Maryland
Sewage Sludge Utilization permits
The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) issues Sewage Sludge Utilization (SSU) permits for the uses of sewage sludge listed below, among them applying it to agricultural or marginal land. MDE's page on the permit speaks of the land application of biosolids, and names the Resource Management Program's Biosolids Division as the contact for the pending permits it posts.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name sewage sludge permits among its standard record sources. On agricultural or marginal land, an SSU permit is the record that MDE approved sludge for application on a property. Four points from MDE's page shape the search.
- What needs a permit. MDE's page says that, except as COMAR 26.04.06.09(c) provides, no one may treat, compost, transport, store, distribute or market sewage sludge or a product containing it, apply it to agricultural or marginal land, use it to generate energy or incinerate it, use it in an innovative or research project, or dispose of or use it at a municipal landfill, without first getting an SSU permit from MDE.
- The property is named in the application. MDE says the application's legal site name is the owner of the property where the sludge will go, and asks for the site's latitude and longitude. For land application, MDE links an owner's consent form and a site information form for agricultural land. An owner who agreed to an application may have kept copies; ask for them.
- Reports follow the permit. MDE links an annual SSU permit reporting form, an annual report form for sewage sludge generators, sewage sludge analysis report forms and an SSU land application summary report form. The page does not say which of these MDE keeps on file for a given site. Ask for any land application summary that covers the property.
- PFAS. MDE's page posts a "PFAS in Biosolids Regulatory Update" and a fact sheet on PFAS in biosolids, both dated August 20, 2024. This handbook did not read them. MDE's PFAS page says MDE is monitoring wastewater and biosolids, materials sometimes used as fertilizer, to reduce the PFAS reaching soil and local waterways.
The page also posts, under "Permits in the Pipeline", land application permits whose administrative review MDE's Resource Management Program has completed, each with its application, its draft permit and the dates of its public feedback period. These are notices of pending permits, not a list of places where sludge was applied.
Where to look a site up
The pages read link no search of permitted sludge sites. For questions on the pending permits the page posts, MDE gives the Biosolids Division at 410-537-3339.
Getting the file
The pages read do not describe a records request route for SSU permit files. MDE's Public Information Act requests page covers requests for MDE records in general.
Sources
Maryland Department of the Environment pages, read October 15, 2026, no modified date shown: