10/22/21
EPA Awards Research Grants Related to PFAS in Biosolids
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in September that it had selected four projects for grant funding under its national priorities program to evaluate pollutants in biosolids. The EPA is providing nearly $6 million for this research with each project getting approximately $1.5 million. Researchers from across the country are eager to get going on this important work.
Here is a quick summary of the projects being funded by EPA’s Office of Research and Development.
Michigan State University, in collaboration with Colorado State University, Great Lake Water Authority, and the University of Georgia's Research Foundation plan to research the effects of biosolids treatment processes on the environmental fate of certain contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), like PFAS and pharmaceuticals, and plant uptake following land application.
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science is collaborating with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District and also plans to study the occurrence of CECs in wastewater biosolids and the influence of treatment and management processes on their fate, mobility, and bioavailability in the environment.
Johns Hopkins University will work on developing a “flexible framework for the prioritization of biosolids-associated organic contaminants” and will also be examining the occurrence, fate, and transport of contaminants after land application of biosolids to model exposures/risks and identify priority pollutants to address with future rulemaking.
Finally, the Water Research Foundation (WRF) will be working with Purdue University, the University of California Riverside, and the University of Cincinnati on a project titled “Unregulated Organic Chemicals in Biosolids: Prioritization, Fate, and Risk Evaluation for Land Applications,” which WRF hopes will lead to recommended best practices to reduce potential risks from unregulated CECs. NEBRA provided a letter of support to WRF for its grant submission and plans to assist with this project however it can.
For more information about the individual projects, go to:
In other research news, Dr. Ian Pepper, Regents Professor and Director of The WEST Center at the University of Arizona, is spearheading a collaborative national study on the fate and transport of PFAS following long-term land application of biosolids. The project scales up Dr. Pepper’s local research on behalf of Pima County following a land application ban there in (see NEBRA News article, dated 12/15/2020: Pima County Arizona Reinstates Biosolids Land Application Program, Adds to PFAS Knowledge Base.) The national study will focus on numerous sites across the country with good records on land application of biosolids to evaluate whether or not land application of biosolids is a significant public health route of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). If you are interested in donating to this national study, please email ipepper@arizona.edu.