Sludge Watch ==> London Ontario- What to do? Sludge incinerator to close for repairs

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Yikes...another report who thinks that you can take sludge and remove the 
heavy metals to make it suitable for fertilizer.  There is no city that 
removes heavy metals from sludge.  The sludge get called 'fertilizer' heavy 
metals and all.

When Walkerton was hit with the Ecoli O157H7 outbreak all the sewege sludge 
was trucked to this facility for incineration. Then all the septic tanks 
from residents in the area were pumped and sent to  London for hygenic 
disposal.

If London is having second thoughts about its landfill...its really going to 
take some heat when stinky sludge goes there....

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


Incinerator out months
Tue, August 7, 2007
By JONATHAN SHER, SUN MEDIA
London Free Press


http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2007/08/07/4398785-sun.html

The London incinerator that burns what is politely called biosolids, dried 
and compressed human stool, will be out of commission for seven months next 
year, with officials scrambling to avoid a stink.

The incinerator at Greenway Pollution Control Plant, typically shut down for 
a month each year for maintenance, will be down early in 2008 for a major 
refurbishment.

Unless the city finds another way to handle it, the bioslids would be 
trucked around the clock, five days a week, to its landfill in south London, 
with only fabric containing the stench.

"The process of hauling sludge cake (human stool) is odorous along the 
entire route and at the landfill," city staff say in a report to the 
environment and transportation committee.

Many cities in Canada and the United States no longer incinerate human stool 
due to environmental concerns. In California, for example, only five per 
cent is incinerated.

But London has done so since 1964 and the process is considerably cheaper 
than hauling it to a landfill: $1.35 million a year for the former and $4.9 
million for the latter.

Other cities neutralize pathogens and remove heavy metals so the end-product 
can be sold and used on farms. While the costs of treatment can be 
substantial, they are partly offset by revenue.

While city engineer Peter Steblin intends to continue to use incineration, 
he wants alternatives to hauling it, a direction praised by Coun. Judy 
Bryant.

"Sometimes what's cheap in the short run is costly in the long run in terms 
of our health and environment. We have to see this as an opportunity to do 
the right thing," Bryant said yesterday.