Sludge Watch ==> Charleston WV - Sludge Compost is Expensive Mess

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Editorials:
Sewage sludge
+ grass = mess

The city's trash-to-treasure plan
ended up costing taxpayers millions

Wednesday May 03, 2006

IN 1998, the city of Charleston embarked upon a grand experiment: It opened 
a $6 million composting facility to turn treated human waste and grass 
clippings into treasure.

The idea was to marry 55 tons of sewage sludge with yard waste and sell 36 
tons of compost a day.

What could be more pleasing?

In 1993, city officials told the Daily Mail's Karen Klein they expected the 
product to be worth $3 a ton.

By 2000, they told then-reporter Monica Orosz that they hoped for a profit 
of $50,000 to $75,000 a year.

But by 2002, it was clear that the city had created a mess, not a 
moneymaker.

Deanna Wrenn reported that 1) the city was renting a machine for $30,000 a 
month to pre-treat the sludge, 2) the compost wasn't selling and the city 
sometimes couldn't give it away, and 3) the city would save a quarter of a 
million dollars a year if it stopped.

This week, the Daily Mail's Justin Anderson reported that it would take $2.8 
million to keep the facility going. The Sanitary Board doesn't have it.

So the board -- sewer bill payers -- will pay $556,000 a year to take the 
sludge to the landfill. And city taxpayers will pay about $168,000 a year to 
haul yard waste to the same place.

That's patently ridiculous.

But it's cheaper than paying about $913,000 a year to continue the ruinous 
compost adventure.

http://www.dailymail.com/news/Opinion/200605031/