By Eric Pianin Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, October 18, 2003; Page A10
The Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday that it would not regulate dioxins in sewage sludge used as farm fertilizer, citing new studies indicating that such usage does not pose significant health or environmental risks.
The announcement came on the eve of a court-imposed deadline for the government to resolve a long-standing controversy over the handling of dioxin-laced sludge. It drew condemnation from environmentalists, public health advocates and scholars who said the administration is gambling with the public's health.
Dioxins, highly toxic chemical compounds generated by manufacturing or burning, are known to cause cancer and damage to the neurological and immune systems of humans and animals, according to government and private experts. Land-applied sewage is a major source of dioxin exposure in the United States, second only to backyard burning of plastics and other refuse that causes a chemical reaction and sends the toxic substance into the air.
The EPA in December 1999 proposed to regulate the land application and surface disposal of sewer sludge. It would have limited dioxins to the toxic equivalent of 300 parts per trillion of the sludge. Yesterday, the EPA jettisoned the proposed rule. Agency officials said the minuscule additional risk posed by sewage sludge did not warrant the cost of imposing new regulations on sewage authorities and treatment plants, which have opposed the additional regulations.
"The bottom line is that as a technical and scientific judgment, we just do not see the justification for further regulations of dioxins in sewage sludge," said Geoffrey Grubbs, director of science and technology in the EPA's office of water.
Environmentalists disagreed. "The EPA is required by law to protect the public from toxic pollutants like dioxins," said Nancy Stoner, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Clean Water Project. "This decision shows the agency under this administration has forgotten its mission."
EPA officials said studies conducted during the past five years showed conclusively that dioxin levels have declined sharply in the environment -- thanks largely to a crackdown on manufacturers and the chemical industry. Even rural residents who are most exposed to sewage sludge or who consume food and dairy products produced on their farms face minimal added risk, the officials said.
According to the EPA, one in 100,000 Americans run the risk of contracting cancer each year because of exposure to dioxins. The latest EPA studies showed that only 0.003 new cases of cancer could be expected each year, or 0.22 new cases over 70 years among farmers with the greatest exposure to the sewage sludge.
Some environmentalists and academics have questioned the government's research methodology and said there is no excuse for not regulating dioxins in sewage sludge and monitoring their effects over a longer time. About 5.6 million tons of sewage sludge is disposed of each year, including more than 3 million tons used as fertilizer on farms, forests, parks and golf courses.
"I think the decision is irresponsible," said David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the State University of New York at Albany. "Sewage sludge is the second greatest source of dioxin exposure in the United States today . . . and the health effects of dioxin are something of great concern to all scientists."
Ellen Z. Harrison, director of Cornell University's Waste Management Institute, described the EPA's refusal to regulate sewage sludge or other organic chemical compounds that persist in the environment as "misplaced."
"Where there is no regulation, there is no monitoring," she said. "Yes, there's a cost to testing and monitoring, but compared to the total cost of managing sludge, it's a minor cost."
The EPA was required to announce its decision by midnight yesterday as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the NRDC more than a decade ago to require the agency to limit toxic pollutants in sludge. The Clean Water Act requires the agency to establish limits on toxic pollutants, but the EPA has yet to do so for dioxin or other organic toxic pollutants.
Dioxin is the airborne byproduct of burning plastics and medical wastes containing chlorine. These compounds infiltrate the food chain through grass and feed and then settle into the fat of livestock and poultry. The most toxic form of the chemical, known as TCDD, was the contaminant in Agent Orange, a defoliant used during the Vietnam War.
The prevalence of this toxic chemical in the environment has declined by more than 80 percent since the 1970s because of changing practices in the chemical industry and in waste-disposal operations. But a previous EPA study concluded that people who consume even small amounts of dioxin in fatty foods and dairy products face a relatively high cancer risk. They may also develop other problems, such as attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, susceptibility to infections and liver disorders.