The State Legislature needs to adopt a statewide moratorium on the sale and land application of biosolids
The bill under consideration would establish a five year moratorium on the selling and spreading onto land biosolids from wastewater treatment plants for use as a fertilizer, soil amendment, topsoil replacement, mulch or other similar purpose.
Biosolids from wastewater treatment plants can contain toxic chemicals such as PCBs, PFAS, dioxins, and dozens of other chemicals, microplastics, and pollutants, plus heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic or mercury that are harmful to human health and the environment. Spreading contamination-laden sewage biosolids directly onto land that is used for the production of agricultural products is an extremely troubling practice that takes place on farmland in the Adirondack Park. The chemicals and metals spread onto farmland may persist in the soil for decades and migrate into the groundwater, rivers, lakes and drinking water sources. Once these chemicals enter the sensitive environment of the Adirondack region, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to remove them from the countless places they can travel. New York can no longer afford to allow the practice of land spreading of biosolids to risk the public health of consumers, and the long-term well-being of our environment.
Not only do New Yorkers have a Constitutional right to clean air, clean water and a healthful environment, but the Legislature has a moral obligation to protect our natural resources for current and future generations. Maine and Connecticut have banned biosolid use on farmland after widespread PFAS contamination devastated local farms, poisoned wells, and cost millions in cleanup. In January 2026, the Board of Supervisors for Washington County, an Adirondack Park county with a significant amount of farmland, considered a moratorium on the application of biosolids, but there was concern about the County’s ability to enforce the moratorium, so it was not passed. The Town of Ellenburg (Clinton County) in the Adirondack Park enacted a local law prohibiting land application of biosolids but the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets in a decision in 2016 determined that the Town could not enforce the law against a farm operation. Albany County, Schoharie County and the Towns of Guilderland (Albany County), Goshen (Orange County), Thurston and Cameron (both in Stueben County) have enacted either moratoriums or bans.
A statewide moratorium in New York is necessary to allow time for rigorous scientific review, stronger monitoring, better treatment methods, and consistent regulatory oversight to develop to ensure that waste management practices do not place rural communities, farmland and protected ecosystems at risk of irreversible harm.
