Banning the use of FBR’s (Food Processing Residuals) in Pennsylvania

In the past year, the residents and officials of Antrim township, along with multiple other municipalities throughout the commonwealth, have experienced significant harm due to the application of noxious food processing residuals (FPR) on farmland. This alarming situation has resulted in serious groundwater and well contamination issues.

What is FPR?

FPR refers to the waste generated from food manufacturing, encompassing vegetable peelings, raw meat scraps, and contaminated cleaning wastewater that can include harmful substances such as blood, fat, hair, and feathers.

While Pennsylvania permits the application of FPR to farmland as a cost-effective method to enhance soil organic matter, this practice poses severe risks. It has unfortunately become an avenue for out-of-state companies to dispose of waste more cheaply than through traditional methods. As many of our neighboring states have imposed bans or more stringent regulations on this practice, Pennsylvania has become “the dumping ground” for this harmful and extremely dangerous disposal of waste!

Currently, adherence to the Food Processing Residual Management Manual issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) provides the only layer of regulation; however, there exists an alarming absence of oversight.

If FPR is applied incorrectly, there are no tracking mechanisms for its source, no testing protocols in place, and no centralized complaint system for residents adversely affected. The FPR manual itself, first issued in June 1994, is desperately outdated and in need of urgent revision.

The use of FPR’s has caused the contamination of groundwater which in turn has contaminated the drinking water and food supply of our citizens who rely on well water as their only source of water for drinking, bathing and crop irrigation and locally grown crops and livestock as their source of food.

Potential threats from unregulated FPR Usage are:

• unregulated waste, particularly waste from slaughterhouses can produce odors beyond the typical farming smells.
• Beyond odors, unregulated waste can result in:
• Avian influenza (bird flu)
• Prions (more rare)
• Vectors- organisms that can spread pathogens such as viruses, bacteria or fungi to plants

In light of these and other facts, I plan to soon introduce legislation to amend the Solid Waste Management Act that will ban the use of FPR’s in the State of Pennsylvania so as to protect Pennsylvania farms and residents from the serious health and environmental dangers posed by the improper management of food processing residuals.

Please join me in Co-Sponsoring this bill so help ensure the purity of our environment along with our drinking water and food supply.

It is our duty to ensure we leave a pristine environment, pure drinking water and a safe food supply for our children and Grandchildren.

If you have any questions concerning this legislation, please contact Donald Beishl (dbeishl@pasen.gov) or Aaron Bashir ( abashir@pasen.gov) in my office.