Dive Brief:
- A state appeals court in Washington has reversed a local ban that mandated the recycling of biosolids.
- The court ruled 3-0 to overturn an ordinance in Wahkiakum County, WA that forbid the land application of class B solids. The court determined that state law encouraged adding biosolids to soil, and therefore, localities could not overrule the state program.
- The law, passed in 2011, served to effectively ban the use of certain biosolids produced at wastewater treatment plants for agricultural operations.
Dive Insight:
In her ruling, Judge Linda Lee said that the purpose of the state biosolids program “is to recycle sewage sludge by retreating it as a beneficial commodity... Farmers have come to rely on the well-established and uniform state regulations of land application of biosolids for planning and investment.”
This issue has been propping up throughout the West Coast. In March 2013, the California court of appeals ruled to allow the use of recycled biosolids in Kern County, California. Voters initially introduced the ban through a puclic referendum, but the court overturned the ruling. That decision was later upheld by a higher court.
Next up in the biosolids debate is the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which will soon hear a case that challenges the use of biosolids in land applications in a Pennsylvania county. This case initially began in 2008, when plaintiffs sued a biosolids contractor and farmers who used the substances on farmland in York County, PA. A judge dismissed the case but an appeal reversed the ruling.