Sludge Watch ==> Ontario : Farms shun biosolids

[Maureen Reilly]

Week of November 21, 2007

Farms shun bio-solids


by Paul Dalby
The Independent


The majority of Northumberland County’s farmers are not using biosolids to 
fertilize their fields, according to a farmer’s leader.

The assurance came this week from Lyle Gallagher, president of the 
Northumberland chapter of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and himself 
a working farmer in Roseneath.

“It’s not a widespread practice,” he said. “I would estimate 90 per 
cent of farmers still use animal waste as fertilizer or chemical 
fertilizers.”

His remarks came after last week’s story in The Independent highlighting 
the case of four couples in the Warkworth area who claim they have suffered 
severe health problems after nearby farmers’ fields were repeatedly 
sprayed with biosolids.

The four couples have all experienced chronic diarrhea, lung problems, 
headaches, frequent bouts of pneumonia, loss of weight and abnormally high 
levels of metals in their blood.

Mr. Gallagher, who represents an estimated 800 farmers in the county, said 
that a few farmers were also “afraid of the unknown” with respect to the 
application of biosolids – or human waste – onto farmland.

“But if I was thinking of using biosolids on my land, I would go to all my 
neighbours first to see what they thought of the idea,” he said. “I 
would hope that any other farmer would do the same thing.”

The biosolids, used as a free fertilizer in Northumberland, come from the 
Cobourg Water and Waste Treatment plant.

As well as containing human excretia, the sludge can also contain traces of 
household chemicals, detergents from washing machines, heavy metals from 
industry, synthetic hormones from birth control pills, and dioxins, a group 
of compounds that have been linked to cancer.

But officials at the Cobourg plant insist that modern treatment methods they 
employ can eliminate more than 95 per cent of the pathogens in concentrated 
Class B sludge.

The plant also meets the guidelines imposed by the Ontario Ministry of the 
Environment.

“We have to rely on the MOE’s test protocols,” said Mr. Gallagher. 
“If they say that the biosolids are safe, then I have to believe them.”

But Mr. Gallagher, a farmer for 36 years, said spraying the biosolids on top 
of the land is “a bit of a concern”. He said injecting the biosolids 
into the soil is the preferred approach.

But the practice of using biosolids to fertilize farmland received criticism 
from a leading Toronto toxicologist, Dr. Anne Mildon, who called for a 
health study to be conducted on possible links between biosolids, 
contaminated water wells and human health concerns.

Dr. Mildon is treating all of the Warkworth residents at her Toronto clinic. 
“People who don’t think this is worth investigating have got their head 
in the sand,” she told The Independent.

Dr. Mildon also described a patient from the Brighton area who has also 
complained of serious side effects after the field next to her house was 
sprayed with biosolids.

“She had lived out there for 17 years but now she has moved back into 
Toronto and she’s feeling much better,” Dr. Mildon said. “Who 
would’ve thought you would ever move back into the city for your 
health?”

The four Warkworth couples are taking their case to the Chief Public Health 
Officer of Ontario, Dr. George Pasut. The Independent attempted to contact 
Northumberland’s medical officer of health Dr. Lynn Noseworthy but she is 
away from her office until next week.

About 120,000 tonnes of sewage biosolids are spread on 6,000 acres of 
Ontario farmland each year, according to the Ministry of the Environment.

And a growing number of researchers – like the National Research Council 
of the US National Academy of Sciences – now believe “there may be 
public health risks from using processed sewage sludge as a commercial 
fertilizer”.

http://www.eastnorthumberland.com/article.php?id=1763