Farmers sue EPA, fertilizer company over chemicals

FORT WORTH – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that families who built their small farms around riding their horses, raising cattle and holding family fish fries in rural Johnson County face an uncertain future because of what they’re finding in the pasture or stock tank: dead or deformed cattle, horses and fish. The past two years have been a “nightmare” for the family farmers, and they point to “forever chemicals” found in fertilizer made from sewage as the reason. The five farmers who live outside of Grandview — James Farmer, Robin Alessi, Patsy Schultz, and Karen and Tony Coleman — have been embroiled in a complex legal battle with the EPA and fertilizer manufacturer Synagro Technologies Inc. and its Texas subsidiary since February, when they filed a lawsuit against Synagro in Circuit Court of Baltimore County and one against the EPA in Washington.

Synagro contracts with Fort Worth to manage the city’s biosolids program, which involves separating solids in the sewage treatment process and recycling the waste into granulate fertilizer. After the sludge is treated in Fort Worth, it is sent to farms in Johnson, Hill and Wise counties, including one that neighbors the farmers’ properties. Synagro contracts with more than 1,000 municipal waste treatment facilities and uses the biosolids to manufacture Synagro Granulite Fertilizer, according to court documents. Biosolids are used instead of commercial fertilizer across the world, but Maine and Connecticut have banned them over concerns about the forever chemicals, and Michigan has placed limits on them. Forever chemicals, also known as PFAS, are man-made synthetic chemicals used in a range of products, including carpet, clothing and nonstick cookware. They don’t break down, and they accumulate in the human body and in the environment.