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CRESSON -- The Republican state House of Representatives' policy committee held a public hearing Thursday at Mount Aloysius College to examine biosolids management and its impact on businesses and ratepayers.
The state Department of Environmental Protection proposed two permit updates earlier this year to prevent per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances -- PFAS or "forever" chemicals -- in biosolids from polluting farm fields and groundwater. The updated permits would introduce monitoring requirements for wastewater treatment facilities that produce biosolids for land application, according to DEP's website.
While protecting public health and the environment is essential, requirements must be grounded in science with practical and affordable ways to comply, said committee Chairman David Rowe, whose legislative district includes parts of Snyder, Juniata, Mifflin and Union counties.
State Rep. Jim Rigby, R-Cambria/Somerset, hosted the hearing and noted families and businesses across Pennsylvania are facing rising costs, and wastewater treatment is becoming another "significant" financial burden.
"Our wastewater systems are essential to protecting health and the environment. However, aging infrastructures, increasing stringent regulations and unfunded mandates are driving costs higher, leaving the ratepayers to foot the bill," Rigby said.
Pennsylvania's municipal separate storm sewer system, which requires communities to control stormwater runoff and reduce pollution entering into waterways, already places substantial financial pressures on municipalities and their residents, Rigby said.
"Now additional wastewater permitting requirements and proposed restrictions of biosolids managements threaten to make an already difficult situation worse," Rigby said.
As disposal and reuse options become more limited, wastewater authorities face higher transportation, treatment and infrastructure costs, according to Rigby.
"Ultimately, those expenses are passed directly to the residents and businesses through higher sewer bills," he said, adding everyone wants the same goal of clean water and a healthy environment, but officials must ask whether the additional regulations deliver the environmental benefits justify their costs.
"Environmental protection and affordability should not be competing priorities," Rigby said.
Local impact
In preparation for her testimony, Galliker's Dairy Co. Executive Vice President Julia Galliker said she spoke to several local farmers, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau members and Penn State Extension dairy experts.
"In our immediate area, as I understand, the biosolids from our wastewater treatment plants do go to landfill," Galliker said, adding dairy farmers maintain their own manure pits for fertilizer and don't use wastewater biosolids.
At the Richland Township-based Galliker's Dairy, biosolids are separated before they get into the waste stream and are sent to local farms for their manure pits, she said.
Galliker also expressed concerns about wastewater treatment's role in mitigating PFAS and putting that responsibility in the hands of municipal wastewater authorities, which she said are "not subject to any oversight body."
Her company has had some "very, very significant challenges," from its local municipal water sewage authority, Galliker said.
"On June 1, our authority implemented a 50% increase in the nonresidential rates without notification or consultation with commercial rate payers," Galliker said, adding she found out about the increase when it was listed on the company's bill.
The increase followed a prior increase of 56% in 2023, and the new schedule rate shows three additional increases in 2028, 2029 and 2030, which will represent a 215% increase compared with 2022 rates, according to Galliker.
The total impact to Galliker's Dairy in these increases by 2030 will be an additional $1.5 million -- money that Galliker said is "literally going down the drain."
Other testimony
Other testifiers included Jill Whitcomb, the deputy secretary of DEP's office of water programs; Peter Price, Synagro's technical services manager; Andrew Moore, Lehigh County Authority's director of plant operations; John Larson, Chalfont New Britain Township Joint Sewer Authority's executive director; and Ned Lang, president of PA Septage Management Association.
Whitcomb said land application of biosolids benefits farmers, sewage plant operators and their ratepayers. Farmers benefit from an affordable source of nutrients and organic material that improves soil fertility, while sewage treatment plant owners benefit from an economical option to beneficially use their biosolids, as opposed to disposing them in landfills or by incineration, which is more expensive, she said.
The current general permits for land application of biosolids and the land application of septage were established in 2009, and DEP generally reissues these permits every five years, Whitcomb said.
Following the adoption of House Resolution 149 of 2021, of which Rigby was the prime sponsor, DEP paused further development of permit revisions and worked closely with the legislative budget and finance committee as it reviewed the proposed changes, Whitcomb said.
In June 2023, the committee published its report, identifying several areas of uncertainty that it recommended DEP consider before proceeding, Whitcomb said, adding there was no approved method for analyzing PFAS in biosolids at that time.
There was also limited information and no research related to the human health and environmental risks of PFAS in biosolids, she said.
Since then, the United States Environmental Protection Agency established an approved method for analyzing PFAS in biosolids and drafted risk assessment and guidance documents, Whitcomb said.
The proposed permit changes, Whitcomb said, "reasonably balance the need for additional safeguards to protect farms, water supplies and Pennsylvanians from pollutants in land-applied biosolids with the benefits that biosolids land application provides to farmers and to sewage treatment plants."
The proposed general permits would require, at a minimum, screening of fields that receive biosolids to help ensure phosphorus applications are managed appropriately, Whitcomb said.
"In contrast to stakeholder-informed safeguards DEP is proposing, some states have taken a different approach to addressing the risks associated with PFAS in land-applied biosolids by banning land application entirely," Whitcomb said, adding such bans limit available options and increase costs for farmers and sewage treatment plant owners.
They may also shift pollution risks to landfill leachate and emissions from facilities that incinerate biosolids, she said.
Under the current permits, permittees are not required to monitor or notify farmers, depriving them of important information about what they're putting on their fields, Whitcomb said.
Without the additional safeguards, farmers and residents could face greater risks of exposure to PFAS, as well as an increased risk of water quality impairment and degradation, Whitcomb said.
"Without these additional safeguards, Pennsylvania could see importation of biosolids from other states with more rigorous and robust requirements, leading to enhanced risk of contamination of our farmers' soils and our residents' drinking water," she said.
DEP published the draft permits July 4 and has received 545 comments after a 60-day public comment period, according to Whitcomb, who said DEP is reviewing those comments, preparing responses and assessing what changes may be warranted in response to the feedback.
"Is it possible for DEP to provide the committee in writing a projected annual cost per residential customer," Rigby asked Whitcomb. "That would give this committee a concrete basis for considering whether legislative oversight or additional action is warranted rather than leaving the hearing with general statements about costs and environmental protection."
"We can and we will look into it further," Whitcomb responded. "I know that's not the answer that you want, but as you heard, there are so many costs associated with all of this."
Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.