National Association of Clean Water Agencies

National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) is the powerful political, PR and lobby arm of the publicly owned wastewater management agencies, sewage treatment and sewage sludge plants in the United States.

On April 4, 2011, the NACWA criticized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for not emphasizing "scientific uncertainties associated with human health risks stemming from land-application of sewage sludge." NACWA issued a statement following the EPA's long-awaited publishing of its report, "Problem Formulation for Human Health Risk Assessments of Pathogens in Land-Applied Biosolids," on March 28. The NACWA wished the EPA would more strongly state "that a causal association between exposure to pathogens in biosolids and adverse effects on human health has not been documented." If the EPA had stressed this finding further to the public in the report, the assertion would be a major victory for NACWA and other sewage sludge treatment plants and agencies that are proponents of spreading toxic sludge on food-growing lands.