Sludge Watch ==> Cornell U - Too Little Data Available to Assess Risk of Sludge

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Quote of the Week:

"I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." - 
Harry Truman

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http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_38651.shtml

   Too Litte Data Available to Assess Risk of Sludge

By: Cornell University
Published: Jul 10, 2006 at 06:37
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Tens of thousands of organic chemicals from homes, farms, industries, 
medical facilities, street runoff and businesses are treated in waste-water 
treatment plants. The resulting sludge -- rich in organic matter and 
nutrients but also potentially containing toxic metals, pathogens and 
pollutants -- often is applied to land to amend soil. Yet sludge 
concentration data for only 516 organic chemicals can be found in 
peer-reviewed and official government reports, say Cornell researchers.

Of those 516 chemicals, more than 80 percent are not on the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) established list of priority 
pollutants or on its list of target compounds, said Ellen Z. Harrison, 
director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute at Cornell and the lead 
researcher of the study.

"Thus analyses targeting these lists will detect only a small fraction of 
the organic chemicals in sludges," said Harrison, noting that federal rules 
have no requirements for testing sludges for such chemicals. Very little 
data is available for such chemicals as nitrosamines, which may pose a high 
risk. Where data are available, concentrations in sludges for many chemicals 
exceed the levels the EPA use to determine whether soils at Superfund sites 
present enough of a risk to require a site-specific risk assessment.

"Relying on existing lists of chemicals, such as priority pollutants, will 
not identify many chemicals of current concern," Harrison concluded. Further 
surveys of organic chemical contaminants in sewage sludges and the risks 
they pose are sorely needed, she said.