Sludge Watch ==> Compost - free sludge

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Brattleboro Reformer
Vermont

April 26, 2006 Wednesday



Got compost?

By DARRY MADDEN, Reformer Staff

WILMINGTON -- Lawns go crazy for it. Reports abound of tall grass, waving in 
the summer wind, untamed by regular mowings.

And not only is it free, the town will deliver up to 5 cubic yards of class 
A wastewater treatment biosolid compost to your door.

Or, in layman's terms, five pickup truck loads of humanure.

The town of Wilmington is giving away its compost to residents again this 
year. And the recycling effort will save the world about 150 cubic yards of 
human excrement and septic sludge.
"Last year, we had so many people interested," said John Lazelle, chief 
operator of the plant, "we were trucking to Dover, Wardsboro, Whitingham and 
Halifax."

The town has been composting its sludge since 1994, when Wilmington's 
landfill closed. Before its closing, sludge had been "de-watered" and sent 
there. Vermont still routinely follows this practice and about 25 percent of 
the state's septic waste ends up in landfills.

The composting system was a healthy investment, about $100,000, but has been 
well worth it, said Lazelle. Dispos-ing of human waste is, among other 
things, expensive.

But for all the financial and environmental benefits, the composting process 
is less than popular.
"There is a psychological barrier about composting human manure," said Joe 
Jenkins, author of "The Humanure Handbook."

"It's not easy to articulate why, but there is a deeply ingrained prejudice 
against the use of human manure for any-thing at all," he said.

Jenkins said misconceptions about the cause of disease led to an era of 
government campaigns against its agricultural use.

"It's like a bubble, but I think we're getting really close to popping it," 
said Jenkins. "The Humanure Handbook," now in its third edition, has been 
translated into Korean, Hebrew and Slovakian, and a training manual is being 
trans-lated into Mongolian.

In fact, human manure and sludge are related, but not exactly the same 
thing. Sludge is anything that heads down the drain, whether that drain is 
in a garage, a house or a hospital.
"One thing we want to emphasize is that what people put down the drain is 
what they put back into the environ-ment," said Cathy Jamieson, an 
environmental analyst with Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources. "We want 
people to flush responsibly."

There are concerns about the quality of the finished compost, said both 
Jenkins and Jamieson. Vermont state law is more restrictive than federal 
mandates regarding the compost. Every batch is sampled, and the clean 
results need to be in hand before a facility can sell it or give it away.
Wilmington has sold its compost in the past. Bennington's wastewater 
treatment facility sells its compost to Agri-source, a broker which then 
sells the compost for landscaping purposes, primarily for golf courses and 
athletic fields. But Bennington produces more, about 3,000 cubic yards 
annually, to Wilmington's 150 cubic yards.

Bennington, Wilmington and Springfield are the only towns in Vermont that 
are producing compost. Johnson has a facility that is currently going 
unused, apparently for lack of staffing, said Jamieson. Middlebury "further 
treats" its sludge, which is not composting, but it can be applied to 
certain agricultural lands; Stowe and Lyndonville are convert-ing to this 
process.

Beside composting and "further treatment," which are considered "beneficial 
uses," there are two other fates for modern septic waste. It can be 
incinerated, and the ash is then disposed of as hazardous waste, or it can 
be carted to landfills.

About 5 percent of Vermont's sludge is burned, 25 percent goes in landfills 
and 70 percent beneficially used, said Jamieson.

Gail Tiffany, a laboratory technician with the town of Bennington, said that 
ocean dumping was still a viable option in 1993, when the town was 
researching options.

"It's a pretty important issue," said Jenkins. "Everybody (defecates) and 
you got to do something with it. Nobody's making anymore water or anymore 
land, but there are more and more people."
Compost can be ordered by stopping by the town manager's office in 
Wilmington.

Darry Madden can be reached at dmadden at reformer.com , or (802) 254-2311, 
ext. 273.