ICYMI: 7 Highlights from the Pace® PFAS in Biosolids Webinar

Recently, I had the pleasure of hosting our most recent PFAS Webinar: Biosolids Analysis for PFAS: Challenges, Considerations, and Options. This webinar featured Paul Jackson, Pace® Environmental Compliance and Emerging Contaminants Program Manager, and Nick Nigro, Pace® PFAS Product Manager. The webinar was viewed by hundreds of attendees who asked some insightful questions, both at the end and offline. In this post, I’ll overview what Paul and Nick discussed and recap some of the highlights that might be most useful to our Pace® clients. 

Watch: Biosolids Analysis for PFAS: Challenges, Considerations, and Options. 

Biosolids regulations – Paul led the discussion by reviewing 40 CFR Part 503, the current federal code regulating biosolids. While PFAS isn’t one of the contaminants covered in the regulation, it’s critical to understand how contaminants in biosolids are regulated so that you can prepare for coming PFAS regulations. 

Sources of PFAS in biosolids – Next, Paul covered the sources of PFAS in biosolids, including industry, domestic wastewater, and PFAS precursors. He also did an interesting dive into the history of biosolids disposal through land-application. Aside for a few decades in the 1900s, land-application of biosolids has been considered the most effective disposal path since ancient times. Today, roughly half of all biosolids are land-applied as a soil amendment. 

State legislation – So far, only a small number of states have enacted legislation on biosolids, but Paul expects that to change. He covered the current legislative situation in Maine, New Mexico, Indiana, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Federal regulatory landscape – Paul also covered the federal regulatory landscape for PFAS. Since he didn’t have as much time to get into this topic as he would have liked, he is working on a follow up post to be published soon. 

PFAS analytical challenges – Paul then turned the webinar over to Nick, who highlighted some of the challenges of analyzing PFAS in biosolids, including varying moisture content, high organic carbon background noise, extraction limitations, sample prep complexity, reporting requirements, and surrogate recovery. 

PFAS test methods for biosolids – Nick’s presentation included a comparison of two PFAS test methods for biosolids: EPA 1633 and ASTM D8535. Currently, EPA 1633 is the primary test method used when compliance reporting is required. However, depending on the sample complexity and laboratory capabilities, EPA 1633 may not always be able to meet the reporting limits required by law. 

Pace® liquid biosolids study results – Lastly, Nick highlighted the results from a Pace® study on liquid biosolids. This analysis compared results from EPA 1633 and ASTM D8535. 

The analysis of PFAS in biosolids is evolving quickly – almost as fast as the regulatory landscape. If you have questions after viewing the on-demand webinar, please feel free to reach out.