WILLIAMSTOWN — Every day, Berkshire County’s wastewater treatment plants produce tons of sewage sludge that must go somewhere — to an incinerator, a landfill or, less commonly now, onto land as fertilizer.

But those disposal options are narrowing: Environmental concerns have made the fertilizer option less attractive and fewer places like landfills accept it.

This is driving up costs for treatment plants — which inevitably means residents will pay higher sewer bills.

Until last year, the Hoosac Water Quality District — which serves the residents of North Adams, Williamstown and part of Clarksburg — disposed of its composted sewage sludge as fertilizer.

The on-site composting facility located at the Hoosac Water Quality District Wastewater Treatment plant. It then pays to truck the compost 250 miles away to Casella Waste Systems Inc. landfill in Ontario, N.Y.

But these days, it pays to truck that compost 250 miles away — a four-hour drive — to a place that will take it — in this case, a Casella Waste Systems Inc. landfill in Ontario County, N.Y. There, the dirt is spread over an open landfill — a daily cap that keeps the birds away, the smells down and the trash bags from blowing away in the wind.

That disposal method is literally what’s driving a $200,000 budget increase in the Hoosac Water Quality District’s budget for fiscal 2027, pushing its proposed budget to $2.3 million.

The increase will raise sewer rates for communities in the Hoosac Water Quality District, said chief operator Bradley Furlon. He projects disposal costs will only increase — by 5 percent annually.

Hoosac Water Quality District Chief Operator and District Manager Bradley Furlon stands in the sludge belt filter press room, which was not operating at the time.

With growing concerns over “forever chemicals” and with regional sludge disposal sites filling up, wastewater treatment plants across Berkshire County and beyond are contending with mounting costs and uncertainty over where to dispose of tons of sludge every week.

When water from toilets, sinks, showers, washing machines and businesses goes to a wastewater treatment plant, the plant separates the dirty water from the solids. The water gets cleaned and discharged. The thick leftover material — made up of human waste, food bits, grease, dirt, chemicals and microbes — is called sewage sludge.

Following the dewatering system, sludge cake is transferred to an on-site composting facility, where it is stabilized for beneficial reuse.

Treatment plants can process it further to kill some pathogens and reduce odors. When treated, it is often called biosolids.

Those biosolids may be buried in landfills, burned or sometimes spread on farm fields as fertilizer because they contain nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

The controversy is that sludge can also contain things you don’t want in soil or water: heavy metals, industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, microplastics and “forever chemicals” such as PFAS.

PFAS — short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — includes 14,000 manmade chemicals used in everyday products, ranging from nonstick pans to dental floss to cosmetics, in order to repel water, stains and grease. Since PFAS break down slowly, the chemicals build up over time in the environment and in people’s bodies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says studies have shown PFAS may be linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals.

Massachusetts heavily regulates biosolids, and allows some to be used as fertilizer. But increasingly, biosolid fertilizers are going by the wayside over PFAS safety concerns.

The Hoosac Water Quality’s wastewater treatment facility on Simonds Road in Williamstown is one of four public sludge-composting facilities in Massachusetts.

A compost aeration system at the on-site composting facility located at the Hoosac Water Quality District Wastewater Treatment plant.

After removing most of the water from raw sewage sludge and turning it into compost, the Hoosac Water Quality District used to sell that compost as a fertilizer for land application. But it stopped selling its compost in early 2025 because of concerns over PFAS contamination.

This is a situation that wastewater facilities are facing as the demand for disposal keeps rising but supply drops and PFAS regulation and awareness increases.

In light of this, a 2024 study commissioned by the state Department of Environmental Protection examined what to do with the “nearly 166,000 dry tons of wastewater sludge generated annually by 127 wastewater facilities” in Massachusetts.

The report said: “Sludge management costs are increasing at a far greater rate than it is typically practical for a utility to raise user rates, challenging utility budgets.”

It projected that, by 2028, at least 12,000 dry tons of sludge would have no clear disposal outlet given current management conditions.

Hoosac Water Quality District Wastewater Treatment Plant in Williamstown manufactures compost by removing most of the water from raw sewage sludge.

“The urgency of disposal in New England is entering … it’s a grave area,” Furlon told The Eagle. “The room is running out quick.”

Paula Ely has worked at the Great Barrington Wastewater treatment plant at 100 Bentley Ave. for 23 years. As PFAS concerns have grown, she watches disposal options narrow.

Unlike Hoosac Water Quality District, Great Barrington Wastewater ships its sludge to an incinerator in Waterbury, Conn. If that facility reaches monthly capacity, Great Barrington must ship sludge farther away at higher cost.

Great Barrington budgeted $230,000 for sludge disposal in fiscal 2027, roughly $100,000 higher than a decade ago, according to Ely. After the plant’s new contract is up, Ely says it’s not clear what will happen next.

Maine and Connecticut have banned land application of wastewater sludge because of PFAS concerns. Pressure is building in Massachusetts to do the same.

The steaming compost at the on-site composting facility located at the Hoosac Water Quality District Wastewater Treatment plant.

At its May 19 annual town meeting, Williamstown approved a ban of any future land application of sewage sludge.

“We don't currently know of any farms [in town] using biosolids, but we don't know what the future will bring,” said Sharon Wyrrick, the citizen petitioner.

And if more neighboring states enact PFAS bans and the state passes its own regulations, the DEP says “disposal options will become more limited and more expensive.”

The reason for the rise in disposal costs is tied to land use application, said Pittsfield Public Works Commissioner Ricardo Morales.

Since fewer places are allowing sewage sludge to be spread on land, that puts more pressure on the remaining disposal sites, Morales said.

The Pittsfield Wastewater Treatment Plant, at 901 Holmes Road, ships sludge to out-of-state landfills in New York and Vermont through Casella Waste Systems.

Pittsfield’s recently renewed contract with Casella sees disposal costs up by 11 percent — from $171,000 to $190,000. Morales said the city signed on a one-year contract, and is looking at options to reduce disposal costs while being mindful of PFAS contamination.

Since shipping sludge is priced by weight, Morales said Pittsfield is exploring ways to remove more water to reach a drier, lighter sludge to cut hauling costs.

In 2025, Furlon found the Ontario County, N.Y., landfill, run by Casella, which now uses the roughly 60 tons of compost the Hoosac Water Quality District produces every week as daily top cover.

That contract, signed in 2025, lasts three years. Depending on fuel prices, this costs the district about $4,000 to $5,000 weekly to ship.

Furlon expects to be able to renew that contract, but said the district "won't be able to do that forever."

Casella uses the compost as daily cover because the water content is much lower than sludge, making it easier to manage, said Jeff Weld, the spokesman for Casella.

If the district were to stop composting, or not dewater the sludge, and ship it out in cake form, Furlon said that could cost anywhere from $550,000 to $950,000 annually.

Why do Pittsfield and Hoosac Water Quality pay to dispose of the compost if Casella needs it for various landfill uses?

“I'm turning the question around,” said Morales. “Who would be that person or entity paying for that sludge?”

The Connecticut incinerator Great Barrington uses processes sludge from dozens of communities and is on the verge of shutting down, according to the Providence Journal.

When landfills are full, Northeast communities will have to start looking further west, Furlon said, which means higher shipping costs.

“And some of these landfills that usually accept sludge are already being careful about how much sludge they accept,” said Morales. “Because normally, sludge, if it's not about 80 percent dry, you get a very unstable type of material that does not bode well in a landfill setting.”

The state DEP is studying methods and policies for regulating PFAS in wastewater facilities. The DEP is testing technologies to destroy PFAS in sludge, and it has a $2.9 million pilot project measuring how well various methods work.

“So while we continue to make advancements in solving this issue … it is incumbent upon the producers of the chemicals to catch up and eliminate them from production,” said Weld.

In Great Barrington, Ely said PFAS has become the wastewater industry’s newest major regulatory buzzword, replacing earlier concerns about ammonia and nitrogen pollution.

Morales acknowledged the need to get PFAS out of sludge, but hoped the state would pay attention to the cost burden these regulations pose for treatment plants.

“It looks like it's just going to get a little more complicated and expensive,” he said.

There are currently no PFAS regulations statewide for wastewater, only drinking water, Ely said. But plants are required to test for different chemicals like PFAS a certain number of times a year.

Furlon, who has been at the district for over three decades, said residents who want to do something can conserve water and get up to date on PFAS education.

Still, millions of tons of sewage and wastewater flow into treatment plants and must be treated no matter how many facilities are cramped for money, space and time.

“Obviously, you have to use water,” Furlon said.