Sludge Watch ==> Ontario Owen Sound - Sludge users beware - face liability- secret sludge

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This was a great meeting. Here is another ALERT because the Ontario 
Government is planning a change to remove the requirement to spread sludge 
under a waste permit (Certificate of Approval or CofA). This would mean that 
there would be very little publicly available information about sludge and 
where it is applied.

Write the gov't with your opposition today.

for more info:
http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/displaynoticecontent.do?noticeId=MTAxNDMy&statusId=MTUxNjMz&language=en

Here is an interesting note:  it looks like the Government of Ontario is 
backing off the term 'sewage sludge' and also the happy face term 
'biosolids'.  The public has learned what that euphemism really means.  Now 
they have gone to NASM (non agricultural sourced material).  How do you like 
that for obscuring public understanding.  I tried to locate this notice 
using the search words 'sewage sludge' or 'biosolids'. No luck. The terms 
don't even appear in the Environmental Bill of Rights notice. 'Secret 
Sludge' indeed.

send comments before Jan 7, 2008  to:

Kevin Webster
Senior Policy Coordinator
Ministry of the Environment
Waste Management Policy Branch
135 St Clair Avenue West
Floor 7
Toronto Ontario
M4V 1P5
Phone: (416) 314-9398
Fax: (416) 325-4437

Kevin.Webster at ontario.ca
............................

November 24, 2007

Owen Sound Ontario

Sludge users beware; Farmers face liability, lawyer says


Posted By DON CROSBY

Farmers who use sludge from sewage treatment plants as fertilizer risk being 
sued by neighbours who become ill from airborne toxins, said Ottawa lawyer 
Don Good.

Good, who specializes in agricultural law, told a public information meeting 
put on by the Southgate Public Interest Research Group on Thursday that 
farmers take on the liability of the hauler that spreads the sludge and the 
municipality that disposes of its waste product.

"It's going to hit the farm community between the eyes," said Good, who 
noted that the hauler and the municipality where the sludge originates are 
protected as long as they meet the conditions set out in their certificate 
of approval from the Ministry of the Environment.

"Don't count on support from the hauler. When the music stops the farmer is 
the one without a chair," he said.

Good said the only way farmers can be sure they are protected is with 
written assurance from the waste hauler and the municipality of origin that 
they are exempt from any legal liability.

He also warned that most farm insurance policies have pollution exclusion 
clauses.

"If insurance companies consider sludge a form of pollution you're on your 
own," said Good.

Rea Wilson of Cedarville was suddenly taken ill and had to be rushed to the 
hospital after coming in contact with a tiny amount of sludge about seven 
years ago. A representative from the sludge hauler dropped a tiny blob of 
sludge from his boots when he was in the Wilson home to explain what was 
happening on neighouring fields.

"I'm 99 per cent sure that what happened to me was a result of coming in 
contact with that tiny bit of sludge," Wilson said in an interview on 
Friday.

While she recovered within 18 hours she continued to feel poorly for several 
months after.

Wilson said a young boy who lives near her was hospitalized for several days 
after he mistakenly entered a field that had been spread with the sludge 
around the same time. His family couldn't be reached for comment.



A map of 49 lots on Southgate properties that have had sludge applied over 
the years was passed out to the more than 60 people who attended the meeting 
at Swinton Park community centre, north of Dundalk.

According to Ministry of Environment sources almost 5,000 acres of land have 
been approved for sludge spreading in Southgate.

Land may be spread every five years and haulers have begun to make repeat 
visits to previously spread properties.

That worries Wilson who recently had two of her knees replaced and is on 
antibiotics to combat rejection and can't afford to come in contact with the 
strong pathogens that researchers such as Maureen Reilly believe are found 
in the sludge.

Reilly, the director of SludgeWatch, describes spreading treated waste on 
farm fields as inexpensive disposal of urban sewage waste, rather than a 
good source of fertilizer.

She worries that the mixture of industrial and hospital waste together with 
the treated human waste from municipal sewage treatment plants is a 
dangerous cocktail of highly resistant pathogens and heavy metals.

Reilly said contaminated water wells in neighbouring properties are among 
the first signs of a problem. Lawsuits in Ontario and several American 
states are raising the profile of the problem but the provincial government 
continues to claim the material is safe and a good source of fertilizer.

Reilly said the anaerobic digesters and centrifugal dewatering processes in 
the sewage treatment plants act as incubators for the most highly drug 
resistant pathogens that increase once they leave the sewage treatment 
process and are spread on farm fields.

Even it's value as a fertilizer is questionable, said Reilly, who said that 
sludge is loaded with too much phosphorous and not enough nitrogen. Farm 
fields can't absorb the extra phosphorous which finds its way into 
waterways, causing algae blooms.

Large municipalities continue to bury much of their sludge in landfills. 
Only about five per cent is applied to land, but as that option narrows more 
ways will have to be found for its disposal.

Reilly recommends sludge be composted or burned as fuel to produce 
electricity. "It has 50 per cent the value of coal," she said.

Reilly said it's ironic that the provincial government won't allow 
composting of sludge for fear it will end up in commercial fertilizers and 
potting soil with its high levels of heavy metals could pose a health hazard 
yet sludge is allowed through a certificate of approval process for 
application on food and croplands.

Secret Sludge

She worries that a move by the provincial government to do away with the 
certificate of approval process which allows for conditions to be placed on 
the disposal of the biosolids will lead to a lack of transparency.

The government plans to redefine sludge and allow it to be handled by 
farmers under the Nutrient Management Act, which is managed by the Ministry 
of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs.

The notice of the change is posted on the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) 
website for public comment until Jan. 5, 2008.

"The restrictions laid out in the certificate of approval are the only thing 
stopping sludge haulers from spreading this pathogen-laden partially treated 
human fecal material pretty well wherever they please," said Cedarville 
resident Glen Norman who also spoke at the meeting on Thursday.

"With that protection gone and the terms of sludge kept secret we can expect 
the stench of sewage waste and its medical conditions to become a normal 
part of country life come 2008."

Article ID# 790639

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=790639&auth=DON+CROSBY


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






News
Local

Sludge Debate Rages On
A warning to farmers who allow human waste sludge to be spread on their 
land.

Any money saved now...could be lost to lawsuits down the road.

Don Good..a lawyer specializing in agricultural laws..says farmers are at 
risk of being sued by neighbours who claim airborne toxins from sludge are 
making them sick and lowering the value of their property.

Toronto toxicologist..Doctor Anne Mildon..is calling for a serious study to 
find out what toxins are in human sludge.

A local ratepayers group...the Southgate Public Interest Research Group 
claims the province is considering dropping Certificates of approval for the 
spreading of sludge.

They are holding a public information meeting tonight at the Swinton Park 
community hall at 7:30.


http://www.am920.ca/news.php?artID=22589