The Capital Regional District has not been in contact with its biosolids contractor regarding a lawsuit alleging the company’s product is responsible for Texas farmers’ illnesses and animal deaths.
Synagro Technologies is the majority equity holder of the contractor that built the regional district’s residual treatment facility at Hartland landfill. It also has a 20-year contract to operate the facility that makes the dried treated-wastewater granules.
CRD environment services committee chair Barb Desjardins asked staff to comment on reporting published by Black Press Media hours before the committee’s March 20 meeting.
That article outlined how Synagro and its longhorn-state subsidiary are named defendants in a civil suit brought on by Texas farmers in February. The five Johnson County, Texas, plaintiffs claim their farms were polluted by toxic chemicals in a biosolids-based fertilizer produced by Synagro after a neighbouring property spread the product on its crops.
The farmers allege the fertilizer contained high levels of the “forever chemical” PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkl substances) that made them sick with various illnesses, led to their animals dying, polluted their water and rendered their properties worthless.
Black Press Media asked the CRD twice on Tuesday (March 19) if it was aware of the lawsuit, but a spokesperson’s responses did not address those questions.
“We have not had any conversations with our operator about the lawsuit in Texas,” Larisa Hutcheson, the CRD’s general manager of environmental services, told the committee on Wednesday.
The CRD has not yet responded after being asked Thursday if it’s contacted Synagro about the lawsuit.
READ: CRD’s biosolids maker sued by Texan farmers over illnesses, animal deaths
The farmers said that since their land was “polluted” from the fertilizer in 2022, they’ve experienced PFAS-linked medical issues like high blood pressure, respiratory and cardiac issues, skin irritations, masses and other conditions. PFAS has been linked to cancer and other impacts to human and animal health.
Farmers from one farm claimed their dogs, horses, cows and various other animals have died after drinking water polluted by the fertilizer, while another farm had 10 cows die of unknown causes. The lawsuit states county officials detected “extremely high concentrations” of PFAS on the plaintiffs’ properties and the substances were also found in tissue samples from some of the dead animals.
The CRD landfilled 79 per cent of the biosolids it produced in 2023 as all of its other management options faced challenges.
The region has also maxed out the amount it can currently send to a Nanaimo region quarry reclamation project. The CRD board this month moved ahead with possibly sending biosolids to a second quarry site in the Regional District of Nanaimo.
That governing body asked the South Island board last month to stop considering applying CRD biosolids to RDN lands. The RDN said Thurday it’s aware of the Texas lawsuit and maintained its call for the CRD to find options within its own borders when it comes to applying biosolids to the land.
“The population of the RDN is growing and the availability of future suitable land application sites may be impacted if biosolids from other areas are applied within our region. We need to prioritize our own waste management,” RDN board chair Vanessa Craig said.
The Texas farmers live near Synagro’s Fort Worth facility that produces Class A biosolids, but Hutcheson said staff doesn’t have a sense of how those compare to the CRD-made product. She added Synagro is a “very large company with many different arms and bodies.”
Groups have calling for more study on whether the CRD’s biosolids contain harmful levels of PFAS, pharmaceuticals, microplastics and other contaminants of concern.
The CRD says its Class A biosolids contain almost no detectable pathogens and the federal government is considering limiting the use of PFAS in Canadian consumer products, which would reduce it ever getting into wastewater. It also points to a Metro Vancouver study that concluded the low concentrations of pharmaceuticals in biosolids are very unlikely to result in adverse health effects.
Philippe Lucas, founder of Biosolids Free B.C., called for a moratorium on applying biosolids to the land at Hartland and the Nanaimo quarry until questions regarding the safety of doing so are answered. He added it’s unacceptable the CRD hasn’t been in contact with Synagro over the lawsuit.
“Local residents and businesses definitely deserve to know what’s going on,” Lucas said on Thursday.