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6/10/2025
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Assembly OKs bill to test biosolids for PFAS
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 The legislation is aimed at preventing contamination of food, soil and groundwater at farms
STATE HOUSE – The General Assembly today approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Terri Cortvriend and Sen. Alana M. DiMario to require anyone applying for a permit to spread biosolids on land to first test the material for PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The legislation now goes to the governor.
In Rhode Island, land application is not the primary disposal method of biosolids — the solids that are left after sewage is treated — in local sewage treatment facilities. However, because biosolids are nutrient-dense, some farms do use them for fertilizer. Farms that do so must obtain a permit from the Department of Environmental Management.
The legislation (2025-H 5844A, 2025-S 0650A) would require that anyone applying for that permit first test the material for PFAS contamination. The legislation also requires that any entity with such a permit submit their material for testing quarterly and report the results to DEM, with the first report due by Dec. 31, 2025.
“There is a growing body of concerns about the dangers of PFAS, and experience in other places has shown that their presence in biosolids used for fertilizer is a public health risk as well as a contamination risk for land and water. They are called ‘forever chemicals’ for a reason, and Rhode Island can’t afford to lose farmland contaminated by them,” said Senator DiMario (D-Dist. 36, Narragansett, North Kingstown, New Shoreham).
Said Representative Cortvriend (D-Dist. 72, Portsmouth, Middletown), “The more we learn about PFAS, the clearer it becomes that we need to pay much more attention to where they are and what is being done with them. They’re so ubiquitous that they’re now in virtually everyone’s bodies, and it is no wonder that they are in sewage. If we are going to permit biosolids to be applied agriculturally, they should be tested for PFAS to prevent them from contaminating our food, our livestock and wildlife, and the groundwater that we all share.”
PFAS are a family of man-made chemicals used in everything from carpets to frying pan coatings to lipstick. Because their use is so pervasive and they take so long time to break down in nature, they are increasingly being found in the environment, including in drinking water, and in humans’ bodies.
According to an overview study published in 2021 and an open letter from 171 scientists, all well-studied PFAS have been shown to have a wide range of adverse effects on human health, including altered immune and thyroid function, liver disease, kidney disease, adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes and cancer.
Maine banned the use of biosolids as fertilizer in 2022 after it was discovered that widespread agricultural use of them over decades had contaminated many farms there. The issue first came to light in 2016 when high levels of the chemicals were found in milk produced at a Maine dairy farm. After subsequent testing found contamination of milk from another farm and in groundwater at another, the state began investigating contamination at farms around the state that had used biosolids. More than 60 Maine farms have been identified as having unsafe levels of PFAS contamination in their soil and water, some with such high contamination they were forced to shut down, since crops grown there become contaminated, and animals become contaminated from consuming those crops and the water.
The bill is supported by DEM, Save The Bay, the Rhode Island Farm Bureau, Rhode Island Audubon, and the Rhode Island Land Trust Council.
Since Rhode Island sewage treatment plants do not generally send biosolids to be used as fertilizer, farms that use biosolids are generally sourcing them from other states. And while Rhode Island is working to reduce PFAS in products used here, biosolids from other states that haven’t made such changes might be even more likely to contain the chemicals.
A bill enacted by the General Assembly in 2022 now prohibits PFAS in food packaging, and a law passed last year will phase out PFAS in most consumer products sold or manufactured in Rhode Island beginning in 2027 and banned PFAS from firefighting foam beginning this year. Another bill (2025-S 0241, 2025-H 5019) that cleared the Assembly last week will ban PFAS from firefighters’ personal protective gear. Senator DiMario and Representative Cortvriend are both cosponsors of that bill.
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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