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On Friday, Radio Canada reported that Quebec’s Minister for the Environment and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have expressed concerns about the use of sludge on farmland. The article concludes that Environment Minister Benoit Charrette has promised to tighten regulations around sludge application. Sighting the precautionary principal and the need to act quickly to protect farmland and human health, he projects new rules will be in place before the 2023 farming season begins. Additionally, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to ban the land-spreading of all sludge sourced from the United States. 

Defend Our Health Director of Advocacy, Sarah Woodbury responds: 

“No-one should have to go through what my colleague Adam’s family has gone through. The statements from Trudeau and Charrette are in response to recent stories by La Semaine Verte, which examined the sludge spreading practice in Quebec and new efforts there to quantify the level of contamination in sludges from Quebec wastewater treatment plants. The biosolids industry claims about the ‘beneficial use’ of sludge have been directly contrasted with the experiences of Maine farmers, including Stoneridge Farm and Adam’s farm, Songbird Farm, who were forced to stop production because of the discovery of high levels of PFAS chemicals. 

This is unacceptable in Maine, in Canada, anywhere. Farmers and their families cannot afford to gamble with their land, their livelihoods, and the health of people using their products.

Maine passed legislation in the last session that bans the use of PFAS-contaminated sludge on farmland and we worked with reporters from Canada on the story in La Semaine Verte to help raise awareness of the health and environmental impacts on farmland in Canada if they continue importing sludge from the U.S. and spreading it on their local farmland.

These statements show that, like Maine, Canada is also taking this issue seriously. We now hope that our federal government will follow the lead of Maine and our neighbors to the north and take steps to protect all of our farmland from toxic PFAS contamination.”