Sludge Watch ==> Ontario -residents complain - getting sick from the biosolids

[Maureen Reilly]

Council wants more information on biosolids
Posted By By Mark Hoult

December 2007

Asphodel-Norwood - Asphodel-Norwood Twp. council would like to learn more 
about non-agricultural source materials, also known as biosolids, or waste 
sludge.

Council instructed staff this week to gather more information about 
biosolids for council’s first meeting of the new year. Council decided to 
look deeper into the issue after reading a letter from the Township of West 
Lincoln asking municipalities for their support in voicing concern to the 
Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs about 
plans to change the regulatory framework for non-agricultural source 
materials.

Attached to the letter was a report prepared by West Lincoln staff for that 
township’s planning-environment committee describing the proposed changes 
to the Environmental Protection Act and the Nutrient Management Act that 
will affect how non-agricultural source materials, including pulp and paper 
biosolids and sewage biosolids, are regulated. Under current regulations, 
where a non-agricultural source material is considered a waste under the 
Environmental Protection Act, there are overlapping approval requirements 
for the material under the Nutrient Management Act related to management, 
transportation and land application, the report said.

Currently, the transportation and land application of waste biosolids 
requires certificates and licenses under both acts. However, the goal of the 
proposed framework “is to eliminate the overlapping approval requirements 
and develop and revise existing standards under the Nutrient Management Act 
to focus on the quality of the materials.”

West Lincoln planning staff said some of the changes involve improvements to 
the Nutrient Management Act designed to provide more stringent requirements 
for nutrient management plans and strategies. However, the removal of 
overlapping approval requirements means the elimination of certificates of 
approval under the Environmental Protection Act, they said.

Under existing regulations haulers are required to obtain a certificate of 
approval to transport biosolids. And an organic soil conditioning site 
certificate of approval must be obtained to spread the material on farm 
fields.

The staff report noted that while the Nutrient Management Act provides a 
regulatory process for the transportation and application of 
non-agricultural source materials, “it does not provide for the 
opportunity to comment on a proposal through the Environmental Bill of 
Rights in the manner that a certificate of approval does.” Changes to the 
regulations would “eliminate the ability of the public to suggest 
conditions that may be imposed on a certificate of approval.”

In the report, staff also noted that the municipality was able to obtain a 
list of the certificates of approval that have been granted for the 
spreading of biosolids on farmland in West Lincoln. But this notice will no 
longer exist if the proposed changes are made, the report said.

The West Lincoln report said there “needs to be some mechanism for the 
public to provide comments or suggest conditions on a proposal to apply 
non-agricultural source materials on farm land.” In addition, “the fines 
and penalties for violations should reflect those of the Environmental 
Protection Act.” And the report said there should be “a provision to 
advise local municipalities of where proposals for the application of 
non-agricultural source materials have been made and by whom.”

The report concludes by stressing the need for an assessment of “the 
appropriateness” of placing approvals for biosolids, including material 
with high heavy metal content, under the Nutrient Management Act.

In Norwood Reeve Doug Pearcy agreed the process needs to be more 
transparent. He noted that biosolids were applied to fields north of Norwood 
this year without any notification being sent to the municipality. “No one 
seemed to know anything about the stuff,” he said. “You would think that 
we would be consulted or told that this was going to happen, or given an 
opportunity to at least protest.”


http://www.communitypress-online.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=823509&auth=By+Mark+Hoult

Week of December 24, 2007


A special report revealed that a leading toxicologist had called for an 
urgent study on the potential health hazards posed by biosolids – or human 
sewage sludge – being spread on farming fields in Northumberland County.

Dr. Anne Mildon, of Toronto, pressed for an official health study of the 
practice and its potential hazards. She is now treating four couples from 
the Warkworth area who all live next to fields where biosolids have been 
spread in the past year.


http://www.eastnorthumberland.com/article.php?id=1828

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The Brighton East Northumberland Independent
Trent Hills Ontario

December 24, 2007


The unpleasant topic of biosolids – human waste sewage – raised its 
first big stink in Trent Hills. After residents had complained of getting 
sick from the biosolids spread on local farm fields, Trent Hills politicians 
attended an information seminar in Kingston – sponsored by the 
multi-million dollar biosolids industry.

The councillors pronounced themselves much better informed on this issue and 
Deputy Mayor Dean Peters proposed a new bylaw, endorsed by council, to 
ensure safe methods of application. By year’s end the bylaw still had not 
seen the light of day.

www.eastnorthumberland.com/article.php?id=1838

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