11/16/2018 - 9/30/2020
EPA’s Office of Inspector General Reviews EPA’s Biosolids Regulatory Program

On November 15, 2018, the U. S. EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), an independent review branch of the Agency, released a report reviewing EPA’s biosolids regulatory program. The report is the OIG’s narrow perspective. EPA fully supports biosolids recycling and disagrees with parts of the report, while agreeing to some recommended improvements.

See the OIG page for details & to download the report and summary.
Read EPA’s response: it is Appendix D in the OIG report.

See also:

• Scientific response by the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture W-4170 group of researchers who have studied biosolids the most, July 2020

  • Slide presentation summary of W4170 response, Sept. 2020, by Dr. Greg Evanylo (VA Tech) and Dr. Linda Lee (Purdue Univ.), VBC webinar

• Updated response from EPA’s Office of Water, after final negotiations with the OIG (5/30/19)

• Biosolids groups’ Guide & FAQ re OIG report (11/28/18)

• Biosolids & compost groups’ joint letter to the OIG (11/29/18)

• NEBRA’s initial review of the OIG “At a Glance” summary

• NACWA’s response to the OIG report

• Northwest Biosolids’ letter to the OIG (11/29/18)

• NACWA letter to the OIG (12/4/18)

• WEF news article about the OIG report (Dec. 2018)

• EHS news story (Jan. 25, 2019)

• WEF’s Microconstituents/Trace Chemicals Fact Sheet (2017)

• Information on trace chemicals in biosolids on NEBRA’s “Resources” page

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