From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 30 13:21:42 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 13:21:42 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ireland - Galway : Stop Shitting On Us Message-ID: admin: There are alot of photos with this story if you want to look at the link: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82138 ............................................................................ Eyrecourt to Galway Co. Co.: Stop Shitting On Us Monday April 23, 2007 16:05 by Mark Conroy - Stop Spreading Sewage At a demonstration outside Galway Co. Co. offices today in excess of 100 protestors put a clear message to Galway Co. Co.: Stop Dumping Human Waste On Farms In East Galway. A selection of the men, women, and children present The protest was organised by residents of Eyrecourt in Galway East, who are fed up (and very concerned about) the amount of human waste - excrement, urine (and tampons and sanitary towels, according to a Sunday World article) - being spread on farms. The 'sludge' as it is called is being used as fertiliser on the farms, and the farmers are being paid to get rid of the waste, both domestic and hospital, which is not pre-treated (gets some lime added, but apparently this doesn't do much) and contains all types of infection, heavy metal and general bacteria, as common sense would dictate. People living in the area have not been able to open their windows, sit outside or even hang out their washing due to the appalling smell from this waste. But, the huge disgrace is that this stuff is seeping into the water supply, polluting the rivers and, of course, ending up back in the food chain. The meat, veg and grain you eat may have come from this land. The residents' demand that the waste be treated properly and incinerated in order to produce energy; they want it properly dried, turned into pellets, and safely disposed of. Also at the protest - besides indymedia - were representatives from RTE, TG4, and Galway Bay FM. The protest itself is to be the focus of a Prime Time documentary tomorrow night - but remember: you read it here first. Related Link: http://www.stopspreadingsewage.org From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 30 14:09:24 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 14:09:24 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Warkwarth Ontario Sludge Sites - People fear health at risk Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The people in Warkwarth have been trying to get the attention of public health officials for some time. There is good documentation on community illness. ........................................................................... May 23, 2007 People fear health at risk Photo John Campbell Almost 40 people met with Trent Hills Deputy Mayor Dean Peters and Coun. Bill White last week with concerns. Three dozen people met with Trent Hills Deputy Mayor Dean Peters and Coun. Bill White last weekend to communicate fears that the spreading of biosolids near their homes threatens their health. For some the evidence is incontrovertible. Linda Donaldson told the group she and her husband Roger were among 22 people who became seriously ill in the fall of 2005 after treated municipal sewage was applied on farm fields near their home on Norham Road. All suffered from diarrhea. At one point Mr. Donaldson experienced cramps so severe that the pain caused him to fall to the floor unconscious and an ambulance had to be summoned. ?We had to sell our house and move to Campbellford,? Mrs. Donaldson said. Within six weeks the ?horrible cough? that had been plaguing her stopped. The couple have been seeing a toxicologist in Toronto who has informed them they have elevated levels of heavy metals in their systems. The specialist is also treating six other people from Percy ward ?with similar problems,? and she ?expect(s) the number of patients will grow in the Warkworth area,? Ms. Donaldson said. She and her husband ?were starting to feel really good? until a few weeks ago. ?My chromium has shot up again, so obviously (biosolids are) being spread somewhere,? Ms. Donaldson said. ?Our toxicologist said (airborne pathogens) can travel eight to 10 kilometres from a site.? Research conducted at the University of Arizona bear this out, reported Nigel Young. The researchers found that ?people are safe if they are 10 kilometres away? from where biosolids are being applied. But in Ontario, ?the guidelines still allow the spreading of sludge 25 metres away from a home,? he said. (This separation distance applies if the material is injected or worked into the soil within six hours of being spread; the distance is 90 metres if surface applied.) Last week biosolids shipped from Cobourg were applied on agricultural land at the rear of Mr. Young?s property. It was that massive operation seven kilometres west of Warkworth, involving a convoy of tankers, that led to the May 20 meeting of the residents at the home of Rob Milligan on County Road 29. Most of the people present live along the same road. Mr. Young said he has ?absolutely nothing against? farmers for making use of material supplied to them for free that provides nutrients to the soil, ?because they are working within the guidelines that are laid down.? It?s ?a good economic deal? for them and ?they are up against hard times.? However, he is critical of the way ?the latest amount of sludge was distributed, because there were spillages.? Mr. Young said research conducted by another American university found that biosolids are not tested for all the possibly harmful substances they contain. ?The only thing we can hope for, (with the help of council members), is to get a moratorium, to suspend the use of this sludge until we get proper analysis,? he said. Douglas Hotte said farmers shouldn?t be excused for engaging in a legal practice that research has shown is linked to neighbours getting sick. ?Why are they not taking the moral high ground?? he asked. ?We should shame the farmers who use it.? Mr. Young suggested he should be ?upset at the various government agencies which have allowed this to happen,? a point Mr. Hotte acknowledged. ?We have to do something really fast,? said Michele Mertzer. Her son?s asthma attacks have grown worse in recent days. ?It?s getting scary.? Mr. Peters said Trent Hills asked its legal counsel last fall ?whether or not the municipality could pass a bylaw banning the application of biosolids and the answer was very clearly no.? Last December council approved his resolution that a bylaw be drafted governing how biosolids are applied and requiring that advance notice be given of when it is to be done. ?One of the things that really annoy the hell out of people is the whole absence of proper communication,? he said. ?It?s disgraceful.? Trent Hills received about four hours notice of the spreading that was done May 14. The communications plan he proposes is for the municipality, and through it, residents to be given two weeks? warning. Residents would also be informed of the ?problematic? provisions in the agreement that farmers have with the Ministry of the Environment and the municipality where the sewage is generated. He suggested neighbours could assist with the enforcement by monitoring how the biosolids are spread and how soon they are incorporated into the soil. ?There should be consequences (for violations),? he said. ?We need you to tell us (when that happens).? Mr. Peters said he would table a motion at council this week (May 22) recommending that Trent Hills ?hit the pause button? on the spreading of biosolids. His proposal is to seek an immediate agreement with Cobourg suspending further applications until ?some kind of better understanding? is reached between the two municipalities. ?They?re not doing anything illegal but they?re sure doing things that are causing concerns in our community,? he said. http://www.indynews.ca/article.php?id=1222 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 30 14:30:19 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 14:30:19 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Tampa Sludge 'Fertilizer' Plant Explosion - Two Workers Burned Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Sewage sludge dryers tend toward dust explosion and the dried sludge itself tends to go into spontaneous heating and combustion. Why are we spending public funds to build and rebuild these hazardous facilities that only make a nasty material more dangerous? How many more workers need to be injured before we stop this? Toronto, Windsor, Bronx NY, 3 in Quebec, Milwaulkee- several, Tampa, Hagersville, Amherst..to name a few Under the story you will find the 'Milorganite' Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) that mentions fire and explosion risk. ................................. May 26, 2007 Explosion Burns Two In Tampa Sewer Plant (CBS) tampa An explosion at the Port of Tampa?s sewage treatment plant Saturday morning left two workers burned on their faces, necks, and arms. Investigators say dust may be to blame. The men had been working inside a building where sludge is dried and mixed with fertilizer. Tampa Fire Rescue officials said the process created a fine dust inside the building, which may have ignited and caused a flash-fire. The men, whose names were not released, were transported to Tampa General Hospital where their injuries are described as serious but not life-threatening. They had burns on their faces, arms and necks. The building was not damaged. A telephone message could not be left at the Tampa Fire Rescue Office on Saturday afternoon. .......................................... Material Safety Data Sheet Milorganite?GardenCare 6-2-0 Fertilizer Page 2 of 4 Section 5:FIRE FIGHTING MEASURESFlash Point (Method):NA LEL: ND UEL: ND NFPA/HIMS Rating: Health: 1 Fire: 1Reactivity: 0 Extinguishing Media: Foam, Water Spray, CO2 Special Fire fighting Procedures: Do not breathe fumes. Firefighters should wear normal fire protection gear. Prevent runoff from entering drains, sewers or any body of water. Becomes slippery when wet, guard against falls. Unusual Fire & Explosion Hazards: Do not breathe fumes. At high temperatures, this type of fertilizer can give offundefined fumes. Fine dust dispersion in air may form an explosive mixture. Bulk wetted material may generate heat upon storage. Section 6:ACCIDENTAL RELEASE MEASURESIf Material is Spilled: Sweep, vacuum or shovel material into labeled container. If at all possible, reuse product. Ensure that disposal is in compliance with local, state or federal regulations. Section 7: HANDLING & STORAGEHandling handle as any fertilizer. Avoid breathing dust. Wash after handling. Do not contaminate water by disposal of equipment washwaters. Do not allow to become wet during storage. Storage: Store in a cool, dry area out of reach of children and animals. Keep dry. Bulk wetted material may generateheat upon storage. Note: Some coprophagic canines (fecal eating dogs) may be attracted by the odor of biosolids, transfer their fecal attraction to Milorganite? 6-2-0 fertilizer, rip open bags in storage and over eat. A dog may be sick for 24 to 48 hours, beginning with vomiting that can lead to dehydration, incontinence (stiffness in the hind legs), atrophy, depression, and black stools due to the high carbon content of Milorganite? 6-2-0. In most cases, symptomatic care prescribed by aveterinarian will relieve these symptoms. Section 8: EXPOSURE CONTROL/PERSONAL PROTECTIONProtective equipment suggested for outdoor applications: Wear eye goggles/safety glasses if product may be expected to come in contact with eyes. Protective equipment suggested for confined areas: Provide sufficient ventilation. Wear appropriate safety equipment for any hazards encountered. Product by itselfpresents no specific hazards. Section 9: PHYSICAL & CHEMICAL PROPERTIESSolubility in water: slight pH: slightly acidic (9 parts water to 1 part Garden Care) Appearance: Dark free flowing granules. Product US Screen size -8 +48 with less than 0.1% -48.Odor: Earthy scent. Bulk Density: 50-52 lbs. per cubic footSection 10: STABILITY & REACTIVITYStability: Stable. Conditions to Avoid: Excessive heat; absorbs moisture in highly humid areas. Incompatibility: Strong acids, alkalis and oxidizing agents. Hazardous Decomposition Products: Expected to emit the same types of toxic smoke as would be released during combustion of other organic materials. Hazardous Polymerization: Will not occur. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 3 Material Safety Data Sheet Milorganite?GardenCare 6-2-0 Fertilizer Page 3 of 4 Section 11: TOXICOLOGICAL INFORMATIONToxicity Data: Oral (acute): NDDermal (acute): ND Inhalation (acute): NDTeratogen/Mutagen/ Carcinogen (NTP): Not listed.Potential Carcinogen OHSA/IARC: Not listed.US EPA 40 CFR Part 503 (Biosolids Rule)Under the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has conducted extensive screening to determine likely pollutants in sewage sludge, a/k/a biosolids. EPA?s National Survey of Biosolids analyzed for a total of 412 pollutants, including every organic, pesticide, dibensofuran, dioxin and PCB analyte for which EPA had gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC/MS) standards. 64 Fed. Reg. at 72047-48 (discusses the history of Part 503 information gathering on the fate and concentrations of pollutants in biosolids). See, www.epa.gov/fedrgstr.Where the available scientific information indicated there was no risk of harm even at the highest pollutantconcentration level found in the Biosolids Survey, the pollutants were dropped from further risk assessment. Most of the 412 pollutants are simply not present in biosolids at levels of concern. The National Standards for Bisolids Use, 40 CFR Part 503, establish limits for nine common metals and pathogenic organisms (which heat drying kills) at the noobservable adverse effect level and a level of protection of 1 case in 10,000 for cancer risk. The 1993 technical support documents on biosolids risk assessment are available at EPA?s website: www.epa/gov/OST/pc/municipal.html, and theNational Biosolids Partnership also links the scientific risk assessments, www.biosolids.policy.net.Garden Care? is well below the Part 503 national standards. Where EPA lacked sufficient available scientific data toestablish a standard, the pollutants, totally 31, were subjected to a Comprehensive Hazard Identification Study. This screening analysis included dose-response evaluation, exposure assessment and risk characterization. The US EPA concluded, in a December 23, 1999, notice published at 64 Federal Register 72048, that only 3 pollutant compounds left on its list, analytically measured as 29 dioxin-like congeners, might pose an increase risk for a hypothetical highly exposed (through the food chain, primarily daily fats, meat fats and fish that have bioaccumulated the congeners) rural breast feeding mother and child. EPA has proposed a national standard and a final standard is expected after EPA completes its comprehensive Dioxin Reassessment, see, www.epa.gov/ncea/pdfs/dioxin.htm. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig?s diseaseEpidemiologists have studied ALS mortality among Wisconsin residents, employees who make Garden Care? and workers at sewage treatment plants in Chicago and found the ALS morality rate to be normal or slightly below that of general population. ALS research has abandoned theories of linkage to metals in diet and has focused on genetic predisposition toward ALS and neurotoxins in particular foods. The complete history of this investigation is available at the National Biosolids Partnership website www.biosolids.policy.net. Section 12:ECOLOGICAL INFORMATIONKeep out of any body of water. Section 13: DISPOSAL CONSIDERATIONSWaste Disposal Method(s): Sweep, vacuum or shovel material into labeled container. If at all possible, reuse product. Material is a fertilizer and should be used as such. Keep out of any body of water. Ensure that disposal is in compliance with local, state or federal regulations. Bulk wetted material may generate heat upon storage. Section 14: TRANSPORTATION INFORMATIONDOT shipping information: Proper shipping name: Class 50 (fertilizer material) ID No.: NA Hazard Class: NAHazmat No.: NA SEC 302: Not listed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 4 Material Safety Data Sheet Milorganite?GardenCare 6-2-0 Fertilizer Page 4 of 4 SEC 304: Not listed. Sec 313: Not listed CERCLA: Not listed. CAA: Not listed. TSCA: Not listed. Section 15: REGULATORY INFORMATIONSARA Information: _No_ Immediate (Acute) Health_No_ Sudden Release of Pressure _No_ Delayed (Chronic) Health_No_ Reactivity _Yes_ Fire Section 16:OTHER INFORMATIONFormat complies with ANSI Z400.1 requirements. Revisions as noted (first issue 01/02/93) DISCLAIMER: This information related to the specific material designated and may not be valid for such materialused in combination with any other materials or in an process. Such information is the best of our knowledge and belief, accurate and reliable as of the date compiled. However, no representation, warranty or guarantee is made as to its accuracy, reliability or completeness. NO WARRANTY OF METCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ANY OTHER WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IS MADE AS CONCERNS THE INFORMATION HEREIN PROVIDED. It is the user?s responsibility to satisfy himself as to the suitability and completeness of such information for his own particular use. We do not accept liability for any loss or damage thatmay occur from the use of this information. NA = Not Applicable ND = Not Determined Version changeUpdate Section 7 www.milorganite.com/docs/about/gardencare_6-2-0_msds.pdf From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 31 13:23:04 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 13:23:04 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ontario - Sludge Can't Be Spread - Too Wet to Plough - Costs go up Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Here is the story: Ontario, Canada: The weather is wet, so farm fields are not available for sludge spreading. The sludge needs disposal NOW. Increased costs are associated with landfilling the sludge or sending it to fields in a different weather zone. What to do? Land application of sludge is a poor fit with farm needs. The sludge has high heavy metals, it has drug resistant pathogens, it has persistant endocrine disrupting chemicals and pharmaceuticals. It has a poor distribution of nutrients...generally oversupplying phosphorus and undersupplying nitrogen. And... while farms need fertilizer in the spring before planting... and maybe another fertilizing in the fall if there is a winter crop...sludge needs disposal every day....365 days per year. Sludge disposal needs and farm fertilization needs are two very different things...especially in the northern climates. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Spreading sludge is sticky business for Cramahe council Owen, Bob Local News - Thursday, May 31, 2007 Spreading Cramahe Township sludge is proving costly.Cramahe Council was faced with a conundrum on May 15 when it came to discussion the disposal of sewage sludge from its lagoon. The job of removing the sludge was tendered out last year to Triland Environmental Inc. at a cost of $10.75 per cubic metre for approximately 25,000 cubic metres. The bill to the township was just under $300,000. But, recent weather has played havoc; the sludge could not be spread. The contractor is unable to spread the sludge on the designated field this year. To deposit it on fields further away will add to the contractor's insurance, fuel and labour costs. As a result, the new price to complete work this year is $12.75 per cubic metre. That's an increase of $50,000 to the township if all the sludge is to be removed this year. That left council with an awkward problem May 15. Three companies bid last year. The nearest bid to the Triland bid was by Lissom Earth Sciences for $17. 38 per cubic metre, the highest bid $19.91. Public Works Director Barry Thrasher asked for council's direction. Mayor Marc Coombs appeared to sense the dilemma, asking if the market cost to dispose of sludge had dropped. When Mr. Thrasher had no knowledge of changes, the mayor wondered if council might be subject to a bid of $15 per cubic metre if it put the work out for re-tender. Councillor Pat Westrope wanted to know where the money would come from to cover any increase in cost. Mr. Thrasher said there is $350,000 being held in a sewage reserve fund. When Councillor Ed van Egmond noted, "A good deal isn't such a good deal any more," Mr. Thrasher suggested the township doesn't need to remove all the sludge. Ultimately, when the lagoon is closed, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment will require a total clean out. Realizing council was on unfamiliar ground, Mr. Thrasher noted township Clerk Administrator Christie Alexander could find no part of the township's purchasing bylaw to cover this type of situation. Council unanimously accepted Deputy Mayor Jim Williams' motion that council go ahead with Triland - but limit the cost to $300,000. http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=549988&catname=Local%20News&classif= From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 31 23:49:22 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 23:49:22 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Diamond ring recovered from the sewers Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Working in sludge has some unusual perks. Touring a sewage treatment plant near Santa Barbara, workers reported finding as much as $1000 per day in cash in the 'rags' machine. Staff more routinely recover $20 - $30 per day in bills. They think the big money might have been flushed down the loo during drug busts. Coins, rings, and jewellery come in the grit from the sewer sucking equipment. One staffer had three diamond rings from only 4 months at the plant. Senior staff had serious jewellery made from the many rings and pieces of jewellery recovered from the sewer. .......................................................... Sewage workers recover 98-year-old Olympia woman's wedding ring By The Associated Press OLYMPIA ? It was a messy job, but two municipal employees painstakingly searched a sewage line and recovered a wedding ring. The effort began after the Public Works Department in the state capital got a letter from Alma F. Coate-Wilson, 98, who wrote that she had accidentally flushed her $8,000, 1.6-carat wedding ring down the toilet in the middle of the night two months ago. Gary Franks, a public works supervisor, said the department rarely gets such requests and usually doesn't have the time to grant them but decided to try this time because of the circumstances. Maintenance workers Bill Davis and Jean Wright started by sending a type of camera through the sewer line. When that didn't work, they flushed the main line, blocking solids using pea gravel. Finally, they went through the solids with a garden hose and found the ring. Four city employees returned it to Coate-Wilson this week. "I was the happiest girl in the world," Coate-Wilson told The Olympian newspaper. "I was floored," she said. "I knew it was forever." Coate-Wilson, a retired teacher, said she was given the ring 39 years ago by Gilbert Coate, to whom she was married for 23 years. "Until my death, I wanted to have it (the ring), of course," she said. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003721818_webring25m.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 2 15:36:17 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 02 May 2007 15:36:17 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Honey as topical antibiotic Message-ID: another reason why the decline of bee populations is great cause for concern . . . . . (Thanks to Helane Sheilds) ..................... Last updated May 1, 2007 5:40 p.m. PT Doctor finds a sweet remedy THE ECONOMIST Hospitals do more than house sick patients while they are treated. They also provide convenient havens for dangerous bacteria. Cramming infirm people into one place creates the ideal breeding ground for disease. Add a sprinkling of antibiotics and drug-resistant strains emerge -- the superbugs that are endemic in many places. One doctor, however, thinks he has rediscovered an old weapon that could be useful in the fight against those nasties. It is honey. Honey was commonly used in medicine before antibiotics became widespread. It is still used in the Antipodes; an Australian company makes a product called Medihoney for medicinal use. This formulation is a certified medicine in Europe, but has not been much used there because doctors developed a taste for prescribing conventional antibiotics. Arne Simon of Bonn University Children's Clinic in Germany is now leading an international study to compare honey with existing drugs. The investigation will involve 150 patients in several countries including Britain, Germany and Australia. Simon already has used honey on 150 patients who were not responding to treatment, with some promising results. The patients often were children whose immune systems had been weakened by chemotherapy, which left their wounds from surgery vulnerable to infection. Around a third of them were also given some antibiotics at the same time as having their wounds dressed with honey. One patient, whose wounds had become infected by the potentially fatal strain of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to the antibiotic methicillin (MRSA), and who failed to respond to other drugs, was free of this superbug within 48 hours of receiving the honey treatment. Research in Australia and New Zealand suggests that honey heals because it attacks bacteria in several different ways at once. Because honey is composed of saturated sugars, it sucks up water, depriving bacteria of the liquid they need to survive and multiply. As bees make honey they secrete glucoseoxidase, an enzyme that releases the bleach hydrogen peroxide when it comes into contact with wound liquids. The low-level but frequent release of this chemical ensures regular antibacterial washes of the wound. Although honey is not about to usurp antibiotics, Simon thinks it should be brought back into conventional medicine -- and not only to sugar the pill. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 3 02:54:28 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 02:54:28 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Florida to Dump Sewage on more sections of coral reef Message-ID: Florida To Dump Sewage On More Sections Of Coral Reef System May 2, 2007 8:23 p.m. EST Matthew Borghese - AHN Staff Writer Tallahassee, FL (AHN) - The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) will open a new ocean discharge pipe near Lake Worth, in a move that has alarmed divers and environmentalists across the Sunshine State. The wastewater will hit a coral reef ecosystem, introducing ammonia and other nutrient pollutants into a fragile environment which will most likely be destroyed as a result. According to a group petitioning FDEP Water Facilities Administrator Linda A. Brien to stop the proposed pipeline, "nutrient pollutants fuel coral killing algae blooms." The petition explains, "Dr. Brian Lapointe of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Ft. Pierce, Florida has established that as little as 14 parts per billion of ammonia can trigger a harmful algae bloom on a coral reef. In their ocean outfall permit application Lake Worth estimates the ammonia discharge could be as high as 10.8 parts per million, nearly 1,000 times greater than the amount of ammonia needed to fuel a coral reef algae bloom." http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007226384 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 3 12:30:05 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 12:30:05 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Mexico - Chemicals Contaminating Water Message-ID: Blue chemicals contaminating water Reuters Published: Thursday, May 03, 2007 TEHUACAN, Mexico (Reuters) -- Jeans factories have given jobs to thousands in the city of Tehuacan, the heartland of Mexico's denim industry, but they are pumping blue chemicals into rivers used to irrigate corn fields downstream. Dozens of industrial laundries, some of which put the finishing touches to jeans for export, discharge a cocktail of bleach, dye and detergents into Tehuacan's wide valley with almost no government controls, residents say. In just one example of the widespread pollution, a dark blue sludge fills a ditch behind a high-tech Grupo Navarra factory, where jeans are laundered for brands made by Levi Strauss & Co and Gap Inc. Email to a friend Printer friendly Font: ****E.J. Bernacki, a Levi Strauss spokesman based in San Francisco, said Grupo Navarra had failed an independent audit of its laundry facilities last year. The Levi Strauss policy was to help factories that do not meet its standards to correct the problem, he said. No one at Grupo Navarra, which is controlled by a Mexican businessman, was available to comment. Mexico is popular with garment firms because it is close to the United States, meaning a quick turnaround on fast-changing fashion lines. Though many firms have left for cheaper China, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans still work in assembly plants. In Tehuacan, 118 miles southeast of Mexico City, about 35,000 people work in garment factories. Water from the denim laundries runs through Tehuacan, where it mixes with municipal sewage and is discharged untreated in a foaming green torrent to a river that feeds irrigation systems in the downstream village of San Diego Chalma. Farmer Mariano Barragan, 67, uses the water on his few acres of corn planted in fields a few minutes' drive from the center of Tehuacan. "Sometimes it comes out blue, sometimes yellow, sometimes black,'' said Barragan, crumbling between his fingers the bluish gray crust the dirty water leaves on the soil. "I know when the chemicals are strong because the leaves shrivel and my skin starts itching.'' Barragan said health authorities have told him not to plant tomatoes and root vegetables because of a risk of contamination. But corn is permitted and is sold locally and to buyers from Mexico City. Locals say they do not know if the waste water presents a long-term risk to their health, but some complain of chemical odours that irritate their throats. "They let the strong chemicals out at night. It wakes you up because it catches in your throat,'' said Gerardo Diaz, who lives next to an open sluice bringing effluent from a small jeans laundry. Most major jeans firms now require their suppliers to use water treatment plants and monitor waste water for dangerous substances. Grupo Navarra uses a modern treatment system and last week the water coming from the factory was clear. However, activists say the company does not always switch the plant on. "This is clear evidence that Grupo Navarra lies,'' said local rights activist Martin Barrios, digging a stick into the slimy indigo-coloured mud. Gap stopped bleaching and dyeing at the factory in 2005 but does launder jeans there. Industry leaders in Tehuacan blame most of the pollution on the dozens of small unregulated laundries that wash, bleach and dye jeans for Mexican brands. "We all know Mexican firms demand less than the international brands,'' said Javier Lopez, spokesman for the city's industry chamber. "Sometimes the attitude is that the water is contaminated anyway by unregistered factories and animal waste.'' Tehuacan is also a centre for pig and poultry farming. Just outside Tehuacan, two rusting government signs stand on a derelict plot of land, promising the construction of a plant to treat the city's waste water. The signs have been there for more than five years but building has not begun. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=1d8585a8-6f96-4d40-ab21-405e6ba10bcb From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 3 13:22:08 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 13:22:08 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Barstow Calif - sludge spreading halted - nitrate contaminated wells Message-ID: http://www.desertdispatch.com/onset?db=desertdispatch&id=509&template=article.html City looks into providing bottled water to Soap Mine Road residents By AARON AUPPERLEE Staff Writer May 3, 2007 - 7:16AM 'Is our water safe to drink?' Soap Mine Road resident Christina Bryne asks DPRA consultants Gary Vargas, right, and Robert Falero at Wednesday's City Council study session on nitrate pollution in the Soap Mine Road area. BARSTOW - Jim Swartwout, a Soap Mine Road area resident concerned about nitrate pollution, told the City Council he cares about the "little guy." And by the end of Wednesdays study session on nitrate pollution, he felt like the Council did, too. At the conclusion of the meeting, Council member Joe Gomez directed the city - without accepting blame in the matter - to investigate providing water to families in the Soap Mine Road area whose water has high nitrate levels. "We had a Council member stand up and help get some people some water," Swartwout said. "Now it's starting to change." Gomez asked the city to determine the cost of providing bottled water for families drinking from wells with a nitrate levels of nine milligrams per liter or higher. He also asked that city staff determine how many women in that area are pregnant because nitrate contamination presents a health risk to infants. As nitrates work into an infant's body, it can block the blood from properly carrying oxygen, potentially a fatal situation if untreated. Drinking water is considered polluted when it contains 10 mg/L of nitrates or more, according to Mike Plaziak, a senior engineering geologist with the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board. City Manager Hector Rodriguez said the city will do the analysis based on the Council's direction. Based on tests done last year, there are 12 wells in the Soap Mine Road area with a nitrate levels above nine, said Soap Mine Road resident Christina Bryne. Soap Mine Road residents plan to have their wells retested on May 10. Soap Mine Road residents have butted heads with the city over nitrate contamination in the area since learning about the contamination in 2006. In 2004, the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board ordered the city to stop spreading sewage on the fields after finding high levels of nitrates in the ground water. City efforts to monitor and define the nitrate contamination became partially de-railed in April when a report from DPRA, an environmental consulting firm, questioned the testing data presented to the city. Gary Vargas, a consultant with DPRA, said he was unable to draw many conclusions from the testing done by RGS because of inconsistencies in the data. RGS is a sub-contractor hired by Aquarion, the city's wastewater treatment service provider. "We would have loved to have used it, but we couldn't," Vargas told the Council. After reviewing the data, DPRA questioned at least a dozen reports that have duplicate or near-duplicate results across several testing sites and numerous inconsistencies in the data. A total of 17 monthly monitoring reports from March 2003 to January 2007 were found to have questionable laboratory results, according to the report. DPRA marked every monitoring report from June 2005 to January 2007 questionable. DPRA's report suggested that the city and Aquarion end its relationship with RGS. Pat Lendway, the city's wastewater treatment coordinator, said the city is investigating that relationship. Aquarion's contract with the city ends in February 2009. Plaziak said Lahontan will issue a report on May 18 evaluating DPRA's report and could require the city to do additional investigation in the area. "The validity of the data is of concern to us, serious concern to us," Plaziak said. "We're going to look very closely into that." Lahontan may also issue an enforcement order to the city directing it to clean up pollution found to be the city's fault, he said. The enforcement order could also mandate that the city provide bottled water to affected residents. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 3 15:46:07 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 15:46:07 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Evian Criminals - the New Snob Appeal of Tap Water Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This looks like a good news story. We should be delivering tap water that is good enough to drink! And we shouldn't be putting tap water into one-use plastic bottles that will live forever in landfill (and ditches). This author takes the wrong lesson from this story. We need to conserve clean ground and surface waters. Not pollute them with sewage. And stop buying little plastic bottles of water to serve at meetings. Bring back the water jug. .................................................. from Slate Magazine. Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2165124 Evian Criminals The new snob appeal of tap water. By Daniel Gross Posted Thursday, April 26, 2007, at 7:23 PM ET Last month, the San Francisco Chronicle spotted a hot new food trend in the Bay Area. Instead of offering diners a choice of still or sparkling bottled water with their (inevitably) locally grown delectables, trendoid restaurants such as Incanto, Poggio, and Nopa now offer glorified tap water. Sustainable-dining pioneer Chez Panisse has also joined the crowd, tossing Santa Lucia overboard for filtered municipal water, carbonated on-site. The reason: It takes a lot of energy to create a bottle of water and ship it from Europe to California. And so of-the-moment bistros can boost their enviro cred by giving away tap water instead of selling promiscuously marked-up bottled water. "Our whole goal of sustainability means using as little energy as we have to," Mike Kossa-Rienzi, general manager of Chez Panisse, told the Chronicle. "Shipping bottles of water from Italy doesn't make sense." Chez Panisse's decision to swap Perrier for public water highlights how quickly the culture surrounding food, drink, and the environment has shifted. Not long ago, bottled water represented the height of urban sophistication. Today, bottled water is just another cog in the carbon-spewing, globe-warming industrial machine. There is a growing conflict between those who want to drink clean, pure water and those who want to breathe clean, pure air. Until relatively recently, bottled water was a snobbish luxury good?Perrier, Evian, and San Pellegrino, fey-sounding foreign brands, seemed absurd. Thanks to our superior infrastructure?New York City's delicious tap water is actually believed to be a competitive advantage for the city's bagel and pizza makers?it is perfectly safe to drink the water in the United States. Given the price?for long periods of time, a gallon of bottled water cost more than a gallon of gas?it seemed silly to pay up for this plentiful commodity. And it seemed pretentious to believe that our overburdened palates should be forced to develop a preference for what is generally presumed to be a tasteless substance. The presence of water sommeliers at the Ritz-Carlton in New York and at Alain Ducasse's New York restaurant (now closed, soon to reopen) was more novelty than a necessity. But like other high-end comestibles?sushi, good coffee?bottled water has become democratized. According to data from the International Bottled Water Association, bottled water in 2003 became the second-largest American beverage category. As soda sales stagnated, bottled water sales took off. Total U.S. consumption rose nearly 60 percent between 2001 and 2006. Last year, industry revenues were an estimated $11 billion. Per-capita consumption has risen almost 50 percent from 2001, to 27.6 gallons in 2006. Globally, the United States is the largest consumer of bottled water, although on a per-capita basis, we were only 10th in 2005. (That year, Italians consumed almost twice as much bottled water per capita as Americans.) The rapidly growing sector has attracted the interest of huge beverage companies. Coca-Cola owns Dasani and is reportedly interested in buying Glaceau, which makes flavored waters. Pepsi owns Aquafina. Poland Spring is also a major player. But these companies, whose products are available in convenience stores, vending machines, and office refrigerators, aren't delivering expensive European spring water to elites; they're producing cheap, glorified tap water for the masses. And they package the product in plastic, not in glass. Bottled water is an industry, not a craft. (And even the schmancy European operations are industrial.) Whether it's Santa Lucia in Italy or Poland Spring in Maine, bottlers process the stuff. They regulate the mineral content, sometimes they carbonate it, and they bottle, package, and ship it to distant markets on trucks, trains, and ships?burning fossil fuels and emitting carbon dioxide in the process. And so there is a sort of reverse snob appeal in shunning bottled water. Restaurants like Chez Panisse are telling their customers that they prize the Earth?and their customers' values?more than their own profits. (Companies like Whole Foods and Wal-Mart that conspicuously pay above-market prices for electricity generated from renewable sources are doing the same thing.) I, for one, would welcome the abolition of bottled water at restaurants. Whether you're on a date or at a business meal, expressing a preference for tap water generally makes you look cheap. But I don't know if the food snobs want to go too far. If sustainability comes to outweigh consumer preference or variety at restaurants, America's food culture will suffer. If you're based in Northern California, which has an embarrassment of agricultural riches, insisting on using only local products isn't much of a sacrifice. In Ohio, or Maine, or New York, it would mean self-denial on a massive scale. Part of the appeal of a great food city like New York is the sheer variety of choices. I'm all for the Union Square Greenmarket, where delectable fruits and veggies are trucked in from farms within a day's drive. But I also love the Chinatown stalls stocked with strange, far-flung vegetables, Japanese steakhouses selling Kobe beef, and the readily available French truffles. Where do you draw the line? Apparently, Chez Panisse draws it at wine. Its wine list has plenty of California vintages but is also stocked with bottles that have been shipped, in the same carbon-intensive process through which water bottles are shipped, from France, Italy, and South Africa. Bottled water's swift transformation from glass-encased luxury good to d?class?, plastic-wrapped menace was entirely predictable. Over the past century, we've seen numerous examples of products that, so long as they were available only to a select few, were viewed by those elites as brilliant, life-improving developments: the automobile, coal-generated electricity, air conditioning. But once companies figured out how to make them available to the masses, the elites suddenly condemned them as dangerous and socially destructive. So long as only a few people were drinking Evian, Perrier, and San Pellegrino, bottled water wasn't perceived as a societal ill. Now that everybody is toting bottles of Poland Spring, Aquafina, and Dasani, it's a big problem.Related in Slate In 2003, Ann Hulbert chronicled what happened when Berkeley High School adopted a Chez Panisse approach to school lunch. Last fall, Daniel Gross investigated the economics of apple-picking. A June 2002 article explained why posh types in London refer to sparkling water as fizzy water. In January 2004, Sara Dickerman explained how haute cuisine went mass market. Daniel Gross (www.danielgross.net) writes Slate's "Moneybox" column. You can e-mail him at moneybox at slate.com. He is the author of Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 3 15:48:57 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 15:48:57 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Prions may be more mobile under limed conditions! Message-ID: Toward Safer Disposal Of Animals Infected With Mad Cow And Other Prion Diseases Science Daily: ? Burying prion-infected carcasses of cattle, deer and other animals in lime may actually enhance the spread of those infectious proteins through soil, a new study suggests. Placing quicklime on carcasses once was thought to be the best way to foster quick decay of bodies and to prevent the spread of disease. The study is scheduled for the April 15 issue of ACS? Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal. In the study, Joel A. Pedersen and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin cite the need for safe methods of disposing of prion-infected carcasses, noting that prions can resist harsh conditions such as strong disinfectants and dry-heat temperatures of 1,100?F that destroy other disease-causing agents and that prions can remain infectious in the soil for at least three years. Pedersen and colleagues investigated the effect of different conditions (pH, salinity) on the adsorption, or attachment, of prions to sand particles. They found that prions become less firmly attached to sand particles, and thus potentially more mobile, under alkaline conditions. These conditions would be produced by lime, as well as in older landfills. In the natural environment, acidic conditions may keep prions near the soil surface, increasing the risk that animals will ingest prions and become infected, the report says. The team is conducting further research to determine whether these expectations are borne out. Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by American Chemical Society. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 1 21:12:51 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 01 May 2007 21:12:51 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Spinach - is it safe for our kids? Message-ID: http://www.masslive.com/editorials/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/117774578742130.xml&coll=1 EDITORIALS If it's safe for Popeye, is it safe for our kids? Monday, April 30, 2007 'Eat your spinach," parents have told their children for generations. "It's good for you." Can a parent say the same thing to a child today with absolute certainty that the leafy green vegetable is healthy? Spinach is a good source of fiber, protein, vitamins A, C, E, K and B6, as well as calcium, but can a parent be certain that it is not also a source of E. coli? A series of food poisoning cases - bagged spinach, lettuce and peanut butter - has made Americans worry that their food isn't safe. More recently, contaminated pet food was sent to hog farms in as many as six states, prompting fears that the tainted hogs have entered the human food supply. Earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office, declared food safety as a "high-risk" issue to public health and the economy. Lawmakers heard last week from people sickened by tainted food at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. When it comes to government regulation of food safety, there are too many cooks in the kitchen. The U.S. Agriculture Department is responsible for meat, poultry and eggs. The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for fruits and vegetables, while the pesticides used by farmers to protect produce from pests are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Seafood? Call the National Marine Fisheries Service. Altogether, there are 15 agencies that handle food safety. There is legislation in both the Senate and the House that would consolidate food safety under a new independent food agency. Another federal agency? That could be a recipe for disaster, but the nation can no longer depend as much as it does now on individual food companies to ensure that its food is safe. Some consolidation is in order, and a thorough review of the outdated rules on food inspections is necessary. Also, the government should have the authority to issue a recall. When American consumers buy a food item in a supermarket, they put their trust in everyone who has played some role in making it appear on the grocery shelf. It's time to restore that trust. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri May 4 13:27:34 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 13:27:34 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Sludge-free: Jump in Sales of Organic Baby Food Message-ID: http://www.mercurynews.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=5778720&siteId=568 Organic baby food grows into a healthy little market By Therese Agovino Associated Press San Jose Mercury News Article Launched:04/29/2007 01:37:53 AM PDT NEW YORK - Pauline Amell-Nash worried that the pesticides and additives used to grow and preserve food were bad for her 1-year-old daughter Sophia, not to mention the earth itself. That's why the pureed carrots, sweet potatoes and fruits Sophia ate were purchased from makers of organic baby food. "She is so small I just thought that the more pure, honest things she ate would be better for her," the Claremont mother said. "I also thought it benefits the environment. I want to raise my child with an idea of social responsibility." The environment has become a very hot topic these days, especially among parents who want to protect their children's health and the world they'll be inheriting. Parents like Amell-Nash are propelling a surge in organic baby food sales, and that has prompted more companies to either join or expand their offerings in the sector. Organic food still accounts for a tiny portion of the overall baby food market, but it is definitely growing. Whole Foods Market said it has tripled the space allotted to organic baby products in the past five years. Last year, baby food institution Gerber Products rebranded and broadened its organic line, while Abbott Laboratories introduced an organic version of its Similac baby formula. The U.S. Department of Agriculture inspects food producers to insure they meet its standards for organic products. They include banning the use of conventional pesticides, fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge for produce, and antibiotics or growth hormones for animals. Organic baby food sales soared 21.6 percent to $116 million in the 52 weeks ended Feb. 24, after jumping 16.4 percent a year earlier, according to the Nielsen Co. Meanwhile, overall baby food sales rose 3.1 percent to $3.7 billion in the same period, after being essentially flat a year earlier. The data was gleaned from U.S. grocery, drug and mass market retailers, excluding Wal-Mart. Gerber Products replaced its Tender Harvest brand last year with a line called Gerber Organics and added products such as cereals, juice and food for toddlers. The change was meant to make it more evident that the food was organic, said Anna Mohl, vice president of marketing-infant nutrition at the baby food maker owned by Novartis AG and now being sold to Nestle SA. "We needed to be more explicit," Mohl said. While Tender Harvest, which was introduced in 1997, was selling well, its growth wasn't matching the overall organic baby food category, she said. Mohl said Gerber didn't consider leaving the category because she believed moms wanted to purchase organic baby food from a brand they trusted. She declined to give the brand's sales. Big companies aren't the only ones addressing the demand for organic baby products. Two years ago, Gigi Lee Chang started Plum Organics, a line of frozen baby foods, now a very hot area, according to Whole Foods officials. Lee Chang got the idea to start the company when she heard friends talking about her son's healthy appetite. She decided that the organic foods she had been preparing for him might be a good business opportunity. The products are sold nationally and an extension of the line is planned for later in the year. Freezing the food instead of jarring it retained more freshness and nutrients, she said, adding, "By freezing, I'm trying to replicate the homemade aspect." Producers said adhering to the USDA regulations makes organic foods cost more, but parents are willing to pay the difference. For example, a 25.7-ounce container of organic Similac formula retails for about $27.50, while the traditional brand would cost $23.50, according to Scott White, vice president-pediatrics-U.S. at Abbott Nutrition. Gerber said its organic products cost about 30 percent more than its traditional baby foods. Camille Fremed, mom to 20-month-old twin sons, said the additional cost isn't a huge burden and believes organic is worth the expense. "I'll scrimp on other things," said Fremed, a tech project manager who lives in Ridgefield, Conn. She favored the Earth's Best brand because it offers lots of variety. White said Abbott entered the organic formula market because there was an interest from moms. "There is no clinical evidence to say the product is better or healthier," White said. "Moms feel better using it. It is a lifestyle choice." Doctors said parents shouldn't feel guilty if they can't afford the extra expense. The USDA doesn't claim that organic food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced food, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has no official stance on the subject. Dr. Jatinder Bhatia, chief of neonatology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and a member of the pediatrics academy's committee on nutrition, said there is no evidence that organic baby food is better or safer. Raisa Lilling uses organic food in meals she prepares for her daughter Elliana because it is less expensive than buying pre-made products. She notes Elliana hasn't had many of the stomach problems and ear infections common in other infants. "I believe she'll be healthier as an adult," said Lilling, who lives in Santa Monica. "It is worth all the extra work." From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri May 4 13:42:22 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 13:42:22 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Pennsylvania - Synagro in trouble over food processing sludge Message-ID: "A DEP notice forwarded by Community Relations Coordinator Mark Carmon said waste hauler Synagro Inc. was sent a compliance order for "illegal storage and/or dumping of solid waste, to wit Food Processing Waste and/or Food Processing Sludge, on the surface of the ground without a valid permit..." "However, Carmon said Synagro cooperated fully with the department supplying all necessary information about the material which Hill described as "99 percent pig manure." " The department cited the waste hauler for storage of a "putrescible residual waste" outside a container creating odors and other public nuisance. " (Thanks Helane..admin) ................................ http://www.republicanherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18300047&BRD=2626&PAG=461&dept_id=532624&rfi=6 DEP says East Brunswick farm in compliance with ordinance BY SHAWN A. HESSINGER TAMAQUA BUREAU CHIEF shessinger at republicanherald.com 05/04/2007 NEW RINGGOLD - The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection says an issue with the dumping of waste on an East Brunswick farm has been resolved. The department issued a notice of violation in March after a Texas-based waste hauler dumped 570 tons of " food processing waste" in a community already concerned over land application of sewage sludge. There's no fines issued or anything," said East Brunswick tree farmer Jeff Hill, who raised the ire of township residents in 2006 when he proposed applying waste from sewage treatment plants called "biosolids" to his and an adjacent farm prompting an ordinance against use of the material. A DEP notice forwarded by Community Relations Coordinator Mark Carmon said waste hauler Synagro Inc. was sent a compliance order for "illegal storage and/or dumping of solid waste, to wit Food Processing Waste and/or Food Processing Sludge, on the surface of the ground without a valid permit..." The department cited the waste hauler for storage of a "putrescible residual waste" outside a container creating odors and other public nuisance. In early March, newly appointed East Brunswick Township supervisor Jeff Faust used the application of the material as an example of why the state's monitoring is not sufficient to protect local residents prompting passage of a local ordinance. "There are a lot of issues along with this that haven't been implemented properly," said Faust, appointed to replace former supervisor Glenn Miller, the second member of the board to resign over the contentious sewage sludge issue. However, Carmon said Synagro cooperated fully with the department supplying all necessary information about the material which Hill described as "99 percent pig manure." "It was not biosolids," Carmon added. Carmon said the department eventually granted the company permission to spread the material over what Hill estimates were 24 acres of an adjacent farm belonging to Susan Smith. The sewage sludge issue has concerned county residents, leading to ordinances seeking to regulate the material in communities as diverse as Rush and West Penn Townships and Tamaqua. A farming regulation ordinance which contained a section on sewage sludge was rejected by Washington Township Supervisors. The East Brunswick ordinance has even drawn attention from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office, which says it may challenge the ordinance in court. In a letter to the township supervisors in February, executive deputy attorney general Louis J. Rovelli warned the township that a review of the local ordinance banning corporate application of biosolids in the township may violate a state law against interfering with agriculture. Farmers argue the controversial 2005 Agriculture Community and Rural Environment legislation is necessary to protect generations old farming operations in the face of a growing residential community brought on by sporadic rural development. Opponents say the legislation leaves communities defenseless against an evolving agriculture industry replacing small family farms with larger operations using questionable practices and having no local accountability. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri May 4 13:53:34 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 13:53:34 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Dirty Deals - Trucker in jail - associated with N-Viro, sludge, topsoil Message-ID: Dirty deals Local trucker held in Clinton County jail News of his extradition raises many questions - as he was a previous hauler of topsoil, NViro and sewage sludge By Ann Hawksby annie at denpubs.com PLATTSBURGH ?It seems Arthur Blakesley, former Plattsburgh resident and owner of Blakesley Trucking, is in some deep doo-doo - so to speak. Blakesely, who in the past had been contracted by the City of Plattsburgh , WeCare Organics, LLC, and Veolia Water - the firm formerly responsible for the management of the Clinton Count Compost Facility, where the controversial NViro soil amendment products were processed is being held at the Clinton County jail. He is facing a whole slew of charges including grand larceny for a spree of crimes he allegedly committed in NY, NJ and Texas. In Mahwah County, NJ, Blakesley, 48,was arrested for jumping bail in Texas, where he was charged for committing forgery and over $100,000 of theft. Mahwah Police Capt. Stephen Jaffe told NJ reporters that there were lots of misrepresentations made by Blakesley. The warrant out of Caldwell County, Texas, charged that Blakesley, who also held addresses in Pennsylvania, Florida and New York and a criminal history that includes civil actions in other states, with skipping out on $150,000 bail bond. At the time of the arrest in NJ, Blakesley was in possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia and a small bag containing $23,900. Local charges Here in Clinton County, he must answer to charges of fraud and grand larceny stemming from his business relationship with WeCare Organics, LLC, a company that had been contracted by the City of Plattsburgh to transport sewage sludge from the wastewater facility to the Clinton County Compost Facility. WeCare alleges that among other things, Blakesley made unauthorized charges at a local fuel company and at Ward Lumber. He also owes the Team Transportation Worker?s Compensation Trust $34,234. Local response As news of Blakesley?s alleged crimes began to surface, Town of Mooers Supervisor Rudolph ?Ruddi? Miller recalled concerns stemming from the uproar created when Blakesley and other WeCare truck drivers hauled hundreds of tons of what they were told was NViro to a farm on a remote farm in that township. Without warning the trucks drove up and down the Bashaw Road during the late night and early morning hours - and then the stench set in, causing unrest among many area residents. ?He was portrayed as an honest business man, we had our doubts, and now we know differently,? Miller said. Miller and other town officials had been told during a closed-door meeting with NYS DEC officials and representatives of Veolia Water (formerly US Filter) and WeCare that they need not be worried about the odorous substance as it had been tested prior to being trucked to the site. ?Veolia sent test results to the town, but we were never convinced that we had gotten accurate information,? Miller said. ?They told us there was only 400 tons, but we all knew there was much, much more than that.? ?Their paperwork didn?t seem to match what was physically there, and when we called them on it, well let?s just say we never did get real answers,? Miller said. ?We were told the finished NViro product was black and granular, but this stuff was light grey and clumpy - and it smelled strongly of ammonia.? That was back in 2004, and shortly afterwards the similar situations began to happen in other surrounding communities. Beekmantown actually took a landowner, Graham Layman, to court and won the case, forcing him to remove what the jury considered to be solid waste from his property on Route 9. Despite the many voices of concern regarding the authenticity of soil brought there, the DEC refused to test it, noting that the CCCF had a permit to make NVIRO - a product they and the EPA have deemed as safe. ?Leaving it up to the producers to take their own samples was questionable in itself,? said Beekmantown town supervisor, Dennis Relation. ?Who?s to say they didn?t use the same sample repeatedly? There were no real checks and balances there.? ?I feel they (governing authorities) should now return and take at least one, preferably two samples from each of the sites where residents and town officials had complained,? Miller said. ?And they should take it to a non-biased laboratory for testing.? ?I think we deserve at least that.? In Plattsburgh The City Environmental Services Manager, Jonathan Ruff, said he saw no need for concern, even though Blakesley was involved with the transportation of sewage sludge, NViro and owned a topsoil business. According to Ruff, NViro was used at some of the city parks and at the US Oval. ?However, I am not aware of any factual information that leads me to believe that any of the N-Viro material distributed from the compost plant by Veolia was improper,? Ruff said in response to some recent questions. ?We have reams of documents and signed certifications that support that the sludges processed by Veolia were done so in accordance with applicable requirements and that the N-Viro product that Veolia distributed from the site was, in fact, properly processed. The records and operation are also audited by EPA and DEC.? When asked about the ?smelly, sloppy? product brought to a Beekmantown site, Ruff said ?Veolia was clear that there were some sludges that resulted in very odorous N-Viro. Once the cause of this was determined, those sludges were no longer accepted at the facility.? Ruff went on to say, ?this does not mean that the material was unsafe or not processed properly, only that those particular sludges were better suited to other processes from the perspective of odor. Perhaps this was the case for the material (obtained by the Beekmantown landowner).? Ruff said ?BT did not haul topsoil to the Oval soccer field project.? ?I believe the top soil that BT hauled directly for the City was to the waterfront development project. My recollection is that all were satisfied with the material.? ? I do not recall if Mr. Blakesly was involved in other local projects,? Ruff added, ?even if he was, the records we have support that only properly manufactured N-Viro was distributed from the site; therefore, I do not feel there is a cause for worry.? Plattsburgh City Mayor Donald Kasprzak said he does have some questions he?d like Mr. Blakesley to answer to. Timeline of Blakesly Trucking?s work for the City of Plattsburgh as provided by Jonathan Ruff, Environmental Services Manager: >From 1998 - 2002: BT hauled merchant sludge to Clinton County Compost Facility (CCCF) and compost to markets as sub to WeCare. >From 2001 - 2005: BT hauled City sludge from Water Pollution Control Plant to CCCF and other disposal sites as sub to WeCare. >From 2003 - 2005: BT hauled merchant sludge to CCCF and N-Viro to markets as sub to WeCare/Veolia. At times, BT worked for WeCare on the leased Norco property. BT also hauled a limited amount of sawdust, woodchips and topsoil for City and also worked as sub to Veolia at CCCF. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri May 4 15:57:12 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 15:57:12 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Florida - chemical burns, stench, fumes - occupational hazards of sludge Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This plant looks like it may be out of compliance with occupational safety requirements. In Ontario, Canada, the staff at the N-Viro sludge lime plants need to wear full respirators to prevent them breathing in the fumes from the reacting lime and sludge. A lawsuit has been launched in Canada by a sewage treatment plant worker who became extremely ill from exposure to these kinds of chemicals and gases. Remember they are likely inhaling mercury and heavy metals, pathogens, endotoxins, mold and fungus as well as gases like hydrogen sulphide. You might want to discuss the occupational risks with the director of public works at Oldsmar: jmulvihill at ci.oldsmar.fl.us ...................................................................................... Where it all goes after we flush It takes a strong stomach to turn Oldsmar's wastewater into fertilizer. Face masks don't block the odor. By TAMARA EL-KHOURY Published April 24, 2007 [Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford] Joshua Wolfe od Oldsmar's wastewater treatment plant prepares a sludge sample for a 217-degree oven. Later, he will measure the moisture loss. "This is definitely not for the squeamish of heart as far as working goes," he says. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OLDSMAR - Their jobs, like those of their counterparts across Pinellas County, are not glamorous. Seven days a week, the 13 men who work at the Oldsmar wastewater treatment plant deal with the waste Oldsmar residents flush down their toilets, push down their garbage disposals and rinse down their drains. The stench has knocked the uninitiated on their rears. The chemicals needed to process the sludge can burn and scar. But Joshua Wolfe, 37, just 15 months on the job, is already immune to the unpleasantries. On a recent Tuesday, he packed 10 grams of sludge into a foil dish with his bare hands to prepare it for testing. "This is definitely not for the squeamish of heart as far as working goes," Wolfe said. Waste management remains one of the core - if forgotten - functions of local government for sanitation. But the vital occupation could soon change significantly under a grand plan this small Pinellas County city has for changing how it and a host of regional neighbors deal with human waste. Oldsmar wants Pinellas County, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs and Clearwater to join it in building a multimillion-dollar biosolids drying facility to produce a safe, organic pellet-shaped product that can be sold as fertilizer. Economics, along with environmental issues, are forcing the newfangled proposal. The sod farms in Manatee, Citrus and Hardee counties that Oldsmar and other local cities have shipped their processed sludge to for decades are being snapped up for real estate development; those that remain demand higher environmental standards. The new technology has other benefits as well, as it uses heat rather than a caustic chemical to neutralize the biohazards in sludge. But until the new facility and its heat-drying technology is deployed, the messy and dangerous step that gets repeated every Tuesday night at the Oldsmar plant - lime stabilization - will continue. On a recent rainy Tuesday, Wolfe, who hopes to get his operator's license, worked alongside Jim Hudgins, 56, an 18-year veteran of the industry. "Just so you know, this is third-degree chemical burn," Wolfe said, lifting his calf and pointing to a scar caused when lime splashed into his boot and rubbed against his skin. By the time Wolfe and Hudgins started work, the wastewater had already gone through multiple filtering and neutralizing processes, separating most of the water from solids and foreign objects such as adhesive bandages, shoes, sand and other things. The resulting solid moved onto the gravity belt Tuesday, looking like muddy water, and was still just 1.2 percent solid. Then the sludge is mixed with a polymer, causing the sludge and water to repeal from each other, creating a 7.9 percent solid. The result is thick enough to make a mud ball. What started out as 35,000 gallons of wastewater is reduced to 7,000 gallons of sludge by the time it leaves the gravity belt and is fed into one of four pits, each holding up to 12,000 gallons of sludge. Next, Hudgins and Wolfe don face masks to protect their skin as caustic granule lime is pulled down from a silo on the roof to mix with water. The liquid lime is then pumped into the four tanks holding the sludge. The masks do nothing to block the stench as the sludge is blended with the lime. Hudgins and Wolfe don't flinch. A novice could faint. For three hours, the mixture is churned until the sludge's biohazards are neutralized. Then it's held for an additional 22 hours before it's hauled once a week to sod farms. On Thursday, a tanker hauls off only 35,000 gallons of sludge from the Oldsmar plant - the eventual byproduct of nearly 12-million gallons of wastewater that flows in weekly. "When people go to the bathroom, they don't know where it goes," Hudgins said. "They just don't want it to come back at them." [Last modified April 24, 2007, 00:07:01] http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/24/Northpinellas/Where_it_all_goes_aft.shtml From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sat May 5 14:26:24 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 14:26:24 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Questioning the Compost Supply Chain - This recycling of wastes is risky Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This is a very important story. It summarizes the problem...companies paid to 'recycle' wastes with few if any quality standards. Its a recipe for disaster. .................................................... Questioning the compost supply chain As politicians increasingly use composting to solve municipal waste and recycling issues, what happens to the pesticides, herbicides and pharmaceuticals that may have gone into the mix along with the lettuce leaves Deborah K. Rich, Special to The Chronicle Saturday, May 5, 2007 If soil, which breaks down fallen plant and animal materials, can be likened to the Earth's liver, then composting is becoming the liver of modern society -- tasked with processing and reducing lawn clippings, food scraps, manure and sewage. Given the chemicals we spray on our lawns, feed our livestock and swallow to keep us happy and functioning, are we asking too much of our collective microbial liver? Can composting detoxify chemicals, or are we spreading heavy metals, pesticides and drug residues in our gardens? The answers to these questions are uncertain. Composting is the mixing and management of organic waste (plant and animal materials and byproducts) to achieve ratios of carbon to nitrogen that accelerate and maximize microbial degradation of organic matter. By harnessing the power of microbes, municipalities can reduce and recycle plant and animal waste even where land and time are too scarce to accommodate the soil's comparatively slow rate of decomposition. "By composting, you are duplicating what nature would do given the chance," says Dale Arnold, director of quality control and research at Kellogg Garden Products. Kellogg sells compost and other soil amendments to 3,500 independent retail nurseries, as well as Home Depot and Lowe's. "Nature takes a long, long time to make compost. All we're doing is speeding up that natural cycle." Yard trimmings, wood waste from construction, animal manure, agricultural byproducts and biosolids from sewage treatment plants are the primary feedstock for the roughly 170 composters and waste processors that operate in California. All are valuable sources of carbon and plant nutrients, and these materials, once composted, can be used to maintain and improve soil health and productivity. Adding composted organic materials to soil improves soil fertility and structure, thereby lessening dependence on synthetic nitrogen and counterbalancing the heavy drawdown of nutrients and the successive degradation of soils that result from continuous farming and gardening. Soils high in organic matter are more porous, more drought resistant and less prone to erosion than are soils lacking organic matter. Chemicals remain Often these feedstock materials enter the composting process still laden with chemicals. Yet standards for finished compost, which vary from state to state, generally require regular testing only for heavy metals and pathogen indicators. Seldom do states ask that producers test their compost for residual pesticide or pharmaceutical compounds. Unlike farmers composting manure and plant residues for their own use, gardeners purchasing compost at a nursery seldom know what went into the compost, where the feedstock came from or what chemicals were on them. "Compost," says William Brinton, founder and president of Woods End Laboratories in Maine and a pioneer of modern compost production and testing systems in the United States, "has become anonymous and untraceable; a single compost product can now contain a mixture of unknown ingredients from all over a county or a state." The compost supply chain is poised to become even more difficult to trace as city and state politicians turn to composting as a means to meet their solid-waste reduction goals. "Composting now is being driven by recycling mandates set by politicians," Brinton says. "When I got my start in the composting world in the '70s, our motivation was to create products that nourished the soil. That was the goal, and then we worked backwards and asked how do we take ingredients like manure and crop residues and make wonderful compost for the soil? "Now it's the cart pulling the horse: The recycling cart is pulling the compost horse. I'm not saying the goals of making good soil amendments and recycling are incompatible. I'm saying that this sets up the challenge to maintain the integrity of compost, a challenge that will become more intense as the industry grows even larger." Aside from the standards set by the National Organic Program for compost used in organic food production systems, national standards exist only for composts made from solids captured in the treatment of sewage at municipal wastewater treatment facilities. In 1993, the EPA developed heavy metals and pathogen standards that sewage solids -- also known as sewage sludge or biosolids -- must meet before they can be spread on land. Subsequently, these same standards were extended to compost made from biosolids and sold to wholesalers and retailers. The California Integrated Waste Management Board regulates composting in the state and requires that all compost produced in California meet the heavy metal and pathogen indicator standards set by the EPA for biosolids, regardless of feedstock source. California does not require testing for chemical residues such as pesticides, antibiotics or hormones. Heavy metals, many of which -- like lead, arsenic and cadmium -- are toxic to humans at low levels, aren't subject to microbial degradation in soil or compost systems. Preventing their buildup in soil requires restricting how much is added to the soil in biosolids, compost or any other soil treatment. Some scientists are concerned whether heavy metals standards developed for land application of biosolids are appropriate for compost because compost is often applied at much higher rates than those allowed for sewage sludge. "I think it is a very different story when you are applying compost heavily over a short term than when you are applying smaller amounts of sewage sludge over the long term because the bioavailability of these compounds is very different when they're freshly applied and fresh material," says Tom Richard of the department of agricultural and biological engineering at Pennsylvania State University. "There is a lot of organic-matter cycling going on, and these minerals will go through more available phases as they cycle round." To qualify for unrestricted use on organic farms, compost must have lead, cadmium and arsenic levels two to four times below those permitted by EPA standards for the highest-quality biosolids. Drugs break down Unlike heavy metals, human and animal drugs have been repeatedly shown to break down in both soil and compost. "In general, drugs, once they hit manure, are metabolized relatively quickly," says Michael Payne, dairy program coordinator for the Western Institute of Food Safety and Security. "When you add a proper compost step, you even accelerate that because of the heat." A recent study of composting examined its ability to break down 10 pharmaceutical and personal-care product residues in biosolids collected from a wastewater treatment plant in San Diego. Fatih B?y?ks?nmez, of San Diego State University's department of civil and environmental engineering, found that composting for 45 days reduced residues of 9 out of 10 products by at least 85 percent. Hormone residue in sewage and animal waste appears to be similarly reduced by the composting process; they are natural compounds and highly susceptible to microbial degradation. But how low a level of hormone residue is safe is unclear. Scientists are finding that even very low levels of hormones -- washed into streams in municipal and dairy wastewater -- can significantly affect fish and amphibians. Research is also linking hormones to increases in a variety of human diseases, including some cancers. A study published in 2005 by Heldur Hakk of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service found that composting reduced the incidence of estrogen (17B-estradiol) and testosterone in chicken manure by 84 to 90 percent in 139 days. In his discussion of results, Hakk cautions that the rate of hormone degradation will be affected by how well the compost is aerated, and by the moisture level, porosity and particle size of the compost. Time makes a big difference Time, says Brinton of Woods End Laboratories, is another key variable in the reduction of hormones through composting, and of antibiotics and other drugs as well. "If you use very short turnaround systems, the breakdown of these drugs is a concern,'' Brinton says. "Most composters are composting 60 days at least, and some composters are waiting six to eight months because they know the compost only gets better and better. Every once in a while I hear of a five-day compost system, and that's just not long enough. Most states say you can meet EPA law in five days with in-vessel composting, or 15 days for other systems, but then you need to store it for 30 days. So some safeguard is built in." Scientists probably have a better understanding of how pesticides break down during composting than they do of any other class of man-made chemicals. When interest in composting yard waste as a means of keeping it out of landfills surged in the late 1980s, many state and local public agencies studied how well composting reduced pesticide residue. Compost pesticide residue consistently proved to be so low that most composters today only occasionally conduct tests to verify that pesticide residue is reduced to the point where the compost will not be toxic to plants. But the low incidence of pesticides in compost isn't proof that compost can handle society's worst chemicals. The successful elimination of pesticide residue in compost is due at least as much to regulatory action as it is to microbial activity. Since the 1970s, the EPA has banned or restricted use of pesticides that persist in the environment. Chlorinated compounds, like DDT, resist microbial breakdown in both soil and compost. The food residue thresholds authorized by the EPA for each pesticide help as well, placing, by default, a ceiling on the amount of pesticide entering composting systems. The safeguards aren't foolproof. In 1999, 2000 and 2001, clopyralid -- an herbicide used to control broad-leaved weeds in turfgrass, and hay, wheat and other crops -- persisted in composted lawn clippings at levels high enough to cause damage to garden and nursery plants in eastern Washington and Idaho. Studies found not only that clopyralid breaks down very slowly in compost, but also that it is highly toxic to some plants, including sunflowers, legumes, tomatoes and potatoes, even at residue levels well below those allowed for use on turf and grass crops. Washington and California banned the use of clopyralid on residential lawns and restricted use of clopyralid by commercial applicators in 2002. Since then, no further damage from clopyralid residues in compost has been reported. Even with pesticides that break down rapidly in compost, questions remain. Only a small amount of pesticide "disappearance" during composting is due to mineralization, whereby the compound is reduced to water and other inorganic compounds. Much of the pesticide volatilizes, vaporizing into a gas. Depending upon the compound, the vaporized pesticide may or may not pose environmental risks. Another large portion of the pesticide is absorbed (or bound) to organic matter in the compost. While bound, the pesticide is unavailable for uptake by plants; however, as the organic matter breaks down further over time, the pesticide may again become bioavailable. As our dependence on compost to both reduce our organic wastes as well as to maintain the health of our soils grows, composting without a more complete understanding of the fate of chemicals in compost becomes increasingly risky. "I believe that composting is the best tool that we have for handling many of the different types of organic materials that we use," says Richard of Pennsylvania State University. "It can reduce their impact significantly and at lower cost than other options that we have, and we really do need to have a society that does a better job of recycling its organic matter. "But we need to look pretty hard at a lot of these different compounds. We are depending on composting to handle increasing amounts of the 50 percent-plus of our waste stream that is organic. To not be studying these emerging questions seems to be pretty naive." Monterey writer Deborah K. Rich is a frequent contributor to Home&Garden. E-mail her at home at sfchronicle.com. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/05/HOGD3PJOUT1.DTL This article appeared on page F - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sat May 5 14:36:40 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 14:36:40 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Virginia looks at ecoli into waterways...neglects look at sludge Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Too bad they didn't look at the use of sludge on farmland as well. ...................................... DEQ lists ways to better protect area waterways Sarah Watson swatson at newsadvance.com Saturday, May 5, 2007 Click here for detailed maps of area watersheds There are three things anyone can do to help lower E. coli levels in area waterways: ensure septic systems are working properly, pick up pet waste and plant trees near streams whenever possible. That?s one of the messages Department of Environmental Quality officials shared Thursday night at a public meeting at the Lynchburg Public Library when they presented a draft study analyzing elevated E. coli levels in seven sub-watersheds feeding into the James River. ?Lots of times your septic system is failing and you don?t even know it,? DEQ coordinator Lauren Theodore said. ?If it?s not working, that water could be running into the creek that?s nearby.? The Total Maximum Daily Load study, which establishes the baseline level of pollutants that can be in a water body without going over state limits, was triggered several years ago when more than 10.5 percent of water tests came back with elevated E. coli amounts. Though the presence of E. coli doesn?t necessarily mean those exposed will get severely ill, there?s a strong correlation between seeing high rates of E. coli and incidence of gastrointestinal illnesses, DEQ coordinator Lauren Theodore said. Some of the efforts to lower E. coli levels in area watersheds include keeping livestock out of streams and continuing work on closing all combined sewer overflows, which allow raw sewage to pour into waterways after heavy rains, Theodore said. The presentation didn?t trigger a discussion on the CSO work in Lynchburg as Theodore hoped. Rather, several citizens from various localities asked if the study addressed the effects of biosolids, or treated sewage sludge used as fertilizer, on area waterways. Though biosolids use was calculated in the model, the amount of land in the study area where sewage sludge has been used was negligible compared to more urbanized problems, Theodore said. ?This is just the starting point, Theodore said. ?A lot of things are up to the community to decide what you want to do.? Water projects: Here are some of the other water quality projects around the area: ? Adrienne Averett, DEQ senior water supply planner, said the DEQ is working with localities to develop a regional water supply program. The goal is to establish a comprehensive planning tool to help local governments develop their own water supply plans by looking at current usage and ensuring water sources can support current and future use in a 30- to 50-year plan. ? Tim Mitchell, Lynchburg City Utilities director, said since starting the CSO project, 100 overflow sites have been closed and overflow volume has reduced by 80 percent. However, there are 32 overflow sites that still need closing and those are the most difficult and expensive to do. Closing all the CSO sites will not solve the bacteria problems in area waterways, but it will make a significant difference. ? Patricia Fitzsimmons, Lynchburg College professor and coordinator for the Blackwater Creek Watershed Planning Committee, said part of the planning committee?s work is to develop a watershed plan for the Blackwater Creek. The goal is to create a flexible document that localities and developers can use to help ease pressures on the Blackwater Creek watershed caused by growth. The plan is scheduled for completion in January. More information: ? To learn more about the DEQ?s Total Maximum Daily Load studies, go to: www.deq.virginia.gov/tmdl/mtgppt.html or www.deq.virginia.gov/tmdl/develop.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun May 6 01:06:53 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 06 May 2007 01:06:53 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> ONtario - Rothsay Rendering Sludge Stinks out Neighbours - In Truro NS, too Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Rothsay Rendering - owned by the self promoting folks at Maple Leaf Foods - has started stinking out the neighbours in Southern Ontario. They have been plaguing the neighbours in Lower Truro Nova Scotia for years now. Enough already ................................................................................ Clark cries foul over dumping of Rothsay sludge Councillor and ministry clash over legality of animal waste Richard Leitner, Mountain (Apr 13, 2007) Stoney Creek Councillor Brad Clark is vowing to fight an "illogical" Ministry of the Environment ruling that the Taro dump can accept animal-rendering sewage waste after recent shipments left neighbours gagging and heading indoors. "Since I got here, this was the No. 1 issue all of a sudden," he said. "No matter where you went in the community, everyone was talking about the smell." Taro voluntarily halted disposal of foul-smelling sewage sludge from the Rothsay animal rendering plant in Flamborough on March 28, when the ministry's on-site inspector returned from a two-day training course. Both Taro's owner, Newalta Industrial Services Inc., and ministry officials say the dump is legally permitted to take the waste, but stopped doing so because of odour complaints. Those complaining included Phil Robinson, who moved to the area last year and was overcome by the stench while riding his motorcycle on Mud Street. "You take 50 Johnny-on-the-spots, use them for a year without putting any chemical in it and open all the doors, and stand 50 people two feet away from it in the dead heat of summer, that's what it smelled like," he said. "I thought, 'How can people live across the street from this place?' It was nasty." Mr. Clark, who calls the ministry's interpretation of Taro's licence conditions "nonsense," said he will take up the matter with Environment Minister Laurel Broten and city council. The site's licence forbids the disposal of "putrescible waste." In his view, this clearly includes animal waste undergoing putrefaction -- or decomposition -- and emitting putrid odours. "Putrescible stuff is the stuff that really reeks. There's a clear clause in there," Mr. Clark said. "I don't know how they can possibly argue with any credibility that the company is currently in compliance with their (licence)," he said. "Come and knock on the doors in the community. Go door to door and tell them it's OK to take this waste. Tell the neighbours that. There's just no way." But Mark Dunn, acting district manager for the ministry's Hamilton office, said "putrescible waste" traditionally applies to kitchen-type food scraps. While Taro's licence forbids it from accepting municipal or domestic sewage waste, it is silent on commercial and industrial sewage, which means the site is allowed to take Rothsay's, he said. "Is it putrid by the Webster's (dictionary) definition? For sure, that's why the neighbours complained that it smelled," Mr. Dunn said. "But traditionally our definition of putrescible has usually meant things like your home-compost-type material, the stuff you'd find in domestic or commercial garbage that rots, like kitchen wastes," he said. "Again, in this case the odour was the issue. We said, 'Guys, this is causing a problem. Either you're going to have to find some way of addressing the odour or stop receiving it,' and it was decided they would stop receiving that material." Newalta's regional manager, Michael Jovanovic, said Taro had been taking "lagoon sludge" from Rothsay for several months, attributing the problem to a 17-tonne load received just before shipments were halted. The severity of the stench only became apparent the next day -- when the inspector returned -- and efforts to bury the waste were made more difficult because it had been spread over a larger area, he said. "The change in wind caused it to get away from us," said Mr. Jovanovic, who also rejects Mr. Clark's contention that the waste was putrescible and therefore barred under Taro's licence. "It was acceptable quality as far as the environmental quality is concerned, but obviously not acceptable from an odour perspective, as we have learned," he said. "We take these operational issues very seriously and we're making sure that we don't have this problem recur." But a First Road West resident who also complained said any time the prevailing southwest winds switch direction, the neighbourhood south of Mud Street is inundated with odours. Len Wise estimates he's complained 15 or 16 times in the past year. "They've been blaming mushroom farms and everybody else that they could blame it on except themselves," he said, describing the latest smell as "very putrid and very irritating." A resident in the area for more than 30 years, Mr. Wise said the ministry's response is consistent with Taro's controversial history, including its approval without public hearings and receipt of hazardous U.S. industrial sludge that prompted the province to change the law. "How many more loopholes do we want to put into this place?" he said, questioning how the ministry's on-site inspector can be away for two days without a replacement. "That is absolutely bizarre. OK, you send somebody away for a training course, great," he said. "(But) you don't let the site operate without that. That's the only protection we've got." http://www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/hmn/news/news_763465.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun May 6 02:07:03 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 06 May 2007 02:07:03 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Charleston West Virginia - sludge compost didn't work Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: It bunged up the equipment, stank, had restrictions on use, and plain didn't work out. Now Charleston makes compost with NO SLUDGE IN IT. Bravo. ............................................................................................... April 25, 2007 800 pounds for $12 Charleston selling its compost dirt cheap By Jim Balow Staff writer Gardeners, take note: If you?re looking for a cheap source of compost, the city of Charleston has a deal for you. Drive your pickup to the city?s composting facility off Hanna Drive in North Charleston ? assuming you can find the place ? and Dennis Holt or Cliff Lanham will be glad to dump a scoop of rich, black compost into the bed. An 800-pound load will set you back a mere $12. City officials held their first public compost sale Friday and plan to continue selling the stuff from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every Friday until the end of May or until the stockpile is gone. Longtime residents may remember that city-made compost has a less-than-ideal reputation. State environmental officials effectively blocked earlier plans to sell compost over concerns it wasn?t completely safe. Rest assured, that was the old compost, made with sludge from the North Charleston sewage treatment plant. The new compost is made entirely from ground-up leaves and wood chips that crews collect from across the city. ?We bring the raw material up here ? leaves, wood chips,? said Assistant Public Grounds Director Bill Shanklin. A mountain of mixed leaves and wood chips sits in one corner the property, the site of the sanitary board?s former composting plant. ?That pile, that?s just what we?ve picked up since Christmas,? Shanklin said. Beside it is a second, darker pile of rich, processed compost. Shanklin calls it compost mulch, because it?s a mixture of fully composted leaves and partially digested wood chips. Workers also run this mulch through a huge screening machine to remove all the chips, rocks and other foreign material, leaving a finely textured compost suitable for seedlings or spreading on lawns, he said. Though they?ve started making compost only since October, Public Grounds workers have produced a lot of it. ?We?ve used over 600,000 pounds in the city since January,? Shanklin said. ?Sometimes we?ll collect over 200,000 pounds of new material in the city in a week. The city will collect between 1.2 million and 2 million pounds of leaves a year.? Not all of it goes to North Charleston, though ? only the waste collected in nearby neighborhoods, City Manager David Molgaard said. The rest gets trucked to the city landfill near Kanawha City. In fact, until last fall, all yard waste was being dumped in the landfill, despite objections from the state Department of Environmental Protection, he said. ?We were under a DEP mandate to find an alternative way to dispose of our yard waste.? A long history of composting The city?s experiments, and troubles, with composting date back nearly 20 years. Dan Halloran, then manager of the Sanitary Board, was mixing sewage sludge with wood chips at Copenhaver Park as far back as 1989, mainly as a way to dispose of sludge from the sewer plant. The Sanitary Board went high-tech in 1996 when it invested $5.5 million in a composting machine. Mayor Kemp Melton opened the plant, housed in a 300-foot-long building, two years later. Though sewer rates were raised to pay for the plant, then-Councilman Dave Hardy predicted it would save money in the long run. But it didn?t. It never worked right. Halloran said Elk River mud from the water company?s treatment plant ruined the sludge, and new filters were bought. The mixer, sort of a giant rototiller, clogged on the gelatinous mix. By 2000, things were working well enough that the city was ready to begin selling sludge compost to the public, but the DEP imposed a number of restrictions. ?You couldn?t apply more than x number of pounds per acre,? Molgaard recalled. ?You couldn?t apply it within x number feet of a river. We were using it in our garden beds across the city.? The city ended up giving the stuff away, Molgaard said. City officials finally threw in the towel last year. ?The Sanitary Board was facing major repairs,? he said. ?They were losing I think $250,000 a year in operating the facility, because they have the option of taking their sludge to the landfill.? In exploring the city?s options for disposing of yard waste, Molgaard found the best choice was reopening the compost plant, but without the sludge. The city now leases it from the Sanitary Board for $1,000 a month. As in the past, city workers deposit raw materials in long bays inside the compost building, where giant pumps push air through from underneath to aerate the mixture. Instead of the broken agitator, they stir the piles with an endloader. Temperatures are kept at the ideal level, between 160 and 170 degrees F, to cook the bad microorganisms and release nutrients, Shanklin said. With little publicity, eight people showed up for the first compost sale Friday, he said. ?Mostly pickups, one dump truck. We took in $96.? If you don?t have a truck, you can bring a trash can or bucket and fill it yourself, he said. In setting the price this year, city officials weren?t trying to make money, Molgaard said. ?Part of that was to see how it would go and part of it was to clean out the bays and make room for next year. ?I haven?t done a cost-benefit analysis yet, checking the number of man-hours were spending up there. I know we have some equipment problems. I?m not sure we?re saving a lot of money. But it gives us efficiencies in collecting leaves. It?s giving us a product we can use for mulch and compost.? Shanklin says the compost beats artificial fertilizers. ?This is like applying an IV to the plant. It?s controlled release. It?s Mother Nature?s way of feeding plants.? To contact staff writer Jim Balow, use e-mail or call 348-5102. http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/News/2007042423 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun May 6 12:57:53 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 06 May 2007 12:57:53 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Scotland - old incinerator burning sludge pellets - waiting for new plant Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: In Europe, the dirty old incinerators are being phased out while new energy biomass plants with better pollution controls are built. The antique Scottish Longannet power plant is co-firing coal and sludge pellets and has very bad emissions. Scottish authorities have asserted that burning the sludge is less toxic in the environment than land application of the sludge - even if it means burning it in one of the most polluting facilities in Europe. They propose to continue the incineration at the old plant until a new cleaner plant is built. People are upset that the life of the toxic old incinerator will extend to 2010 but rural residents don't want to see any more land application. They have been looking at 400 tons of sludge per acre on forested lands, and they are disgusted. Scottish Water produces more than 110,000 tonnes of sewage sludge each year. 48% is converted to a fuel and used in electricity generation (all to Longannet) 27% is applied to non-agricultural land 23% is applied to agricultural land 2% is disposed of to landfill ..................................................... Taxpayers face massive legal bill over illegal burning of sewage By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor Leaked memo reveals watchdog and power firm are flouting law Sunday Herald May 6 2007 TAXPAYERS COULD be lumbered with a large legal bill because Scotland's environment watchdog is allowing 200,000 tonnes of sewage sludge to be illegally burned in a polluting power station. A secret Scottish Executive memo, leaked to the Sunday Herald, reveals that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has made a deal that enables sludge to be incinerated at Longannet power station for four years, in breach of European law. The memo, to the first minister Jack McConnell last year, warns that Scottish ministers risk being taken to court by the European Commission and landed with substantial costs as a result. advertisementThe revelations have provoked an angry response from environmentalists, who are demanding action from the incoming Scottish Executive. "Something really stinks about this whole situation, and it's not just the sewage," said Friends of the Earth Scotland. Half of Scotland's sewage sludge - 50,000 tonnes a year - is burned alongside coal at Longannet, near Kincardine on the Firth of Forth. The plant, run by Scottish Power, has long topped Scotland's pollution league, belching out tens of thousands of tonnes of toxins. The sludge is supplied by Scottish Water and turned into dried pellets at Scottish Power's Daldowie plant in Glasgow. Other sludge is spread on to land. Sludge-burning at Longannet became embroiled in a high-court battle in 2004 after Sepa alleged emissions breached European pollution limits. This was denied by Scottish Power. The argument hinged on whether the sludge pellets should be defined as waste under the European Waste Incineration Directive. The Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled the pellets were waste, and ordered Longannet to cease burning them by December 28, 2005. But Scottish Power appealed the ruling and carried on incinerating sludge at Longannet. On April 13, 2006, the company was served with an enforcement notice by Sepa which, instead of requiring the burning to stop, insisted progress was made on building a new, less-polluting power plant to take the sludge. ScottishPower has since applied for planning permission for the new plant to be built at Longannet. The original aim was to have it up and running in 2009, but that has now slipped to 2010. The leaked memo to McConnell from a senior executive official explains the deal done by Sepa and Scottish Power. In exchange for Sepa allowing time for a plant to be built, the company would take no action on its legal appeal, and "drop it at an appropriate point", the memo said. But this could "expose Scotland and the UK to infraction proceedings" from the European Commission, the memo warned. "We have discussed this course of action with Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), who are supportive but emphasised that, should infraction proceedings be taken, Scotland would be liable for any costs." Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "This cosy little arrangement could end up costing the Scottish taxpayer many thousands of pounds." He pointed out that Sepa and ScottishPower had known for seven years that burning the sewage was illegal. "Scotland deserves a modern sewage management system that recovers the nutrients and energy without putting health and the environment at risk. Sepa must drive that transition as fast as possible, not turn a blind eye to illegal practices." Sepa denied collaborating with Scottish Power to break the law. The action it had taken requiring an update on progress with the new plant every three months was "appropriate and proportionate", said a Sepa spokeswoman. "It is considered that presently there is not an environmentally better option to deal with the quantity of sludge involved. Sepa is continually monitoring that position and the operations of the site." Scottish Power agreed that continued sludge-burning at Longannet was "the best practical environmental option for the immediate future". A spokesman added: "The new plant, going through the planning process, will provide a long-term, secure and sustainable solution for the disposal of sewage while supplying green energy and helping meet renewable targets." http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1379943.0.taxpayers_face_massive_legal_bill_over_illegal_burning_of_sewage.php From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun May 6 13:10:55 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 06 May 2007 13:10:55 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> California - School contaminated with vinyl chloride -soil and groundwater plume Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: There are more and more concerns about school contamination. Schools are using sewage sludge on playing fields. In many parts of the US and Canada areas designated for suburban development are heavily sludged just a year or two before the houses are constructed. These subdivisions and their schools are being built on top of tons of sludge. There are lawsuits related to sludge contamination in subdivisions in a number of states in the USA. The Norco school case below speaks to the need to do a full environmental assessment near waste facilities. What is being done for students and teachers who are now exposed to these toxins? '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' California Norco High contamination mystery lingers; no problems found at other schools To Download story podcast go to: http://www.pe.com/localnews/coronaarea/stories/PE_News_Local_C_gas21.ac3e03.html 10:00 PM PDT on Friday, April 20, 2007 By PAIGE AUSTIN The Press-Enterprise Parents, students and teachers can breathe easier, knowing that common construction materials are not releasing a cancer-causing gas into classrooms, officials with the Corona-Norco Unified School District said Friday. Preliminary test results from indoor air samples taken at Corona High School and El Cerrito Middle School do not show levels of the carcinogen vinyl chloride, said Ted Rozzi, the district's assistant superintendent for facilities. The tests commissioned by the district last month were the first major efforts nationwide to test vinyl tiles, carpets and wall coverings for links to cancer-causing indoor pollution in public buildings. If the district had found traces of vinyl chloride in the air, the findings would have had major public-health effects. This week's findings suggest that there is not a widespread health threat from building materials, but it also leaves school and state officials wondering why vinyl chloride gas has been found in the air at Norco High School. "This is good news. I'd rather be dealing with a unique situation at one school than to discover that we have a widespread problem," said school board member Bill Hedrick. "We're back to wrestling with why (the contamination) is at Norco High School." The findings were pretty predictable, said Hedrick, who has long maintained that the indoor air pollution is likely linked to underground contamination from the nearby Wyle Labs hazardous-waste site. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control found the contamination at Norco High while investigating pollution from Wyle Labs, which is across the street from the school. Wyle Labs, which closed two years ago, tested military products, electronics and parts for rocket engines and space shuttles at the site for about 47 years. The state had traced a plume of soil and groundwater pollution from Wyle to the surrounding residential neighborhood and below portions of the high school. Trichloroethylene, also known as TCE, is the main contaminant in the plume. TCE, a banned industrial solvent, breaks down into vinyl chloride, and that fact led state officials to suspect that the underground plume could be linked to the indoor air gas. However, state officials were unable to link the school's indoor pollution to the plume, prompting them to speculate that the building materials were to blame. The district ran tests at the two other schools because they have buildings that were erected about the same time as the affected building at Norco High School using the same materials. Working with state officials, the district plans to continue testing at Norco High School to find the source of the problem, said Rozzi. They will test indoor air in the school's science building early next month to see whether the building's ventilation system is properly dispersing the gas, he said. In June, the state will conduct another round of underground testing to try to link the plume to the indoor air pollution. Susie Wong, a spokeswoman for the Department of Toxic Substances Control, said department officials have not yet seen the test results from Corona High and El Cerrito Middle schools and cannot comment on them. Although officials are no closer to identifying the cause of the problem at Norco High School, Hedrick says he has no regrets about spending the time and energy testing the building materials in other schools. "We bring all of these students together, and I think we need to have a high standard to ensure their safety," he said. "(Vinyl chloride) is not a chemical you want around if you can avoid it. I think we will continue to try to mitigate it and discover the cause." The levels of vinyl chloride inside Norco High School are not high enough to pose a health risk to students, but they could slightly increase the cancer risk to employees who work in the contaminated areas for decades, said state officials overseeing the Wyle cleanup effort. In all likelihood, the indoor air contamination is coming from the plume, said Mike Schade, the polyvinyl chloride campaign coordinator for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. The center is a nonprofit organization that works with communities dealing with hazardous building materials as well as waste sites where underground pollution seeps indoors by a process called vapor intrusion. Schade called on state and school district officials to continue investigating the source of contamination at Norco High School in order to eliminate it. http://www.pe.com/localnews/coronaarea/stories/PE_News_Local_C_gas21.ac3e03.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun May 6 13:22:09 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 06 May 2007 13:22:09 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Tom Linzey - Democracy School Message-ID: Turning Defense into Offense: Challenging Corporations and Creating Self-Governance by Tom Linzey It?s rare that someone comes along and tells us emphatically that we activists no longer have to keep banging our heads. Linzey has a solution. You may not like what you hear because we may have to give up hope in order to get there. But I and many others think he?s right on target and ought to be listened to. Excerpted from a speech at the recent October, 2006 Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, CA. After ceding our authority to decide whether the Monsanto or Weyerhaeuser Corporation will tinker with genetic codes of life or buzz-saw their way through old growth forest ecosystems, and exchanging it for a regulatory process that assumes that they will, but merely regulates how fast, the wonder is not that things have gotten worse, but that things aren?t worse than they are. So why has our activism failed so miserably to not only build the world that we want, but even to draw a line in the sand to keep things from getting worse? Perhaps it is because our activism is built, tooth and nail, on one critical and most times, completely unquestioned assumption. That unquestioned assumption, a box within which we?ve constructed our activism over the past four decades, is the assumption that we actually live in a democracy. That is, we assume that we live in a country where it actually matters what majorities of people think and want; where it actually matters what a majority of people within a given community think and want. It is that assumption that hardwires our organizing the assumption that the fundamental governing structure under which we live, actually recognizes, and is dictated by, the will of majorities. It is that assumption that determines that our activism will be sufficient if we merely perfect our roles as regulators, consumers, and investors. That if we just get enough people to write letters to congress, that if we just get enough people to attend a hearing or protest, that if we just get enough people to buy the right stuff, or invest in the right stuff, that we?ll force those who actually run this country to reverse course. In other words, in assuming that we live in a democracy, we mistakenly tailor our strategies and our tactics towards mobilizing people in the same tired old ways that have now failed for close to half a century. Perhaps, just perhaps, we?re in this mess today not only because we don?t live in a democracy, but we find ourselves in this mess because we?ve never had a democracy in this country. Indeed, perhaps the corporate cultural IV in our arms has been working so well that it?s hard for us to even imagine what self-government would look like. As a result, we tangle ourselves further each year by continuing to define the nature of the problems we face as the projects themselves that we seek to oppose: thus, we define the problem as aerial herbicide spraying in Alaska; or a toxic waste incinerator being built in Ohio; or sewage sludge being dumped in Berks County, Pennsylvania. In defining the problem as the project itself, we then gather people who care or we work to convince people that they should care - in the belief that if we just mobilize enough people that the decision-makers will take note and the project will be stopped. In short, we assume that it matters that community majorities don?t want the spraying, incinerators, or the sludge. *** Community majorities are overridden on a daily basis. Regulatory agencies legalize projects and actions that communities don?t want. Zoning and land use ordinances are routinely overridden by judicial doctrines like the Fair Share Doctrine in which courts can throw out zoning and land use ordinances if those laws don?t allow for the communities fair share of development as compared to communities next door; local laws are routinely nullified that conflict with state and federal laws. And when communities really try to practice democracy, and refuse to swallow what they?ve been given, corporate managers write new preemptive laws and use the state legislatures to nullify community lawmaking. When state legislatures get out of hand, they use the federal government to preempt the state legislature. When national governments get out of hand, they use international trade agreements to preempt them. What wasn?t so clear to me, at least, was how that structure of law became like a dead hand from the past, ending up insulating agribusiness corporations and the small number of people running them - against community majorities in rural Pennsylvania. To my surprise, it turned out that the only thing jettisoned by the American Revolution was the king. The English structure of law, on the other hand, was heartily embraced by those drafting the U.S. Constitution many of whom were lawyers, of course, in the finest English traditions who revered English Law. And so, that body of law, forged in the fires of expanding an empire while protecting minority rule at home, was thus hardwired into the fundamental governing document of this country, the U.S. Constitution. Now that?s an astonishing proposition to some, but not to our folks in Pennsylvania who are being hit upside the head with that structure of law on a daily basis. Something in that proposition has made deep sense to them, especially when they listened to what some of the founding fathers had to say about it. Listen to James Madison, generally regarded as the architect of the constitution who bluntly stated:. ?Our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. . . It ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority?. Madison, again: ?The states ought to be placed under the control of the general government at least as much so as they were formerly under the king and British parliament?. The courts tell us that garbage is interstate commerce, that corporate pork production is interstate commerce, that cell phone towers are interstate commerce, and that production and distribution of toxics are interstate commerce. . Under the commerce clause, exercising local, democratic control over those industries can not only get you sued, but forced to pay future lost profits to waste, agribusiness, telecommunications, and other corporations. In addition to the Commerce Clause, the constitution now shields corporations under the 1st Amendments free speech protections (thus enabling corporate advertising to frame issues before anyone even decides to run for office); shields corporations from surprise regulatory inspections as unreasonable searches and seizures under the 4th Amendment; requires governments to pay corporations for the impact of health and safety laws under the 5th Amendment; and now cloaks corporations with the fundamental rights and protections of Equal Protection and due process under the 14th Amendment. It?s no wonder that some anti-federalists, challenging the ratification of the constitution itself in the late 1700s, declared that the plan of governance it set forth was nothing less than a plan for a global economic empire that would commence in a moderate aristocracy, eventually swallowing up every other government on the continent. So what does all of that have to do with the mess that were in today? Well, as it turns out, everything: whenever we try to fix the mess, we run not only into our courts, the legislatures, and our culture being wielded by a corporate minority against us, we also run smack into the ultimate trump card; the Constitution itself. In 2004, I stood on this stage and told a Bioneers crowd how a hundred small, rural, conservative Pennsylvania townships, targeted for hog factory farms in their communities, had begun to take aim directly at the four corporations that control over sixty-five percent of pork production in the United States. I told the story of how those communities reframed the problem away from the air and water pollution and property devaluation caused by factory farms indeed, away from factory farms themselves - reframing the problem as the corporatization of agriculture, and the elevation of the rights of those corporations over the rights of those communities. I told the story of how some of those communities followed the lead of nine mid-western states and began passing laws banning agribusiness corporations from farming in essence, prohibiting those corporations and the few who run them from defining what farming would look like within those communities. In a very real way, they acted to replace corporate minority decision-making with community self-government. I told the story of other communities who watched as two children died in Pennsylvania after being exposed to land applied sewage sludge, and who began passing local laws that prohibited sludge corporations from operating in their communities. . All together, over 300,000 people are now living under new governing frameworks we?ve drafted with them. In passing those laws, all of those communities crossed a line a line that has been carefully etched by a corporate minority who have used the law to place all real decision-making and thus all real governing - beyond the authority of we the people. As they watched, people in these communities saw the Pennsylvania Legislature work overtime, on behalf of the agribusiness industry, drafting state legislation to preempt the anti-corporate farming and anti-corporate sludge ordinances communities had adopted. For over five years, those communities joined hands with each other to stop those bills aimed at nullifying their local laws. In support, our organization led a statewide coalition of environmental, labor, municipal, and farm groups to run interference for those communities. Together, we successfully kept that republican-driven legislation from becoming law each legislative session from 2000 to 2005. All of that changed, however, when a liberal democrat from Philadelphia became Pennsylvania?s governor. Governor Eddie Rendell quickly known in our circles as Fast Eddie - pulled something off that even the republicans couldn?t for those five years. He put together a coalition of legislators that passed a bill even worse than the bills we had beaten back. His bill authorized the Pennsylvania Attorney General to sue our local townships to overturn their ordinances. Five months ago, the Attorney General filed the first lawsuits against four townships under Rendell?s law. Now, when the power and authority of the state from the governor?s office to the Attorney General?s office to the offices? of their legislators all join together to override lawmaking by majorities, it doesn?t take belief in a Tom Linzey or a Richard Grossman to figure out that something is fundamentally illegitimate in a system in which our own governmental institutions are almost always on the side of property, commerce, and corporations; and almost never on the side of local control, rights, communities, and nature. That structure can?t be deemed a democracy. It can, however, be rightly defined as a corporate state. The prospect that we actually live in a corporate state and not a democracy is now dawning on community leaders and elected officials across rural Pennsylvania. *** To which I explain that if we truly live in a corporate state and I think the data is pretty much in on that one and the constitution is the trump card used like rebar to support this concrete structure of law, then our work must focus on actually replacing our Property and Commerce Constitution with a Rights and Nature Constitution. Otherwise, I explain, we will always be beaten by the constitutional trump card plunked down last by a corporate few. Which is usually where my lawyer friends the ones that I have left - run away as fast as they can. But folks in rural Pennsylvania aren?t running away. Instead, they?re turning directly into the storm - not because were telling them that they should, but because they?ve seen how the system works, and understand that creating a new system is the only option they have left. It is thus disobedience born from desperation. *** Yes, people are taking self-governance very seriously in the Keystone State. They?re challenging you to get serious with them. On September 19th, Tamaqua Borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, via Ordinance Number 612, became the first municipality to adopt a new generation ordinance, becoming the first municipality in the United States to recognize the rights of ecosystems and natural communities. On September 27th, Rush Township in Schuylkill County became the second. On October 16th, Blaine Township in Washington County became the third. In addition to those new generation ordinances, some Pennsylvanians have begun to recognize the need to do battle with a property and commerce constitution by writing their own rights and nature constitutions. Several communities have now taken the first steps to write those constitutions under Pennsylvania?s home rule laws. Two weeks from now, the residents of St. Thomas Township, Franklin County; and West Pike land Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania will be voting on whether to create a new constitution for their municipality one that may fundamentally challenge current constitutional underpinnings. All of those efforts across Pennsylvania are being supported by, and driven by, our Daniel Pennock Democracy Schools named in honor of Danny Pennock, a boy who died after being exposed to sewage sludge in Central Pennsylvania. Our three-day activist training schools are now open at a dozen locations across the United States. In response to requests from community activists energized by this work, we recently hosted our first annual campaign school in New York?s Hudson Valley two months ago, with attendees from Virginia, Alaska, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and California. That gathering is now helping to give birth to new campaigns that reframe problems and design new strategies that take aim at the corporate state. In response to requests from institutional and individual philanthropists, we?re also hosting our First Funders Democracy School Retreat in Southwestern Virginia the second week of November. Where will all of this lead? I believe that we are lending support to the first stirrings of a real peoples? movement that is seeking to establish a rights and nature jurisprudence a structure of law that places the rights of people, communities, and nature above the claimed rights of property, commerce, and empire. Eventually, it may result in five hundred to a thousand Pennsylvania communities writing new governing structures which may, in turn, drive a rewrite of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Those communities will then join hands with others in other states to drive a rewrite of the federal constitution. Crazy? Maybe, but I ask myself what?s the alternative? Watching this planet continue to implode. It?s not work for the fainthearted. Many of our friends in Pennsylvania are putting their reputations, their families, and in some cases, their lives on the line. In those places, they?ve given up hope that the legislature will help them, that the courts will help them, that environmental groups will help them, or that state agencies will help them. Instead, they?ve turned to the same place that the abolitionists and suffragists turned, to the same place that the populist farmers of the 1890s and the American revolutionaries turned to themselves and to each other. Giving up hope that someone else will save them thus is becoming a beginning, not an end. As author Derrick Jensen put it recently in an article entitled ?Beyond Hope?: A wonderful thing happens when you give up on hope, which is that you realize that you never needed it in the first place. You realize that giving up on hope didn?t kill you. It didn?t even make you less effective. In fact, it made you more effective because you ceased relying on someone or something else to solve your problems you ceased hoping your problems would somehow get solved through the magical assistance of God, the Great Mother, the Sierra Club, valiant tree sitters, brave salmon, or even the earth itself and you just begin doing whatever it takes to solve those problems yourself. When you give up on hope, something even better happens than it not killing you, which is that in some sense it does kill you. You die. And there?s a wonderful thing about being dead, which is that they those in power cannot really touch you anymore. Not through promises, not through threats, not through violence itself. . . When you give up on hope, you turn away from fear. And when you quit relying on hope, and instead begin to protect the people, things, and places you love, you become very dangerous indeed to those in power. In case you?re wondering, Jensen writes, giving up hope can be a very good thing. Reprinted with permission from Tom Linzey. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 7 11:57:26 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 07 May 2007 11:57:26 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Making a Buck from Drying Muck - Environgain Message-ID: Making a buck with muck Environgain develops and commercializes solutions and technologies allowing companies and towns to reduce and reuse organic waste MARK CARDWELL, Freelance Published: Monday, May 07, 2007 People in businesses large and small are discovering that their customers want the products they buy to be produced in more environmentally sustainable ways. Green Entrepreneurs looks at how companies are responding to the demand and profiting from it. LEVIS - Cleaning up animal manure, human waste and industrial sludge is a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it. That would be Camil Dutil. Email to a friend Printer friendly Font: ****As a co-owner of Environgain, a technological company that develops and commercializes solutions and technologies for the treatment and reuse of organic material, he makes it his business to transform gross, oozing muck into material that is both environmentally friendly and less costly to treatment plant owners and operators. Founded in 1999 and located on the outskirts of this small city directly opposite Quebec City on the St. Lawrence River, Environgain's dozen employees have developed, in partnership with a half-dozen Quebec research centres and universities, several patented and patent-pending innovative technologies for the treatment and reuse of effluents and waste. The company's star product is called FEOS, an integrated and multi-step process of bio-drying and drying that transforms 20 per cent or more of "rough biomass" - a gentler name for poop and other stinky matter - into clean, deodorized material that can be used for fertilizer. According to Dutil - who recently concluded a $1-million sale of FEOS to a slaughterhouse in Bretagne, France, where it will be counted on to eliminate pathogens from dead animal gunk and diminish the noxious odours for the benefits of nearby residents - the key to the system's success is bio-drying. In a nutshell, FEOS's patent-pending bio-drying process allows heat to be recuperated during the drying process, resulting in a reduction of up to 85 per cent in the amount of energy needed to dry biosolids compared with conventional thermal drying methods. In addition to huge energy savings, the system also has the added advantage of capturing - and eliminating - pollutants that contribute to greenhouse gases. "It really sets us apart from the competition," said Dutil, an agricultural engineer and agronomist who spent a dozen years running the civil engineering department of respected Quebec City engineering firm BPR before hooking up with Yves Comeau, an agricultural research scientist at Montreal's Ecole polytechnique, to found Environgain. "We spent a lot of time and money developing it." While FEOS is Envirogain's most promising product (the sale in France was its third, although another $1-million deal in Quebec is now being finalized), the company's team and its scientific partners, such as the Research and Development Institute for the Agri-Environment (IRDA) and agricultural scientists at the universities of Laval and Sherbrooke, have developed several other marketable technologies. One is Biofertile F, a comprehensive approach for the economic management, treatment and odour reduction of heavy-loaded effluents like manure and municipal and industrial sludge. In particular, the automated, low- energy system guarantees the elimination of 99 per cent of environmentally destructive chemicals and compounds like nitrogen and phosphorous from animal, human and industrial waste, mud and sludge. Another product - Gestube - was developed and manufactured by Envirogain, but is distributed and sold by another small firm that specializes in farm supplies. According to Dutil, the product is an economical commodity that allows small towns and large farms to filter sludge and waste cheaply. Then there's Polypur, a project that is being developed with the assistance of Polytechnique and which uses an automated electric-chemical system to eliminate pathogens, suspended solids and other harmful bacteria and chemicals like phosphorus from waste water, allowing it to be disinfected and reused. Once developed, the system is expected to generate less sludge than conventional physical-chemical treatments and requires low operating and maintenance costs. "(Polypur) is very promising because most municipalities are having a tough time meeting the increasingly tough standards being imposed on them," Dutil said. "There's a huge potential market there, but R&D is very, very expensive. "The bottom line," he added, "is that you have to put faith in your knowledge and abilities - and keep working." http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=0d348dba-b432-401f-a02c-7896d628466f&k=19018 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 7 14:43:19 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 07 May 2007 14:43:19 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Toilet paper toils - and spoils Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: What this story (and Greenpeace) miss is the whole idea of 'green production'. European paper companies when with a 'green production' manufacturing method that doesn't rely on toxic processes and chemicals to make paper. Instead, North America went with processes that require toxic chemicals to make virgin paper and to make deinked recycled paper. Cutting down trees isn't the only environmental footprint that matters. The placement of industrial sludges on farmlands and gullies as 'soil ammendments', 'gun berms', 'sound berms', 'dust suppressants', or 'roadside fill' transfers heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, endocrine disruptors, and volatile organics and dioxins into the environment. .......................................................... Toilet paper toils TRALEE PEARCE >From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Toronto April 25, 2007 Sheryl Crow kicked up a storm last week when she urged her blog readers to restrict themselves to a single square of toilet paper per restroom visit, "...except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two to three could be required." Now, Ms. Crow says, "It was a joke." But she raised a good point, says Christy Ferguson, a forest campaigner working out of Greenpeace's Toronto office. Ms. Ferguson's team is preparing for the upcoming annual general meeting of Kimberly Clark - the world's largest manufacturer of tissue products - where Greenpeace plans to urge the company to wean itself off virgin tree fibre in favour of recycled. "Reducing use is always a good idea, but we have to look at where these products are coming from," says Ms. Ferguson, whose office wall is hung with a poster that says: "It takes 90 years to grow a roll of toilet paper." BY THE NUMBERS Average number of sheets per bathroom visit: 8.6 Average squares consumed per person over a year: 20,805 Number of tonnes of facial tissue and toilet paper used by Canadians each year: 700,000 Number of kilograms per Canadian in a year: 22 Number of tonnes of virgin tree fibre used by Kimberly Clark annually, in millions: 3.1 Portion of that tree fibre cut down in Canada: almost one-quarter Number of trees that would be saved if every Canadian home switched just one roll of toilet paper to a 100 per cent recycled brand: 47,000 Annual value of Canadian toilet paper sales, millions of dollars: 778. 9 Sources: toiletpaperworld.com, Greenpeace Canada and Euromonitor From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 7 14:59:22 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 07 May 2007 14:59:22 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Australian website on biomass Message-ID: >From Lori McGee lorimcgee at hotmail.com The RISE program at the University of Murdoch in Perth, AU looks like an interesting program and its website is worth visiting. What follows is a reproduction of their section on biomass with regard to MSW ......... Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Millions of tonnes of household waste are collected each year, with the vast majority disposed of in landfill dumps. The composition of MSW varies according to the location and type of the collection service. In 1994, the average composition of Australian MSW was found to be 46% putrecibles (decaying organic matter), 24% paper, 26% plastic, glass and metal, and 4% "other" (ERDC, 1994). The biomass resource in this MSW comprises the putrecibles, paper and plastic and averages 80% of the total MSW collected. Municipal solid waste can be converted into energy by direct combustion, or by natural anaerobic digestion in the landfill. In Australia there are a number of landfill gas plants. At these landfill sites the gas produced by the natural decomposition of MSW (approximately 50% methane and 50% carbon dioxide) is collected from the stored material and scrubbed and cleaned before feeding into internal combustion engines or gas turbines to generate heat and power. There are 9 landfill gas plants currently in operation or under construction (see Table 4). Table 4 Western Australia?s Landfill gas production (courtesy of the Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy). Sewage Sewage is a source of biomass energy that is very similar to the other animal wastes previously mentioned, the only difference being that it has been treated in developed countries for many years. Energy can be extracted from sewage using anaerobic digestion to produce biogas. The sewage sludge that remains can then be incinerated or undergo pyrolysis to produce more biogas and 'bio-oil'. In Western Australia the Water Corporation?s Woodman Point has three 600 kW turbines that run on biogas produced from Perth?s wastewater, giving a total rated capacity of 1.8 MW (see Figure 11). Figure 11 The 38 meter high anaerobic digester at Woodman Point South of Perth produces around 14 000m3 of biogas per day (courtesy of the Water Corporation). Biomass Use Modern biomass now represents only 3% of primary energy consumption in industrialised countries (Ramage & Scurlock 1996), and this value has remained steady over recent years. However, much of the rural population in developing countries, which represents about 50% of the world?s population are reliant on traditional biomass, mainly in the form of wood for fuel. Traditional biomass accounts for 35% of primary energy consumption in developing countries, raising the world total to 14% of primary energy consumption (Ramage & Scurlock 1996). The Earth's natural biomass replacement represents an energy supply of around 3 Zettajoules (3 x 1021 J) a year, of which just under 2% is currently (1998) used as fuel. It is not possible, however, to use all of the annual production of biomass in a sustainable manner. One analysis carried out by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) estimates that biomass could potentially supply about half of the present world primary energy consumption by the year 2050 (Ramage & Scurlock 1996). The Future for Biomass In the future, biomass has the potential to provide a cost-effective and sustainable supply of energy, while at the same time aiding countries to meet their greenhouse gas reduction targets under international agreements. By the year 2050, it is estimated that 90% of the world population will live in developing countries (Ramage & Scurlock 1996). It is critical therefore that the biomass processes used in these countries are sustainable. The modernisation of biomass technologies, leading to more efficient biomass production and conversion, is one possible direction for biomass use in these countries. In industrialised countries, the main biomass processes utilised in the future are expected to be the direct combustion of residues and wastes for electricity generation, bio-ethanol and biodiesel as liquid fuels, and combined heat and power production from energy crops. In the short to medium term, biomass waste and residues are expected to dominate biomass supply, to be substituted by energy crops in the longer term. The future of biomass electricity generation lies in biomass integrated gasification/gas turbine technology, which offers high-energy conversion efficiencies and will be further developed to run on biomass produced fuels. Further Information RISE Resources - Information regarding available renewable energy resources. RISE Technologies - An extensive collection of information regarding renewable energy technologies. RISE Applications & System Design - Renewable energy application information and system designs. RISE System Displays - Case studies and information on installed renewable energy systems & performance data. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ Biomass Energy Conversion Technology - RISE Information Portal Business Council for Sustainable Energy IEA Bioenergy US Bioenergy Information Network U.S. Department of Energy?s Biomass Power Program National BioEnergy Industries Association The Earth Policy Institute CADDET Technical Brochures Wood Energy Development Programme in Asia Biomass Energy in ASEAN Member Countries Turning sawdust in charcoal in Malaysia Cookstoves for the developing world Food Waste Disposal Using Anaerobic Digestion, Korea Biomass Energy Development in Yunnan Province, China Biomass cogeneration in Indonesia ++++++++++++++++++ References ERDC (Energy Research and Development Corporation), 1994. ?Biomass in the Energy Cycle Study? ERDC, Canberra. Korbitz, W., 1998. "From the field to the fast lane- biodiesel", Renewable Energy World, vol.1, no.3, pp.32-37. Ramage, J. & Scurlock, J., 1996. "Biomass", in Renewable energy- power for a sustainable future, ed. G. Boyle, Oxford University Press, Oxford. REN21 Renewable Energy Policy Network, 2005. ?Energy for Development: The Potential Role of Renewable Energy in Meeting the Millennium Development Goals.? Washington, DC:Worldwatch Institute. Twidell, J., 1998. "Biomass energy", Renewable Energy World, vol.1, no.3, pp.38-39. University of Ballarat, 2004. ?Berrybank Piggery?, (Online) http://www.ballarat.edu.au/projects/ensus/case_studies/piggery/ (Accessed 16 February 2007). Victoria Museum, 1999. ?Pig Power?, (Online) http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/FutureHarvest/case1.html (Accessed 16 February 2007). World Energy Council, 1994. New renewable energy resources, Kogan Page, London. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 7 15:05:29 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 07 May 2007 15:05:29 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Canada Needs Water Policy - US & Mexico thirsty for Canada's resources Message-ID: Climate change, severe weather and drought have thirsty nations scouting for potential water supplies. With all eyes on Canada, perhaps it's time to review the nation's water policy. Unfortunately, we don't have one The Ottawa Citizen Sun 06 May 2007 Page: B6 Section: The Citizen's Weekly Byline: Chris Cobb Source: The Ottawa Citizen Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions of people. Since the very birth of human civilization, people have moved to settle close to it. People move when there is too little of it. People move when there is too much of it. People journey down it, people write, sing and dance about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it.' -- Mikhail Gorbachev, President of Green Cross International and former president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Water is fast becoming the new oil. Scientists and environmentalists have long debated the waste and want of the world's natural water supply, but now the issue is flooding the public and political agenda: - In January, the UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change warned of spreading drought in the southern hemisphere and increased but unpredictable precipitation in such northern countries as Canada. - In mid-April, another UN report warned that climate change will make arid regions of the world increasingly desperate. Droughts threaten underground supplies, explains report editor Michael MacCracken. "During droughts like the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, U.S. farmers pumped water from underground aquifers to save their fields through irrigation," he said. (An aquifer is an underground layer of rock or sand that can hold massive quantities of water.) "Much of that water is now gone. We've used up our savings bank." - In another report issued last month, a prominent group of retired U.S. military leaders warned that water shortages will increase mass hunger, mass human migration and disease, while instigating wars similar to those in the impoverished African nations of Sudan and Chad. "It's not hard to make the connection between climate change and instability, or climate change and terrorism," wrote Gen. Anthony (Tony) Zinni, President George W. Bush's former Middle East envoy. - In Canada, a nation blessed with more natural water than most, the debate had a rare public airing last week when it reached an all-party House of Commons committee. The issue -- as politicians well know -- riles Canadians like no other: The export of Canadian water in bulk to the United States and Mexico -- or anywhere, for that matter. Canada sells electricity and oil to the United States and exports bottled water, but it doesn't sell water in bulk -- exporting it elsewhere by tanker or pipeline, for example. It's a complicated issue made more so by the widely held mythology that Canada boasts infinite supplies of fresh water. It doesn't. "Politicians misquote the facts and say we have more water than anywhere in the world," says University of Victoria geography professor Stephen Lonergan. "It is simply not the case. The renewable supply is not as great as people think it is. We have ample supply in certain parts of the country, at certain times of the year. "So water falls often in places where we don't need it ... and at times of year when we don't need it ... or where we have no storage facilities." It is estimated that Canada boasts seven per cent of the world's supply of renewable fresh water -- natural water supplies above and underground replenished by precipitation. There's never been a comprehensive inventory. We only count what we know we've got. Still, nature provides well for Canada and when it comes to water supply, the country places a joint third with China behind Amazon-rich Brazil and second-place Russia. The U.S., with 6.4 per cent, is fifth and slightly behind Indonesia at 6.5. And yet more than one billion people on Earth do not have access to clean drinking water and more than 2.9 billion are without access to sanitation services. It's a massive problem that at least in part is being solved by the transportation of water. n Yet Canada doesn't have a national water policy and now some observers fear the U.S. and Mexico will soon be knocking. Canada's water is publicly owned but administered by the provinces. The Harper government says it has no intention of exporting bulk water, and yet there is no legislation to prevent a province from undercutting that pledge. The whirling arguments are familiar to University of British Columbia forestry professor Peter Pearse. More than 20 years ago, he was one of three federally sponsored water experts to spend 22 months and $1.5 million on cross-country public hearings devoted to the issue. In the end, the men issued a report that urged the government to come to grips with Canada's ill-managed fresh water supply. "People were talking about Canada being on the verge of a water crisis," recalls Pearse. "Canada has built more dams and diversions than any other country in the world. There was talk about more new megaprojects that would involve diverting water from Alberta and British Columbia to the United States. So there were huge environmental and political concerns, especially around maintaining our strategic position vis-a-vis the United States." One of the wilder schemes at the time was a plan to transport water by tanker to the Middle East. Another bizarre notion called for towing icebergs from the North. (A little-known fact: Canada does export water -- by pipe -- from Great Vancouver to Point Roberts, a peninsula of Washington state inaccessible by land from the U.S., and to Sweetgrass, Montana, from Coutts, Alta. "It's a little neighbourly thing to do," says Pearse. "Obviously the water export schemes being discussed at the time were much larger and of great strategic significance.") The 1985 report urged the federal government and the provinces to create a national water policy that would anticipate foreign demand for bulk exports of Canadian water while considering the complex environmental and ecological ramifications of shifting water from one place to another. Then-Conservative Environment Minister Tom McMillan welcomed the findings with enthusiasm and without reservation. "Canadians are paying a high price as a country for that neglect," he said. And then? Nothing. The government lost interest and in 1990, apparently on the whim of senior bureaucrats, the Department of Environment scrapped the Inland Water Directorate that was devoted to federal water regulations. Pearse says he is still mystified that the government suddenly lost interest. "Nobody in Ottawa knows where water is any more," he says. "I guess governments and priorities change." n Water has ebbed and flowed on the agenda for more than a century and is just now resurfacing. Federal responsibility over water currently involves combating pollution, overseeing fisheries, navigation and water on federal lands, including water supply on some native lands. The provinces hold power over most water in Canada, but the federal government has jurisdiction over treaties and disputes over rivers and lakes that straddle international and national boundaries. Twenty years after the Currents of Change report, the U.S. and Canada continue to forge closer trade and security agreements. The only difference now is that Earth -- and by extension, water -- is threatened by climate change. There is plenty of evidence to suggest the U.S. views Canada's water supply as a solution to future shortages, say many observers including the Council of Canadians, a left-wing citizens' group, plus the federal NDP and Green Party. The groups have a surprising ally in the Conference Board of Canada. The business-oriented think-tank recently called on Canada to ban bulk water sales before they begin. "Across North America, the answer to water scarcity is not trade, but better water governance and management," said Gilles Rheaume, the board's vice-president of public policy. "Canada's fresh water resources are less available than we think." The Conference Board wants Canada to put a price on water, which it says will stop wasteful and water-complacent Canadians from using far more than they need. Unlike gas or electricity, Canadian consumers do not pay for the water they use, but rather they are charged for the cost of treating and delivering the water. Barely half of the country has metered delivery. Canadian industry pays nominal amounts, nothing close to the cost of the vast amounts of water it uses. With a handful of exceptions, drinking water and wastewater in Canada is publicly managed by municipalities and overseen by provinces. The few provinces without water management and treatment policies at the time of the Walkerton tragedy seven years ago have them now. Council of Canadians chairwoman Maude Barlow likes the idea of pricing water but worries that doing so will be the thin edge of a wedge that under U.S. pressure will lead to bulk water sales. n Most water used in Canada is consumed by agriculture and industry; households consume around 10 per cent. We cherish water in an almost spiritual way, but like all humans with an apparent abundance, we take it for granted -- at least until it poisons us, as it did in Walkerton, or until it disappears, as farmers in Alberta and Saskatchewan well know. But perhaps we should no longer assume it will always be there. To understand why, a short lesson on Las Vegas is useful. About 1.8 million people live in greater Las Vegas -- 600,000 of them in the city core. Six thousand more arrive every month, attracted by plentiful jobs, low taxes and scorching sunshine. The people of Las Vegas, annual rainfall 10 centimetres, consume about 870 litres of water per capita each day, which makes them North America's top water guzzlers. At least 70 per cent of residential water is used to irrigate lawns, fill pools and wash cars. Housing and hotel developers want more water to accommodate the bulging population and the 40 million-plus visitors who come to play each year. Some developers have lamented that Vegas -- with 60 golf courses in the region -- is seriously "undergolfed." Since 1999, Las Vegas has paid residents $2 a square foot to dig up their lawns and surround their houses with "drought tolerant" plants and "water smart" landscaping. The initial response was promising but interest has waned. None of this would matter if Las Vegas, an entertainment centre in the desert, had any water of its own. But it doesn't. Sin City is one of the more egregious examples of what water conservationists, environmentalists and political activists call unsustainable water consumption. In simple terms, they are sucking up finite supplies of water -- in the Vegas case sharing the Colorado River with six other states and drawing the rest (12 per cent of its annual consumption) from groundwater. People in dozens of cities and towns in Nevada and Arizona have been living in a drought region for several years. And although California is the world's innovator in water conservation and re-use, it too might also be looking for new water supplies within 10 or 20 years. Canadian water activists such as Maude Barlow and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May fear the United States and Mexico, and even other thirsty southern nations, view Canada as a potential supplier. In many parts of the world, water is a commodity sold and transported by profit-making corporations across international borders, either by container ships or pipeline. The dilemma for Canada and Canadians, say Barlow and her allies, is this: Do we privatize water management, fix a price and trade and transport it elsewhere to irrigate the lawns of Las Vegas or to grow crops? Or do we keep it exclusively under public ownership with strict, non-commercial rules of sharing? Aware of our deep attachment to water, politicians of all stripes deliberately ignore the subject or do their dealings out of the public eye. Water is not specifically part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Because it was not excluded or included as a tradable commodity, international law experts argue over whether the U.S. or Mexico could use NAFTA to claim Canadian water. There is deep suspicion at the Council of Canadians and among the NDP and Greens that water is part of the hidden agenda of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) -- the so-called Three Amigos Accord signed more than two years ago in Waco, Texas, by leaders Paul Martin, George W. Bush and Vicente Fox. Last week, the NDP succeeded in getting the first open discussion of the accord at an all-party House of Commons committee. NDP Trade critic Peter Julian, who pushed to get bulk water exports on the agenda, says the discussion was just a start. "We must have a debate in this country," agrees Barlow who is the co-author of Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World's Water and is now at work on a second book on the subject. "What's the right thing to do in sharing our water? Do we hand it over to corporations? Polls show that the vast majority of Canadians believe our water is a public trust and should be left here and not commercialized. "If we start exporting water for commercial purposes," she adds, "it will go to the places that can afford to buy it and not the places that need it. It will go to allow Americans to be horrible water guzzlers, have their million-plus swimming pools in California, water their golf courses and have their Las Vegas-type cities in the desert. "If you're really helping people in need, that's different. But if you're helping sustain a way of life that is not sustainable, I deeply disagree with it." In other parts of the world, especially in the Middle and Far East, there is a brisk business in water, both within and outside national boundaries. "There is a lot of hesitation about trading water because its ritual purities exempt it to a certain extent from the market," explains Stephen Lonergan, an international expert in water trading. "There is an African saying I like: 'We don't go to water ponds merely to capture water, but because friends and dreams are there to meet us.' Water is a social phenomenon and giving up our water is giving up our sovereignty and our livelihood." Lonergan notes that Turkey is sending tanker water to Cyprus and Israel. "It is economically feasible now if distances aren't too great. But as the price of water increases, its transportation over longer distances becomes more economically viable. All of this will continue to add pressure on Canada to share its water supply, but there will continue to be resistance against it in this country even though it could generate huge amounts of money." Mexico is also a significant player, says Tim Downs, an environmental and water specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. "I don't think it's an exaggeration to say the U.S is running out of water," says Downs. "Piping water from Canada would definitely be on my list, but the competition for water along the Mexico-U.S. border is also huge. "Because of NAFTA, there has been a rapid growth in population and in industrial production along the border," says Downs. "Groundwater in that region is being depleted but more people are being attracted there because of economic growth. In some places population growth is four per cent a year, which suggests a doubling of the population in less than 20 years. "Water is interwoven into Canada's culture," he adds, "but if the price is right, I can envisage a scenario where people could be encouraged to export a portion of their water." Retired public servant Frank Quinn, who was research director for the Currents of Change team, still favours fixing a price on water as a conservation measure but is optimistic bulk exports won't happen. It's logical, he suggests, that before approaching Canada, the United States will bring water down from Alaska which, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, holds one-third of all available U.S. water and is the only jurisdiction in North America that allows sales of its bulk water. "Alaska would be happy to do that," he says, "but it won't be free." Quinn also expects the U.S. to make significant conservation strides before it seriously contemplates importing from Canada -- an expensive uphill journey all the way for pipelines. David Feldman, who heads the political science department at the University of Tennessee, says no country can say "never" when it comes to selling a portion of its natural resources. "When you have a transboundary resource," he adds, "you can say adamantly that you won't sell or mortgage your national resources, but if climate changes, and the value of the resource increases with demand, some political groups might be willing to sell. "People have to talk about this openly now so they don't get blindsided by rushed, shortsighted decisions." Feldman says that in principal he has no problem with the United States buying Canadian water under two conditions: 1. There are protections for people who may not be able to afford to buy it. 2. The water isn't used for unsustainable lifestyles. "So it's not inherently bad to have markets to buy, sell, trade water," he says, "but we have to have ways of protecting both the resources and those who are less well off. There will be demands among some groups in the U.S. to sustain the same level of water use that we have now and increasingly they will look covetously towards Canada and say, 'You have water and we don't, so here's the deal,'" Lonergan agrees. "I don't mind the transfer of resources like water," he says, "but I don't like to see it go to support unsustainable activity. There is no way, for instance, that a million people should be living in Las Vegas." From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 7 16:06:50 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 07 May 2007 16:06:50 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> When is recycling not recycling? - Nuclear waste 'recycled' Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This is the dark side of the 'recycling' gambit...well known to sludge fighters. Take toxic waste and 'recycle' it back into the environment. Hiding under a 'greenie' rock this is the slithering of hazardous materials into 'recycled' material ... like recycled sludges, composts, and soil ammendments. This is malicious policy indeed. So those fresh faced urban 'zero waste' types should sit up straight and pay attention. ....................................................... When is recycling not recycling? Posted by Sarah Kraybill Burkhalter 04 May 2007 The following is a guest post from Natalie Troyer, publications and volunteer coordinator at Heart of America Northwest. GRISTMILL MAGAZINE ----- Sheryl Crow -- who was joking, people -- recently suggested that folks use "only one square [of toilet paper] per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where two to three could be required." A nice, but impractical, proposal -- much like the Department of Energy's imprudent pitch to "recycle" nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state. That "r" word implies that we can just stick those thousands of gallons of radioactive sludge by the side of the road and some Richland, Wash., garbage person in a big green truck will take it away to Neverland. Well, let's not go sprinkling any pixie dust just yet. The Bush administration says it wants to recycle used commercial nuclear fuel to produce more electricity, while destroying waste that would otherwise be disposed of at a national repository like Nevada's Yucca Mountain, the long-term performance and capacity of which are in serious question. Under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), Hanford is one of 11 sites across the nation proposed for a recycling center and a reactor to use the recycled fuel. Together, they'll create up to 8,000 new jobs. Apparently, the notion of added employment opportunities has outweighed rationality. Hanford is the most contaminated site in the Western Hemisphere. Nearly 18 years into cleanup, we are still more than a decade away from having the capability to begin immobilizing Hanford's 53 million gallons of high-level waste. Yet, all the while, Hanford's underground storage tanks continue to age and deteriorate, posing a grave threat to the Columbia River, the surrounding community, and future generations of Pacific Northwest citizens. And that word "recycle"? Don't be fooled by this malicious synonym for reprocessing, which is what created the 55 million gallons of nuclear waste sitting in leaky tanks. Yes, GNEP makes some amazing claims in terms of its potential to reduce waste volumes. But it's kind of like ordering one of those greasy, fast-food bean burritos. They look and smell incredible coming out of the drive-through window and into the palm of your hand. But 20 minutes later, you're in the bathroom with indigestion, wishing you'd stuck with that 99-cent side salad. (Admin: don't count on that 'side salad' to be toxin free!!) Well, if Hanford is chosen as a facility to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, we're all going to need a large bottle of antacids. Importing or producing large volumes of new waste at Hanford, when the site still has a long way to go before it resolves its current waste problems, is lunacy. We cannot mask the current problems at Hanford by creating more jobs and adding more waste to a site that already poses colossal environmental problems for generations to come. I've wondered if DOE's just trying to pull our leg with this whole "Hanford as a GNEP facility" stunt. I'm half expecting to get a press release in my inbox with "Psych!" as the subject line. Until then, say "no" to GNEP at Hanford. Tell Captain Hook and his pirates to retract their harebrained plot to further contaminate Hanford and the Columbia River. Send an email to Mr. Timothy A. Frazier, GNEP PEIS Document Manager. Let's clean up our existing mess so our grandchildren don't have to. http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/5/3/155436/6967 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 7 16:15:36 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 07 May 2007 16:15:36 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Chi-Chi's Restaurant- Bottled Water Ban Message-ID: >From Susan Howatt: This weeks MacLeans cover story is on bottled water and makes some excellent points- it is wasteful, ludicrous given the safety of tap water I say any reason to stop the insanity of bottled water is reason enough. ....................... Green Report: It's so not cool Chi-chi restaurants are now banning bottled water. How did the ubiquitous accessory become the latest environmental sin? ANNE KINGSTON | May 14, 2007 | When Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., in 1971, it was at the vanguard of a "think globally, eat locally" gastronomic uprising. Now, in banning bottled water, the restaurant is at the forefront of another insurgency. Finally cluing in to the fact that importing bottled water from Italy is a flagrant violation of its mantra, Chez Panisse stopped serving Fiuggi still water last summer. It now serves free, filtered tap water. When it gets a carbonator up and running in the next week that will add fizz to tap water, the restaurant will stop selling sparkling Acqua Minerale San Benedetto. The culinary mecca joins a growing number of restaurants willing to forgo 300 per cent-plus markups on bottled water in return for increased customer loyalty. Mike Kossa-Rienzi, Chez Panisse's general manager, says the ecological damage associated with bottling water spurred them to action. "It's something we wanted to do for a while," he says. "Finally I thought, 'This is silly: we have this great water that comes out of our tap.' This is something we really think we need to do. We feel it is the right thing to do." Increasingly, it's the fashionable thing to do. For years, David Suzuki and his brethren have railed against the environmental evils of bottled water -- the pollution generated and energy expended in its production and shipping, the recyclable plastic bottles that rarely get recycled. More recently, church groups, including the United Church of Canada, have advocated members boycott the product on the moral grounds that water is a basic human right, not a commodity to be sold for profit. The edict was met by the wider public with much eye-rolling. After all, bottled water is entrenched as an icon of vitality, health, mobility and safety. No amount of righteous talk was about to wean people away. Recently, however, the return-to-the-tap crusade has acquired momentum from the gourmands who once extolled bottled water's "volcanic temperament" and "mouth feel." Even the French, who introduced portable Vittel water in plastic bottles in 1968, are saying "non" to Evian, with bottled water sales in decline since 2003. The notion that a bottled-water backlash could gain velocity might seem absurd given worldwide consumption of 167.8 billion litres in 2005. Canadians spent $652.7 million on bottled water that year, consuming 1.9 billion litres, 60 litres per capita, with sales up 20 per cent last year. Bottled water became a status signifier -- Cameron Diaz favoured Penta, Madonna preferred Voss Artesian Water. Still, we've seen a prop made glamorous by movie stars losing cachet and acquiring stigma before -- the cigarette, for one, the Hummer for another. If early indications of backlash are any sign, what was once a fashion accessory is becoming a fashion crime. The obvious driving force is green's new vogue. Now that we're shopping to save The Planet, toting a natural resource that costs more than gasoline in a plastic bottle destined to clog a landfill for a thousand years doesn't exactly telegraph eco-cred. Once-stylish water bars with "water sommeliers," like the one at Epic in Toronto's Royal York Hotel offering 25 international brands, suddenly seem pass?, out of touch. Earlier this year, Times of London food critic Giles Coren announced his new zero-tolerance toward bottled water on his blog. Drinking it, he wrote, signals a gauche lack of global awareness: "The vanity of it! While half the world dies of thirst or puts up with water you wouldn't piss in, or already have, we have invested years and years, and vast amounts of money, into an ingenuous system which cleanses water of all of the nasties that most other humans and animals have always had to put up with, and delivers it, dirt cheap, to our homes and workplaces in pipes, which we can access with a tap." A tap-water snobbery is emerging. Even restaurateurs unwilling to forfeit bottled-water revenue boast of drinking from the tap at home. "On the domestic front I refuse to buy it," says Toronto chef Mark McEwan, who operates the popular North 44 and Bymark. "The waste factor with these plastic bottles just makes me crazy." Jamie Kennedy, who runs several Toronto hot spots including Jamie Kennedy Restaurant, says he sources locally bottled water in glass bottles. "Why are we bringing in water from Fiji in a nation that's got more water than any other nation in the world?" he asks. "It's air freight, it's contributing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, it's all those things that if you're environmentally conscious in the year 2007 you totally question." He sells Gaia water bottled in Caledon, Ont. The company delivers and picks up the bottles for recycling, he says. "We're not creating any bottle waste, which is fantastic. And it's delicious." Yet Kennedy drinks unfiltered tap water. "I'm cool with it," he says. "It's pretty darn good." Indeed, born-again tap-water aficionados argue it tastes better than many bottled offerings. Kossa-Rienzi says Chez Panisse explored serving locally produced bottled waters but found none more palatable than tap. Last year, officials in Cleveland took offence when Fiji Water crowed in ads that its product was free of pollutants and "purified by island trade winds" with the punchline: "The label says Fiji because it's not bottled in Cleveland." A local TV show conducted blind taste tests to find the subjects preferred local tap water. Even self-proclaimed "water connoisseurs" are extolling the virtues of tap water. The noted Boston-based food writer Corby Kummer, known for his appreciation of aquatic nuances (he has proclaimed a preference for "water from the volcanic region between Rome and Naples"), says "it's time to rediscover municipal water." Unless he wants sparkling water, Kummer always asks for tap in restaurants. "I've long made it a point of pride as a sort of a counter-snobbish order," he says. "Now I'm noticing other people coming to the same conclusion." Tap-water filtration regimes are a new bragging point. Poggio in Sausalito, Calif., triple-filters its tap water with a system that cost US$12,000. Five-month-old Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen in Radnor, Pa., spent US$50,000 on its high-tech filtration device. Then there are the purists. At organic Restaurant Nora in Washington, they use salt, then carbon, then paper to excise impurities. In an arresting development signalling tap water's new value, the Beverly Hills restaurant Entoteca has started charging US$8 for a litre of flat or sparkling water that flows straight from the filtered spigot. Kummer hints at the next direction tap-water snootiness will take with talk of his goal to "build a memory bank of municipal water tastes from around the country and around the world." He admits the taste of tap water isn't always pleasing. "Sometimes, because of the way it's treated, it will taste either neutral, slightly chlorinated, and chemically or flat and bitter." But he finds it superior to bottled water sourced from municipal supplies. "That's not just filtered tap water," he says, "it's filtered tap water that they add proprietary minerals to. It tastes completely artificial." Filtered tap water accounts for more than one-quarter of bottled water consumed by Canadians, according to the Bottled Water Assocation of Canada, an industry trade group. Coca-Cola uses municipal water from Calgary and Brampton, Ont., for its Dasani brand. The company filters the water five times to remove chemicals, odours and bacteria, and adds minerals for water billed "pure as water can get." Pepsi trucks in municipal water from Vancouver or Mississauga, Ont., for its Aquafina, which is marketed as "the purest of waters." Such claims justify massive markups. A litre (33.8 ounces) of tap water in Canada costs taxpayers an average of less than one-tenth of a cent, according to Toronto's city government. The markup on a litre of bottled water selling for $2.50, then, is 3,000 times. Small wonder Donald Trump entered the market with his "no-sodium" Trump Ice. As has Sylvester Stallone, as an investor in a bottler that produces Sly Pure Glacier Water purportedly from a 10,000-year-old carbon glacier at Mount Rainier, Wash. The industry, always ripe for Evian-is-naive-spelled-backwards satire, provides continual fodder with K9, the "first flavoured, vitamin fortified water for dogs," and the 2006 launch of US$38 Bling H2O, bottled in Tennessee and marketed as the "Cristal of bottled water" in "limited edition, corked, 750 ml recyclable frosted glass bottles, exquisitely handcrafted with Swarovski crystals." Equally preposterous are water's vaunted magical properties: Propel Fitness Water promises to pump up energy, eVamor to "restore equilibrium," and Jana Skinny Water to help shed excess pounds. Rejection of the industry's grandiose promises -- and high prices -- has fuelled the return to the tap in France, the world's second largest consumer of bottled water after Italy. That has been attributed to the efficacy of advertising campaigns launched by municipal water companies that extol the benefits, lower cost and environmental virtues of tap water. (In Paris, tap water costs less than a third of a European cent per litre. Groupe Neptune's Cristaline, a popular brand, sells for 15 European cents a litre, while Danone's Evian costs about 60 European cents a litre.) Earlier this year, Groupe Neptune fought back with billboards featuring a photograph of a white toilet marked with a big red "X." "I don't drink the water I use to flush," the posters read. "I drink Cristaline." Such gross-out imagery -- abetted by reports of ecological contamination and corrupt filtration like that in Walkerton, Ont., that caused 2,300 to fall ill and seven to die in 2000 -- transformed bottle water from a luxury only the rich could afford to a perceived necessity the mass market couldn't afford not to buy. As a result, bottled water's chic is diminishing. No longer does it offer the comfort of belonging to a private club drinking from an exclusive water supply. Indeed, Edmonton-based Earth Water, a national bottler of spring and osmosis water, forges an explicit connection between bottled-water consumption in affluent nations and the fragility of water supply in developing nations: it donates net profits to the United Nations Refugee Agency, which runs water-aid programs. The alleged health and beauty benefits that made bottled water the preferred constant-hydration libation of celebrities (who can forget that widely circulated photo of Princess Di exiting the gym with her Evian?) are under new scrutiny. The industry remains steadfast in its claims that bottled water is cleaner and more rigorously tested than tap water. Elizabeth Griswald, a spokesperson for the Canadian Bottled Water Association, says bottled water is subject to three tiers of regulation -- Ottawa monitors it under the Food and Drug Act; the provinces approve the sourcing of water; the industry also regulates itself. Tap water, she points out, is regulated only as a utility by the provinces with no consistent national standards. Unlike tap water that can flow through antiquated pipes, bottled water is produced in clean facilities and packaged in sterile bottles, she says. Still, the manufacturing process itself can contaminate. In 2004, Coca-Cola Co. recalled its entire Dasani line of bottled water from the British market after levels of bromate, a potentially harmful chemical, were found to exceed legal standards. In March, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned the public not to consume imported Jermuk Classic brand Natural Sparkling Mineral Water because it contained excessive levels of arsenic. Rick Smith, executive director of Toronto-based Environmental Defence, an agency that tracks the exposure of Canadians to pollutants, doesn't buy industry claims. "There's a misconception that bottled water is safer, which is complete nonsense," he says. "Toronto's tap water has to meet standards for 160 contaminants; bottled water has standards for less than a half-dozen. And 650 bacterial tests are done monthly of Toronto water. The extent to which bottled water is tested for bacteria is barely known." Smith foresees a looming crisis. "Bottled water is a not only a complete disaster for the environment but potentially for human health," he says. His greatest criticism lies with the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle, the industry's real product. "The production of one kilogram of PET requires 17.5 kilograms of water and results in air pollution emissions of over half a dozen significant pollutants," Smith says. "In other words, the water required to create one plastic water bottle is significantly more than that bottle will contain." Then there is the waste factor.An estimated 88 per cent of water bottles are not recycled. According to the Environment and Plastics Industry Council, Canadians sent 65,000 tonnes of PET beverage containers, many of them water bottles, to landfill or incineration in 2002. The volatility of PET bottles, which should never be refilled due to risks of leaching and bacterial growth, remains uncertain. Last year, William Shotyk, a Canadian scientist working at the University of Heidelberg, released a study of 132 brands of bottled water in PET bottles stored for six months, and found that significant levels of antimony, a toxic chemical used in the bottle's production, had leached into the water. Shotyk, who has vowed never to drink bottled water again, is now studying the bottles over a longer term, given the lag times that can occur between bottling, shipping, purchase and consumption. The Canadian Bottled Water Association counters that the levels don't pose a risk to humans. "Technically bottled water will not go bad if you properly store it," Griswald says, though she admits algae will build up if it's left in sunlight in high heat. Smith predicts concern about internal pollution will increase as more people are tested for chemical contamination. "There's mounting evidence that these containers are leaching toxins into the beverages we're drinking and our children are drinking and there are easy substitutes available," he says. The Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. commenced a massive study in 2000. This year, Statistics Canada begins testing 5,000 Canadians for a wide range of contaminants. Early data from the U.S. is troubling, Smith says. "There's empirical evidence that these plastic ingredients are now in the bodies of every citizen," he says. "I am quite sure that a few years from now we will look back at these toxins and shake our heads and wonder, 'What the heck were we thinking?' " Litigation against plastic manufacturers will rival that against cigarette companies, Smith predicts. On March 12, a billion-dollar class action suit was filed in Los Angeles against five leading manufacturers of baby bottles containing Bisphenol-A, a toxin found in hard plastic and linked to early-onset puberty, declining sperm counts and the huge increase in breast and prostate cancer. It is the first such suit to be brought against the industry. "What we are witnessing is the beginning of a tobacco-style fight," says Smith. Already signs point to water awareness becoming the next trendy topic. The recently published Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of our Water by Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman and Michael Fox, chronicles the upsurge of international grassroots protest against groundwater depletion and the privatization of water by multinational bottlers. The community of Wisconsin Dells, Wis., for instance, waged a successful battle against Swiss-based Nestl? after the conglomerate announced plans to set up a Perrier bottling plant in the area. Thirst's authors see a bottled-water backlash as crucial to preserving a public water supply. The campaign to wean North America from the bottle to the tap has been "a driving force in shifting cultural attitudes," they write, noting widespread bottled-water consumption reinforces the perception that water is a grab-and-go consumer product and that the water supply is not safe or well managed: "Local critics are beginning to see the industry as a harbinger of wider threats, including the commodification of water, the export of water in bulk, and the end of the keystone idea of affordable water as a public trust and human right." Paying grossly inflated prices for the natural resource, they contend, paves the way: "If we as individuals get used to paying whatever price the market will bear for bottled water as a product, will we slowly give up the collective commitment to clean, affordable water as a public service that must be guaranteed by government?" Already, though, there are signs government wants in on the trend. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has just announced plans to copy Chez Panisse and provide carbonated filtered tap water at City Hall. Chez Panisse's patrons are now asking where they can buy their own carbonators, says Kossa-Rienzi. "It's definitely sparked a new consciousness." To comment, email letters at macleans.ca From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 8 15:19:35 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 15:19:35 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Canada Supreme Court - Whistle Blower Veterinarians Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: I have personally witnessed this Canadian government officials roll back their plans to protect Canadian pasture lands from BSE risk sludges in the face of pressure from the wastewater industry. I have seen them focus on a program of 'spin' making it look like there is no BSE risk material in animal feed and fertilizer when you can give away animal feed and fertilizer that is BSE risk without being touched by the federal regs. This isn't public health. This isn't public safety. The recurring cases of mad cow disease demonstrate that Canadian regs are not doing the job that is needed. Mind you, in the USA the failure to test honestly and adequately means we don't know how many BSE cases are out there! .................................... ""The federal government is spending tens of millions of dollars fighting this, basically to help out the multinational companies," he said. "Meanwhile, all those mad cow cases keep on occurring, hormones continue to be used, antibiotics are causing disease and death, so they're making money." http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/National/2007/05/08/pf-4162093.html May 8, 2007 Public interest vs. loyalty Court to rule whether it will hear case of fired whistleblower By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU Canada's top court will decide this week if it will hear or toss the case of a high-profile whistleblowing bureaucrat who defied gag orders to protect public safety. Shiv Chopra, a former microbiologist and drug evaluator in Health Canada's veterinary drugs bureau, was suspended without pay in 2002 after he criticized the government's plan to stockpile antibiotics for a bioterrorist attack. Two years later he was fired for "insubordination" after he said warnings related to mad cow disease were ignored by the feds. The case he brought to the Supreme Court hinges on whether "duty of loyalty" to employer is outweighed by the public interest. "This is a fundamental issue of Charter of Rights, freedom of expression on issues that are of national and international importance," Chopra told Sun Media. He is disappointed that the Conservative government, which had preached accountability from the Opposition, continues to fight his case. He's writing a book, Corrupt to the Core -- Memoirs of a Whistleblower, expected to be published this fall. "The federal government is spending tens of millions of dollars fighting this, basically to help out the multinational companies," he said. "Meanwhile, all those mad cow cases keep on occurring, hormones continue to be used, antibiotics are causing disease and death, so they're making money." Chopra's lawyer, David Yazbeck, said the case is important because it hinges on fundamental principles around whether a public service employee can raise concerns in the public realm. 'ISSUES OF THE DAY' "One of the issues that has to be resolved is the extent to which public service employees can participate in issues of the day, particularly where they have expertise," he said. "Obviously that's being balanced against the government's assertion of a duty of loyalty and at the end of the day the question is whether our democracy is able to sustain this kind of discussion, or whether it's impeded in some way by it." In 1998, Chopra and fellow Health Canada scientist Margaret Haydon accused the department of pressuring them to approve drugs without adequate safety assurances from manufacturers. They were reprimanded for going public but later vindicated by a federal court. The Supreme Court will make a decision Thursday. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 8 16:09:10 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 16:09:10 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Lead - Older homes (pre 1950s) - let water run - get tested Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: High levels of lead in the water make for high levels of lead in the resulting sewage sludge. ................................ Older home owners should let water run by W. Brice McVicar, The Intellingencer May 03, 2007 Ontario, Canada Residents living in homes built prior to the 1950s are being advised to let their taps run for a few moments before using the water. The recommendation comes as a result of an investigation into high levels of lead in London homes by consultants hired by the provincial environment ministry. Though no such discovery has been made in local municipalities, residents are being asked to exercise caution. Medical Officer of Health for the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, Dr. Richard Schabas, said the issue may be miles away but lead in water could also impact residents here. "We do know that some of the housing in Ontario built before 1950 were built with lead connectors," Schabas said at Wednesday's board of health meeting. He told the board flushing lines before using water is one way homeowners can reduce the risk of contamination. Environment Minister Laurel Broten has said she is determined to get to the bottom of the issue in London and has expressed concern for pregnant women and newborn babies accessing tainted water. Lead acts as a neurotoxin and is a threat to young children whose brains are still developing. Schabas said the local health unit will be keeping a close eye on the developments in London. "We'll take any action that may or may not be necessary," Schabas said. "This is something we take seriously." From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 8 17:10:30 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 17:10:30 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Head of Kyoto body questions Canada's lame climate change plan Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Canada needs to maintain a strong commitment to meeting Kyoto commitments. Only then can Canada be a leader and set a good example for the US as well. ................................................................... Head of Kyoto body questions Canada's climate change plan By JENNIFER DITCHBURN OTTAWA (CP) - Canada's "less ambitious" climate-change plan cannot guarantee that greenhouse gas emissions will actually go down, says the head of the international body that oversees the Kyoto treaty. The Conservative government's plan to reduce emissions uses "intensity targets," based on a company's industrial output, rather than putting a hard ceiling on the gases, as other Kyoto signatories have done. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, questioned the assertion that with tough enough intensity targets, an absolute reduction would occur. "You can still see a reduction in absolute terms, but you can't guarantee how much the reduction is going to be in absolute terms," de Boer said in an interview Monday from his office in Bonn, Germany. "If you have a very stringent relative reduction target, but your economy grows by 30 per cent, then your emissions could still end up going up." De Boer suggested there is some confusion over how Canada intends to live up to the Kyoto Protocol, which it signed in 1997. To date, no official has said the government is withdrawing from the treaty but the Kyoto targets have been abandoned. The Conservatives have said meeting Kyoto targets would have meant disaster for the Canadian economy. "It's interesting that while it would appear that the government has set itself a new target with a new base year, which of course it's free to do, that target is less ambitious than the commitment it has under the Kyoto Protocol," de Boer said. "The question is how this new commitment or the new policy objective relates to the international commitment or international undertaking Canada has made with the Kyoto Protocol, and also how it fits into the debate about longer term action that's currently under way." Environment Minister John Baird said he met de Boer last month, and there should be no confusion over Canada's commitment to Kyoto. "Canada has never had any discussion about withdrawing from the protocol, and don't intend to," Baird said in Vancouver. "What we do have is an important responsibility is to stop talking and start walking, is to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Obviously, Canada will accept its obligations." Under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada has a number of options for meeting its targets. It can meet them by simply reducing greenhouse gas emissions; it can invest in green projects in the developing world (called Clean Development Mechanisms); it can trade carbon credits on the international market; or it can simply absorb a penalty. Canadian officials have said the government intends to take on that penalty when the second phase of Kyoto is negotiated. De Boer said the penalty amounts to an additional one-third of whatever future reductions Canada signs on to. Another United Nations official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there's a sense of alarm in the agency that Canada's reluctance to try to meet the Kyoto targets will encourage other countries to shirk the treaty. "Canada is perceived to be a role model for the United States. If Canada throws up its hands and says there's no point, it has a negative rub off for the U.S.," the official said. The comments were the latest in some high-profile criticism of the Tory plan. Canadian uber-environmentalist David Suzuki and green evangelist Al Gore have both slammed the scheme. In Ottawa, opposition politicians continued to discuss options for persuading the government to let its original climate bill - C-30 - stand for a vote in the Commons. The Tories had shelved the legislation after the opposition amended it beyond all recognition, including hard caps on emissions and adherence to the Kyoto targets. Still, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said he was not pushing for a vote of non-confidence. "I want first to convince the government to go ahead with ... C-30. I'm here as the official Opposition to try and make this House work," Dion said. De Boer noted that the measures introduced last week by the Conservative government also fall short of what other countries have proposed. The government wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent over 2006 levels by 2020 - a goal Baird has said is among the "most aggressive" in the world. According to de Boer's group, it will be about 30-35 per cent short of the target Canada signed on to with Kyoto. "The Europeans have put a proposal on the table to reduce their emissions by 20 to 30 per cent vis-a-vis 1990 levels. This new proposal is certainly less ambitious than that," de Boer said. "California has made a proposal to reduce its emissions by 25 per cent from where it is at the moment. This is also less ambitious than that." Other U.S. states, such as Maine, Vermont, Illinois, Connecticut and Washington, are also proposing steeper reductions. De Boer confirmed that Australia, which is not a signatory to Kyoto, is on track to meet the targets it would have been assigned by the agreement, that is, eight per cent above 1990 levels. Officials at Environment Canada say comparing Canada with the European Union specifically is unfair, because many European countries have already achieved their Kyoto targets. As a result, reaching 20 per cent below 1990 levels is a matter of a few percentage points for some, and nations such as the United Kingdom had already made great strides at reducing their emissions by closing uneconomic coal mines and economic restructuring in the early 1990s. Canada's promise to cut 2006 levels by 20 per cent requires much more effort, the department argues, when one takes into consideration efforts undertaken this year Those are legitimate points, Britain's high commissioner to Canada has noted, but not a "get-out clause" for Canada. Anthony Cary spoke to a private meeting of an international think-tank last week, and referred to the arguments about Britain's head start as "source of resentment and misunderstanding" between the two countries. "The fact is that British policy is not driven by Kyoto targets, which we have easily exceeded," Cary told the Club of Rome in remarks released Monday. "It is driven by realization, at the top levels of government, starting with the prime minister, that we have entered a new era. "To be a successful economy in the 21st century, we need to be a low-carbon one, and there will commercial opportunities for first-movers." Britain has already met its Kyoto targets and is proposing further reductions of between 26 and 32 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020. The second phase of Kyoto, which is scheduled to be sealed by 2009 and to kick in after 2012, will be one of the hot topics at the next G8 meeting in Germany this June. Baird has said that Canada is committed to the next phase, and is working to bring other countries on board, particularly in the developing world. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2007/04/30/4142399-cp.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 9 17:56:15 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 17:56:15 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Sewer Olympics - New York Times Message-ID: ?There?s stuff coming into that sewer that even scientists haven?t figured out,? http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/nyregion/09sewer.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 9, 2007 Working in the Sewers Is a Dirty Job, but Someone?s Got to Win By ELLEN BARRY A sewer is a slippery workplace. Water can move at the speed of oncoming traffic, even when it is not laden with tree branches, two-by-fours and the waste products known in the business as ?turtles.? A single footstep in the water can stir up enough gas to knock a man unconscious. And then there is the smell. But yesterday the water was clear and sparkling as 18 sewage treatment workers engaged in their annual competition on a brilliant morning outside the Jamaica wastewater treatment plant in Queens. These were not simply sewage treatment workers, but an elite cadre of sewage treatment workers. George Mossos, wearing a helmet emblazoned with a bald eagle, looked particularly happy. He grew up dreaming of being a firefighter, he said, but has no regrets that he ended up in a different line of work. ?It?s enough to serve the public,? said Mr. Mossos, 30, though he added, ?Firefighters, they get all the TV time.? The 20th annual Operator?s Challenge ?affectionately known as the Sludge Olympics ? had an atmosphere somewhere between rodeo and spelling bee. In one corner, the Jamaica Jesters sawed madly through a length of PVC pipe, trying to replace and seal a section of sewer without allowing too much water to escape. In another, the Bowery Bay Bowl Busters lowered themselves down a manhole to retrieve a dummy representing an unconscious co-worker, making sure they expelled dangerous gases from the space before descending. Co-workers bellowed encouragement. Emily Lloyd, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, beamed. ?They?re the people nobody sees,? she said. ?It?s tough work. It?s frequently unpleasant work. And they?re terrific at it.? Joe Atkins, 55, who was on hand to judge the pipe event, said that his early days on the job had been the hard ones. He remembered coming home from work in the evenings, knocked out from inhaling methane, and falling fast asleep in his recliner. He can say now, 15 years later, that he was unprepared for the experience of dealing with raw sewage: condoms, tampons, rats, you name it. But those impressions faded after a few months. ?It?s like listening to a train,? he said. ?You stop hearing it.? These days, Mr. Atkins is able to look at the work with a scholarly detachment. His nose is so finely tuned that he can tell from a highway when he?s driving near a sewage plant. He spent six years at the Jamaica treatment plant, which is adjacent to Kennedy Airport and is distinguished by a steady stream of exotic waste. ?There?s stuff coming into that sewer that even scientists haven?t figured out,? he said. Everyone had a story. Joe Fahey remembered looking down and realizing that the shapes sliding past him were eels. Yogi Kemraj recalled a four-hour predawn battle with a tree branch jammed in a storm drain on 59th Street, as water barreled past him up to his neck. Roger Alava grimaced, thinking of the time he had to rinse his mouth out with rubbing alcohol; like all the sewage workers, he has learned to hold his lips permanently pursed, but a tiny splash of sewage can still go astray. It bothers Mr. Alava that the city?s sewage treatment workers lack a municipal nickname, the way the police are New York?s finest and the firefighters are New York?s bravest. He likes to think of the sewage workers as New York?s smartest; when a pipe is spewing sewage everywhere, or an unseen blockage creates mounting pressure, ?basically, it?s chaos organized,? he said. ?If something breaks, it?s out of your control.? The Operator?s Challenge highlights both the cerebral and muscular aspects of the job. Upstairs in the laboratory competition, a panel of judges watched, making critical comments, as teams of workers measured the amount of oxygen in water samples, which indicates the presence of bacteria used to clean waste. Another test required the teams to perform exhaustive checks of a diesel-powered pump. (One team, which otherwise performed perfectly, was marked down for leaving a rag on top of the pump.) The winners of the New York State challenge will progress to October?s national competition in San Diego, a morale-boosting event founded in 1988 by the Water Environment Foundation, which represents wastewater professionals. There they will face teams renowned for their exhaustive training and extraordinary speed. A team from Los Angeles, the Crushers, is said to travel on a tour bus emblazoned with its name. John Neske, a judge and sewage worker, said he had been particularly impressed in the past to see the national teams compete to fix the broken sewer pipe. ?As the little bits of PVC came off the saw, they were smoking,? Mr. Neske said. ?It?s unbelievable.? For most, though, yesterday?s competition served mainly as a rare day of self-congratulation. Friends and family don?t exactly clamor for daily news from wastewater treatment plants, and many workers, like Michael DeVita, carefully rid themselves of every trace of what they do during the day. Mr. DeVita, 30, has a reputation for being a bit of a neat freak. His home is lined with pristine white carpeting, and he has always been particularly sensitive to smells. It is a testament to human flexibility that he has succeeded in wastewater treatment. ?I go down to the fish market,? he said, ?I can?t handle it.? From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 9 18:44:36 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 18:44:36 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Bedford Virginia Planning Commission shows caution in biosolids ordinance Message-ID: Planning Commission shows caution in biosolids ordinance By John Barnhart Wednesday, May 9, 2007 11:47 AM EDT Although two members of the planning commission wanted a stronger biosolids ordinance, the majority chose a more cautious approach. A committee consisting of Lynn Barnes, representing District 2, Steve Stevick, representing District 5, and Robin Hartman, representing District 6, has been looking at an ordinance to regulate the substance since this past winter. The ordinance that had originally been looked at had been forwarded to the board of supervisors by a citizens group. "I have never fully endorsed that ordinance, " commented Stevick. However Stevick felt that the substance poses a hazard to the county's citizens and environment and wanted the county to adopt the strongest possible ordinance. Barnes echoed his sentiment. They wanted to recommend an ordinance that takes a model biosolids ordinance, developed by the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO), and adds language from the federal Clean Water Act. This, according to Barnes, does not ban the land application of sludge. Under the ordinance, however, the county would reserve the right to enforce the federal law if it found that a biosolids' spreading operation violated that law. Steve Wilkerson, representing District 3, questioned whether the county had the legal authority to do this. County Attorney Carl Boggess also added a word of caution. Boggess said that the VACO ordinance, by itself, is above legal reproach. The Clean Water Act, however, can't be read in a vacuum. It must be looked at in the light of the fact that Virginia is a Dillon's Rule state. "If it [a county biosolids ordinance] includes that language it will be subject to legal challenge," Boggess noted. "I think it is the VACO ordinance that gives us the first step," Commission Chairman Frederic Fralick said. Curtis Stephens, representing District 7, agreed, noting that the VACO ordinance has not been challenged in court. He said that the county will have a problem if it initiates local control beyond what the Commonwealth allows. He moved that the planning commission recommend the VACO ordinance to the board of supervisors. Barnes disagreed with this approach. He said that this ordinance was developed by the Biosolids Council, which consists of companies that spread sludge on farm fields. He wanted something stronger than the VACO ordinance. Wilkerson noted that monitoring biosolids will be expensive. Adopting the VACO ordinance makes it more likely that the county will get state funding for a monitoring program. Stevick, however, countered that the amount of money the county will get is based on the number of tons of the substance that is being spread in Bedford County. The planning commission accepted Stephens motion by a 5-2 vote with Barnes and Stevick casting the dissenting votes. Stevick had come under fire from some farmers who use biosolids on their fields, during the citizen comment period that preceded the meeting. Two of them said that he should have recused himself from any debate or vote on the issue because he had a conflict of interest. The basis of this conflict of interest is that he lives near the farm on Otterville Road that Synagro used as a sludge temporary storage pit for two winters. "I see nothing to date that anything Mr. Stevick has done constitutes a conflict of interest," said Boggess. Boggess said that he has never been asked to issue a formal conflict of interest opinion, but noted that Stevick would have to have a direct financial interest in the issue for a conflict of interest to exist. Boggess noted that, although Stevick's property could be affected by the county's action on the issue, so could 5,000 other people in the county. He said that this was an issue of general interest in Bedford County and Stevick has the right to speak his opinion. A copy of the VACO ordinance, which is five pages long, can be obtained from VACO's Web site at www.vaco.org in PDF format. In other business, the planning commission tabled a special review project for New London Academy. The project is for a new storage building and involves the demolition of an existing structure. Fralick expressed irritation that nobody from the school board or the school division comes to make presentations on school issues. The presenter, Jason Stewart, was unable to answer any of Fralick's questions on the project, or Barnes' question about whether the building to be demolished had any historical significance. Stephens said that it's an affront to the planning commission that nobody from the school division comes forward to answer questions. The vote to table action on the project passed with Stephens, Barnes, Stevick and Fralick voting in favor. Rick Crockett, representing District 1, Wilkerson and Hartman voted against tabling the project. http://www.bedfordbulletin.com/articles/2007/05/09/news/news03.txt From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 10 14:58:28 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 14:58:28 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Pyrolysis, Gasification, Biomass, Incineration - Commentary American Chronicle Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This commentary faces into the issue of whether the newer technologies have the same problems and toxic components as the old incinerators or coal-fired energy plants. Does it make sense to keep old highly polluting plants open and bar the door against cleaner technologies? We need better public policy on these issues. ................................................. http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=26341 Monday, May 7, 2007News Killing Pyrolysis, Gasification and More Biomass to Energy Projects Stafford 'Doc' Williamson Stafford ?Doc? Williamson is a consultant, writer and president of a small company with very diversified interests in a wide range of fields. "Winfotech" as his Williamson Information Technologies Corp. is often known, has a division specifically aimed at energy development, which, as you can see from his writing, focuses on "green energy" and most particularly energy from "wastes". Mr. Williamson has also written several books, again covering a very broad spectrum. For instance his books, PUPPYFISH and Puppy Goes to Lambergarten. are both remedial readers for middle school children who have fallen behind their classmates, but which also serve nicely as bedtime stories for primary age kids. Another is a 2 Act Comedy, and one is about Subatomic Structure. Mr. Williamson was born and formally educated in Canada. He considers his life to have been ?rich and full? in experiences and opportunities. Having held about 40 different ?jobs?, so far, his wealth of experience includes travel to South America, Asia and Europe, both professionally and for pleasure. He credits his parents for creating in him a thirst for knowledge, and stimulating his imagination with lots of ?read aloud? bedtime books, stories and poetry. His wisest investment was a set of ?WorldBook Encyclopedia? (most of his allowance for several years) allowing him to have read almost all of it by the time he was 14 years old. Stafford 'Doc' Williamson May 6, 2007 It is usually true that, ?Where there?s smoke, there?s fire,? but not everything that someone with all the sophistication of a two year old thinks is smoke, is, in fact, smoke at all. I remember when I was quite young coming across the ancient Greek idea that all things were composed of the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. I fixed that idea in my mind so firmly that I had a lot of trouble conceiving of anything liquid without containing, ?water? to make it liquid. My limited concept of ?liquid? always said to me that it could only be a liquid if it contained water. ?Water? became synonymous with ?liquid? in my mind. Now it remains true that many liquids contain water. The water content, however, is not what makes them a liquid. So why am I ranting on about misconceptions about water? Well, I know from my own experiences (as a child, which is to say as a person with little or no sophistication of understanding even fairly elementary concepts, like liquid) that it is easy to get a notion fixed in your head that something ?just IS? a certain way, when that is not the reality of it at all. What brings this to mind is a long dissertation I read this week on the accomplishments of an organization that considers itself to be concern citizens who are interested in preserving ?the environment? and of saving humanity from itself. I have to be honest and admit that by the time I was in the latter portions of their report, I was skimming more than reading because I had come to realize what the report was saying. Its main point was, ?Look at us! We saved the world from these terrible things.? Its main problem was that they had, in essence, defined these things as ?bad?, and then conducted a smear campaign of fear and doubt in opposition to them, without ever establishing that the problems were unsolvable, only that they had killed these terrible, dragons ? which is to say, Municipal Solid Waste disposal solution projects. These folks call themselves, the Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). They presented a ?report? entitled, Incinerators in Disguise Case Studies of Gasification, Pyrolysis, and Plasma in Europe, Asia, and the United States which was reportedly first presented to the California Integrated Waste Management Board in 2004. To give them credit their ?hearts? and intentions are in the right place when they say their goals are: ?Our ultimate vision is a just, toxic-free world without incineration. Our goal is the implementation of clean production, and the creation of a closed-loop, materials-efficient economy where all products are reused, repaired or recycled back into the marketplace or nature.? Sadly they chose as their goals that, ?We oppose incinerators, landfills, and other end-of-pipe interventions.? How can I oppose what these people are doing, especially in light of my recent statement that since my days in university, decades ago, my friends and I suggested that a new law be put into effect preventing any new substance from being introduced without a ?reversal? process being available to decompose and recycle it? That?s the goal of these organizations too. So where?s the beef? My beef is that they have fixed on the notion that just about every waste recycling technology in existence is what they consider to be a form of ?incineration? and that as such it is absolutely guaranteed to produce DIOXINS and other known carcinogens. Having recharacterized all sorts of gasification, pyrolysis, and plasma arc molecular destruction as mere ?incineration in disguise? they had stopped a number of projects from happening. But their attacks appear to be nothing more than F.U.D. That?s a term made famous by Bill Gates (of Microsoft fame) for ?Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt?. It was a very effective tool in the hands of Microsoft to postpone or suppress both public and corporate buying decisions which might favor any competitors. It seems pretty obvious to me that Greenaction for Environmental Health and Justice,as well as their buddies, the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, are using a ?okay, I won?t call it a ?smear campaign?, but a strategy that resembles environmental McCarthyism, demanding that any company that wants to turn Municipal Solid Wastes into electricity or fuel for producing electricity, PROVE that they DON?T PRODUCE DIOXINS. The basic problem with that is that it closely resembles a challenge to ?prove there are no pink elephants.? Even if you could gather all the elephants of the world into one place to show that none of them were pink, they would argue that you can?t be sure then next elephant to be born MIGHT be pink, or that you haven?t overlooked the pink elephants of the world, just to prove your case. These organizations have, mistakenly, decided that pyrolysis, gasification and plasma arc technologies are ?really? just sophisticated versions of ?incineration.? They cannot seem to conceive that, for instance, once you have used extreme heat to break chemical (organic or not) bonds to the elemental levels of Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, (as happens in gasification) that burning these products is not the same as burning trash directly. Now, admittedly, dioxins form rather easily. One of the ways you get dioxin is by smoking it. (Did he really say that? Yup, he did.) If you smoke something with bleached cigarette paper, the combination of burning organic material (leaves) in the presence of chlorine (the bleach left in the paper) this produces dioxin. Now it may or may not be important that dioxins have been declared to be cancer causing. After all, you can?t have charbroiled meat without creating them. Cancer causing agents are present in bacon. Indeed one of the most significant sources of dioxin is from burning pine wood, so virtually every forest fire in the Northern Hemisphere is a major source of cancer causing chemicals in the air. Good luck on banning lightning so we won?t have any spontaneous and natural forest fires. As I said, these folks who opposed various advanced technologies for waste disposal have their hearts in the right place, though too. For instance some of the most significant polluters that create dioxins are coal fired electric generating plants, metal smelting, burning of treated wood, backyard trash burning barrels, and the spreading of sewage on land (i.e. as fertilizer for farm fields). Of course, regular readers of this column will know that this warmed my heart, since our company is a strong advocate of Thermal De-polymerization for sewage sludge to produce electricity and non-ester renewable diesel fuels. This is likely a factor in Kern County?s decision to no longer allow sewage sludge from Los Angeles County to be spread on the fields there. The part that didn?t thrill me about this report on dioxin in Wikipedia was the listing of diesel vehicles as another major dioxin source according to US EPA estimates. Actually they specifically named diesel trucks, as opposed to all vehicles, but I am still looking for why diesel, and why trucks. On the other hand, this calls into question the validity of the concerns about dioxin ?leakage? from MSW treatment plants that are not incineration based. Even if there was some small risk that dioxins might be incidentally produced, in spite of the waste treatment plant operators being consciously aware of these concerns, shouldn?t these folks be more worried about the millions of diesel engines passing their neighborhoods every year, producing dioxins next to their homes and schoolyards? Many of the ?biomass? based power plants that have been approved in other states recently have been nothing more than sawdust burners that use the heat to generate steam for their electricity generating turbines. These really are nothing more than incinerators for forestry industry wastes that happen to produce electricity. The ?biomass? label makes the marketing of the concept easier for their promoters, but unless they are specifically avoiding pine sawdust, they are very likely to be producing dioxins too, and it doesn?t have to be ?pine? specifically either. All of this does bring up a rather sensitive point about WHICH plastics can safely be fed into these processes. Polyvinyl Chlorides are better known as PVC?s (as in the plastic pipe you buy at your favorite Lowe?s or Home Depot) (My wife and I are constantly engaged in some home improvement project, so we bought stock in both companies at one time or another, and consider their stores to be our favorite weekend vacation spots.) The ?burning? of chloride containing compounds along with other organic chemicals IS somewhat likely to produce dioxins. Chemical Depolymerization claims to avoid this by keeping temperatures low. Which suggests to me that there is space enough for all of the variations that have been invented thus far, with room for lots more discoveries in the future, too. But simply keeping PVC?s and other chloride plastics out of the mix can be a solution too. Failure to sort and recycle those materials that can readily be recycled is a terrible waste. Yet, ironically, another source named ?secondary aluminum smelting? as one of the prime creators of dioxin. Thus, recycling aluminum cans is almost guaranteed to produce more dioxin than any of these alternative waste-into-energy plans for MSW. Wikipedia?s article also cites ?Gordon McKay (2002). ?Dioxin, formation and minimisation during municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration: review?. Chemical Engineering Journal 86: 343?368? in a footnote, while explaining that most incineration operations have minimized dioxin production (reduced by 90%) mainly by quenching the temperature of flue gases at the smoke stacks from 600 degrees Centigrade to below 200 degrees Centigrade. US EPA?s original report on dioxins in 1987 blamed 80% of dioxin production on incinerations, which resulted in new regulations, and the results of meeting those regulations have been very successful. The reason I am spending so much time on this is that the my friend C. Scott Miller?s BIOWASTE.BLOGSPOT.COM cited concerns expressed by Coby Skye, of the LA Department of Public Works, the man tasked with choosing the ?conversion technology? for Los Angeles in his speech at the recent Biocycle West conference in San Diego. Mr. Skye focused on three themes as ?hurdles? to getting this accomplished: Costs, Regulatory Hurdles, and MISCONCEPTIONS. Costs are soaring for landfill, from current rates of about $25 per ton, he says. He is projecting that costs could soon rise to the $75 to $100 per ton range. Regulatory ?hurdles? are a moving target. Mr. Skye says that his task force is not even sure what permits he is going to need to get, even though his task force works for the government. Finally, the ?misconceptions? issue is something we can all do something about, by informing the public. Today, I am taking on my share of that responsibility in reporting all this to you. Mr. Skye also has a pointer to Scott Miller?s web sites (he has a group of 4) on the official LA DWP Conversion Technologies Task Force web page, calling the BIOCONVERSION.BLOGSPOT.COM web site, ?an excellent informational resource for conversion, recycling, and energy issues.? Okay, I?ve avoided politics long enough for this week. I have to ? all right, I want to ? take a shot at the Republican Party Presidential Candidates Debate. I have been very restrained in the earlier portion of this column in avoiding characterizing these well meaning environmentalists as intellectually challenged. But I suppose that in light of not only the current office holder, but the fact that during the debate, THREE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES, of the ten serious (?) contenders present, held up their hands to indicate that they DID NOT BELIEVE in the THEORY OF EVOLUTION. Maybe they are counting on the fact that as reported on www.layman.org as of the year 2000 an un-named ?recent poll? claimed that, ?68% [of Americans] wanted creation taught alongside evolution in schools.? Either those three hopefuls were demonstrating their own intellectually challenged condition, or the definition of, ?When can you tell a politician is lying?? is no longer just, ?When you see his lips moving.? Okay, aiming for a more optimistic note to end on, the Governator, yes, Arnold, issued a ?Bioenergy Action Plan for California? last year that called for ?Amend existing law to revise existing technology definitions and establish new ones, where needed. In particular, review the definitions of gasification, transformation, fermentation, pyrolysis, and manufacturing. Such statutory clarification would enable the utilization of biomass residues through combustion or non-combustion technology.? The result of that would be that the old 1989 California legislation that made ?incineration? of municipal solid wastes illegal would be revised specifically to permit alternate technologies to avoid being blocked by well meaning ?environmentalists?. Unfortunately, I am tougher to please than that. I am not really pleased with the idea of regressing to allowing sawdust burning as ?biomass-to-energy? conversion just because they generate electricity. With all the other references in this policy document to ?managed? forestry, sawdust and woodchip burning sounds very much like where this is heading, and I, for one, am not pleased. Okay, so I missed my aim on that. How about ? hmmm, let?s see ? Oh, yes, the Grey?s Anatomy two hour episode this week was a definite winner. It was obviously a spin-off tryout for a second case of emotionally mixed up doctors in a clinic in Los Angeles, including old pals of our Seattle based MD?s. Taye Diggs, Amy Brenneman, and Tim Daly all show up to give Kate Walsh a cozy little nest to build in her own time slot. Kate has the charisma to make it work, especially backed by those high TVQ veterans and perennial favorites, though reportedly the Grey?s ratings for the outing were received as disappointing to the ABC network. I guess that is good news, since which ever way it goes; I?ll enjoy seeing more of Kate Walsh wherever she lands. Love Stafford ?Doc? Williamson From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 10 15:01:42 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 15:01:42 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Letter from Center for Food Safety re Pet Food Quality Standards Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: One concern of mine is : where did all that melamine contaminated pet food go? Did it become hog feed, cattle feed, fish meal? If so...what regulatory body oversees the impoundment and destruction of contaminated food and feed supplies? Where did it go? Who inspects pet food and animal feed to make sure the feed doesn't contain melamine or cyanide compounds? How did this massive wave of contamination make it into the food chain? ......................................................... Letter to food manufacturers regarding legal responsibilities for the safety of food ingredients 09.may.07 Food and Drug Administration http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/protltr.html Dear Food Manufacturers: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking this opportunity to remind food manufacturers of their legal responsibility to ensure that all ingredients used in their products are safe for human consumption. In view of the recent recalls of various pet foods due to the presence of wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate contaminated with melamine, and information revealing that some of this contaminated pet food may have been mixed with feed for pigs and poultry meant for human consumption, manufacturers are encouraged to make sure they have procedures in place that ensure the safety of the ingredients in their products, as well as the safety of the packaging and processing supplies they use. Manufacturers should also verify that their suppliers have such procedures in place. Advice on how to ensure that food ingredients and food products are safe for human consumption can be found at www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/alert.html. FDA issued a protein ingredient surveillance assignment on May 1, 2007. As part of this assignment, FDA, in conjunction with state regulatory authorities, will be performing inspections of various food and feed facilities and collecting and testing for the presence of melamine a variety of protein ingredients, and finished products containing such ingredients, commonly found in the U.S. food and feed supplies. FDA has initiated this assignment to help ensure the safety of the U.S. food and feed supplies. The assignment will supplement melamine testing already conducted by FDA. The protein concentrates being tested include wheat gluten, corn gluten, corn meal, soy protein, and rice protein concentrate. Over the next few weeks, the assignment may expand in size and scope to include additional types of protein concentrates and finished products. During inspections of manufacturing facilities conducted as part of this assignment, FDA will reiterate to the food and feed industry the importance of assuring the safety and security of their ingredients and products by knowing their manufacturing and packaging operators, ingredient suppliers, contract manufacturers and sources for all incoming materials. FDA will collect samples primarily during inspections of domestic food manufacturers or, in the case of imports, at the point of entry. The samples will be analyzed at a variety of laboratories that are part of the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN). Manufacturers are responsible for taking their own measures to ensure the safety of their products. Manufacturers should not wait for possible FDA testing of their materials as manufacturers bear the responsibility of ensuring only safe products are put on the market. For those companies interested in performing their own tests for melamine, the methodology used by the FERN laboratories can be found at www.fda.gov/cvm/MelaminePresence.htm. Sincerely, Robert E. Brackett, Ph.D. Director Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Stephen F. Sundlof, D.V.M., Ph.D. Director Center for Veterinary Medicine From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun May 13 18:11:21 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 18:11:21 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Hinkley Calif : sludge update Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: I understand there was a huge turnout for the spagetti dinner fund raiser for HelpHinkley.com. .................................................. Sludge Update Desert Dispatch Barstow California May 11, 2007 Lawsuit The City Council has approved the use of city staff time to assist HelpHinkley.org with a lawsuit seeking to prevent Nursery Products from building a proposed composting facility near Hinkley. City staff will give 10 hours a month for as long as eight months. Kassie Siegel, the climate, air and energy program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the lawsuit is not really moving right now but that this is typical of a California Environmental Quality Act case. Stay informed The county will hold an informational meeting about the proposed facility at the Hinkley School Auditorium from 5 to 9 p.m. May 23. Chris Seney, director of operations of Nursery Products, said that he has no knowledge of the meeting and is not involved. Local activism There will be a spaghetti dinner fundraiser from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Elks Lodge. The cost is $8, and delivery is available. To make a reservation or place an order for delivery, call 221-8296. Weekly meetings take place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays at the Hinkley Firehouse http://www.desertdispatch.com/onset?db=desertdispatch&id=563&template=article.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun May 13 18:07:40 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 18:07:40 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Friends of the Earth Sue the EPA over cruise ship sewage dumping Message-ID: May 9, 2007 10:41 p.m. PT Environmental group sues EPA over cruise ship pollution Agency accused of failing to assess, regulate problem By KRISTEN MILLARES BOLT P-I REPORTER Friends of the Earth, a non-profit network of more than 1 million members, has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleging it failed to respond to a petition filed seven years ago asking it to assess and regulate cruise ship pollution. "We have a new Congress who might be more receptive to action, it is the beginning of the cruise season in North America and the expansion of the cruise industry continues to 12 million passengers this year," said Teri Shore, the clean vessels campaign director in the San Francisco office of Friends of the Earth. "For all these reasons, it seemed like a good time: It is better late than never." Shore said the influence of the Bush administration caused the EPA -- after beginning to study the matter seriously in 2000 -- to abandon its efforts to analyze and regulate pollution from the growing cruise industry. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., chronicles a history of non-response and unfulfilled assurances to comply with the petition, filed in 2000. The lawsuit describes promises made by the EPA in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006 to respond to the petition with a report on cruise ship waste streams that it was "actively working" on. The first target date for the report's release was Oct. 1, 2000. Since then, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission have asked for a national plan to regulate cruise ship dumping of the sewage produced during voyages, but none has been forthcoming. The EPA declined to comment on the lawsuit or its history of work on the cruise pollution issue. Cruise Lines International Association Vice President Michael Crye said that Friends of the Earth glosses over recent actions by the EPA to address the matter and that his industry's cooperation with the EPA's process continues. "They have been actively involved in a regulatory project over the past years and are still actively pursuing the regulatory project evaluating the wastewater systems and whether there is any need to do more," Crye said. While Alaska, California, Maine and Hawaii have passed more stringent state laws, Washington has relied on a voluntary agreement between the Port of Seattle, the state Department of Ecology and the Northwest CruiseShip Association to prohibit its members from discharging untreated sewage into Puget Sound. The Port of Seattle, King County and the state are studying whether it would be environmentally beneficial to ask cruise lines to offload their wastewater to be treated ashore, focusing in particular on the sewage sludge left over from the ships' treatment processes. The sludge can be dumped 12 miles out to sea. The average Alaska-bound cruise ship generates about 28,000 gallons of sewage sludge during the seven-day jaunt from Seattle, according to port staff. From May to September this year, 150 cruises are bound for Alaska from the Port of Seattle. They will generate about 4.2 million gallons of sewage sludge. In response to environmental concerns in ports of call such as Seattle, the cruise lines have begun deploying more advanced sewage-treatment systems on their vessels, systems they can use to strain some of the solid material from the raw sewage. Once the solids are separated, the rest is treated and can be discharged into the water within one nautical mile of the port berth while the ship is traveling at six knots. Crye said that treated sewage -- "literally water that you can drink without harmful effects" -- does not pose an environmental risk to the waters in which it is discharged. Environmentalists counter that the hormones and antibiotics found in such waste are disruptive to marine life. "The EPA did a very significant effort in 2004 in sampling discharges from cruise ships and evaluating capability of advanced wastewater purification systems to determine if there was a need for additional regulation, particularly in Alaska, and whether the legislation in place was sufficient or not," Crye said. The cruise industry took the EPA's 2004 data, compared it to water quality standards for municipal wastewater treatment systems, and found that the quality of treated sewage discharges from cruise ships equipped with the advanced treatment systems was "far beyond" that from most land-based wastewater plants. P-I reporter Kristen Millares Bolt can be reached at 206-448-8142 or kristenbolt at seattlepi.com. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/315059_cruise10.html From barstow at verizon.net Thu May 17 10:37:44 2007 From: barstow at verizon.net (Steve Smith) Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 07:37:44 -0700 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Sludge Land Not Likely For Parks Message-ID: <464C68B8.7090507@verizon.net> http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/05/16/news/051707rzrogerspark.txt Sludge Land Not Likely For Parks This article was published on Wednesday, May 16, 2007 8:27 PM CDT in News By Lori Harrison-Stone The Morning News ROGERS, Arkansas -- Some 200 acres next to the Rogers Pollution Control Facility isn't being used for spreading sludge, but it's not likely to become a city park. Parks and Recreation Commission members have discussed the property in recent weeks as a possible location for a large city park. "We need a park on that side of town in the worst way," said Commissioner Curt King. Tom McAlister, superintendent of the Rogers Water Utilities, said Wednesday the city wastewater treatment plant on Rainbow Road isn't using the property for spreading sludge anymore, but it's still being used. Liquid effluent produced by the plant is sprayed on about 180 acres of the property. The Pollution Control Facility has a limited amount of phosphorus it can put into Osage Creek, so part of the effluent is used as irrigation for the hay field, McAlister said. He noted any plan to sell the property or eliminate its use by the Rogers Water Utilities would have to be made by the Waterworks and Sewer Commission. But, he said, the utility expects to use the property for decades to come. * McAlister also noted the treatment plant continues to have some odor issues that might not be conducive to a park setting. Parks Director Rick Stocker had envisioned a huge complex of youth sports fields on the property. He said Wednesday he hadn't formally discussed the property's future usage with the Rogers Water Utilities and he was unaware that it was still in use by the treatment plant. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 17 16:05:27 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 16:05:27 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> FDA stymied in push to boost safety of produce - Message-ID: FDA stymied in push to boost safety of produce amid rise in outbreaks of illness, agency urged new rules, monitoring 16.may.07 Wall Street Journal Jane Zhang http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117927974746604312.html?mod=home_whats_news_us WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, under fire for a string of illnesses caused by contaminated vegetables, earlier this year came up with an ambitious, industry-endorsed plan calling for tough new regulations on the handling of fresh produce. But, the story says, the plan went nowhere after it got a cold reception from FDA's parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services. And even today, amid continuing concern about the safety of the nation's food supply, efforts to address the problem remain in limbo. People close to the FDA were cited as saying HHS officials led by acting Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan rejected the FDA plan, which was presented in February at HHS headquarters. At the meeting, the FDA warned that its current approach to protecting the safety of fruits and vegetables, which relies on the industry following voluntary guidelines, was failing to stop an increase in foodborne illnesses, according to people familiar with the matter. Those in attendance included Robert Brackett, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Among other things, the FDA outlined a three-year effort that would pump $76 million into its coffers to monitor produce safety and impose stringent rules on growers and processors to prevent contamination. Such a campaign could cut produce-related outbreaks of illness in half, the FDA officials said. HHS spokeswoman Christina Pearson was quoted as saying that the February meeting was just a background session, with the FDA presenting "a wide variety of options available to us in our efforts to improve food safety," and didn't require a policy or regulatory decision. An FDA spokeswoman referred calls seeking comment from Dr. Brackett to David Acheson, who on May 1 assumed the newly created position of FDA assistant commissioner for food protection. Dr. Acheson, who at the time of the meeting was chief medical officer of the FDA's food safety center, didn't attend the gathering but was involved in preparing materials for it. Businesses often resist new regulations. But in recent months, major food-industry groups, including the United Fresh Produce Association and the Grocery Manufacturers Association, have called for new FDA rules to ensure the safety of fruits and vegetables, an approach they think will be more effective than voluntary measures in bolstering consumer confidence. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 8 17:14:30 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 17:14:30 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> PBDE - escapes sewage treatment plants into river, fish, & people Message-ID: Flame retardant among Columbia pollutants Tuesday, May 08, 2007 BY ERIK ROBINSON, Columbian staff writer A flame retardant intended to save people is probably harming salmon in the Columbia River, according to new research released Monday in Vancouver. The research, summarized during a scientific conference at the Red Lion Hotel at the Quay, revealed the presence of a chemical flame retardant within the tissue of juvenile salmon in the river. The level of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, commonly known as PBDEs, in Columbia River salmon far exceeds levels found within fish swimming near downtown Seattle. Scientists have linked PBDEs to neurological damage and thyroid issues in rodents, and researchers suspect similar effects in aquatic life. The common fire-suppression compound is an example of emerging contaminants afflicting the river. Like pharmaceuticals and other increasingly common pollutants that find their way through wastewater treatment plants and into the environment, PBDEs won't kill a salmon outright. It may just make them dumber. "If a predator comes, they may not get out of the way," said ?Lyndal Johnson, a zoologist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. "They wouldn't be able to find prey as effectively." The Environmental Protection Agency last year placed cleanup of the Columbia on a par with six other major waterways in the country, so scientists are focusing more attention on toxic pollutants in the river. Uncovering new layers In some ways, the river is cleaner since the days when industrial pipes dumped pollutants unfettered by laws such as the Clean Water Act of 1972. "What we're finding now is the stuff you can't see," said ?Jennifer Morace, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Portland. "It's the stuff we didn't know enough to ask about before that we're seeing now." Morace teamed with Johnson on the study conducted for the bi-state Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership. The ?research, underwritten by a $2.3 million grant from the Bonneville Power Administration, will serve as the backbone of a report due to be finalized later this summer. "Much more needs to be done," said Debrah Marriott, director of the estuary partnership. Members of the estuary partnership hope to use the report as a starting point for continuing to monitor and improve water quality in the Columbia, a huge water body that drains an area the size of France. Johnson and Morace also found so-called "legacy" pollutants, production of which has been banned in the United States since the 1970s. The pesticide DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls, used as an industrial lubricant, both appeared in fish tissue but their concentration appears to be declining in the water. PCBs don't readily break down in the environment. A small and relatively safe amount lay suspended in the air, water or sediment backed up against hydroelectric dams. A tiny bottom-dwelling critter acts like a biological sponge, scooping up the toxins and thereby concentrating them. A bigger fish eats the critter, and a person ultimately eats the fish. Never in this cycle does the toxin simply break down in the environment, as is the case with some pollutants. http://www.columbian.com/news/localNews/05082007news137228.cfm From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 8 17:18:15 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 17:18:15 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> State of California asks Bush and Congress for E. coli research money Message-ID: State seeks money for E. coli research 07.may.07 The Salinas Californian Jake Henshaw http://www.californianonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070507/NEWS01/70507017 The state Assembly on Monday called on President Bush and Congress to help pay for research aimed at preventing E. coli contamination of leafy greens. Without debate, lawmakers voted 76-0 to send Assembly Joint Resolution 13 by Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, to the Senate. The resolution primarily aims to encourage Congress to approve $25 million sought by U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, which would pay for research being conducted at the University of California, Davis. Farr unsuccessfully tried to include the funding in the Iraqi war funding bill that ultimately was vetoed by Bush. While Congress debates a new war funding bill, Farr won?t seek funding through this legislation, his chief of staff Rochelle Dornatt said. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 9 01:13:54 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 01:13:54 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Florida - no sludge spreading allowed in Lake Okeechobee watershed Message-ID: "The measure also includes new restrictions on polluted stormwater runoff from new developments, and on the dumping of sewage sludge into the Lake Okeechobee watershed, which environmentalists say is a major victory. " http://www.tallahassee.com/legacy/special/blogs/2007/05/new-legislation-seen-as-big-boon-for.html Tuesday, May 08, 2007 New legislation seen as big boon for Everglades >From The Florida Times Union TALLAHASSEE - Environmentalists are hailing a new bill to expand Everglades cleanup by extending the effort to the northern reaches of the ecosystem, where the water gets polluted in the first place. A bill lawmakers sent last week to Gov. Charlie Crist doubles the amount of money going into Everglades cleanup, up to $200 million from the $100 million the program has received yearly since state and federal officials pledged in 2000 to try to reverse decades of pollution-caused problems in the River of Grass. With matching money from local governments and state funding for other related projects, the total spending will be close to $500 million, said Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, who led the effort in the Senate. The measure also includes new restrictions on polluted stormwater runoff from new developments, and on the dumping of sewage sludge into the Lake Okeechobee watershed, which environmentalists say is a major victory. The legislation (SB 392) expands the notion of cleaning up the Everglades to restoration of Lake Okeechobee and the rivers that flow south into the lake - the water that eventually ends up in the Everglades. It sets out a plan for acquiring land and creating water treatment mechanisms north of the lake From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 9 01:16:23 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 01:16:23 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ontario - Paper Sludge Update....Minister still fails to implement controls Message-ID: Protect the Ridges would like to thank our Durham MPP, Mr. John R. O?Toole for his perseverance on this issue. Here?s the latest reply from the Minister of the Environment regarding the Sound-Sorb and Nitro-Sorb /paper sludge issue. From: Deb Vice Protect the Ridges Co-Chair 905-655-5045 Copies available on request ?????????????. ENV1283MC-2007-1017 Ministry of the Environment Office of the Minister 135 St. Clair Ave. West,12th Floor Toronto ON M4V 1P5 Tel (416)314-6790 Fax (416-314-6748 April 16, 2007 Mr. John R. O?Toole, MPP Durham 75 King Street East Bowmanville ON L1C 1N4 Dear Mr. O?Toole: Thank you for your letter of March 1, 2007 concerning an update on the ministry?s response to the Experts Panel report on the use of Sound-Sorb. As you noted, the Experts Panel which our government established, provided its report in January 2005. The report provided recommendations for the management of Sound-Sorb used in the construction of berms. In response to the Expert Panel?s recommendations, the ministry is currently considering regulatory amendments to manage the use of this material when it is applied to land, including the need for an approval from my ministry. Any proposed regulatory amendments will take into account the Expert Panel?s recommendations, the protection of the environment, the needs of the stakeholders, and will seek to manage contaminants of concern in pulp and paper biosolids. The agreement with Atlantic Packaging Inc. includes monitoring in the vicinity of six berms, including the berm at the Oshawa Skeet and Gun Club (OSGC). The initial sampling was recently completed at five of the six berms identified in the agreement. The ministry has not, as yet, received the results of the sampling. The sampling in the vicinity of the remaining berm at the Huntsville Gun Club will be scheduled as soon as possible. The ministry has recently received the final report for the Site-Specific Risk Assessment of the Sound-Sorb berm at the OSGC. The report is being reviewed by the ministry, and once the review is complete the report will be made available to the public. Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention. Sincerely, Signed Laurel C. Broten Minister of the Environment From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 17 17:08:32 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 17:08:32 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Chronic Wasting Disease is Transmissible Among Rodents Message-ID: Source: American Society for Microbiology April 27, 2007 Chronic Wasting Disease Is Transmissible Among Rodents Science Daily ? For the first time, a new study demonstrates that certain rodents can be directly infected with CWD and therefore serve as animal models for further study of the disease. Chronic wasting disease (CWD), also known as mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in humans, is a transmissible prion disease most commonly found in deer and elk. Conversion of the normal host protein to an abnormal disease-associated form is an important part in the tracking of prion diseases and researchers are hopeful that rodent-adapted CWD models could assist in therapeutic development. In the study transgenic and wild-type mice in addition to Syrian, Djungarian, Chinese, Siberian and Armenian hamsters were inoculated with CWD samples retrieved from deer and elk and monitored over various amounts of time. Distinct neuropathological patterns throughout differing incubation periods were observed in Chinese hamsters and transgenic mice offering the highest susceptibility rates. Wild-type mice and Djungarian hamsters were found not to be susceptible to CWD. "We have shown that CWD from one or more cervid species can be transmitted to Sg, Chinese, Siberian, and Armenian hamsters and to Tg mice that express Sg hamster prion protein," say the researchers. "The resulting rodent-adapted CWD models could be useful in comparative studies of TSE strains in vivo as well as for testing potential anti-TSE therapeutic agents." (G.J. Raymond, L.D. Raymond, K.D. Meade-White, A.G. Hughson, C. Favara, D. Gardner, E.S. Williams, M.W. Miller, R.E. Race, B. Caughey. 2007. Transmission and adaptation of chronic wasting disease to hamsters and transgenic mice: evidence for strains. Journal of Virology, 81. 8: 4305-4314). Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by American Society for Microbiology. From barstow at verizon.net Fri May 18 10:11:39 2007 From: barstow at verizon.net (Steve Smith) Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 07:11:39 -0700 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Sludge Milford, New Hampshire The Full Story Message-ID: <464DB41B.9020608@verizon.net> http://www.cabinet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070517/ABOUT/70517001 The full story By Daymond Steer Published: Thursday, May. 17, 2007 MILFORD, NH ? Every morning Penny Arsenault sticks her head out the back door of her home on Spruce Street, prepared for a horrible odor from the town?s wastewater treatment plant. A few minutes later she drives by the plant to get to work at Hollis Elementary School. ?I do my own little air quality test,? said Arsenault. ?It tells me what to expect as I get closer to the plant.? Arsenault isn?t alone. Several people who work at Lorden Plaza say they smell the stench coming from the plant at 564 Nashua St. So Arsenault created a complaint form for business owners in the area, hoping they will mail it back to the town?s Wastewater Department. Some complaints have already been received by the department, which is in the process of commissioning a Concord consulting firm to find the cause of the smell and recommend ways to correct the problem. The final report is expected in August. Arsenault is pleased that the Waste Water Department is taking action. ?When air smells like that it can?t possibly be healthy,? she said. ?It?s a good thing they are going to take some steps, and the public pressure is being felt.? The consultant?s report will cost sewer users $15,000, said treatment plant superintendent Larry Anderson. He believes the smell might be coming from compost piles. In 2005, the town built a roof to cover the compost, and when the wind blows the odor blows out all at once. The compost is sludge that has been mixed with wood chips and it?s sold as a fertilizer. In April the plant processed 63,000 pounds of sludge, converting it into compost. The roof was installed to keep the compost dry because when it gets wet it takes longer to process. ?We don?t feel there are any health-related effects in regard to the odor,? said Anderson. ?We understand it is offensive. We don?t want to just throw money at the problem. We want to address the issue in the most effective way.? The study will include an odor survey of the area around the plant. During the interview at the facility, the smell was no worse than visiting a farm, and there was a whiff of odor at Lorden Plaza. Business owners at Loren Plaza told The Cabinet they noticed the smell for years and expressed relief that the town was trying to fix the problem. ?There are days it can be really bad,? said Sharon DuPont, owner of the Clothes Closet. She has to close the doors when the smell is at its worst. Desiree Watts smells it from her home in Heritage Estates and when she works at the Dollar Store. Watts says she moved into Heritage Estates eight years ago and has smelt it ever since. ?I wake up to it every morning; it?s disgusting,? she said. Shaw?s Supermarket manager Chris Poulin said his customers and staff have complained about the smell. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri May 18 14:11:47 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 14:11:47 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> CNN TV special this weekend- Danger: Poisoned Food Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Lets see if the show talks about the delivery of sewage effluent for the spray irrigation of spinach and lettuce crops. ........................................... CNN spotlights Central Coast produce: Local growers worried about fallout 17.may.07 The Salinas Californian Dawn Withers http://thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070517/NEWS01/70517020/1002 Last year?s E. coli outbreak linked to Central Coast spinach returns to the national spotlight this weekend as CNN airs a documentary titled ?Special Investigations Unit ? Danger: Poisoned Food.? Salinas Valley growers were cited as saying the program bodes little good for Monterey County agriculture, which is still fighting to emerge from the shadow of the contaminated spinach crisis last September. The two-part program is hosted by CNN?s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Gupta visited Monterey County in March and interviewed three local agricultural industry officials, including Joseph Pezzini, who served as chairman of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California during the outbreak and its aftermath. Pezzini, who?s also vice president of operations at Ocean Mist Farms in Castroville, was cited as saying he agreed to be interviewed by CNN to make sure the ag industry?s side of the food-safety story is represented, but he has concerns about the CNN piece, concerns shared by many agriculture leaders at the Grower-Shipper Association?s annual member meeting Thursday, stating, "I don?t know how it will be portrayed. The trailer and title don?t make me feel very good." The CNN special examines several different food-borne-illness outbreaks, including those linked to peanut butter in February and to Central Coast spinach last year. In his reporting, Gupta visited farms and packing plants to see how safe produce is, according to a statement from CNN. CNN crews visited Paicines Ranch in San Benito County, where state and federal health officials found positive matches for the same strain of E. coli that killed at least three and sickened more than 200 people last fall. The crews also visited a Natural Selection Foods plant in San Juan Bautista, where the contaminated spinach was processed, said Bill Marler, a Seattle-based attorney who represents more than 90 people sickened in the outbreak. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri May 18 14:23:40 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 14:23:40 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Still no answers in 2006 lettuce E.coli outbreak Message-ID: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/05/18/food.safety.lettuce/ Still no answers in '06 lettuce E. coli outbreak POSTED: 1:31 p.m. EDT, May 18, 2007 Story Highlights? E. coli on lettuce at Taco John's restaurants sickened at least 81 people last year ? Investigation continuing, has not determined how lettuce became contaminated ? FDA: 20 outbreaks of E. coli linked to California lettuce since 1995 MORE ON CNN TV: A dirty secret about our food... is it truly safe? Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates in "Danger: Poisoned Food," Saturday and Sunday, 8 p.m. ET \ >From Stephanie Smith ALBERT LEA, Minnesota (CNN) -- Thursday after work was Terri Kaiser's favorite night: It was bowling night with her three sisters. But last November, one of those nights turned horrible. Before hitting the lanes, the four sisters stopped at Taco John's for a quick bite. Kaiser ordered a meat and potatoes burrito with lettuce. Afterward, the sisters bowled as usual, with no problems. But as one day turned to two, and two days into a week, Kaiser became bedridden. "I started feeling like I was getting the flu," said Kaiser, 57. "[Then] I started having severe cramps and black, bloody stools. I was feeling like 'Wow what's going on here? This isn't your typical flu.' " Two weeks later, she was on dialysis. "It was a shock," said Kaiser. "How can being ill make your kidneys stop working?" Kaiser and her doctors did not know it yet, but something on those few shreds of lettuce was wreaking havoc on her body. It was E. coli bacteria. The lettuce used by Taco John's restaurants eventually sickened 81 people in three states. Those are the reported cases. Many suspect the numbers are higher. And nobody has gotten answers about how this outbreak happened. Officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention have confirmed that the lettuce most likely came from a farm in Central California. What they don't know is how the lettuce came to be tainted with E. coli 057:H7. CNN requested information related to the investigation of the Central California farm from the FDA and the California Department of Health Services. The answer on both fronts was that the investigation is "continuing." E. coli a recurring problem in produce California produce, it seems, has a problem with E. coli 0157:H7, which is most commonly found in cattle feces. Since 1995 there have been more than 20 outbreaks of E. coli in lettuce and leafy greens traced back to farms in that state. "You'd think that after so many outbreaks, the government and the leafy green industry would do something about this," said Bill Marler, a Seattle, Washington, attorney specializing in food-poisoning cases. Marler has been at the helm of several lawsuits against the leafy green industry. He says investigations are traditionally slow, and he still does not have a report from a 2005 outbreak in Dole lettuce. The FDA told CNN that the investigation into lettuce is on hold. It was derailed in part by recent investigations into melamine contamination in pet food, fish, swine and other foods. "The FDA has to do what it can with the resources that it has," said David Acheson, assistant commissioner at the FDA Office of Food Defense, Communication and Emergency Response. "When there is an outbreak, investigators drop what they're doing and respond." Clinging to life Nine days after that bowling night, Terri Kaiser lay motionless in a hospital bed, cocooned by tubes, IV bags and the persistent beeps of monitors. "I kind of shut down with the whole thing," said Loren Kaiser, Terri Kaiser's husband. "That first day the doctor had commented that she may not make it through this ... that it could be fatal." Her kidneys had stopped functioning and Kaiser could not produce urine. The E. coli cells were hijacking her body's ability to function. "E. coli 157 produces a very potent toxin that kills human cells," said Mansour Samadpour, a microbiologist at IEH Laboratories in Seattle. "A toxin is released, it's absorbed and then starts killing intestinal cells and makes its way throughout the body." No one can say for sure how the E. coli got on Kaiser's lettuce, but with cows in California residing dangerously close to lettuce crops, most investigations into outbreaks begin at the cow pasture. (How science can help keep our food safe ) E. coli 0157:H7 proliferates in the intestines of a cow. But the pathogen also is carried by other animals, including birds, rodents, deer and elk. The trouble begins when those animals traipse through lettuce fields. "It's nature," said Samadpour. "You have absolutely zero control, because if the organism is there, wildlife is going to pick it up." "Some people are just angry and I think some people feel violated," said Marler. "When you think about it, it's not a really pleasant thought that you're eating someone or something's feces. That's just not a very pleasant concept." Kaiser may be getting over the feeling of violation, but she still wants to know how E. coli got in her lettuce in the first place. Her kidneys are functioning at about 44 percent, and she says she's steadily improving, even while contending with an extreme case of hypertension. "Young children and people older than myself...are going to have a long, long line of problems because of eating poisonous food," said Kaiser. "It shouldn't happen." (Meet a young survivor of spinach-borne E. coli ) As she heals, Kaiser waits for the government to explain why she and others like her went through this pain. Stephanie Smith is a producer with CNN Medical News. Producer Kelley Colihan and senior producer Caleb Hellerman contributed to this report. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 21 16:21:31 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 16:21:31 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Brisbane Australia - residents don't want to drink sewage effluent Message-ID: "The publication claims that liquid waste from morgues and hospitals, paints and solvents would be part of a "horrendous toxic cocktail" in the sewage to be recycled for drinking. " "Although Toowoomba residents voted against drinking recycled sewage by a large margin, they will be forced to do so anyway when the city is connected to the southeast Queensland water grid." http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21765771-30417,00.html Words twisted in anti-recycling propaganda Greg Roberts May 21, 2007 SCIENTISTS say they have been seriously misrepresented in material prepared for a campaign to undermine the Beattie Government's recycled sewage plan. Brisbane will become the first capital to use recycled sewage for drinking by the end of next year, with recycled water to be pumped to the Wivenhoe Dam through the $1.7 billion western corridor pipeline, the biggest project of its kind in Australia. Opponents of the plan have vowed to stop it. More than 500,000 copies of a glossy 20-page booklet -- called "Think Before You Agree to Drink" and costing $200,000 -- have been distributed in Brisbane in recent weeks. The publication claims that liquid waste from morgues and hospitals, paints and solvents would be part of a "horrendous toxic cocktail" in the sewage to be recycled for drinking. It claims that a large proportion of male fish changed sex through exposure to sewage pollutants, and that male lambs fed sewage sludge pellets behaved like females. The booklet refers to what it describes as scientific studies that support the case against drinking recycled water. However, four experts quoted in the publication have told The Australian that they in fact support the use of recycled sewage as drinking water. Melbourne Water scientist John Poon is quoted as expressing concern about "longer-term health impacts from contaminants". Mr Poon said the quote was taken from a long article, which indicated it was safe to drink recycled water. "They have misrepresented me by taking that comment totally out of context," he said. University of Queensland biologist Peter Koopman is quoted as blaming pollutants for a 50 per cent drop in male fertility rates over the past 50 years. Professor Koopman said his comment had nothing to do with recycled water, which was not even available over those 50 years. "The implied link is nonsense," he said. University of Wollongong engineer Long Duc Nghiem and CSIRO scientist Colin Creighton, who are also quoted in the brochure, said they were not opposed to drinking recycled water. The publication was funded in part by John Dowson, a semi-retired land developer in the Darling Downs city of Toowoomba, where a referendum last June to introduce recycled water was defeated. The campaign Mr Dowson funds is organised by Toowoomba councillor Snow Manners, who conceded that some experts quoted in the brochure may have been misrepresented. "They are all direct quotes but some may have been taken out of context," Mr Manners said. "That is a reasonable thing to do. It is crucial that people realise recycled water is not a solution, no matter how desperate the water situation is." Although Toowoomba residents voted against drinking recycled sewage by a large margin, they will be forced to do so anyway when the city is connected to the southeast Queensland water grid. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 21 18:23:07 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 18:23:07 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Fort Wayne Indiana - Poo + Industrial waste on your garden Message-ID: Indiana ? Fort Wayne - heavy metals and fecal coliform in the Class A sludge ?biosolids? being distributed to public ? ?The samples in January and June failed the fecal coliform tests but passed for salmonella . . . ? ?. . .biosolids in January . . . and June of 2006 had elevated levels of fecal coliform but were distributed anyway, and that in May there were too many heavy metals in the soil . . . ? ?sheet recommends putting it on vegetable gardens only once a year? ?The Waste Institute?s Harrison, however, said that industrial pre-treatment does not remove all pollutants ? and chemical pollutants are not removed at the sewage plant. ?It?s a tremendous overstatement to suggest (industrial pre-treatment) has taken care of all the industrial contaminants in sludge,? Harrison said. ?Why should I put industrial waste on my property?? Posted on Sun, May. 20, 2007 http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/17255477.htm Biosolid use nothing to ?pooh-pooh? City insists tested sludge safe; others cite ?questionable risk? By Dan Stockman The Journal Gazette Is that nutrient-rich fertilizer you?re spreading on your vegetable garden? Or is it toxic sludge, filled with pathogens, heavy metals and industrial waste? It depends on who you ask. There?s no question at one point the material distributed in the city of Fort Wayne?s biosolids program was toxic sludge, regulated as a hazardous waste by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But in the more than three years it takes for the sludge to go from the sewage treatment plant to your rose garden, officials say, it becomes a safe additive that is great for plants. Biosolids are free for the taking if you load them yourself, or for a nominal charge if you have them loaded for you. ?It?s the ultimate in recycling,? said Greg Meszaros, the city?s director of public works. ?Lots of communities put it in the landfill or incinerate it.? ?It? is the leftovers of the sewage treatment process. After the sewage is filtered and then run through settling tanks, it goes to digester tanks, where friendly bacteria eat the organic material out of the water. Lest you think this is an insignificant process, consider this: The bacteria are fed 27 tons of solids a day. When the bacteria are settled out, the result is sludge ? heavy with water and filled with all the nasty reasons it was flushed away in the first place. Acres of The sludge is then moved to the city?s 55 spends three drying basins, where it years drying out and being turned to increase exposure to oxygen. State and federal law then requires testing for heavy metals and pathogens to ensure the material is safe before being distributed. ?We take our permit requirements very seriously,? Meszaros said. ?That?s something we?re not just going to pooh-pooh.? City officials say there is little risk from biosolids, but Ellen Z. Harrison, director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., said she cautions people not to use the word ?safe.? ?With pretty much everything, the question is, is it an acceptable risk?? Harrison said. ?The question of acceptable risk varies from person to person.? So how does she view biosolids? ?My perspective on the use of sewage sludges in residential settings is there are a number of known and unknown risks that would lead me to personally not use this material,? she said. Failed tests, state scrutiny Even following state standards can be challenging, officials said. The city halted biosolid distribution for nearly a month after the state sent a notice saying the city had violated its permit. Distribution was supposed to resume Friday, but test results did not arrive. The program is expected to resume Monday if test results are available and indicate the material is safe. Those trying to get biosolids Friday were turned away from the site, a sun-baked parking lot surrounded by piles of brush and grass clippings with a mobile home for an office and two vehicle scales. The state warning was based on the city?s annual report to the Indiana 30, which showed Department of Environmental Management submitted Jan. biosolids in January that and June of 2006 had elevated levels of fecal coliform but were distributed anyway, and that in May there were too many heavy metals in the soil. State officials also had questions about dates and weights of materials that were unclear in the city?s annual report. An April 26 response from the city says the failed heavy metals test was because of an improperly calibrated instrument at the independent testing lab. The biosolids were blended with other soils to dilute the metals to safe levels before distribution, officials said, though that wasn?t clear in the annual report. A second test with a properly calibrated instrument showed the material was safe even before blending, Meszaros said. The problems with the coliform came from confusion among employees regarding which tests had to be passed, he said. The city?s yard waste plant is run by a private vendor, Fox Contractors. Meszaros said federal regulations allow plants to test either for salmonella or fecal coliform. The samples in January and June failed the fecal coliform tests but passed for salmonella, so employees thought the material was safe to distribute. The city?s permit, however, is through IDEM, which requires only the fecal coliform test. ?We don?t believe there was any danger in any way to the public,? Meszaros said. ?In fact, we don?t believe we violated our permit.? Because federal rules allow either test to be used, he said, the material met the safety requirements. He also cites rules that allow one of three systems to be used to reduce pathogens; the city does all three ? digestion, drying and composting. Still, to ensure there are no problems, the city temporarily halted the program in late April to ensure all employees are trained and to give officials time to review processes to make sure they are adequate. Although the state requires only an annual report ? the notice of violation for the failed tests came more than a year after the first failure ? the city will voluntarily submit monthly reports for a year. ?We asked for a comprehensive review,? Meszaros said. ?We want to make sure everyone is on the same wavelength.? Don?t eat dirt, either City officials insist the biosolids they distribute are safe to use as directed. But that doesn?t mean you should eat them. ?Use the same common sense that you would with any bagged material at Home Depot or Lowe?s,? said Wendy Barrott, the city?s director of energy and environmental services. And common sense would tell you not to eat, say, composted manure or even just plain dirt out of your yard. Biosolids are not much different from dirt, officials said, only they have more organic matter. They also have all the bacteria and germs that dirt carries. City officials say the biosolids are similar to topsoil but should really be used as a soil additive, rather than a soil substitute. Because it is so rich in organic matter, they say, it really needs to be blended with top soil for use. The city?s biosolid information sheet recommends putting it on vegetable gardens only once a year. It can also be used on lawns, trees and shrubs. Resident Julie Cox was planning on using biosolids to help fertilize a struggling flower bed but could not because the program was halted. While the former chemistry teacher would use them in the front yard, she said, she wouldn?t use them where her children play. ?Based on the geography of where we live, they probably don?t have much more heavy metals than what we have in our regular soil,? Cox said of her 75-year-old home. ?But I don?t think I would ever use it like, say, in a garden. And I would not use it in the backyard or near the sandbox.? Critics have said biosolids are just a public relations ploy to help cities get rid of toxic sludge, and cite controversies within the EPA over using the material. According to the 1995 book ?Toxic Sludge is Good For You,? much of the work to spread the use of biosolids was done by the Water Environment Federation, the new name of the Federation of Sewage Works Associations ? the national trade group for the sewage industry. Barrott said that may be true, but that those pushing the use of biosolids are also pushing to ensure they are safe and used properly, through the National Biosolids Partnership ( www.biosolids.org). She also said the EPA responded to the controversy in the 1990s by performing a comprehensive risk assessment, studying everything from the rate plants absorb toxics out of the soil to all the possible routes humans could be exposed to pollutants. ?All the numbers were set very carefully by the EPA,? Barrott said. ?They want to make sure your processes (for removing harmful materials) are really robust.? In addition, officials said, there should be little or no pollutants in the biosolids because they are taken out of the waste stream before they ever get into the sludge biosolids are made from. The city has an industrial pre-treatment program that requires industries to remove chemical pollutants from their sewage before it goes into the sewer lines. Officials said that protects the friendly bacteria at the treatment plant, the Maumee River where the processed wastewater is released, and eventually the users of biosolids. The Waste Institute?s Harrison, however, said that industrial pre-treatment does not remove all pollutants ? and chemical pollutants are not removed at the sewage plant. ?It?s a tremendous overstatement to suggest (industrial pre-treatment) has taken care of all the industrial contaminants in sludge,? Harrison said. ?Why should I put industrial waste on my property?? dstockman at jg.net >From the loo back to you The city of Fort Wayne tons of biosolids last year ? a distributed 12,615 nutrient-rich soil additive made from sewage sludge. It takes more than three years to go from the toilet to your tulips: ?After it arrives at the Water Pollution Control Plant, wastewater passes through screens that filter out solid objects, then through a centrifuge that removes smaller solids, then settling ponds. Then it goes to the digesters, where friendly bacteria eat the organic matter that remains. When the water is drained off, what?s left behind is sludge. ?The sludge then goes to 55 acres of basins, where it dries for three years and the pathogens in it are exposed to extremes of hot and cold weather. ?It is then combined with ground-up yard waste and composted for three or four months. ?After being tested for fecal coliform and heavy metals, it is sold and given away. Source: City of Fort Wayne From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 21 18:26:20 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 18:26:20 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Oxnard Calif - sues USA Transport for $3.5M clean up sludge / ash Message-ID: Oxnard sues firm over $3.5 million clean-up By Charles Levin (Contact) Friday, May 18, 2007 Oxnard has sued the operator of its Kern County farm, hoping to recoup at least $3.5 million it spent to rid the site of a large cache of allegedly hazardous waste. At issue is the storage of 125,000 tons of gypsum ash at the farm, northwest of Wasco. Oxnard leased the farm in 1995 to Adelanto-based USA Transport, which hauled wastewater sludge from Oxnard and other Ventura County cities to the site for use as fertilizer. USA Transport treated the sludge, also known as biosolids, with the gypsum to remove pathogens. In 2005, Kern County planning officials charged that the city exceeded the allowable amount of gypsum it could store at the 1,280-acre farm. Kern County zoning rules allow storing up to a one-year's supply, or 16,000 tons, of gypsum at the farm, according to the suit. In fact, the cache ballooned to 125,000 tons, the suit says. Kern County regulators cited Oxnard for excess storage and zoning violations in 2005. Shortly after, USA Transport began removing gypsum from the site. But USA Transport removed only 25,000 tons by January 2006 and then "stated it could not remove the material at its own cost and expense," the suit says. Later that month, the state's Department of Toxic Substances Control declared the gypsum hazardous waste a charge that Oxnard has disputed. By April 2006, however, Kern County's Board of Supervisors fined Oxnard and USA Transport $25,000 each for violating public nuisance codes and ordered the city to remove the gypsum within 90 days or face additional penalties of $3,000 a day. The city complied with the order, avoiding the penalties. The city had to hire another carrier to help USA Transport finish the job and meet the deadline, Assistant City Attorney Alan Holmberg said Thursday. Cleanup costs exceeded $3.5 million once the city learned the scope of the problem, according to Mark Norris, Oxnard's assistant director of public works. In hindsight, the city now believes there was 125,000 tons of gypsum on the site by May 2005, Holmberg said. Oxnard employed someone to monitor the farm, but that person focused on how the sludge was applied, not storage amounts, Norris said Thursday. The suit, filed Jan. 24 in Ventura Superior Court, charges USA Transport and company President Gary Leslie with breach of contract and negligence. The suit also alleges that USA Transport owes the city $522,000. Leslie did not return a telephone call on Thursday. Daniel Katz, Leslie's Riverside-based attorney, said Thursday that the amount of gypsum never reached 125,000 tons. Katz could not say how much was there when regulators closed down the operation. "I don't feel comfortable giving estimates without speaking to experts or consultants," Katz said. Charging that USA "could not remove the material" was a generalized allegation, Katz said. "USA was unable to do it in 90 days," Katz said, adding the company at the time believed it could have done the job in 180 days. Katz also denied that his client owed the city $522,000. "If any money is owed, it's less than that amount," Katz said. Studies to determine whether the gypsum was hazardous waste are still pending, Phil Blum, a supervising scientist with the Toxic Substances Control agency, said Thursday. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 21 18:39:51 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 18:39:51 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Akron Ohio - sludge plant - energy from bacteria Message-ID: http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/17257774.htm Power station to ease energy troubles Akron sludge plant will be first in nation to create electricity with aid of bacteria By Bob Downing Beacon Journal staff writer * Innovation in power generation By late this year, Akron hopes to be turning sewage sludge into electricity. The city and KB Compost Services Inc. began construction in September of a $7 million plant -- the first of its kind in the United States -- that will rely on bacteria to feed on sludge to produce a gas that can power an electric generator. The new facility is similar to about 200 plants in Europe and Asia developed by a German company, Schmack Biogas AG. The system relies on bacteria that do not need oxygen -- a process known as anaerobic digestion. Instead, the bacteria cause the sewage sludge to ferment. The bacteria multiply, consume part of the sludge and produce a methane-rich burnable gas called biogas, said Akron spokesman Brian Gresser and Annette Berger, vice president of operations at KB Compost Services. The biogas will be 60 percent methane, 35 percent carbon dioxide and 5 percent other gases. In comparison, natural gas is 99 percent methane. Gresser said the process will help reduce the city's escalating costs in handling sewage waste from Akron and its suburbs. Electricity produced by the plant is expected to reduce energy costs, and if successful, the process could replace the aging compost facility. The spark for the innovative plant was a trade trip that Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic made to Germany four years ago. He inspected a similar facility near Zurich, Switzerland, and brought the idea back to Akron. The plant, on city land next to the Cuyahoga River, will be owned by the city and operated by KB Compost Services, a company based in the Cleveland suburb of Independence. Company formed KB Compost Services has partnered with Schmack Biogas AG to form a new company, Schmack Bio-Energy LLC headed by Mel Kurtz in Independence, to promote the German technology in the United States. Schmack, based in Schwandorf, Germany, was founded in 1995 by three brothers with dairy cattle and lots of manure. The company has become a key player in the booming biogas industry that is just taking off in this country. The Akron project has quietly been under development for three years. It won Ohio Environmental Protection Agency approval in late 2005. Akron is investing $835,000 in the plant, Gresser said. That money is coming from the $250,000 a year the city now gets from KB Compost Services in rebates for the sale of soil-additive materials from the city-owned composting plant that processes sewage solids, he said. The contract requires the partners to decide after 18 months of operation whether the process is working satisfactorily. If it is, Akron and KB Compost Services will negotiate a new contract and look into expansion. If not, the city has the right to walk away. The plant is expected to be a showcase for KB Compost Services and its partnership with the German company and help demonstrate that that the technology works. Expansions would allow the city to replace the sometimes- stinky city-owned composting plant, which handles 1.2 million gallons of sludge per week, said Gresser, who oversees the city's sewage and composting plants. The new facility will consume about 20 to 30 percent of the 335 kilowatts expected to be generated by the new process, and the remainder will help power other operations at the sewage treatment plant -- although the city could opt to sell the gas rather than produce electricity. The city is hoping to offset some of its $1.35 million in annual electricity costs for sewage treatment. The initial phase would produce enough electricity to power about 200 homes. The entire sewage treatment plant requires about 2.8 megawatts, or enough to power 1,700 houses. Biogas plants are common in Europe where Plusquellic saw the Swiss plant on a side trip before the Hanover Trade Fair. ``We already had most of the infrastructure to make it work at our composting facility, so it wasn't a stretch logistically,'' Plusquellic said. ``I always find opportunities to learn from others about how they do what they do. And in this case, getting the most out of materials we'd otherwise discard has wide-ranging benefits for us.'' The new plant is designed to handle one third of the sludge that now goes through the compost plant, or about 5,000 tons a year. Aging plant With expansions, the plant could erase the need for the composting plant, an operation that costs Akron $6.2 million a year, Gresser said. The composting plant has served Akron well for 20 years, but the plant is aging and odors are still an occasional problem, he said. The new plant is ``the next step'' and will help Akron be more self-reliant, he said. The process itself could also handle other wastes, not just sewage sludge. That includes animal manure and wastes from the beverage industry, fruits and vegetables, meatpacking, slaughterhouses, dairies, certain factories, breweries and distilleries. It cannot handle fiber-rich wastes like wood or leaves. The new process will reduce the volume of the waste by 50 percent. What remains will have little smell but must be pasteurized to comply with Ohio EPA regulations, Berger said. The solids can then be added to blended soils, she said. The new largely automated plant will not require additional manpower. It will be run by KB Compost Services' staff of 23 that now run the composting plant. Before the compost plant opened in 1986, Akron incinerated its sewage sludge. That ended in 1993 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; "Renewable Energy is Homeland Security" From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 21 18:42:50 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 18:42:50 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Canada- agriculture trends - Number of farms down - organic up Message-ID: 2006 Census of Agriculture Organic optimism Producers thinking locally as high dollar and rising fuel costs dampen U.S. sales Organic B.C. farms sprout up 40 per cent Where have all the farms gone?; Agriculture census reveals a trend toward fewer farms Sask. farm numbers plunging Farming costs highest in B.C.; West Coast also boasts most urban organic operations They're not staying down on farm Organics booming 2006 Census of Agriculture Organic optimism Producers thinking locally as high dollar and rising fuel costs dampen U.S. sales; Demand for environmentally friendly produce outstrips supply despite a boom in production, Dana Flavelle reports The Toronto Star Thu 17 May 2007 Page: C01 Section: Business Byline: Dana Flavelle Greenhouse growers, organic farmers and million-dollar farms are among the fastest-growing segments of Canada's changing agricultural landscape, a new study shows. Amid growing pressure from lower-cost countries, rising energy prices and changing consumer tastes, farmers have had to adapt, either by finding new niches or bulking up to compete, data from the 2006 census show. A surprising number of farmers manage to get along within large urban centres, such as Toronto, the Statistics Canada study also found. And, Canadian farmers generally are getting older, are more likely to hold a second job, are running larger, but fewer farms and relying more on government subsidies. "It's the same trends every year," said Laura Telford, executive director of the Canadian Organic Growers. "The number of farmers leaving the land is getting higher. The number of farms is getting lower. "In the 1920s, Canada had something like 800,000 farms. Now we're down around 230,000. It's sad, really." Financially, it was a challenging five years for Canada's farmers as they continued to grapple with the fallout from mad cow disease, avian influenza, higher energy costs and falling commodity prices, the study noted. To succeed, a farmer had to find a niche or expand beyond a certain size. The number of certified organic farmers jumped 60 per cent. Greenhouse production grew 21.5 per cent. The number of farms producing more than $1 million a year jumped 32.5 per cent to 5,902, mainly in hogs, poultry and eggs. The census also contained some interesting insight into the impact on Canadian farmers of everything from rising international competition to changing consumer tastes. For example, the study found: The number of beef farms fell 10.1 per cent to 110,000 in the wake of the mad cow crisis of 2003 and continues to suffer financially from an ongoing export ban on cows more than 30 months of age. Blueberry production jumped 16.7 per cent on the perceived cancer-fighting benefits of eating dark fruits. Local strawberry production fell 13.3 per cent as a once eagerly awaited seasonal treat suffered from cheap imports available year-round. Corn production, which was lower last year due to a surplus on international markets, has risen since United States energy policy began favouring corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel to oil. Another surprising finding, the authors of the report said, is the number of farms (15.5 per cent) within the boundaries of major cities, such as those in the Greater Toronto Area. "At first it may seem hard to believe that Toronto ... has any relationship with agriculture beyond eating," the report said. But, in fact, some 2,839 farms coexist with the GTA's more than 5 million inhabitants, the study found. These urban farms tend to specialize in fruits and vegetables, as well as organic or greenhouse-grown products, which benefit from ready access to large markets and labour pools, the study said. Looking at the wide Canadian agricultural sector, the census found 7 per cent fewer farms since 2001, at 229,373, and 5 per cent fewer farmers, at 327, 060. The amount of land in production remained constant, at 167 million acres, but advances in technology made that land more productive. In total, gross farm receipts over the five-year period rose 8.8 per cent to $42.2 billion, but costs rose more quickly. The difference was made up by higher government subsidies and more efficient production, the study said. The smallest farmers, with receipts under $25,000 a year, had the toughest time covering their expenses. For the niche players, it wasn't all easy sailing either. Greenhouse operators say most of their growth came from more exports to the U.S., but that market has slowed since 2003, when the value of the Canadian dollar took off. They're hoping to find new markets, including expanded sales in Canadian grocery stores. But that's not as easy as it sounds. Kristen Callow, general manager of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, wishes Canadian stores would pay more attention to the group's 242 members. "We'd love them to carry more of our products. But it all depends on pricing, and whether the supermarket chain is vertically integrated with its growers. It's very complicated." Canada's organic farmers have the opposite problem. Demand for environmentally friendly produce is outstripping supply. Despite a 60 per cent increase in the number of certified organic farmers, according to Statistics Canada, most organic food sold in Canada is imported, mainly from California. New federal regulations will soon make it easier for consumers to identify Canadian organic products in stores. That should help boost local supply, according to the organic farmers' association. "Once we've got educated consumers, then I think they'll start asking for local organic or domestic organic," Telford said. --------------------- Organic B.C. farms sprout up 40 per cent The Daily News (Kamloops) Thu 17 May 2007 Page: A3 Section: City & Region Byline: Cam Fortems Source: The Daily News; The Canadian Press The number of organic farms in B.C. jumped 40 per cent in five years, one area of growth amid a stable or declining B.C. agriculture industry. Statistics Canada released its census information on agriculture Wednesday. Those numbers showed that the total number of farms declined by two per cent while gross farm receipts grew by 15 per cent. The numbers suggest consolidation among farms and ranches, with marginal producers quitting or being bought out by larger ones. The number of certified organic farms grew by eight per cent a year between 2001 and 2006, according to Statistics Canada. Mendel Rubinson, selling his produce Wednesday at Kamloops Farmers Market, said his 28 years as an organic farmer "has been a struggle." In the past five years, however, Rubinson said the market is improving. "The demand for organics is growing. . . . The public is just starting to realize." That awareness is driven by understanding of environmental damage from use of pesticides and is harmful to human health, Rubinson said. Andrea Barnett, communications director for the B.C. Cattlemen's Association, said overall numbers reflect an ailing beef industry hurt by a cyclical downturn in prices, export difficulties from the BSE crisis and drought in some areas. Beef producers offering organic meat is one niche area of growth. "There's opportunities in organics as a result of consumer demand. In the past 10 years we've seen huge demand for organics." But Barnett noted that sector of ranching remains a tiny part of Canada's herd of 800,000 cattle and calves. The census figures show the number of farms reporting beef cows have dropped by almost seven per cent, while the overall herd is down 1.7 per cent. Barnett said the number shows a trend of downsizing of ranches and consolidation into larger operations. Figures released Wednesday with the 2006 census of agriculture show the number of farms raising cattle nationwide dropped 10 per cent to 110,000 from 122,000 in 2001 -- before BSE drove prices down. Still partly shut out of key export markets in the U.S., Mexico and Japan, Canada's meat-packing sector has been forced to increase its slaughter capacity from 65,000 cattle per week to 105,000 to handle domestic output. There is hope the U.S. will fully reopen its border to all Canadian beef, perhaps later this year, but the issue remains mired in the mud of Washington politics and lobbying by American protectionist groups. Canadians are eating about the same amount of beef as they did in 2001, but are eating more Canadian beef due to new restrictions on imports. Prices have rebounded somewhat, but are still below pre-BSE levels. Billions of dollars spent by federal and provincial governments on mad cow disease-related support programs have wound down. Producers and meat packers now face higher costs as they conform to new rules governing feed, cattle identification and slaughtering practices. "One of our biggest challenges right now is the whole profitability and competitiveness of the industry," said John Masswohl, director of government and international relations for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. "If you raise your cost structure to such a point that your revenues can't keep up, what have you gained?" Federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said it is obvious that BSE has transformed the beef industry, but he is confident that producers will ride the situation out until prices improve. cfortems at kamloopsnews.ca ------------------ Where have all the farms gone?; Agriculture census reveals a trend toward fewer farms Times Colonist (Victoria) Thu 17 May 2007 Page: C1 / FRONT Section: Business Byline: Andrew A. Duffy Source: Times Colonist When Sarah Pendray was growing up, there were dozens of dairy farms around Greater Victoria. Today, the fourth generation dairy farmer, sees only a few dotting the landscape. In fact, according to Statistics Canada's 2006 agriculture census released yesterday, there are only four dairy farms left in the Greater Victoria area and just 74 on Vancouver Island. It's part of a national trend that has seen farms consolidate to expand -- bigger farms but fewer of them -- in order to remain competitive. "I guess it's just the way it is, it would be nice to have more of your peers around you, but this is the way it is," she said. "It just means we need to be more self-sufficient." Pendray runs one of the largest dairy farms on Vancouver Island, the 91-hectare family farm she took over after her father Dave passed away earlier this year. The farm has expanded significantly over the last few years. Her father noted in an interview in 2003: "If you're not in expansion mode, you're getting ready to close your doors." Many have already done that as there were 96 dairy farms on the Island and 10 in Greater Victoria in 2001. Seven dairy farms have disappeared from the Cowichan Valley in the last five years. The number of dairy cows remained stable in the Cowichan Valley and across the Island, but there were just 498 in Victoria on the day of the census compared with 839 in 2001. It's a similar story for farms with beef cattle, which now number 353 on the Island, down from 460. There are 59 farms raising some beef cattle in Victoria down from 88, and 98 in the Cowichan Valley down from 137. At this point Pendray, 33, said her farm is taking some time to catch its breath and deal with its own new reality as well as that of the environment in which it operates. The landscape has certainly changed in Greater Victoria and Vancouver Island. The census pointed out the total number of farms in Victoria (1,430) and the Island (4,230) has remained basically stable as it has in B.C. (19,844). That's because new organic farms and small farms have added to the roll which lost some of the larger producers to consolidation. But there is a noticeable drop in the amount of land being farmed on the Island with 53,756 hectares now under production compared with more than 60,000 hectares at the time of the last census in 2001. According to Steve Thomson, executive director of the B.C. Agriculture Council, that loss of land is down to valuable land being converted for development in some cases and consolidation in others. On the Island, those problems are exacerbated. "It's an agricultural region that is particularly challenged, there are lots of extra costs in terms of production costs and transportation costs, and because of that we know we have lost good portions of land on the Island," he said. According to the census, total gross farm receipts on Vancouver Island hit the $163.7-million mark an increase from $138.5 million in 2001, and in Victoria, farms recorded gross earnings of $54.3 million up from $50.3 million. But those figures placed side by side with total costs don't leave a healthy picture. To make that $163.7 million, Island farmers spent more than $155 million. "When we look at the ratio of expenses to sales, farmers across the country are spending 90 cents for every dollar [they make]," said Steve Danford, analyst with the agriculture census and Statistics Canada, noting they are far from "rolling in it." Another issue raised by the data released yesterday is the question of succession. The average age of farmers in Canada is now 52 years, up from 49.9 in 2001. In B.C., the average age is 53.6, it's 54.6 on the Island and 55.3 in Victoria. "It's a serious concern as it points to the fact that we are not getting renewal in the industry in terms of succession and new entrants," said Thomson, who suggested a hot economy is a tough lure for young people to walk away from and head back to the farm. Peninsula farmer Dan Ponchet admits it's a tough sell. "Why would you [farm]? It's tough to be in it when you look at what you can make if you are any good with a hammer," he said, referring to the need for tradespeople as the Island and B.C.'s economies boom. "None of us are making a fortune at this, though we're trying awfully hard." Ponchet, who owns Dan's Farm and Country Market, said he told his 22 year-old son to learn a trade and if he then wanted to return to the farm, he'd be welcome. "He's never going to feel like it," Ponchet said, noting his son is in the third year of electrician training. "He's got it made in the shade." Thomson said the only way to entice young people back to the farm is to ensure it is a viable business. "The key is to have business success," he said. And he did see some bright spots in the census data. "The fact is we're decreasing [in number of farms] in much lower numbers than the national numbers and I think that reflects the strength and diversity of our industry," he said, noting the province's farming industry boasts more than 200 different commodities. "We are bucking some national trends there." Thomson trumpeted B.C.'s $2.7 billion in farm receipts as a good sign. It's up more than $300 million from 2001 not to mention there's been growth in the greenhouse, nursery and blueberry farming sectors. He also said there's been a turnaround in beef production as the industry is into full recovery mode after the BSE (mad cow disease) scare. "And there are new bio-fuels initiatives that we hope will provide some opportunities for some grains and oilseed where we have faced real challenges in the past," he said As for successes on the Island, there has been growth in the organic sector with 76 organic farms up from 51 in 2001, the blueberry farming sector now boasts 134 farms up from 98, and grape growing has nearly doubled with 206 hectares planted or under production, up from 112 hectares in 2001. "There are certainly some growth opportunities there, but the Island will always have the challenge of extra costs," Thomson said. aduffy at tc.canwest.com - - - CANADIAN FARM FACTS Highlights from the agricultural census: FARMS - There were 229,373 farms in 2006, compared with 246,923 in 2001 -- a decrease of 17,550, or 7.1 per cent. - Newfoundland and Saskatchewan lost the most farms between 2001 and 2006. - 67.6 million hectares used for farm land. - 15 per cent of farms are located within urban areas. - Urban farms tend to be smaller and focus on sod and cash crops in greenhouses. - The average Canadian farm became larger, from 270 ha to 295 ha. - About 80 per cent of the farms counted in 2001 were still in operation at the time of the 2006 census - 45,000 new farms were started since the 2001 census. - Field crops are the largest type of farm, accounting for almost 40 per cent of all farms, followed by beef farms, 27 per cent of all farms. - Gross farm receipts increased to $42.2 billion but 11.4 per cent of this came from government programs, especially in response to the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis. - There was a dramatic increase in the way farmers plant seeds, with almost half the area now done by the no-till method which is easier on the soil, more time-efficient and uses less fuel. - Injuries are more likely to occur on livestock farms than crop farms. The most common farm injury is a sprain or strain, representing 44 per cent of all reported injuries. FARMERS - The number of farmers in Canada continues to decline. There were 327,060 in 2006, compared with 346,195 in 2001 -- a decline of 19,140, or 5.5 per cent. - Just about half of farmers also work off the farm. - The average age of farmers increased to 52 in 2006 from 49.9 in 2001. - The number of farmers in the 15-34 age group continues to decline, accounting for just 9.1 per cent of all operators. - Just over 40 per cent of all farmers are over 55. - There are more women farmers, 27.8 per cent, a slight increase from 2001. LIVESTOCK - Hog farming accounts for only 2.6 per cent of all farm operations, but 18 per cent of hog farms report gross receipts of more than $1 million. - The number of beef farms declined even though the number of head of cattle increased. BSE knocked many farms out of business while surviving farms had to keep cows longer since they could not be exported. - Fewer chickens are laying more eggs to meet consumer demand. - Turkey farming increased and birds are getting bigger. CROPS - The census found a shift from annual crops like wheat and barley to perennial crops such as alfalfa. - Wheat, hay and canola are the top three crops grown in Canada. - Blueberries beat out apples as the biggest fruit crop for the second straight census. - Grape production for use by wineries grew by almost 15 per cent - The area used for vegetable production decreased nearly 7 per cent. - Sweet corn is the most popular vegetable, grown in almost one quarter of the total vegetable area. - For the first time, maple sap was produced west of Ontario. ORGANIC FARMING - The census counted both organic farms and for the first time farms transitioning to organic, which is why the numbers jumped from 2,230 to 15,511 farms or 6.8 per cent of all farms. - Field crops are the top organic product. TECHNOLOGY - Just over 46 per cent of farmers report using a computer. - The higher the farm receipts, the more likely the farmer uses a computer; 71 per cent of farms with receipts over $250,000 reported using a computer. BY THE NUMBERS - A farm is defined as an operation that produces agricultural products intended for sale. A farm must generate at least $2,500 in receipts to qualify for the census. Less than that is considered a hobby farm. - 1941 recorded the largest number of farms in Canada, 732,832. - The first agriculture census was in 1871, the same year as the first census of population. - Early censuses asked questions about oxen, beehives, yards of homemade cloth produced and pounds of hops harvested. The presumption then was that most farms were diversified, self-sustaining and liked to make their own beer. - The 1871 census asked extensive questions on fur inventories. - The 2006 census asked extensive questions about manure. - Milk cows used to be identified as milch cows. - The 1996 census was the first to inventory llamas and alpacas. - Quirky crops that have been reported over the years include spelt, lavender and popcorn. ------------------------------ Sask. farm numbers plunging The Leader-Post (Regina) Thu 17 May 2007 Page: B4 Section: Business & Agriculture Byline: Bruce Johnstone Source: The Leader-Post In the last five years, the number of Saskatchewan farmers has decreased by 12.4 per cent to 44,329, average farm size has increased 13 per cent to 587 hectares (1,450 acres) and the average age of Saskatchewan farmers has increased to 53 from 50, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. While average farm receipts increased 23 per cent to $143,000 in 2006, average operating expenses increased by 27 per cent to $126,000, reducing farmers' profit margin by an average of 3.5 per cent. On average, Saskatchewan farmers earned $17,000 from their farm operations in 2006, slightly less than the $17,300 they earned in 2001, not accounting for the increase in the cost of living. "All these numbers indicate we have older farmers farming more and making less,'' said Ken McBride, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan. Nationally, farmers are experiencing similar, though not as dire, trends as Saskatchewan, with the number of farms decreasing by seven per cent to 229,373 and average farm size increasing by eight per cent to 295 hectares (730 acres). Across Canada, the average farm generated net cash income of $25,000 in 2006, up from $20.500 in 2001, the AgCensus said. Noting that 42 per cent of Canadian farmers are losing money and 48 per cent of farms operations had off-farm income, McBride said government farm safety-net programs have failed to back-fill the losses caused by low commodity prices and rising input costs "It's a clear indication that what (governments) are doing and how they're doing it is not correct,'' McBride said. "Let's look at a comprehensive plan. Let's not blast it out there and hope it sticks to some people.'' National Farmers Union youth vice-president Kalissa Regier said the AgCensus numbers show a dramatic decline in farm operators under the age of 35. In 1991, there were roughly 78,000 farmers under 35 in Canada; by 2006, there were less than 30,000. "Young farmers are being pushed out faster than any other group,'' said Regier, who farms near Laird. "If we're forced out, we'll have dramatically fewer farms in Canada in the future," she said in a press release Wednesday. But an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada official said the decline in the number of farms and the increase in farm size are part of a longer-term trend and not restricted to Saskatchewan. "It's true that the number of farms is decreasing, but this has been going on for years -- since 1941 -- and it's across Canada,'' said Wendy Cymbal, acting director of forecasting and quantitative analysis for the department. "Really, what's driving that is technological change and, as the economy grows and develops, it's becoming more urbanized,'' Cymbal said. "Saskatchewan still has 20 per cent of all the farms in Canada. It's not like Saskatchewan is losing more (farms) than anywhere else.'' Saskatchewan farmers can also look forward to better results in 2007, thanks to rising crop prices, she added. "For Saskatchewan, (net cash income) is projected to go up by 13 per cent over 2006, and it's really being driven by the crop receipts,'' she said. Provincial Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman said while the 12.4-per-cent decline in Saskatchewan farms may be the highest percentage decline during a five-year census period, it isn't much worse than the 10- and 11-per-cent declines in other periods throughout Saskatchewan history. "It's a fairly substantial drop, but really, given the age demographic, I think it's part of the explanation," said Wartman. "It's certainly constant since 1936. We don't see a change in the trend." With increased mechanization, combined with low commodity prices, drought, frost and the BSE crisis in the cattle industry during the census period, the decline is what many expected, he added. However, Wartman said the recent upswing in commodity prices, combined with the move to smaller organic operations and specialty crops, could result in a levelling off of the decline in farms and reduce dependency on off-farm incomes. Saskatchewan Party MLA Bob Bjornerud agreed the combination of low commodity prices, drought, frost and BSE have made the last five years tough and that the decline in farms is a national trend. But the Opposition agriculture critic said the numbers show the decline in happening a lot faster in Saskatchewan and that may be because agricultural programs, like crop insurance, haven't back-filled farm income in the tough years. "Let's not help speed that process up," Bjornerud said. "My concern also is the depopulation of rural Saskatchewan. It's happening at a dramatic rate out there. "I know we can't stop it, but we certainly don't have to feed the problem.'' But Wartman said the Opposition is ignoring the massive amount of money being spent by the province, in both program spending and research, to make farming in Saskatchewan more viable. "Their criticism doesn't reflect the efforts the Saskatchewan government has already done to reverse the decline trend,'' he told reporters. ---------------------------------- Farming costs highest in B.C.; West Coast also boasts most urban organic operations The Vancouver Province Thu 17 May 2007 Page: A29 / FRONT Section: Money Byline: Paul Luke Source: The Province Farmers in B.C. and Prince Edward Island are struggling with the highest operating costs in Canada, a new Statistics Canada study shows. Farmers in this province and PEI spend an average of 90 cents -- excluding depreciation -- to operate their businesses for every dollar of revenue they generate, StatsCan said yesterday. Steve Thomson, executive director of the B.C. Agriculture Council, said B.C.'s high labour and energy inputs are driving B.C. farmers' costs higher. "Margins are pretty thin," Thomson said. "It's a challenging sector." Statistics Canada senior analyst Linda Kemp said there's a link between the type of farm and its economic efficiency. Beef operations and other animal production -- which comprise almost half the farms in B.C. -- had the highest expense-to-revenues ratio in 2005, Kemp said. As well, smaller farms -- that's small based on size of revenue -- generally have higher costs as a percentage of their receipts. B.C. has a relatively high percentage of small farms, she said. Still, greater efficiency, increased production and higher government payments have eased farmers' costs from 91 cents spent for each dollar of revenue in 2000, StatsCan said. On another front, B.C. has outdistanced the rest of Canada in terms of boosting total farm area, the StatsCan research shows. The province's farm area rose 9.6 per cent to 2.83 million hectares in 2006 from 2001, compared with a Canadian average increase of 0.1 per cent, StatsCan said. At the same time, the number of farms in B.C. fell -- as it did in the rest of Canada. B.C. had 19,844 farms last year, compared to 20,290 in 2001. "The increase in farm area has mainly been in the central Interior and the north in terms of grazing and forage and grains and oilseeds production," Thomson said. "Farms are generally getting larger to remain competitive and achieve efficiencies of cost." In an industry full of aging operators, B.C. farms are oldest. The average age of a farm operator in B.C. is 53.6 years, compared with a national average of 52, StatsCan said. B.C.'s high land values and steep production costs have hurt agriculture's ability to attract and retain young operators, Thomson said. "We've got young people making other choices, so current owners are having to stay on longer than they might have previously." B.C. also has Canada's largest percentage of female farm operators, at 36.5 per cent. This compares with 27.8 per cent for the nation a whole. The province also has Canada's largest concentration of organic farms within urban areas. The Victoria area topped the nation with 30.9 per cent of farms reporting organic production, followed by Greater Vancouver with 15.7 per cent and Kelowna with 12.3 per cent. pluke at png.canwest.com ----------------- They're not staying down on farm Winnipeg Free Press Thu 17 May 2007 Page: B7 Section: Business Byline: Larry Kusch A lack of farm profits is scaring young people off the land and driving the average age of those who remain to record levels, farm leaders say. According to the 2006 Census of Agriculture, the average Canadian farmer was 52 years old -- a sign the industry is in trouble and has been failed by government policymakers, they say. In the 2001 census, the average age was 49.9. "We need to get profitability back in agriculture so that we can attract that next generation (of farmers) either to come back to the farm or stay on the farm," David Rolfe, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said Wednesday after the census numbers were released. "Otherwise, we will end up with farming operations (of) 20,000, 30,000 acres or more on the Prairies. What good does that do for all the local communities and rural development... opportunities? It doesn't do a whole lot." Chris Kletke, a 25-year-old Brunkild grain and hay producer, is one of a rapidly shrinking group of farmers under age 35. Those farmers made up just 9.1 per cent of Canadian farm operators in 2006, compared with 11.5 per cent five years earlier. Meanwhile, the percentage of farmers older than 55 jumped to 40.7 per cent, compared with 34.0 per cent in 2001. "Agriculture, being in the state it's in, is less attractive for young guys to get into," said Kletke, who farms about 1,600 acres in partnership with his dad. According to the census, taken May 16, 2006, 44.2 per cent of Canadian farms reported they were operating in the red, with operating expenses exceeding gross farm receipts. Terry Pugh, executive director of the National Farmers Union, said that figure actually understates farmers' woes, as it includes government support payments but excludes depreciation costs. "There really needs to be a serious about-face in farm policy to encourage -- or at least put the conditions in place where farmers can get a decent return at the farm gate," Pugh said, adding that the last five years have seen the "lowest farm incomes on record" in Canada. Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said in an interview Wednesday he is aware of the concerns about the intergenerational transfer of farms, adding that his government has brought in "quite a bit of programming" in an attempt to address the situation, including new policies on biofuels and the "commercialization of new ideas." He noted that Ottawa and the provinces are working on a new generation of farm programs that they hope to implement in the next year. And he said Ottawa may have to look at other measures, from "tax instruments to credit instruments and (other) good policy ideas to entice people into the business and keep them there." The average age of a Manitoba farmer was slightly below the national average at 51.2 years old in 2006. Rolfe said Manitoba farmers have been beset by a series of problems in recent years, ranging from BSE in 2003 to a frost in 2004 and flooding in 2005. At the same time, Canadian support programs have failed to keep our farmers on an equal footing with American producers, he said. "The next generation sees that and sees opportunities elsewhere," Rolfe said, noting that many have sought better-paying opportunities off the farm in Alberta. Also making it difficult for young farmers to get started, Rolfe said, is that the recent bad years have eroded veteran farmers' equity, making it difficult for them to help out the new generation. Kletke, a graduate of the University of Manitoba's diploma program in agriculture, said with the weather problems farmers have faced the past few years, "there's no money in it (farming)." "It makes it a lot harder to transfer assets over; that's what it comes down to in the end." larry.kusch at freepress.mb.ca For Manitoba, the average age of farm operators has also jumped: 1991: 47.4 1996: 47.7 2001: 49 2006: 51.2 -- Source: Statistics Canada Statistics from agriculture census 52 -- average age of a Canadian farmer on May 16, 2006, oldest ever recorded in an agriculture census; The Manitoba average age was 51.2. 19,054 -- number of farmers in Manitoba, a drop of 9.6 per cent from 2001. Nationally, the number of farms fell 7.1 per cent -- a loss of 9.6 farms a day. 1,001 -- average acreage of Manitoba census farm (891 acres in 2001). 44.2 -- percentage of Canadian farms operating in the red -- with operating expenses exceeding gross farm receipts. 24.1 -- percentage of women among Manitoba farm operators (national figure was 27.8 per cent). 47.7 -- percentage of Manitoba farm operators who had an off-farm job or business in 2005 (45.7 per cent in 2000). 45.6 -- percentage of Manitoba farmers using a computer for their business (35.9 per cent in 2001). 809 -- number of farms with organic production in Manitoba (4.2 per cent of the total). In Canada, there were 15,511 organic farms (6.8 per cent of the total). 13,801 -- number of Canadian farms reporting farm-related injuries in the previous 12 months. Injuries ranged from sprains and strains (43.9 per cent) to broken bones or fractures (27 per cent) and open wounds or amputations (23.4 per cent). 16 -- per cent decline in the number of hog farmers in Manitoba since 2001. 15.5 -- percentage of Canada's 229,373 farms that had their headquarters within the country's 33 census metropolitan areas (CMA). 1,521 -- number of farms based within Winnipeg's census metropolitan area; Toronto has 2,839 farms within its CMA. 5,902 -- number of "million-dollar-farms" in Canada: those with gross farm receipts of $1 million or more. Five years earlier, the number was 4,453 (at constant 2005 prices). 88,392 -- number of Canadian farms with gross receipts of less than $25,000; 62,030 farms had receipts of $25,000 to $99,999; 39,971 farms had receipts of $100,000 to $249,999; and 33,078 had receipts of $250,000 to $999,999. 8.4 -- millions of acres in Canada on which farmers spread manure in 2006. 19,609 -- number of bison on Manitoba farms, up 45.9 per cent from 2001. -- Source: Census of Agriculture --------------------- Organics booming Kingston Whig-Standard (ON) Thu 17 May 2007 Page: 9 Section: National/World Byline: Tim Cook Source: The Canadian Press There was a time when organic food could only be found in health food stores and farmers' markets - sold alongside herbal medicine, hemp clothing and biodegradable shampoo. But with a growing number of people taking an active interest in tracking their food from field to table, the organic business is booming. "It's gone from a backyard, hippie, tree-hugger type perspective to really mainstream," says Ann Clark, an associate professor of plant agriculture at the University of Guelph. Food producers and big box retailers have noticed, developing their own organic product lines that sit on shelves right next to traditional grocery staples. The federal government has noticed too. Late last year it released a set of organic product regulations, putting Canada among more than 40 countries to do so. And it appears farmers have also taken note. According to figures released yesterday in Statistics Canada's 2006 agriculture census, 15,511 farms reported growing organic products last May. That includes those that have been certified organic by an authorizing agency, those that are in the process of getting certified, and those whose operators simply declare that they're organic. The number of certified organic producers increased by nearly 60 per cent from 2001 to 3,555 in 2006. Field crops such as wheat and barley are the predominant certified organic crops, and Saskatchewan has about one-third of all the certified organic farms in the country. To be called organic, food must be produced naturally, without the pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics or hormones used in conventional agriculture. Experts say organics are still a small portion of the overall amount of food purchased by consumers, but the demand is growing quickly. The big grocery chains have seized on the demand. President's Choice, the house brand in stores such as Loblaws, Superstore and Provigo, started an organic line five years ago and now has more than 300 products. "As long as you are in the business of giving consumers choice, I think you have to have organics as part of your offering," says Elizabeth Margles, spokeswoman for Loblaw Companies Ltd. The movement has been a boon for smaller operators as well. "We're busier than ever, says Jim Wright, who runs Nature's Best Market in downtown Regina with his wife, Laurie Gillies. "A lot of organic consumers would rather support a local business." Organic production has really branched off into two different streams - big and little. There are now huge operations, particularly in California, where organic is more about sticking to the standards than it is about adhering to a set of underlying eco-friendly values, Clark says. "Part of what is driving this demand for organics is what organic means," she says. "People think of small family farms and cattle grazing out in pasture and all this kind of stuff. "When people find out that their organic cauliflower comes from a 1,000-acre field of cauliflower owned by these large consolidated interests ... is this organic?" In Canada, the demand for organics is currently outpacing production, leaving a gap that is being filled by imports. "I'd say the No. 1 issue right now in the organic industry is there are not enough domestic suppliers," says Laura Telford, with the Ottawa-based Canadian Organic Growers. Fred Dollar grows organic potatoes and milling wheat on his 120-plus-hectare farm in Winsloe, P.E.I., just outside of Charlottetown. Dollar began switching his farm over to an organic operation in 1999 as he was getting out of the dairy business. He wasn't using a lot of chemicals in his dairy operation, so the switch wasn't that hard. "With some of the early organic producers, it was more of a lifestyle," Dollar says. "In modern-day organics, I think you have got to believe in what you are doing, but you've also got to make money doing it." From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 21 18:52:50 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 18:52:50 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Antibiotic resistant infections rampant in athletes Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Sewage sludge is a medium in which virulent bacteria survive after journey of several weeks in a wash of antibiotics and anti microbials. Those bacteria with resistance survive and multiply - conferring resistance to antibiotics along with genes for virulence. Many of the bacteria go into a 'viable non culturable state'. The DNA fragments transport the traits. That sludge material is what we are using as top dressing on homes and athletic fields. The same issue is pertinent to the effluent from sewage plants used for spray irrigation on spinach and lettuce crops in Monterey County Salinas. ................................................... http://www.infectiousdiseasenews.com/200705/frameset.asp?article=athletic.asp May 2007 More than half of athletic trainers have treated athletes for skin infections caused by an antibiotic-resistant superbug, according to study results presented at the 17th Annual Scientific Sessions of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, held recently in Baltimore. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was once a concern only among hospitalized patients and immunocompromised patients. During the past 10 years, however, incidences of MRSA have increased among otherwise healthy people. ?All health care providers who treat athletes should be concerned about MRSA,? Kristin Brinsley-Rainisch, MPH, a health scientist at the CDC, told Infectious Disease News. Brinsley-Rainisch presented results from the study conducted by CDC researchers. ?If an athlete presents with a purulent skin infection, health care providers should consider MRSA as the cause. It?s also important to provide athletes with information on appropriate wound care to prevent transmission,? Brinsley-Rainisch said. Increased risk Athletes are at an increased risk because the bacteria can be spread through skin-to-skin contact in sports and from shared clothing, sports gear or other items such as towels. Increased likeliness of athletes to have open sores from sports injuries also multiplies their susceptibility to MRSA. MRSA in otherwise healthy people was first widely recognized as a problem in the late 1990s. Although the infections are not considered life-threatening, MRSA skin abscesses may require surgical draining. Another concern is the bacteria?s resistance to first-line antibiotics. In rare cases, MRSA can cause potentially fatal conditions, including pneumonia, blood stream infections and necrotizing fasciitis, also known as a ?flesh-eating? disease. There are reported deaths of athletes associated with MRSA infection. ************************************************************************ "If you are anticipating contact sports on this field, and then you should also be prepared for methicillin resistant Staph aureus in the players and the potential for some serious issues with attempting to control that and its potential spread into the community (see abstracts below)." Dr. Edo Mcgowan - ----- Original Message ----- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Edo McGowan" With respect to the story "Panel: Class A compost is 'good option' for town", I wonder if you would like some information that would turn this "good option" on its ear? I am concerned that the panel may have gravely erred because I read this same medical and scientific literature on the subject. My reading, however is in great depth as this is my specialty and I do not, in any way, come to the same conclusion as this panel. I would not allow my grand son, who plays high school football on such a field, let alone have him play contact sports on it. As noted in the abstracts below, the issue is not benign. The survival of indicator bacteria should alert anyone with the requisite background that the issue is not simple. If the indicators, E. coli and Salmonella, which are relatively easily killed, survive then the more robust pathogens will be found and most probably in relatively greater numbers. This includes those that, if in a hospital and contaminating semi-critical medical devices, would require high-level disinfection. It is doubtful that the composting conditions would be able to equate to this level of control. I would want to review the data. Further, there is the chance for prions, which are essentially indestructible, to be in sewer sludge. Embalming practices in many states allow direct discharge of body contents to sewers. It has been reported in the medical literature that perhaps up to 13% of Alzheimer?s patients are actually suffering from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease---the human equivalent of mad cow. Further, is there any control over source of the raw stock for the compost? In California, we have some serious issues with misrepresentation. For another thing, there is no mention of transmission of antibiotic resistance . Suggest that you scroll down to see below what U.S. EPA knows on this subject, apparently nothing. Although the 2002 report by the National Academies of Science on land applied sewer sludge recommended more work in this area, EPA has evidently done little if anything. Thus how can it claim that the issue is benign? If you are anticipating contact sports on this field, and then you should also be prepared for methicillin resistant Staph aureus in the players and the potential for some serious issues with attempting to control that and its potential spread into the community (see abstracts below). Since there also may be ingestion of this material as it is kicked up as dust, the wiping of noses, eyes and licking of lips, reinserting a dropped mouth piece, these bacteria can enter and share the genetic information with the gut bacteria. Further, as Sjolund et al note, resistant strains may persist within the gut bacteria for 4 years once introduced into the gut and absent further administration and challenge of antibiotics. From there it can be transferred via the fecal veneer to other areas of the body such as nares, vagina, and skin where it can colonize. Thus the presumption that this is a fleeting issue is a badly considered---but convenient argument that may be proffered by those who are ignorant or pro-sewer sludge. So, how fast can resistance progress and to what ends? Let me give you an example. The following is extracted from the recently published medical text by Christopher Walsh of the Harvard Medical School?Antibiotics, Actions, Origins, Resistance, (March 2003) New York: ASM Press. Resistance to atibiotics is not a matter of IF but one of WHEN. Schentag, et al., as presented in the Walsh text, looked at how rapidly resistance could be generated. They followed surgical patients with the following results. Pre-op nasal cultures found Staphylococcus aureus were 100% antibiotic susceptible. Pre-op prophylatic antibiotics were administered. Following surgery, cephalosporin was administedred. Ninety percent of the patients went home at post-op day 2 without infectious complications. Nasal bacteria counts on these patients had dropped from 10 to the 5th down to 10 to the 3rd, but were now a mix of sensitive, borderline, and resistant Staph, where prior to surgery all had been susceptible to antibiotics. For the patients remaining in the hospital and who were switched on post-op day 5 to a second generation cephalosporin (ceftazidine), when assayed on post-op day 7, now showed bacterial counts up 1000 fold and most of these were methacillin resistant Staph aureus (MRSA). Then these patients were switched to a 2-week course of vancomycin. For those still in the hospital on day 21, cultures revealed vancomycin resistant enterococcus (VRE) and candida. Vancomycin resistant enterococci infections produce mortality rates of between 42 and 81%. Enterococcus not only survives compsoting but thrives.[Microbiological Monitoring in the Biodegradation of Sewage Sludge and Food Waste], Ivanov et al note, that during in-vessel composting with controlled temperatures held at 60 C, sewer sludge derived bacteria were not removed. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon May 21 18:54:52 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 18:54:52 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Fear of Eating - Commentary New York Times Message-ID: Fear of eating 21.may.07 New York Times http://select.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/opinion/21krugman.html Columnist Paul Krugman writes that yesterday he did something risky: he ate a salad. Who?s responsible for the new fear of eating? Some blame globalization; some blame food-producing corporations; some blame the Bush administration. But Krugman blames Milton Friedman. Now, those who blame globalization do have a point. U.S. officials can?t inspect overseas food-processing plants without the permission of foreign governments ? and since the Food and Drug Administration has limited funds and manpower, it can inspect only a small percentage of imports. This leaves American consumers effectively dependent on the quality of foreign food-safety enforcement. And that?s not a healthy place to be, especially when it comes to imports from China, where the state of food safety is roughly what it was in this country before the Progressive movement. Those who blame corporations also have a point. In 2005, the F.D.A. suspected that peanut butter produced by ConAgra, which sells the product under multiple brand names, might be contaminated with salmonella. According to The New York Times, ?when agency inspectors went to the plant that made the peanut butter, the company acknowledged it had destroyed some product but declined to say why,? and refused to let the inspectors examine its records without a written authorization. According to the company, the agency never followed through. This brings us to our third villain, the Bush administration. Without question, America?s food safety system has degenerated over the past six years. We don?t know how many times concerns raised by F.D.A. employees were ignored or soft-pedaled by their superiors. What we do know is that since 2001 the F.D.A. has introduced no significant new food safety regulations except those mandated by Congress. This isn?t simply a matter of caving in to industry pressure. The Bush administration won?t issue food safety regulations even when the private sector wants them. The president of the United Fresh Produce Association says that the industry?s problems ?can?t be solved without strong mandatory federal regulations?: without such regulations, scrupulous growers and processors risk being undercut by competitors more willing to cut corners on food safety. Yet the administration refuses to do more than issue nonbinding guidelines. Why would the administration refuse to regulate an industry that actually wants to be regulated? Officials may fear that they would create a precedent for public-interest regulation of other industries. But they are also influenced by an ideology that says business should never be regulated, no matter what. The economic case for having the government enforce rules on food safety seems overwhelming. Consumers have no way of knowing whether the food they eat is contaminated, and in this case what you don?t know can hurt or even kill you. But there are some people who refuse to accept that case, because it?s ideologically inconvenient. That's why Krugman blames the food safety crisis on Milton Friedman, who called for the abolition of both the food and the drug sides of the F.D.A. What would protect the public from dangerous or ineffective drugs? ?It?s in the self-interest of pharmaceutical companies not to have these bad things,? he insisted in a 1999 interview. He would presumably have applied the same logic to food safety (as he did to airline safety): regardless of circumstances, you can always trust the private sector to police itself.' Earlier this month the administration named a ?food safety czar.? But the food safety crisis isn?t caused by the arrangement of the boxes on the organization chart. It?s caused by the dominance within our government of a literally sickening ideology. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 22 11:55:45 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 11:55:45 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Shreveport Louisiana - failed sludge liming plant bedevils City Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Note that the public is left with the impression that this lime stabilized sludge is a 'soil' suitable for distribution for home gardens rather than a highly alkaline substance... Some agronomists should step forward and explain this stuff to the public. ..................... Q&A: City public works director explains ramifications of failed contract to process sewage sludge May 22, 2007 Sludge is dumped into waiting trailers May 11 after being processed in the reactor at the city of Shreveport Sludge Facility. (Greg Pearson/The Times) ADVERTISEMENT The city of Shreveport recently lost a court fight to pursue an allegation of fraud against a bankrupt Houston-based company that was contracted to turn wastewater sludge into an environmentally safe soil over which to grow sod. The cost to the city over this failed 20-year contract with Bioset of Shreveport could total $10 million. The city contracted with Bioset as a solution to its sludge disposal problem in meeting federal environmental guidelines. The $2.3 million annual arrangement with Bioset, authorized in 2001, also would have allowed the city to offset a $700,000 annual expenditure by the city for sod. The city needs sod to restore sites torn up by water and sewer construction and repairs. Before Bioset went into default, however, it had never produced any sod for the city. The city has since taken over the 500-acre Bioset sludge-processing operation in southeast Shreveport. Operational Services Director Mike Strong answered these questions regarding the results of the failed Bioset contract. The Times: Could you list the inventory assets the city got in taking over the Bioset operation? Were these more or less the assets Bioset began with? Strong: We now have the entire plant, including the building itself, all processing equipment, storage tank and pumping facilities, monitoring equipment, and scales. Q: What individuals were involved in the original negotiations and which individuals approached the city? A: I, along with our environmental affairs manager Wes Wyche, was involved in the original negotiations with the company. Sam Shepard and Ed Boss were the individuals with the company who originally approached the city. Q:How much does the plant cost to operate annually? A: The plant costs approximately $75,000 per month to operate, which covers personnel, utilities, chemicals, etc. This estimate also includes nonrecurring costs such as repairs to equipment, and replacement of tractors. Q: Over the past few years the city has instituted a series of consumer rate hikes for water and sewer to make that operation self-sufficient. Even with that, we are told the city faces many millions of dollars in underground maintenance to an aging water and sewer system. Will the $25,000 added expense from the city's Water and Sewerage fund and other sludge-related expenses adversely affect the city's ability to meet these infrastructure needs? A: No. Expenses associated with this changeover will be within the range of what would otherwise have been budgeted by the city had the company continued in operation. In addition, having control over the facility will allow us to explore other ways to save money and may allow us to bring in sludge from nearby cities. Q: Will the Water and Sewerage Enterprise fund require additional revenue and when? If so, where will that revenue come from? Would that involve a rate hike? A: The issue with the city taking over the operation of this facility will have no impact on requiring additional funding. As stated earlier, the price of operation is in the range of what we would have paid the contractor had they still been operating the facility. The Water and Sewerage enterprise fund will require additional revenue to keep up with aging water and sewer mains as well as keeping the water and sewerage plants up to date. This facility does not have an adverse affect since the sludge must be processed or disposed as a normal operating procedure. Q: At what point will the city begin seeing revenue from the sale of this sludge-byproduct? A: We are currently finalizing an agreement with an individual who will be arranging for the marketing of the processed materials to farmers and others who can use it. The arrangement will not cost the city anything, and if it proves successful, the city will be sharing in the revenues within the next five years. Q: How much is the city currently budgeted for sod replacement and when will the Bioset fields begin producing sod for city needs? A: The amount of sod needed by the city can vary greatly from year to year, depending on the number and type of capital projects performed during a year. I am not exactly sure of what our total cost to purchase sod is for this year, but it will not exceed $250,000. At this point, we do not plan to use the fields around the processing facility to produce sod. We may look at producing coastal Bermuda (grass) for hay production, but that decision has not been made at this time. Q: Now that taxpayers effectively own this operation, will there be a day when an average citizen can haul away a pickup truckload of processed material for his home flowerbed or yard? This is something we will certainly be looking into, but the problem with utilizing this product on your yard is that it is not uniform in size. There are large clods that would make it hard to dispense uniformly on yards. The processed materials are treated to the highest standards specified by applicable regulations, and can be used virtually anywhere with little or no restrictions. Despite all the legal issues surrounding this facility, we're still excited that we're turning a waste product that otherwise has the potential to damage the environment into material that is not only beneficial to the environment but that actually satisfies a demand. STRONG'S SUMMARY: The old saying of taking a lemon and making lemonade out of it really applies here. Would the city prefer to have a contractor operating the facility? "? the answer is yes. Would the city prefer to have a contractor utilizing the facility to grow sod? "? the answer is yes again. Even though both answers are yes, it should be noted that the city is successfully operating the facility and creating an environmentally safe material that can be used to enhance and enrich low lime soil areas. http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070522/OPINION03/705220326/1058/OPINION03 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 22 12:04:17 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 12:04:17 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Canadian Environmental Philanthropist Murdered in Toronto Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This wonderful man was a brilliant, funny,generous, tireless advocate for the environment. His murder is an inexplicable horrifying tragedy. ............................................... Why was Glen Davis a target? Glen Davis, 66, is seen last year at the Firth River, Yukon. The millionaire donor to wildlife causes was shot to death Friday at about 2 p.m. in a parking garage near Eglinton Ave. E. and Mount Pleasant Why was Glen Davis a target? Slain man prominent Man killed in garage He cheated death twice, escaping a 1983 airplane fire, then a 2005 beating that police say may be linked to his slaying May 21, 2007 07:31 AM Tamara Cherry Staff Reporter Glen Davis was born into wealth, and until he survived a 1983 airplane fire that claimed 23 lives it seemed he was content to continue growing the $100 million empire his father left him. But surviving that crash may have sparked a turnaround, prompting the Toronto businessman to begin a new focus on philanthropy, conservation and the environment, a life of giving cut short by a gunman's bullet in a north Toronto parking garage Friday. Toronto police are continuing the search for a suspect, but admit they have few leads apart from surveillance footage showing a man leaving the garage, near Eglinton Ave. E. and Mount Pleasant Rd., at about 2 p.m. Friday, about the same time Davis, 66, was killed. The gunman ? who police say may have deliberately targeted Davis ? ended both Davis's life and a remarkable record of giving millions of dollars to conservation and environmental causes including the World Wildlife Fund Canada and the Sierra Club. Davis had cheated death twice before. On June 2, 1983, he became one of just 18 survivors when a fire broke out in the bathroom of a Toronto-bound Air Canada jet, forcing an emergency landing at Greater Cincinnati Airport that claimed the lives of several fellow Canadians, including Toronto television magnate George Curtis Mathes Jr. and Hamilton-born folk star Stan Rogers. Davis also survived a beating with a baseball bat in December 2005, when someone attacked him outside his Toronto office. His attacker took off in a van after witnesses intervened. Nothing was stolen during the attack and a suspect was never arrested, homicide Det. Wayne Fowler said yesterday. But police are investigating a possible connection between that beating and his death two years later. Friends say the Air Canada fire may have given Davis a new focus. It came four years after his father Nelson, 72, died of a heart attack while relaxing in the swimming pool of his winter home in Arizona, leaving his son a vast fortune. Nelson M. Davis, a long-time friend and adviser of Conrad Black, amassed his fortune mainly from transportation and trucking interests. He was chair of Toronto-based holding company Argus and chair and president of N. M. Davis Corp. Ltd., which he left to his only child. Davis carried on his father's dealings full-time until about two years after his brush with death. Friends say it may have been a combination of that life-changing experience and meeting Monte Hummel ? current president of World Wildlife Fund ? at that same time, that turned Davis to philanthropy. "I've heard that story from several different people," Stephen Hazell, executive director of Sierra Club of Canada said in an interview, adding Davis was "not a guy who sought the limelight" and didn't speak about the 1983 incident to many people. "I think Monte Hummel has played a great role in encouraging Glen in his philanthropy." Elizabeth May, a friend of Davis and leader of the Green Party of Canada, said yesterday that "about a third of his time he spent in wilderness trekking in remote locations, and about a third of his time was devoted to what business dealings he had that remained and about a third of his time was dedicated to philanthropy to a number of causes ? primarily environmental causes, but also the Canadian women Olympic rowers. "He largely took his father's fortune and liquidated it in order to be a full-time philanthropist. He was an extraordinarily generous person," May said. "Everybody is just devastated. The entire conservation movement in this country is going to be just devastated." "I think it's fair comment to say he gives away millions of dollars a year," Hazell said. "He's been probably the greatest wilderness philanthropist in Canada over the past number of years, although not many people know about him." The conservation movement "was what spoke to him," May said. "He liked nothing better than to be somewhere in the wilderness where there was no sign of humanity as far as the eye could see." In addition to countless charitable donations, Davis used his money to take friends on expeditions they'd otherwise be unable to afford, May said. "He was not just a donor, but a friend, a very good friend to so many of us in the environmental movement. It just tears a hole in our hearts and the whole movement." Barry Artiste, a contributor to NowPublic.com news network, wrote on his blog Davis was "quiet, reserved and certainly not flashy, a semi-retired businessman who, if you passed on the streets of Toronto, you would not give a second look as you went about your day." Davis, he said, "preferred to stay silently in the background and work behind the scenes," as he donated his millions. Davis was pronounced dead in hospital after he was found collapsed on the bottom level of the two-level parking garage. He wasn't next to his car when he was found, Fowler said. "There were a number of people in that underground, coming and going, going to their cars," yet no one reported hearing gunshots, Fowler said. "When we get into echoes and underground garages, it may sound totally different than a gunshot would normally sound," he said. "This is not a high crime area," he pointed out. "Obviously there was a reason why Mr. Davis was selected versus someone else going to their car at that point in time." Research for a 2005 Toronto Star column revealed that there was only one fatal shooting in 15 years in a 3.5-kilometre radius around Mount Pleasant Rd. and Lawrence Ave. The parking garage remained closed through yesterday as a forensics team examined the "extensive scene." Surveillance video images were released of a "person of interest" seen entering and leaving the garage by foot. The man, 25 to 30 years old, spent "a period of time" in the garage before leaving, Fowler said. The man, standing about 5 foot 8, is seen wearing a black baseball cap in two of the images, as well as a blue sweater, waist-length dark hooded jacket, dark pants, and white shoes. Davis leaves his wife Mary Alice. Anyone with information about his death is asked to call 416-808-7418 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477. Or click www.222tips From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 22 12:09:35 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 12:09:35 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Estrogen Threatens Minnow Manhood Message-ID: Dr Kidd said municipalities need to build more advanced sewage treatment plants, which are able to degrade more of the estrogen into harmless chemicals. .................. HORMONE POLLUTION Estrogen threatens minnow manhood Released into an Ontario lake as an experiment, tiny amounts of the hormone wreak havoc on male fish MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT ENVIRONMENT REPORTER May 22, 2007 Back in the summer of 2001, a team of Canadian and U.S. researchers spiked a lake in Northwestern Ontario with traces of synthetic estrogen used in human birth control pills. They then repeated the unusual treatment for the next two years and sat back and watched what happened to minnows living in the lake. The results were nothing short of frightening. Exposing fish to tiny doses of the active ingredient in the pill, amounts little more than a whiff of estrogen, started turning male fish into females. Instead of sperm, they started developing eggs. Instead of looking like males, they became indistinguishable from females. Within a year of exposure, the minnow population began to crash. Within a few years, the fish, which at one time teemed in the lake, had practically vanished. Details of the unusual experiment, conducted by a team of Canadian and U.S. government scientists, are being published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The dramatic results are likely to raise further concerns about the possible impact on wildlife and humans of drug residues in waterways. In the experiment, the scientists added just enough estrogen to give the lake water the same level of the sex hormone found in water discharged from sewage treatment plants in Canada and in other countries where the birth control pill is widely used. Print Edition - Section Front Enlarge Image More National Stories Although the doses in the lake's water were thousands of times lower than the amounts women on the pill receive, even this slight exposure was enough to skew development in both male and female fish, with males far more affected. After treatment, the lake water had estrogen concentrations of about 5 parts per trillion, the scientific equivalent of almost nothing. A part per trillion is the equivalent of a few grains of salt in an Olympic-size swimming pool. The amount of estrogen added was about a fifth of a gram a day, or about one-tenth the weight of a penny. The lead researcher, Karen Kidd, who conducted the project while with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and is now a biologist at the University of New Brunswick, was astonished that so little of a hormone used by people could harm fish. "What's sobering for me is that we've shown such a dramatic response in fish population at these low concentrations," Dr. Kidd said in an interview. It's not known what effect, if any, human exposure to estrogen in drinking water might have, although Dr. Kidd said it is an area that should be a research priority. Reproductive problems in human males, such as declining sperm counts and testicular cancer, have been rising in recent decades, and the causes are not known. "When we see these kinds of responses in fish, it raises a red flag for what these compounds are doing to humans," she said. There are currently no regulations in Canada covering estrogen or other drug residues in waterways. Municipalities typically don't check for them and it is not known if there are human health effects for people who draw drinking water from sources receiving sewage, a common practice in Canada. Researchers with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also worked on the experiment, which was funded primarily by the federal government and the American Chemistry Council. One of the companies that manufactures birth control pills, Schering AG, donated the estrogen. The researchers monitored fathead minnows, a species that breeds after about two years of life, making its population vulnerable to the reproductive effects of the drug sooner than longer-living fish. After dosing the lake for three years, researchers monitored populations for the next two. It is expected that with time, estrogen levels in the lake, which was about 35 hectares, or about the size of a large farm field or a medium-sized cottage-country lake, will decline, allowing fish populations to recover. To ensure that the population decline they were observing wasn't a natural phenomenon, the researchers tracked several other water bodies similar to the lake under investigation. There were no large population fluctuations elsewhere. The lake was located near Kenora. Over the past decade, there have been a number of studies in North America and Europe showing skewed sexual development in aquatic life living near outfalls from sewage plants. This study is the first to show that exposure to drugs not only changes sexual characteristics, but can also destroy fish populations. Dr. Kidd doesn't think women should stop taking the pill out of worry for wildlife. She said municipalities need to build more advanced sewage treatment plants, which are able to degrade more of the estrogen into harmless chemicals. Because of the high expense of the project, estimated at $250,000 a year, the researchers didn't test the effects of lower estrogen levels on fish to determine if there is a safe exposure amount. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070522.FISH22/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/ From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 22 12:33:24 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 12:33:24 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Virginia - sludge compliant website - Dept of Environmental Health Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Yes...you can read all the complaints about sludge spreading in Viriginia in this handy on line website! All the sludge spreading in North America should have this reporting ... ............................................... The Virginia Department of Health (VDH), through the Office of Environmental Health's Division of Wastewater Engineering, receives complaints regarding land application of biosolids in Virginia from concerned citizens, local monitors and local government officials. Each complaint is recorded and, if appropriate, investigated by the local monitor and/or VDH staff. In addition to complaint records held at the VDH Central Office in Richmond, the Division of Wastewater Engineering maintains an on-line complaint log that includes a listing of all complaints received, summaries of the VDH response and copies of inspection reports (when applicable). For further information regarding a specific incident or to report a complaint, please contact Cal Sawyer, Director of the Division of Wastewater Engineering, at (804) 864-7463 or by email at cal.sawyer at vdh.virginia.gov. When reporting a complaint, please identify the County, complaint date and site or area of the complaint (land application) with an address or route location if possible, as well as the farm name and name of the land application company if available. http://www.vdh.state.va.us/oehs/wwe/complaintlist.asp From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue May 22 12:59:11 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 12:59:11 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Don't underestimate value of native topsoil Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Beware of these replaement 'topsoils' which may be very much more contaminated than the original native soil. We are seeing farms slated for development sludged up ... then the contaminated soils are put back around the new homes...to dreadful effect. .......................................... Don't underestimate value of native topsoil Published Saturday, April 28th, 2007 By Marianne C. Ophardt, Special to the Herald Technically, topsoil is the natural top layer of soil. It has been created over thousands of years by weather, climate and decaying organic matter. Topsoil is usually about 6 to 8 inches deep and contains more organic matter and microorganisms than the soil beneath it. Our native topsoil isn't the dark, crumbly, rich soil found on forest floors. We have a very different climate and, as a result, very different soil. It's recommended to scrape topsoil off of a building site and stockpile it with the intention of returning that topsoil. This procedure is often not followed exactly as prescribed. Too often the topsoil is not removed, leaving it vulnerable to severe compaction. Once a structure is complete, builders may bring in something that's called topsoil, but it's usually not native -- it's often a designed topsoil or a topsoil mix. This may contain a variety of three or more different materials such as sawdust, compost, manure, biosolids, sand and soil. There are no legal standards regarding what can be sold as "topsoil." WSU Extension Specialist Linda Chalker-Scott says these topsoil mixes often are composed of 15 percent organic matter by weight. An "ideal" soil contains about 5 percent. Local garden soils have typically tested at less than 1 percent. Chalker-Scott says that in a permanent landscape, the organic matter eventually (in 10 years or less here) breaks down, causing the soil to settle and compact. This leads to the trees, shrubs and grass sinking to below grade. She says it's better to use the soil that is in place and mulch trees and shrubs with wood chips. The other problem with these topsoil mixes is water penetration. When the topsoil mix is simply laid over the ground, the soil is usually not broken up or loosened. It's hard for water or roots to penetrate highly compacted soil. The soil should first be loosened by tilling or ripping to help improve water movement into the soil. Mixes also can present water movement and drainage problems, even when the lower soil is disturbed and loosened. This is because water easily moves through the typically coarser texture of the mix but doesn't enter the finer soil beneath it as quickly. This leads to what is called a "perched" water table. This creates soggy conditions and can lead to root rot. There are no easy solutions. If you must bring in new topsoil, the compacted soil should first be loosened. The topsoil should then be tilled into the top layer of the existing soil to avoid the interface problem of two different textures. Better yet, the compacted soil should be loosened and native topsoil returned to the site. No significant amounts of organic matter should be added. If you're buying topsoil, check out what you will be getting before it's delivered. Ask the seller what the topsoil contains and ask for the producer's test data regarding pH, salt level, nutrient levels, organic matter content and texture. Also, find out if the soil has been screened to remove rocks. * Marianne C. Ophardt is a horticulturist for the Washington State University Extension Office in Benton County. http://www.tri-cityherald.com/hg/ophardt/story/8835636p-8736247c.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 23 13:18:18 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 13:18:18 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> North Carolina - Greensborogh $2M to reduce nitrogen pollution from plant Message-ID: City approves $2 million for sludge demo The Greensboro City Council approved nearly $2 million on May 15 to test a nitrogen reduction system at TZ Osborne Wastewater Plant in anticipation of state regulations slated to go into effect sometime next year. The motion passed eight to one with District 4 representative Mike Barber casting the only dissenting vote. The money will fund a full-scale demonstration of activated sludge technology at one of Greensboro's two wastewater treatment plants. Activated sludge is a process by which concentrated biological material is mixed with untreated water to reduced nitrogen and other pollutants. The new regulations are intended to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous pollution in Jordan Lake - a water body that has been plagued by algae blooms and fish kills. Soon the State Division of Water Quality will start taking public comments on new water-quality rules for municipalities that discharge water into the Haw River, including Greensboro. The Piedmont Triad Council of Governments, the organization that has coordinated discussions between the state and municipalities, estimates the rules will go into affect in August 2008. "We fully expect the rules will pass," said City Manager Mitchell Johnson. "And we want to be prepared when they do." City officials in Greensboro and other municipalities upriver of Jordan Lake have long challenged the validity of models that link some pollution in the lake to discharge from the Triad. The New Hope River and the Haw River primarily feed the lake, and opponents of the new Jordan Lake rules attribute the vast majority of the pollution to the former tributary, which flows from the Triangle. Johnson compared the activated sludge system to an aquarium filter. He said the project would provide more surface area and microbes to clean the treated wastewater. Barber questioned the urgency of spending $2 million on the project. Earlier in the meeting, Johnson had proposed a budget that would raise property taxes 4 cents per $100 valuation, a proposition Barber labeled "disgusting." "We heard a budget tonight that there are some issues on," Barber said. "Today is May. We have two months of budget discussions in front of us. Why don't we wait sixty or ninety days before we make this decision?" Tom Phillips, District 3 representative and the council's other reliable fiscal conservative, advocated going ahead with the demonstration. "The state is heading down a path with Jordan Lake," Phillips said. "If we wait sixty or ninety days we're still going to wind up doing this." Barber pushed for postponement based on the fact that quality of life in Greensboro would not be affected by changes at the Osborne plant. Johnson agreed, but said that the city should be prepared to demonstrate to state officials that the activated sludge system works. Otherwise residents might have to pay for a more expensive nitrogen reduction system. "I would be completely disingenuous if I said we have to vote on this tonight," Johnson said. "But Mr. Phillips is absolutely correct. We have no doubt that they are going to establish nitrogen removal standards for Greensboro." Barber opposed moving forward with such a large expenditure before the final nitrogen standards are approved. "We don't know what the future holds," he said. "And we're not sure what the state's standards will be." To comment on this story, e-mail Amy Kingsley at amy at yesweekly.com. http://www.yesweekly.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=2441&TM=60219.68 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 23 14:08:27 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 14:08:27 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> NC - Neuse River contaminated by sewage sludge land application Message-ID: MAY 16, 2007 Bad news for the Neuse Population growth, development threatens river BY LISA SORG Volunteers fished more than 22,000 pounds of trash, including 56 tires, two toilets and a boat trailer from the first 50 miles of the Upper Neuse River near Raleigh last month, but the greatest threat to the waterway is what no one sees. Jay St. Clair climbs the banks of Crabtree Creek with a load of trash as Travis Hamrick and Preston Steele unload more junk from canoes beneath Wake Forest Road during the Neuse River cleanup on April 14. Photo by Derek Anderson Growth throughout the river basin?from its headwaters near Falls Lake in Durham through sprawling Wake County, and southeast to the swanky developments along Pamlico Sound?is threatening the river, landing the Neuse on this year's Top 10 Most Endangered Rivers list. The annual list is compiled by the American Rivers Foundation, a nonprofit conservation group based in Washington, D.C. Like the Native Americans who lived along it 14,000 years ago, 21st-century settlers are attracted to the river's resources: water, fish and the plants that grace its banks. Over the next 20 years, Wake County's population is projected to explode like algae blooms to 1 million people?a 70 percent increase since 2000. That means there will be more toilets to flush and more yards to irrigate, placing further demands on Falls Lake, a water source for 350,000 Wake County residents. More people means more dirt to be bulldozed and more pavement for nitrogen-laden fertilizers and pet waste to run over, into the river and its tributaries. Excess nitrogen kills aquatic life and jeopardizes commercial fishing near the coast. "What is it going to take to get Raleigh and everybody else to recognize what an important resource Falls Lake and the Neuse River are to this region?" asks Dean Naujoks, Upper Neuse Riverkeeper. Most of the Neuse River Basin lies south of Wake County, but local officials say they are aware of the strain additional people, water demand and wastewater discharges will place on the river here and downstream. "Growth and wastewater go hand in hand," says T.J. Lynch, superintendent of Raleigh's wastewater treatment plant. "There's research to be done whether the river can handle additional wastewater." It appears that the Neuse has no choice. The plant, a labyrinthine facility snaked with pipes and tanks and pumps, will likely expand over the next five years. It underwent $40 million in improvements after it was cited for violations related to its discharge; now the city plans to ask the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources for a permit to increase the amount of treated wastewater discharged daily into the Neuse from 60 million gallons to 75 million gallons. Although urban lawns are usually the culprit for pesticide and fertilizer runoff, the plant has encountered similar problems from its application fields. Treated biosolids, dried byproducts of the treated wastewater, are spread on fields that grow crops, such as corn and soybeans, for farm animals. (Crops fertilized with these biosolids aren't approved for people to eat.) Bill Showers, associate professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at N.C. State University, has conducted an EPA-funded study of nitrogen levels in the Neuse. He discovered that extra nitrogen was coming not from treated wastewater, but from the public utility's 1,000-acre application field that borders the river, which winds around plant property. While the amount of nitrogen entering the Neuse is still within permitted limits, Showers says, "it isn't supposed to go outside the field boundaries and it's going into the river." Showers speculates that deeply eroded streams are funneling water from the application fields into the river, especially during heavy rains. The next step is to design a wetlands system that will filter nitrogen from the water before it enters the river. "The challenge is to come up with a sustainable solution," he says. "As the population grows, the wastewater treatment plant is going to get larger and there will be more pressure on the utilities to buy more fields." At a glance: Neuse River Basin Total area: 6,235 sq. miles No. of counties: 18 No. of municipalities: 74 Population (2000): 1,353,617 Freshwater stream miles: 3,497 Freshwater lakes acres: 16,414 Coastline miles: 21 Source: N.C. Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources According to a December letter to Raleigh Public Utilities from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the city asked DENR for a variance, which would allow a to-be-determined amount of nitrogen to run off the fields, as long as the plant reduces an equal amount in its discharge. The Environmental Management Commission, a 19-member group appointed by the governor and House and Senate leadership, is scheduled to hear the case later this year. It's not only runoff from cornfields and hog farms that threatens the Neuse and its tributaries?many of which are on a federal impaired waters list?but also dirt washing from the hundreds of development sites in Wake County. As land is cleared and graded for new subdivisions, dirt runs into storm drains, streams and the Neuse; sediment is the river's top pollutant. Britt Stoddard, Wake's watershed manager, says the county is trying to combat runoff by prohibiting development in the floodplain, increasing buffers between waterways and development sites. Moreover, Wake County officials aim to preserve 30 percent of the county's land; 10 percent is already preserved through N.C. State and Umstead Park. Wake County Planning Director Melanie Wilson says there are watershed development standards, but many of the subdivisions in those sensitive areas were grandfathered?approved before the regulations were established. "When I do the numbers [of projected population growth], I worry," Wilson says. "But we're being more proactive and aggressive to address development and stormwater management." Raleigh Planning Commissioner Betsy Kane says while erosion ordinances help curb runoff, those regulations don't apply to all sites. "The silt fences can only do so much," she says. "And site developers aren't always attentive as they should be." Mark Senior, an engineer in Raleigh's stormwater department, says like Wake County, the city is purchasing land for buffers to keep pollutants out of waterways. The city is also preserving private, abandoned lakes that would otherwise be sold to developers. And homebuilders are required keep runoff at the same level it was before the land was developed, or pay a fee for the state to do it. "We're trying to keep the situation from getting worse," Senior says. "Somehow we have to accommodate growth and reduce pollution at the same time." http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A153953 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 23 14:39:38 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 14:39:38 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Tampa FL - Sewage Plant Malfunction - sludge stinks up Davis Islands Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Here is a confused story. It states that the Tampa sludge is normally 'palletized'....do they mean pelletized? Then it says it started to stink on the solar drying pad. So is it dried into little pellets with heat or is it 'solar dried' - ? Solar drying is not an approved Class A pathogen reduction process under the Part 503 regs. What gives? .............................. Sewer Plan Malfunction Wafts Stench To Davis Islands Skip directly to the full story. Published: May 23, 2007 ADVERTISEMENT More from this channel: Search for more information: Site Search Archives Keyword TBO.com Site Search | Tribune archive from 1990 TAMPA - Malfunctioning equipment at the city's sewage treatment plant caused a weeklong stink for Davis Islands residents. A sludge digester at the Howard F. Curren Wastewater Treatment Plant on Hookers Point broke down May 14 and had to be emptied so repairs could be made, said Ralph Metcalf, Tampa's wastewater director. Sludge is the solid component of sewage. The digester uses microscopic organisms to break down the sludge. The water is squeezed out, and the dried product is palletized for use as fertilizer. Metcalf said the drained sludge was not thoroughly digested by the organisms when it was placed in the open on drying beds. "Normally this stuff would dry quickly in this weather," he said. "But it was thicker than anticipated. The winds out of the northeast provided the perfect conditions to get it over there." Sewage treatment employees waited until the end of the week to apply chemicals to cut the smell, Metcalf said. Residents started complaining as the smell hung heavy through Monday night. "We should have done something before the people started complaining," Metcalf said. "Frankly, we dropped the ball on that." Mike Salinero http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBYSQK112F.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed May 23 15:41:14 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 15:41:14 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ontario to reduce plastic shopping bags Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Yes! Plastic bags at grocery stores should be stopped altogether. San Francisco has banned the provision of plastic grocery bags. People bring their own cloth/plastic/string bag/backpack or they buy one at the store. Good idea Anyone who ever saw the plastic bags flying around the farmfields and snarled around trees from blowing compost operations knows we need to limit the generation and use of these toxic tag-alongs. ................................ Ontario to reduce plastic shopping bags http://www.solidwastemag.com/issues/isarticle.asp?id=68747&issue=05092007&PC=SW&story_id=&link_targ=DailyNews&link_source=aypr_SW Solid Waste Magazine The government of Ontario is announcing a voluntary program to reduce by 50 per cent the number of shopping bags used by consumers. Environment Minister Laurel Broten is announcing a partnership with the Recycling Council of Ontario, plus grocery and retail associations, to devise a system of consumer incentives to meet the target. Incentives for customers who use cloth or canvas bags could include store "points" redeemable for products, air miles or cash. Other elements of the program will be announced in future months. These may include training training for store clerks to double bag less often, put more items in each bag and stop bagging large or single items. The system may include per-bag fees. Currently, Ontarians use seven million plastic bags each day, or about four bags per person every week. Annual annual reports will measure success; if the voluntary system doesn't lead to the desired result, the province can regulate tougher measures such as bag fees or bans. Some grocery stores already offer customers cloth or canvas bags or reusable bins. A&P and Dominion, for example, sell a 99-cent reusable shopping bag that holds the equivalent of about three plastic bags of groceries, and give five air miles to customers with reusable bags. The incentive program flows from a pilot project in Sault Ste. Marie. In March, San Francisco became the first city in North America to ban plastic bags in grocery stores and large pharmacies. Retailers were given six months to a year to come up with alternatives such as cloth, paper or biodegradable bags. In April, Leaf Rapids, a small town in northern Manitoba, became the first municipality in Canada to ban plastic shopping bags. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 24 13:41:32 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 13:41:32 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ontario - 36 towns and cities ordered to test tap water for lead Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: You heard it first on Sludge Watch. We have been alerting the public to the lead in tap water for years. US residents in older homes should ask the local health unit for testing at the tap, too. ............................................................... Ontario cities, towns will be ordered to test water for lead Wednesday, May 23, 2007 The Canadian Press Ontario's Environment Ministry will order 36 towns and cities, including Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa, to test older homes for possible lead contamination in drinking water, chief water inspector Jim Smith announced Tuesday. Smith said nearly a month has passed since he wrote to every municipality in Ontario suggesting they test lead levels at taps in homes that may have lead service pipes or lead solder in their connections, after unacceptably high levels were found in the city of London. So far, only Sarnia has reported back after finding two of 14 homes tested had lead levels in tap water above provincial standards, though there are also reports of problems in Owen Sound and Hamilton. "I've determined that I should send out orders to a number of municipalities' drinking water systems so I get the information quicker than what I'm seeing happen across the province," Smith said in an interview. Smith estimated it would take about one week for each of the communities to find 20 homes to be tested for lead in tap water, and perhaps another week for the lab results to come in and get reported back to the government. He said the data would give the ministry a good snapshot of the situation across the province, and will be the fastest way to help ease public concerns about drinking water. "I don't want a lot of time to go by where communities and individuals concerned about this are wondering, 'Well, what about my community? When will these test results be in?'" Smith said. The opposition parties said Tuesday the Liberal government has been too slow to follow up on the issue of lead in drinking water, especially after it was raised by Justice Dennis O'Connor in his report into Walkerton's tainted-water tragedy of May 2000. Continue Article "Justice O'Connor was pretty clear that we should be replacing those lead services," said NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns. "We should have been testing at the tap earlier." Conservative Leader John Tory said O'Connor's recommendations have not been acted on quickly enough. "People think under the new regime, post-Walkerton, that they can count on having safe water, that every step has been taken," Tory said. "Yet that last step, from the curb to their tap, is not being adequately addressed, and the lead that they're finding in certain communities is proof positive of that." London has issued a warning to pregnant women and children under six not to drink unfiltered or untested water from homes with lead pipes. Effects of lead poisoning Experts say lead in drinking water can cause a variety of adverse health effects. In babies and children, lead exposure can result in delays in physical and mental development, along with slight deficits in attention span and learning abilities. In adults, it could cause kidney problems or high blood pressure. Many municipalities have been replacing the old pipes, but Tabuns said the replacement program is proceeding too slowly, especially in older neighbourhoods. Most Ontario municipalities will test a home's water for free, but if the service line from the street to the home has to be replaced, the homeowner will end up paying about $2,000 of the cost, and possibly as much as $10,000. Experts had thought that flushing the pipes - by running the tap for about five minutes until the water gets colder - would clear any traces of lead, but they now know that doesn't always work From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 24 13:56:53 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 13:56:53 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Wyoming- sewage treatment plant sells 'compost' - up to you to 'play it safe' Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The use of sewage sludge compost on home gardens is discussed in this news story. Again...not much accurate reporting. Is it really composted? Or is it just dried as described below. And even though the customers are directed to mix it with soil some are using it full strength. This increases pathogen and heavy metal risks in their garden soil and their food. According to the story some people store the sludge compost before using it...a practice that will increase the risk of pathogen regrowth. .................................. City offers compost for a small price A machine turns a row of compost Friday morning at the City of Gillette Wastewater Treatment Facility. Turning the compost mixes air into the Grade A mulch, which is for sale to the public for $10 a yard. ? News-Record photo by Paul Ruhter By J.D. STETSON, News-Record Writer For those who don?t have the luxury of waiting months to make compost, a cheaper source of ?Grade A? compost can be purchased at the City of Gillette Wastewater Treatment Facility. The product is called Stonepile Select Compost, a by-product of an anaerobic (without oxygen) digestion process of the waste that is flushed down the toilet. Jane Foster, a Gillette gardener, bought a dump-truck load of the compost last year and uses it for the flower pots in her yard. She stores the compost and when spring arrives or she gets a new pot she uses what she needs. She said that the treatment facility recommends mixing the compost with soil, but she thinks it does a better job by itself. Jane said she doesn?t use the compost in her tomato plant pots because of the possibility of E-coli or other pathogens. ?I know that they process it so that there isn?t any pathogens, but I still don?t use it in those pots,? Foster said. Al Padova, owner of CJ?s Landscaping, uses the compost frequently in his business. He said he likes the idea of reusing our waste for the benefit of the yards and gardens. ?It?s a lot easier to use compost instead of shipping in 6 inches of top soil,? Padova said. As for the possibility of pathogens, Padova thinks people using it for vegetable gardens is personal choice. ?If you want to play it safe, then play it safe,? Padova said. Mark Paxton, treatment facility foreman, said the compost has to be ?Grade A? before they are allowed to sell it, which means it is tested for fecal counts, salmonella and other harmful organisms. Only limited amounts are allowed. Paxton said the compost is used by residents and landscapers in gardens, lawns and flower beds. The compost costs $10 per yard, but it?s limited to 20 yards per batch per customer. Until recently, the compost has been dried by taking it out to the fields south of the facility and to heat up and be turned ? a process which took months to get results . Now, the compost is dried using a centrifuge that yields 12 yards of compost a day, Paxton said. Paxton doesn?t expect any of the newer compost to be available for another couple of months. Another couple of months would be fine for Foster, who said she might need a littlemore asher supply dwindles. STONEPILE COMPOST About 600 to 700 yards of Stonepile Select Compost is available at the Wastewater Treatment Facility off Garner Lake Road. - How it?s made: After an extensive treatment process that includes anaerobic (without oxygen) digestion and the removal of pathogenic organisms, the biosolids are dried and sold as compost. - Hauling it away: People who use a private hauler need to go out to the facility ahead of time to pay for the compost. - Community Garden: Stonepile Select Compost should not be used in vegetable gardens because of the treatment processes. But it is good in flower beds and as a base for new lawns. http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/articles/2007/05/20/news/news05.txt From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 24 14:01:19 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 14:01:19 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Missouri - Missouri soil too porous for sludge - where to put it? Message-ID: http://www.bransondailynews.com/story.php?storyID=3873 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, May 24, 2007 Answers sought for sludge question By Donna Clevenger BDN Staff Writer dclevenger at bransondailynews.com TANEY COUNTY ? Where does all the sludge go from the many wastewater plants in Southwest Missouri? The sludge is commonly transported to fill areas or farmland, but in this part of Missouri and Arkansas the soil is so porous and new development construction has taken so much land that choice sites are limited. Two engineering firms made presentation to the Southwest Missouri-based coalition of communities making a bid for the feasibility study concerning the use of a sludge dryer. Burns McDonnell and Archer Engineering each pitched their version of possible sites, equipment and its use to handle sludge, the bi-product of wastewater treatment. Archer got the nod from the coalition; however officials attending the meeting made clear that their choice was only a recommendation between the two firms that would be passed on to the Taney County District Sewer Board, which would then put it to a vote. TCDS has agreed to pay for the study that will guide them into choosing a site for the sludge dryer and the type of equipment to purchase. Five cities so far have passed resolutions of cooperation in the venture: Kimberling City, Forsyth, Hollister, Branson, and Rockaway Beach. Three other cities are monitoring the meetings and have shown an interest in joining the group: Berryville and Green Forest, Ark. and Branson West. The Department of Natural Resources hosted the meeting on Tuesday at which the decision was made to recommend Archer. Whichever firm conducts the study will plan the project, offer site selection choices, submit a cost budget and work with the coalition on financing and construction. Both firms recommended the use of natural gas as the most cost effective fuel to run the sludge dryer. Currently most of the cities employ a land application for the sludge. ?Small cities like Forsyth would definitely be on board,? Forsyth City Supervisor Chris Robertson said, ?We?re interested because in 10 to 15 years we?ll be in the same situation as Branson. With our growth comes more use of the sewer system.? Robertson explained that their land application method still works for them because Forsyth still has access to farm land. According to Robertson not just anybody can offer their land, but it must have an acceptable PH value and ongoing soil samples must be taken. Robertson estimated they haul about 400 loads a year with their 1,600 gallon tanker truck, spreading in on fields at two local farms. The district sewer board will accept one of the firms next week. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu May 24 14:18:44 2007 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 14:18:44 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Forbes- Linzey: When majorities can't make decisions, we don't have democracy Message-ID: http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/05/24/thomas-linzey-law-tech-cx_07rev_ee_0524linzey.html Revolutionaries Tree Rights Elisabeth Eaves 05.24.07 Thomas Linzey, 38 Executive Director Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund The folks in the borough of Tamaqua, Pa., were sick and tired of sewage haulers in the region spreading foul-smelling, toxic sludge on agricultural land--with the permission of the farmers and the backing of the state. People were getting sick--even dying--and local governments felt powerless to do anything about it. So, with the encouragement of Thomas Linzey, head of the nonprofit Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, the borough passed an unprecedented law giving ecosystems legal rights of their own. Yes, you read that right. The trees, rivers, mountains and all the little critters that live in them have rights just like people, at least in Tamaqua ... and at least until the law is struck down. Of course, since nature itself can't march down to the courthouse, the new ordinance also establishes that the municipal government or any Tamaqua resident can file a lawsuit on behalf of the local ecosystem. The law flies in the face of thousands of years of Western legal precedent that treats nature strictly as property. Linzey has been asserting the rights of local governments against those of corporations for more than a decade, but only recently did he fuse the principle of local self-government with so-called "wild law." More than just an environmental campaigner, Linzey is also pushing for a legal revolution that would strip corporations of their status as "persons," which grants companies many of the same legal rights as actual humans. In Pennsylvania, corporations have relied on that status when claiming the right to dump toxic sludge in rural areas. "When majorities in communities can't make decisions, we don't have democracy anymore," Linzey says. DEMOCRACY SCHOOL - http://www.celdf.org/DemocracySchool/tabid/60/Default.aspx Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund http://www.celdf.org/ The Center for Earth Jurisprudence Biography of wild law pioneer Cormac Cullinan