Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a major update to its guidance on Pathogens and Vector Attraction in Sewage Sludge (see Pathogens and Vector Attraction in Sewage Sludge | Science Inventory | US EPA). On May 23rd, EPA hosted a webinar as part of its Biosolids Webinar Series, where the lead author of the revised publication, Laura A. Boczek, a microbiologist with EPA’s Office of Research & Development’s Cincinatti Office, went into details about the history of the document and the major updates.

The original guidance document was commonly referred to in the industry as the “White House document” because it had a picture of the White House lawn under construction with biosolids. But that non-official document designation confused a lot of people new to the biosolids field. The new document, sans White House on the cover, is a great resource for anyone involved with the treatment of sewage sludge for land application.

The original guidance document was published in 1992, before the final Part 503 biosolids regulations were promulgated. The document was updated significantly in 2003, in part to reflect the Part 503 regulatory requirements. This latest, most significant update, comes as one of 13 responses – or corrective actions -- to address the EPA Office of Inspector General’s 2018 report on its review of EPA’s Biosolids Program. See EPA OIG Biosolids Report — NEBRA (nebiosolids.org).

The updated pathogen and vector attraction document took a while to update but the final result is a very detailed, very helpful guide with lots of good background and information critical for biosolids managers working on land application projects.

Major changes to the guidance include:

1.      New cover, no White House;

2.      New order of chapters for better flow in reading;

3.      Added (back in) a separate chapter on septage;

4.      Added language to clarify appropriate microbial indicators that can be used for regulatory monitoring;

5.      Added in the preferred EPA Methods 1680, 1681, 1682;

6.      Added in a list of approved Processes to Further Reduce Pathogens (PFRPs) and Processes to Significantly Reduce Pathogens (PSRPs);

7.      Removed redundancies and introduced other edits for improvements;

8.      Added language that specifies that Vector Attraction Reduction (VAR) must occur simultaneously with pathogen reduction (or VAR cannot precede pathogen reduction processes);

9.      Clarified that a Pathogen Equivalency Committee (PEC) determination is not an endorsement by EPA.

The webinar was about 50 minutes and worth watching. You can find the link here: EPA Biosolids Webinar Series | US EPA, along with the presentation slides. And you can sign up for future EPA Biosolids webinars if you haven’t already. Download the updated Pathogen and Vector Attraction Reduction in Sewage Sludge here: https://www.epa.gov/biosolids/control-pathogens-and-vector-attraction-sewage-sludge and watch the webinar on YouTube: Biosolids Webinar Series: Updates to Pathogen and Vector Attraction in Sewage Sludge - May 2023 - YouTube