On May 19, Williamstown voters ushered in a new era for Massachusetts when they approved article 19 on the annual town meeting warrant – a citizen petition to “prohibit the land application of sewerage sludge derived materials.”
“This local vote and bylaw introduction is a big deal – it's the first of its kind in the state," said Berkshire Environmental Action Team Executive Director Brittany Ebeling. “This discussion about sludge and the wastewater treatment plant's role in the supply chain of sludge distribution to other communities came up in a big way last year when the water quality treatment district shared between Williamstown and North Adams began entertaining a proposal to import sludge from other communities, and folks who had never even heard of sewage sludge supply chains came out to stand out and oppose this proposal out of feelings of moral conviction, about the implication in contamination to other communities.”
Backlash to the sludge importation plan – including from the Williamstown Select Board, which voted against backing it – prompted the Hoosac Water Quality District to scuttle it before the 2025 town meeting. This year, that same body unanimously endorsed the sludge ban heading into the historic vote.
“The goal is to prevent any contamination of PFAS, those forever chemicals that we now know to be ubiquitous and certainly found in waste streams coming out of sewage treatment plants, so we would like to protect our land from any contamination that may then go on to contaminate food or water sources," said Select Board member Stephanie Boyd.
She says it’s time for Massachusetts to catch up with other Northeastern states when it comes to sludge.
“Maine, for example, has banned the land application of sludge in the whole state," she said. "Connecticut is very close to that, and there are cities and towns in New York State that have banned land application of sludge or sludge-derived products.”
Most wastewater treatments are unable to break down forever chemicals like PFAS found in industrial and residential waste streams. That means byproducts from the process like sludge and other biosolids still contain the hazardous toxins if they’re used on the land as a fertilizer.
Williamstown’s bylaw must be approved by the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General before coming into effect.
The victory in Williamstown for the anti-sludge movement is part of a larger effort on both the state and national level. Activists behind the ban say the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is complicit in misleading the public on the issue.
“The misconception is that somehow sewage sludge is a good fertilizer, and it's safe to use- And it's not hard to understand where that came from. The EPA and state regulators such as MassDEP have been saying that for a long time, even though they know it's not true," said Laura Orlando, who teaches about wastewater treatment and sewage sludge management as an adjunct professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and is a senior scientist with Just Zero, a national environmental nonprofit. “Sewage sludge is regulated by the MassDEP, and the MassDEP knows very well how contaminated it is with PFAS in particular, and yet the state still allows land application. We have a bill in the Mass Legislature right now that calls for a ban. We need people to step up and raise their voices and make DEP stop this practice, because it's polluting farms, it's harming farmers, it's harming the commonwealth food supply and our water.”
The MassDEP defended its stance on sludge to WAMC in April, saying it “is working diligently to address PFAS contamination” and that “efforts are underway to ensure safe, practical, and sustainable disposal alternatives that avoid increased water and sewer costs for residents, municipalities, and farmers.”
Orlando says the most obvious step Massachusetts can take isn’t that complicated.
“There's no uncertainty about how polluted sewage sludge is," she told WAMC. "There's no uncertainty in the state of Massachusetts about the fact that all 114 publicly owned wastewater treatment plants have huge concentrations, very large concentrations of PFAS coming out of them in the sewage sludge. And yet the state hasn't acted, and it's time the state acts. The science is out. We're certain about the impacts on the public's health. Now we need action.”
Ebeling of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team says she hopes Williamstown’s stand moves Massachusetts lawmakers and regulators in Boston to action statewide.
“Unfortunately, those bills are looking ahead to a timeline of 2030 or beyond to even begin implementing such a ban if they were passed," she told WAMC. "And we who are living in agricultural communities understand — because of the impacts on airborne toxins on public water supplies and the soil itself — that waiting even another farming season is far too long.”
