Sludge Watch ==> Fort Wayne Indiana - Poo + Industrial waste on your garden

[Maureen Reilly]

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