Download PDF
The New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (“NEIWPCC”) issued a September 2022 Report titled:
Northeast Regional Sludge End-Use and Disposal Estimate (“Report”)
While focused on one area of the United States, the data/conclusions are presumably relevant to other parts of the country.
The Report concludes that Northeast sewage sludge management infrastructure is experiencing short-term and long-term stressors impacting systems available capacity due to issues such as:
- COVID-19 pandemic
- Aging incinerators
- Reduced landfill capacity
- Emerging contaminants
These issues are stated to be simultaneously causing unanticipated potential losses of sludge management alternatives.
The need to address the appropriate disposal or reuse of sewer sludge is of course driven by the 40 C.F.R. Part 503 regulations promulgated pursuant to the Clean Water Act. These regulations regulate sewage sludge that is applied to land, fired in a sewage sludge incinerator, or placed on a surface disposal site. It includes pollutant limits, requirements for pathogen and vector attraction reduction, management practices, monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting, among other requirements.
The states addressed in this Report include:
- Connecticut
- Massachusetts
- Maine
- New Hampshire
- New York
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
The Report addresses how sewage sludge was disposed of or beneficially reused in this region in 2018. It determined that 794,563 U.S. tons of sewage sludge were disposed or beneficially reused in the Northeast region. Further, the sludge was stated to have been primarily landfilled and incinerated. Biosolids were stated to have been beneficially reused at a lower rate. The total sludge disposed or beneficially reused is noted to be an increase of 74,563 dry U.S. tons from the amount reported in aa 2004 national survey.
Recommendations in the Report include a suggestion that the states and communities in the Northeast region discuss economic feasibility of a regional facility.
A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.
