EPA Discarded 300-Page PFAS Biosolids Risk Report as Texas Cattle Died

The EPA discarded a nearly 300-page risk report on PFAS in sewage-based fertilizer — while investigators on a Texas ranch counted more than 80 dead cattle and high PFAS levels in soil, water and animals.

WJLA's investigation found the agency shelved the findings and, at the same time, left a proposed national PFAS contamination survey sitting unused at the White House's Office of Management and Budget. The survey was designed to map PFAS contamination nationwide and identify its sources. The EPA has cited a lack of data.

The material stream at the center of this is biosolids — fertilizer made from treated human waste — applied annually to roughly 70 million acres of U.S. agricultural land. That's an area the size of Colorado getting sludge every year.

What did the buried report find?

According to findings WJLA reviewed, even biosolids containing small amounts of certain PFAS could pose serious risks to people, livestock and the environment. The report came from a team led by Betsy Southerland, a former EPA scientist who spent 33 years at the agency and headed water-related work in its science and technology office.

Southerland did not mince words about the survey. "That has been ready to go since November of 2024, and the current administration never mentions the survey and has never taken any steps to put that survey out," she told WJLA.

Her point cuts to the practical problem for anyone managing wastewater or land application: without the survey, nobody can identify which industries are discharging PFAS into wastewater in the first place. Control at the treatment plant is impossible if you can't trace the load upstream.

What happened on the ground in Texas?

At Tony Coleman's family ranch in Johnson County, Texas, environmental crimes investigator Dana Ames collected samples while Coleman watched his herd die. Investigators suspected the source was biosolid fertilizer made from human waste and stored beside the property.

Tests confirmed the suspicion's footprint: high PFAS levels in the ranch's animals, soil and water. The more than 80 cattle deaths occurred as the investigation proceeded.

Johnson County is not an outlier. State regulators from Maine to Michigan have linked damaged land and sick farm animals to sludge contamination. PFAS exposure is tied to cancer, thyroid conditions and developmental difficulties in people and animals.

What is EPA saying?

Asked why the survey hasn't gone out, EPA Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi claimed PFAS contamination is a priority for Administrator Lee Zeldin and the agency. He said the EPA wants water systems and biosolids users to have information and technical support for treatment where necessary — but he didn't explain why the survey remains unused.

What the agency has produced instead is nine pages of voluntary suggestions. The guidance acknowledges the benefits of biosolids while advising against applying the fertilizer near children or to particular crops. Nine voluntary pages against a 300-page risk assessment is the ratio that defines the agency's current posture.

Southerland's call is straightforward: run the survey, so the specific industries discharging PFAS into wastewater can be identified. Until then, efforts to intercept contamination before it reaches farms stay incomplete, and agricultural communities are left without answers about sources.

Ames framed the stakes in household terms. "As a mother and a grandmother, knowing that the food, the very food that I feed my family, could be tainted with toxic chemicals that our government's aware of and refuses to respond to. That is not OK," she told WJLA.

The next milestone is administrative, not scientific: whether OMB clears the survey that has been ready since November 2024, or the 70 million acres of annual biosolids application continues without a national contamination map.