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E&E News: Nonprofit plans lawsuit over EPA sludge program

Nonprofit plans lawsuit over EPA sludge program

A nonprofit watchdog group today said it plans to sue U.S. EPA for denying a 2003 petition that would have put a moratorium on the land application of sewage sludge.

The Center for Food Safety, which filed the 2003 petition along with 73 other groups, will draw on an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling issued this year that found EPA supported the use of data that were "unreliable, incomplete, and, in some cases, fudged" when it determined that converted sewage sludge was a safe fertilizer.

EPA's program began as part of an initiative by the agency to prevent raw sewage and industrial waste from polluting U.S. waterways by turning it into fertilizer, a move the center has condemned.

Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the center, said the lawsuit would be filed in either the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.