Sludge Watch ==> Sludge complaints in BC - Heavy metals in sludge compost

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://www.abbynews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=38&cat=23&id=686848&more=

The Abbotsford Chronicle

Adequate monitoring required

Jul 11 2006


John Werring, a scientist with the David Suzuki Foundation, warns the public 
that municipalities are not adequately monitoring or enforcing their 
industrial sewage effluent bylaws.

Not only are heavy metals flowing into the environment, but sewage plants 
aren’t even clamping down on industries that violate the bylaws, he said.

His other concern is that sewage plants, such as the JAMES sewage plant, are 
selling their biosolids and marketing the products as soil fertilizers.

Sewage sludge is the semi-solid material that is left over after the liquid 
sewage – from residents and industries – flows through the facility.

After the sludge is treated and stabilized, what’s left is biosolids.

The JAMES sewage plant sells their class A fertilizer called “VAL E Grow” to 
the public and the City of Abbotsford uses it in municipal flower beds.

Werring said heavy metals in the sludge are getting into the fertilizers.

But the other problem is that sewage plants aren’t even testing for 
pesticides, phthalates (plastic derivatives that are hormone mimickers) and 
PCBs and other organics, he said.

“The last thing we should be doing is spreading it on the land where the 
heavy metals are absorbed by the plants and we eat the food.”

John Pearson, sewer commission chairman, said the topsoil contains some 
heavy metals, but at levels that are acceptable according to the provincial 
government’s Organic Matter Recycling Regulations.

The provincial government stipulates that “Class A” biosolids can have a 
maximum standard of fecal coliform is 1,000” (MPN per dry gram). But 
Val-E-Gro soil was testing at levels far lower.


..................................................................

and from 2002:

FIELDS OF SEWAGE: NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS COMPOSTED HUMAN WASTE MAY NOT BE 
SAFE FOR USE AS FERTILIZER
May 20, 2002
National Post
A16
Margaret Munro
According to this story, ranchers insist their hay has never grown better.
Golf course operators swear it does wonders for their greens. And in
Kelowna, B.C., people can hardly flush their toilets fast enough to keep up
with demand for the dark, fragrant compost made from that city's human
sewage.
Wilma Schellenberger, past-president of the Kelowna Garden Club, who
smothered her lawn with compost-enriched soil was quoted as saying, "It's
become quite fashionable to use it. It came back wonderfully green," and
that her flowers are also thriving on the composted sewage the city sells
for as much as $21.50 a cubic metre.
The story says that such talk is music to the ears of municipal officials
responsible for the human and industrial waste flushed down the country's
toilets and drains.
The rivers of sewage produce mountains of sludge -- or biosolids, as
engineers prefer to call the material. The engineers like to think they have
hit on the ideal disposal scheme: Transform the sludge into fertilizers and
compost, then get farmers and gardeners to plough it back into the land.
To listen to municipal officials talk, they are turning a sow's ear (and far
worse) into a silk purse.
The story adds that Toronto is about to start churning fertilizer pellets
out of the foul-smelling goo extracted from sewage at a new $23-million
plant. In Moncton, N.B., and dozens of other towns and cities, human sewage
is finding its way into compost and topsoil. And in Vancouver, the putrid
waste that flows into the region's newest treatment plant comes out as
black, chunky material that municipal officials have christened Nutrifor.
Close to 50,000 tonnes of the stuff is trucked into the B.C. Interior every
year and used to reclaim mine sites and enrich ranchlands. And poplar trees,
destined to be used to produce toilet paper, are thriving on
biosolid-enriched islands in the Fraser River.
But a recent report from the University of British Columbia, prepared for
the province's medical-health officers, has, the story says, prompted a
sudden change of plans.
The report was cited as warning that dioxins and furans might concentrate in
vegetables such as cucumbers and in cattle munching grass grown on land
fertilized with sewage biosolids. "It is recommended at this time that
biosolids application not be permitted on land used to grow plants of the
cucumber family or on grazing lands," the UBC report concludes.
The report, which was presented to waste-water specialists a few weeks ago,
shocked regional officials and managers who last year sent 45% of their
biosolids to ranches in the B.C. Interior.
Paul Kadota, head of the Vancouver region's biosolids program, who fears his
silk purse is turning back into a sow's ear, was quoted as saying, "We were
stunned."
Given the conclusions of the UBC report, Kadota says the plan to get city
dwellers using Nutrifor as a soil enhancer has been shelved.
The story says that for every official who says biosolids are harmless,
there is a critic warning of toxins and microbial pathogens. And for every
report suggesting sludge can be safely used, there is another raising
concerns.
The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that processed and composted
sludge is a huge improvement over the untreated sewage that farmers have
been using on their lands throughout the ages. Many towns and cities in
Canada still spread raw and partly treated sewage, which contains high
levels of bacteria, viruses and parasitic worms, on farmland.
Processed and composted sewage sludge is better because it is treated, often
at high temperatures, to kill pathogens.
That is not to say the stuff is clean. It can contain bacteria -- a level up
to 1,000 fecal coliforms is allowed in every gram of sludge-based fertilizer
or compost sold in Canada. And there are traces of almost every toxin one
can think of: selenium from anti-dandruff shampoos, manganese used in
additives used in gasoline, copper that leaches out of household pipes,
brominated diphenyl ethers (BDEs) from flame
retardants. And perhaps most worrisome, traces of furans and dioxins,
cancer-causing toxins that can be produced in tiny amounts by a multitude of
sources ranging from textile dyes to steel mills and hospital incinerators.
Provincial and municipal officials say the pathogens and toxins are under
control. They like to point to recycling programs that have reduced levels
of everything from the mercury flushed down dentists' sinks to paints and
dry-cleaning fluids that go straight into drains.
In Toronto processed sludge rolls over hot plates and is heated to close to
100C, forming pellets that resemble gravel. Kiyoshi Oka, Toronto's senior
engineer in charge of biosolids was quoted as saying, "It's hot enough to
kill any bacteria." But pellets have their own drawbacks. They can start
smouldering if not stored or handled properly.
Oka was further cited as saying sewage biosolids are one of the most studied
materials around. And many people would be surprised, were they to read the
fine print on their fertilizer boxes, that they are already using pellets
made from sewage sludge. Several U.S. cities, such as Milwaukee, Wisc.,
which has been producing the product Milorganite for years, produce sludge
fertilizers widely used on golf courses and sold in Canada for use on home
gardens.
Oka, like most people familiar with sludge treatment, insists there is no
health or environmental risk in sprinkling the sludge-based composts and
fertilizers on lawns and gardens as long as they meet limits that have been
set for pathogens and heavy metals.
But, the story says, federal records show plenty of fertilizers on the
market are in violation of those limits. Inspectors from the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency (CFIA), which enforces the Fertilizers Act, tested 55
fertilizers and composts for bacterial contamination during the past year.
Of 21 products tested for fecal coliforms, 24% had levels above the limit.
And 15% of the 34 fertilizers tested for salmonella were over the limit.
Fecal coliforms and salmonella are considered "indicators" because they are
such hardy microbes. If they survive the sewage treatment process, so might
more serious pathogens.
CFIA officials refuse to name the non-compliant products. And they will
provide no details on the height of the bacterial counts. But they say the
non-compliant products were detained and returned to their producers for
further treatment or disposal.
Dr. Coleman Rotstein, president of the Canadian Infectious Diseases Society,
who teaches at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., was quoted as saying,
"I am not convinced about the quality control. That's a problem when you
live in populated areas. Anything can happen. I don't think we should do
this until we know it is perfectly safe."
Kay Teschke, a professor at UBC's School of Occupational and Environmental
Hygiene, was cited as concluding that spreading sludge-based fertilizers and
compost on home gardens is not a problem, adding, "I wouldn't hesitate to
use it myself,"
The much bigger concern, she and her colleagues report, is using biosolids
to fertilize agricultural land.
Teschke's group dug through dozens of studies and reports from around the
world trying to determine whether biosolids could lead to problems with
dioxins and furans, which can accumulate in living tissues and have been
linked to cancer.
It is well known that sewage sludge contains trace levels -- parts per
trillion -- of dioxins and furans. But there is limited data on the fate of
the toxins once the sludge is spread around, the UBC group says in its
report prepared for the province's medical-health officers. It notes that
several studies have shown concentrations of dioxins and furans in the soil
increase measurably when biosolids are applied, and the contamination
persists over time.
There is little evidence they build up in leafy vegetables, tree fruits,
peas and beans and harvested forage crops. But experiments in which plants
were grown in soil highly contaminated with dioxins and furans have shown
the toxins can accumulate in plants of the cucumber family.

http://archives.foodsafetynetwork.ca/agnet/2002/5-2002/agnet_may_20.htm#FIELDS%20OF%20SEWAGE