Concerned ranchers in the Fort Worth area are pursuing a lawsuit against a prominent waste recycling company for creating fertilizers that contain harmful, cancer-causing chemicals.
According to the complaint, the problems began when Fort Worth switched its contractor for “biosolids”—or repurposed waste materials used in fertilizer—from Renda Environmental to Synagro in February 2020.
Synagro officially assumed control of the city and the surrounding area’s current biosolids management facility in April of that year and began construction on a new one, which was completed in December 2022.
The same year Synagro assumed control of the existing facility, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that residents in rural areas began complaining of “horrendous odors” originating from the “sewage sludge,” another name for biosolids.
Roughly two years later, Johnson County began investigating the biosolids as a potential cause of poisoning in humans and animals in the area.
Several incidents had initiated the suspicion. Among them were residents having trouble breathing around smoking biosolid fertilizer, all the fish dying in a pond after the fertilizer was applied, and a stillborn calf.
To determine the culprit of the fertilizer poisonings, Johnson County investigators submitted the calf and several other fertilizer samples to a lab in Pennsylvania,
The results were jarring. The biosolid fertilizers manufactured by Synagro contained Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, synthetic compounds commonly known as “PFAS,” in abundant rates detrimental to human health.
PFAS, first introduced during the invention of Teflon, is colloquially grouped with similar compounds as “forever chemicals.”
The substances received the moniker from their tendency not to break down once introduced into the environment for an extended period. In higher-than-normal concentrations, they are known to cause various cancers, fertility issues, and respiratory problems.
Current Environmental Protection Agency standards put the acceptable amount of PFAS in drinking water at 4 parts per trillion. However, the rate at which PFAS were present in the samples tested was considerably higher.
According to a presentation by the Johnson County Constable Precinct 4’s office, the lab results found 27 different PFAS chemicals in one biosolids sample, and the PFAS level in the calf’s liver was a shocking 610,000 parts per trillion.
“The contamination that has occurred on our victims’ properties is pervasive,” explained Dana Ames, an investigator for the Johnson County Constable’s Office responsible for collecting and submitting the samples.
The affected ranchers from Grandview are pursuing the legal challenge in Baltimore County, Maryland—the site of Syangro’s headquarters. They seek damages of at least $75,000 and any relief necessary to “abate the nuisance” caused by the defendants.
A Synagro spokesperson stated that the company denied the lawsuit’s allegations of high levels of PFAS chemicals in their fertilizer to WFAA 8 in April, claiming their product meets EPA and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality standards.
KERA News later reported in May that a Synagro spokesperson pointed out that none of the plaintiffs used Synagro products themselves.
Meanwhile, another lawsuit led by the ranchers is challenging the EPA’s inaction on preventing PFAS contamination in fertilizers and added Johnson County, as well as the environmental groups Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, as co-plaintiffs.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit focusing on potential environmental wrongdoings by public officials and agencies, represents the plaintiffs.
“Farmers across the country count on the EPA to ensure that sewage sludge that gets applied on land as fertilizer is safe,” stated PEER staff counsel Laura Dumais in a MOFGA press release.
The “EPA has ample information about the dangers of PFAS in sewage sludge and should have regulated it long ago, as the Clean Water Act requires,” she added.
Larry Woolley, Johnson County’s Commissioner for Precinct 4, called the case an “agricultural issue” and “not a matter of politics” in the same release.
“It is a matter of stewardship,” argued Woolley. “Generations of family farms, and our food supply, are at risk unless we take action.”
Helen Kerwin, who ousted incumbent State Rep. DeWayne Burns in the May 28 Republican primary runoffs, told Texas Scorecard that she is working with several legislators in the affected areas to determine the impact of PFAS in biosolids.
Kerwin will face Libertarian candidate Richard Windmann in the November General Election.
