Cases / Waste management · United States · 2024–2025
Five Texas farm families sue Synagro over sewage-sludge fertilizer
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
- The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
Five families sued Synagro, a company that handles sewage sludge, and Johnson County declared a PFAS emergency in February 2025. At stake are farmland, water and livestock in the county.
What?
Five farm families sued Synagro in 2024, and Johnson County, Texas, declared a PFAS emergency in February 2025. KERA
Where?
Johnson County, Texas, United States KERA
When?
Lawsuit in 2024; county emergency in February 2025; Synagro sale in 2020 KERA
Who?
Why?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
Sewage-based fertilizer spread on farmland, according to the KERA report headline. KERA
6 of 6 questions answered from the record
What happened
The record, in order.
Five farm families sued Synagro in 2024, and Johnson County declared a PFAS emergency in February 2025, according to KERA and Waste Dive.
Synagro was sold to a Goldman Sachs fund in 2020 and manages more than 14 million tonnes of sludge a year, according to EQT.
In court and with insurers
Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.
Lawsuits and rulings
- 2024–Outcome not on recordLawsuit by five farm families against SynagroNot stated in the sources reviewed · Civil · Five farm families → Synagro
Filed in 2024 against Synagro, per KERA and Waste Dive. The sources reviewed do not give the court, the claims or the status. KERA
Insurers
No insurer decision on record.
What we don't know
Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Court
- Unclear Lawsuit by five farm families against Synagro: outcome not on record.
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: the families say sludge spread on a neighbouring field poisoned their water and livestock; Synagro denies the claims (source not checked).
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Synagro marketed its Granulite product as “safe and organic”, and a calf’s liver contained 610,000 ppt PFOS (The New Lede, 2024).
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: EPA’s January 2025 draft risk assessment says 1 microgram per kilogram of PFOA or PFOS in sludge can exceed acceptable risk in some farm scenarios (source not checked).
- None on record The sources reviewed do not give the number of cattle affected or the outcome of the lawsuit.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Voices on record: ✓ Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers
Company or project
- EQT Infrastructure to sell SynagroEQT · 2020-09
Press and investigations
- EPA releases draft risk assessment to advance scientific understanding of PFOA and PFOSUS Environmental Protection Agency · 2025-01-14
Connected cases
Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
- Synagro biosolids and PFAS in Texas United States · 2024–2025
- Synagro (Company) — here: Company that handles the sewage sludge; defendant in the lawsuit; there: Sludge manager; defendant
- Goldman Sachs (Bank) — here: Owns Synagro through a fund; there: Owner of Synagro through a fund (since the 2020 sale)