AMSA Regulatory Alert (RA 03-12)

To: Members & Affiliates, Biosolids Management Committee
From: National Office
Date: October 29, 2003
Subject: AMSA, MUNICIPAL COALITION URGE EPA TO REJECT BIOSOLIDS PETITION
Reference: RA 03-12

On October 7, 2003, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) sent a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) seeking a moratorium on the land application of biosolids. The CFS petition made many misleading statements, most notably that biosolids have been shown to cause harm to people, livestock, and the environment.

In direct response to this petition, the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA), The National League of Cities, The U.S .Conference of Mayors, the Water Environment Federation and other key municipal organizations sent EPA’s Acting Administrator Marianne Horinko a letter asking that the petition be denied on the following grounds:

In the coalition’s response, AMSA and other stakeholders reiterated the fact that thousands of local governments throughout the United States rely on land application of biosolids for environmentally beneficial and economic management of sewage sludge. Also noted in the response letter was the fact that beneficial use of biosolids has undergone intensive scrutiny by EPA and the academic community and repeatedly has been deemed safe by objective scientific researchers. AMSA, however, does believe that further scientific study of biosolids is critical to continue to reassure the public that land-applied biosolids are safe. To this end, AMSA believes that EPA’s plan for addressing the recommendations from the NRC’s report and the Agency’s review of pollutants in biosolids, both due by January 2004, constitute key next steps toward reassuring the public of the safety and benefit of this important resource.

AMSA has long been actively involved in the biosolids arena. AMSA has participated in the thirteen-year-old lawsuit over EPA’s Clean Water Act biosolids regulations, Gearhart v. Horinko, which recently led to a no action final determination on the regulation of dioxin levels in land-applied biosolids. Additionally, AMSA filed extensive comments on EPA’s 1999 proposal to establish numeric limits for dioxins in land-applied biosolids and undertook a survey of dioxins concentrations in biosolids in an effort to improve the information EPA was using as the basis for its rulemaking. AMSA is also a founding member of the National Biosolids Partnership with the Water Environment Federation and EPA in a critical effort to improve biosolids management practices at publicly owned treatment works. AMSA will continue to work closely with EPA in a similar manner to ensure that the Part 503 program continues to reflect the best available science.

The municipal coalition’s response letter can be found on AMSA’s website at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/2003-10-24resp.pdf. For more information, please contact Chris Hornback, AMSA’s Director, Regulatory Affairs, at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org.