ADEM hearing draws widespread concern over biosolids rules, calls for PFAS testing and stronger enforcement

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) held a public hearing in Montgomery to solicit comment on proposed revisions to ADEM Administrative Code Division 335-13, department staff said. The department’s stated changes would update definitions, registration requirements and operating criteria for beneficial use of byproduct materials, and add standards for food-processing residuals and related treatment impoundments.

ADEM hearing officer Mary Fran(k) Brown opened the hearing and asked speakers to register; Scott Story, chief of ADEM’s Solid Waste Branch, summarized the department’s rationale and the legal authority for the rulemaking. Story said the revisions are proposed under the Alabama Environmental Management Act (22-22A, Code of Alabama 1975 as amended) and the Administrative Procedures Act (section 41-22-4). "Revisions to the ADEM Administrative Code Division 335-13-16 are being proposed to amend existing regulations for the beneficial use of byproduct materials for the purpose of land application," Story said.

Why this matters: an extended public comment record and detailed testing requirements determine whether concentrated wastes applied to land will be tracked, monitored and restricted. Many speakers at the hearing said the draft rules do not go far enough to protect soil, water, air, livestock and human health from contaminants concentrated in biosolids and other industrial sludges.

Public commenters focused on several recurring concerns. Multiple speakers urged ADEM to require testing for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), to set…