either. Costs may fall on landowners, operators, generators, insurers, government programs, or responsible parties through legal settlements or litigation, depending on the situation. Even worse, additional non-financial burden falls on surrounding community members - like we have seen in the case of Black Creek Elementary School in Darlington County, where a school was built on land contaminated with PFAS chemicals from the Galey and Lord plant.

Some states, like Maine, have created farmer aid programs for lands impacted by PFAS - something that could be replicated here in South Carolina.

South Carolina's sludge rules haven't kept up with today's science. To better protect farmers, families, drinking water, and future generations, the state should require stronger testing for harmful chemicals, regularly monitor nearby soil and water, make information easy for the public to find, and update its laws to reflect what we know today about long-term health and environmental risks.

Yes. While there is no nationwide EPA limit for PFAS in sludge applied to land, several states, including Michigan, New York, and Maine, have created their own standards or restrictions because federal regulations have not kept pace with the science.

Harmful chemicals can move from treated fields into streams, rivers, wetlands, groundwater, and private wells through rain, flooding, or by soaking into the soil. How far they travel depends on the type of soil, the weather, and the chemicals themselves. Unfortunately, as we have outlined, many of these contaminants do have an impact on human and environmental health.

Yes, they can. For example, Yale researchers tested crops grown on the farmland in Darlington County where industrial sludge had been spread decades ago. They found PFAS in six types of crops, including collards, okra, corn, squash, butter beans, and hay. They also found high levels of PFAS in the soil. The study shows that these chemicals can stay in farmland for many years and may move from contaminated soil into plants that people and animals eat. But the long-term health impacts of this contamination are still really unknown. There have also been outbreaks of bacterial diseases linked to eating unwashed or poorly washed crops that were fertilized with human and animal waste derived sludge.

If sludge isn't tested, monitored, or regulated well, harmful chemicals could build up in soil, groundwater, and nearby streams over time. This could affect farms, wildlife, drinking water, and future generations. Better testing, stronger rules, and more public information can help find problems early and protect both people and the environment.