Dive Brief:
- The city council of Fort Worth, Texas, voted to cancel its biosolids contract with Synagro early on Tuesday. The design-build-operate agreement was formalized in 2019 and had a 10-year term, but officials agreed to end the contract to avoid "potential legal disputes," according to the Fort Worth Report.
- Fort Worth will pay $2.4 million to Synagro as part of the resolution and will take over operations at the sewage sludge processing facility run by Synagro. The company had previously produced fertilizer product Granulite at the site.
- PFAS concerns have percolated throughout the region. Fort Worth recently sued chemical manufacturers and the U.S. Department of Defense over PFAS contamination in its water, and Synagro has been the target of a lawsuit from farmers who allege Granulite caused PFAS contamination. Neither party attributed Tuesday’s decision to PFAS directly.
Dive Insight:
Contamination concerns have been a growing issue nationwide. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are known as "forever chemicals" due to their persistence in the environment, and can cause a range of health issues like cancer if people are exposed to significant quantities.
Whether such contamination can occur via biosolids is an ongoing debate. In January, the U.S. EPA issued a draft risk assessment on such contamination, and found that farmers who live on or near land where biosolids were spread as fertilizer face the greatest risk. The agency took a close look at PFOA and PFOS for that document, two PFAS chemicals that have been the target of drinking water standards and manufacturers are phasing out.
EPA's assessment also concluded that dangerous quantities of PFOA or PFOS contamination was unlikely to spread into the general food supply from the land application of biosolids.
But lawsuits, and concerns of contamination, continue. A group of five farmers in Johnson County, Texas, sued Synagro last year, alleging their health and the health of their livestock were impacted after a neighboring farm spread Granulite. The product in that case was produced in the Fort Worth facility.
Last week, Synagro released the results of a study it had commissioned finding Granulite could not have caused the contamination alleged by the farmers. Officials pushed back on the findings, and an investigation led by a Johnson County investigator remains ongoing.
In a statement Wednesday, a Synagro spokesperson said the company and Fort Worth's water department "mutually agreed to part ways and settle all claims following ongoing disagreements regarding contract requirements." The company declined to say whether it would continue selling Granulite in Texas.
The effective date of the termination is on or after April 1, per council documents. Synagro said Fort Worth would be taking over the facility, which includes a biosolids drum dryer, on April 5.
In its sustainability report published last year, Synagro said it received 2.2 billion gallons of liquid biosolids in 2023 across all its facilities. That year, the company operated 19 dryer facilities, including the one in Fort Worth and in cities like Philadelpia, Detroit and Sacramento, California. The company has also expanded its composting operations, including by acquiring two sites in New Jersey and South Carolina last year.
Synagro pitches itself as "North America's leading provider of sustainable solutions for biosolids, organics and residuals," and produced 3.3 million tons of fertilizer in 2023.
