France: draft circular on sludge spreading introducing mandatory measurements of PFAS rates

"The aim is to launch a consultation on a draft circular on the spreading of sludge, introducing mandatory measurements of PFAS contamination", said the office of Mathieu Lefèvre, French Minister Delegate for the Ecological Transition, on 09/04/2024, during a visit in the Ardennes for a working meeting with the various stakeholders.

The Minister's visit came after the discovery of PFAS contamination of water and soil, linked in particular to the spreading of sludge from a paper mill, now in receivership, near drinking water catchments. A number of local authorities in the Ardennes have lodged a complaint against X in this case.

Under current national regulations, as in other European countries, "until now there has been no obligation to measure sludge contamination. That's the whole point of the text".

In concrete terms, the aim of the future circular is therefore to set up measurement campaigns at the largest wastewater treatment plants (those with a population equivalent of more than 10,000), "which account for around 6% of the total and 86% of the quantities of sludge spread on…