A bill is being proposed in Maine that would outlaw the spreading of sludge or biosolids with PFAS. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), also known as the “forever chemical” are manmade chemicals that don’t breakdown and if not disposed of properly can get into topsoil and groundwater causing potential harm to people.
If this bill becomes law in Maine, sludge from wastewater treatment plants would need to be disposed of in landfills and not used as fertilizer as was previously done. With this proposed law, there is concern that landfills will not have the capacity to handle this additional waste. Read more about the proposed bill.
If this bill becomes a law, wastewater treatment plants would be required to find other disposal methods of sludge. With concerns about capacity in landfills, another option to consider is incineration to remove PFAS from sludge.
Multiple Hearth Incinerators can be a good option for removing PFAS from sludge. Existing Multiple Hearth Furnaces can be modified to allow for temperatures high enough to effectively remove PFAS from sludge. This modification can be done for a fraction of the cost of a new sludge dryer system.