Sewage sludge is a product of the wastewater treatment process and is normally landfilled, incinerated, or treated to be land applied as biosolids. Section 405(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) requires EPA to review sewage sludge regulations to identify any additional pollutants that may occur in sewage sludge and to set regulations for pollutants identified in sewage sludge if sufficient scientific evidence shows they may harm human health or the environment. EPA's goal is to modernize, standardize, and streamline the risk assessment process to efficiently and thoroughly assess risk to chemical pollutants found in biosolids. The EPA’s Office of Water (OW) has developed a draft biosolids chemical risk assessment framework and Biosolids Tool (BST) for screening risk assessment. The BST has an accompanying User Guide, and the BST has been pre-loaded with four chemicals. The BST will be used to identify pollutants, pathways, and receptors of greatest interest and inform decisions regarding the need for refined risk assessment of contaminants in biosolids. EPA has requested SAB review for input on the overall risk assessment approach and on the scientific credibility and usability of the BST.
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