Sludge Watch ==> Montery Officials say sewage effluent 'safe and essential' for watering lettuce, spinach

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

There are a few problems with using sewage treatment plant effluent for 
fertilizing crops.

1. while plants should meet a discharge quality of less than 200 ecoli per 
100 ml...many don't meet this quality
and even those who do don't manage it all the time... 200 ecoli per 100 ml 
isn't suitable quality to water crops like lettuce and spinach (potable 
water needed..zero ecoli)

2.  effluent quality may be variable....plant upset, or wet weather 
overflow, power outages, seismic action can impact quality.

3.  if the farmer is relying on sewage effluent for growing crops, then what 
will happen when quality of water changes...will the farmer sacrifice the 
crop ?
Will the sewage treatment plant say: sorry farmers...we're having trouble at 
the plant ...watch your crops wilt and die in the field? If there is 
illness...will the sewage treatment plant accept liability in wrongful death 
and negligence suits?  There will be strong pressure to find a cow or a 
migrant worker to blame.

4. you can't grow certified organic crops with sewage effluent

5.  sewage effluent still contains drugs and hormones and some endocrine 
disruptors (nonylphenol)

6.  If the sewage treatment plant pumps the sewage effluent deep into the 
ground (as is increasingly common in the US) into deep aquifers...that water 
has no way to get clean.
The reason groundwater tends to be clean is because the water is exposed to 
UV rays from sunlight, sparkles over rocks in streams and takes decades  to 
percolate through sand, gravel, clay, silt down into the aquifer. If we pump 
sewage effluent into dark underground caverns the light and filtering steps 
that are responsible for cleaning water are circumvented.

7.  Ecoli can contaminate not just the surface of the leaf but can also 
enter the plant (lettuce, spinach) through the roots and through cuts on 
the leaf.  The ecoli will not wash off, even through washing with 
chlorinated water.

8.  Sewage treatment plants have the deep pockets (taxpayers money) to 
defend themselves against claims of contamination.  It is the farmer who is 
hurt in every case.  The farm loses income through lost sales, and has a 
hard time financing lawsuits against them.  But the sewage treatment plant 
hires lawyers with taxpayer money...and how can farmers or contamination 
victims prevail when the other side has unlimited funds?

Expect to see alot of spin, like the story below, as the wastewater industry 
seeks to maintain cheap disposal of sludge and sewage effluent.  The public 
needs to look at a desalination plant, and better ways to conserve and 
protect groundwater.


 Thu, Sep. 21, 2006
Recycled water safe, essential, officials say
By KEVIN HOWE
Herald Staff Writer

VERN FISHER/The Herald
A field is watered west of Salinas on Wednesday.
Proposed legislation to ban the use of water reclaimed from sewage for 
irrigating vegetable fields is premature and could deal a serious blow to 
the state's agricultural industry and its water supply, according to 
Monterey County officials.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Bakersfield, a former chairman of the Assembly 
Agricultural Committee, has called for laws governing crops and packaging 
that would ban the use of reclaimed sewage water in organic vegetable crops 
and possibly nonorganic crops.
His proposal comes on the heels of reports of E. coli-contaminated spinach 
in the Salinas Valley.
Adrienne Dominguez, an aide to Florez, said details of the proposed 
legislation have not been drawn up but may be drafted by December for 
consideration in the coming year.
Florez's announcement generated an immediate response from local officials. 
Much of the irrigation water used on crops on the west end of the Salinas 
Valley has been reclaimed from sewage.
"There is absolutely no basis" for believing reclaimed water is unsafe, said 
Keith Israel, general manager of the Monterey Regional Water Pollution 
Control Agency. "It's not going to be recycled water having anything to do 
with the spinach. We just have too good a history. There has never been a 
problem with recycled water in the 30 or 40 years it's been used."
Reclaimed water "is so much cleaner than a lot of other water sources," he 
said, "I can't think of any reason not to use it. Growers like the fact that 
it's tested so much. There's a lot of confidence that this water's always 
going to be good."
The agency provides 13,000 acre-feet a year of irrigation water for farm and 
landscaping use, Israel said -- "a drop in the bucket" compared with overall 
agricultural irrigation in the county from wells and reservoirs.
In an area where more dams can't be built and imported water is unavailable, 
he said, recycled water is necessary.
Another alternative is desalinated water, which Israel described as 
expensive, using a lot of energy and coming with unresolved environmental 
issues.
"We just can't afford to use water once and throw it away," he said. 
"There's no reason not to clean it up and use it again. Our growers 
understand water, and they're the toughest critics. There have been more 
problems with potable water."
Reclaiming water is part of state water policy, said Bob Perkins, executive 
director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau.
"We need more water in California, and one of the easiest ways to stretch or 
expand it is to reclaim it from urban sources and recycle it for 
agriculture," Perkins said.
Florez's proposed ban, he said, "would undermine any plans to expand the 
water supply."
And, Perkins said, "it is premature to propose legislative solutions before 
we know what the problem is."
Reclaimed water has been used successfully for years, and "there is 
absolutely no indication it has anything to do with this outbreak or any 
other food safety concern," he said.
Perkins added that he hopes state and federal legislators will vote to fund 
intensive, focused research on the E. coli problem.
A ban on recycled irrigation water would affect agriculture statewide and 
reclamation projects already in the works, including the Castroville water 
reclamation project, said Curtis Weeks, general manager of the Monterey 
County Water Resources Agency.
"We're not clear what his (Florez's) objectives or objections are," Weeks 
said.
The Association of California Water Agencies, he said, is not in favor of 
any broad, sweeping legislation banning reclaimed water.
The county is embracing the use of recycled water, Weeks said, and its 
quality is "excellent" -- higher than state requirements and comparable to 
drinking water.
The agency has been operating a recycling project since 1998. It is 
monitored continuously, and there have been no food safety related issues in 
those years and "no contamination events involving recycled water in any 
part of California, ever," said Weeks.
The E. coli issue has given politicians an opportunity for posturing, Weeks 
said. "Unfortunately, I think, people are jumping on all kinds of 
bandwagons."
There is no documented evidence, he added, that crop plants are able to take 
in pathogens through their roots, and any E. coli contamination probably 
comes from matter that is splashed or spilled on the surface of the plant, 
not up through the ground.
montereyherald.com.


Kevin Howe can be reached at 646-4416 or khowe@