{"id":27422,"date":"2025-05-08T16:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T16:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27422"},"modified":"2025-05-08T17:29:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T17:29:02","slug":"sewage-sludge-fertilizer-from-maryland-virginians-say-no-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27422","title":{"rendered":"Sewage Sludge Fertilizer From Maryland? Virginians Say No Thanks."},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 2023, sewage plants in Maryland started to make a troubling discovery. Harmful \u201cforever chemicals\u201d were contaminating the state\u2019s sewage, much of which is turned into fertilizer and spread on farmland.<\/p>\n

To protect its food and drinking water, Maryland has started restricting the use of fertilizer made from sewage sludge. At the same time, a major sludge-fertilizer maker, Synagro, has been applying for permits to use more of it across the state border, on farms in Virginia.<\/p>\n

A coalition of environmentalists, fishing groups and some farmers are fighting that effort. They say the contamination threatens to poison farmland and vulnerable waterways that feed the Potomac River.<\/p>\n

These sewage sludge fertilizers \u201caren\u2019t safe enough for farms in Maryland, so they\u2019re coming to Virginia,\u201d said Dean Naujoks of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, which advocates for clean water. \u201cThat\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Virginia finds itself at the receiving end of a pattern that is emerging across the country as states scramble to address a growing farmland contamination crisis: States with weaker regulations are at risk of becoming dumping grounds for contaminated sludge.<\/p>\n

In Virginia, Synagro, one of the nation\u2019s leading providers of sludge for use as fertilizer, has sought permission to apply more sludge in rural Virginia, according to local filings. Synagro is controlled by a Goldman Sachs investment fund.<\/p>\n

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In 2023, sewage plants in Maryland started to make a troubling discovery. Harmful \u201cforever chemicals\u201d were contaminating the state\u2019s sewage, much of which is turned into fertilizer and spread on farmland.To protect its food and drinking water, Maryland has started restricting the use of fertilizer made from sewage sludge. At the same time, a major sludge-fertilizer maker, Synagro, has been applying for permits to use more of it across the state border, on farms in Virginia.A coalition of environmentalists, fishing groups and some farmers are fighting that effort. They say the contamination threatens to poison farmland and vulnerable waterways that feed the Potomac River.These sewage sludge fertilizers \u201caren\u2019t safe enough for farms in Maryland, so they\u2019re coming to Virginia,\u201d said Dean Naujoks of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, which advocates for clean water. \u201cThat\u2019s wrong.\u201dVirginia finds itself at the receiving end of a pattern that is emerging across the country as states scramble to address a growing farmland contamination crisis: States with weaker regulations are at risk of becoming dumping grounds for contaminated sludge.In Virginia, Synagro, one of the nation\u2019s leading providers of sludge for use as fertilizer, has sought permission to apply more sludge in rural Virginia, according to local filings. Synagro is controlled by a Goldman Sachs investment fund.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27424,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27422"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27425,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27422\/revisions\/27425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}