Saratoga Biochar is using EPA research to rally support
MOREAU — Saratoga Biochar Solutions, the controversial plant that proposes to transform sewage sludge and wood waste into carbon fertilizer, is trumpeting an interim report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that notes the facility’s proposed pyrolysis process to destroy perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, is a promising emerging technology.
“The very fact that the federal government has devoted so much time and energy to studying pyrolysis — the decomposition of materials at high temperatures — and thermal oxidation methods shows that current biosolids disposal methods are inadequate and will continue to put human health and environment at risk,” Ray Apy, CEO of Saratoga Biochar, said in a statement. “Innovative, forward-thinking solutions to the biosolids crisis must not be delayed.”
Pyrolysis, which cooks PFAS at a high temperature (in Saratoga Biochar’s case 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit), is just one of the several methods the EPA has studied to manage PFAS including underground wells, landfills, waste combustors and incineration. Biochar has been approved by the town to build in Moreau Industrial Park, and is awaiting permits from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to do so.
However, the EPA has not recommended pyrolysis or any other method, suggesting more research is necessary.“in 2024, EPA is neither recommending nor discouraging the use of any emerging technology for managing the Pfas-containing materials,” the interim guidance reads. The EPA also noted that the process “can potentially destroy PFAS without significant environmental releases, or without PFAS remaining on the reactivated carbon. However, … more data are needed for confirmation. … There is uncertainty associated with this option because it is based on limited research.”
Clean Air Action Network, which is among 78 environmental groups
and five neighboring communities, has made the same point in opposing Saratoga Biochar.
“EPA’S new guidance supports concerns raised about the risks presented by Saratoga Biochar’s proposed pyrolysis facility,” Tracy Frisch, a board member of Clean Air Action Network, said. “Specifically, EPA’S new guidance says that additional research is needed to determine the effectiveness of the use of pyrolysis for the destruction of different Pfas-containing materials and to characterize the outputs for PFAS. Saratoga Biochar has applied for permits to build what would be the largest sewage sludge pyrolysis facility in the state before this additional research is conducted.”
Saratoga Biochar President Bryce Meeker acknowledged more testing is needed, which he said he is happy to provide the EPA.
“Saratoga Biochar welcomes the opportunity to work with the EPA on extensive PFAS testing, research and development,” Meeker said in a statement. “Moreover, we are committing today that all test results achieved alongside the EPA will be transparently and proudly included in our public record.”
In addition to the environmental concerns, residents in Moreau and the surrounding community fear another environmental disaster on
the scale of General Electric’s polluting the Hudson River with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBS. Residents also said the area is considered disadvantaged and therefore the state should protect its environmental health and deny permits to a potentially hazard plant on the shores of the Hudson River.
Voters rallied against Saratoga Biochar and handed former town Supervisor Todd Kusnierz, whom they believed supported the plant, a crushing defeat in November. The new Town Board enacted a moratorium to stop the construction of anything in the town’s industrial and manufacturing zones for nine months, a move that Apy alleged was done to target Saratoga Biochar. The Clean Air Action Network appealed a court decision that ruled the town’s Planning Board did its due diligence when it approved Saratoga Biochar.
“Saratoga Biochar is following the same science as the EPA and reaching the same results, showing that the future of remediating and upcycling biosolids is clean, green and will improve global waste management and agriculture, plus help to mitigate climate change,” Meeker said in a statement. “We look forward to further validating the safety of our cutting-edge technology and our product.”