Sludge Watch ==> Warkworth Ontario - Concerned residents to hold public forum on sludge

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

The medical community needs to look into health impacts on this community.
Already there is a demonstrated health problem documented by the Public 
Health Unity.
It was the Enid Lipsett case.


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http://www.communitypress.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=683158&catname=Local%20News&classif=News


Concerned residents to hold public forum on biosolids

By Mark Hoult
Local News - Thursday, September 06, 2007 Updated @ 3:02:24 PM

Warkworth – A group of concerned Warkworth residents are inviting area 
residents to attend an open public forum to discuss the issues surrounding 
the application of sewage sludge biosolids on farm land.

The public forum will be held on Sat. Sept. 15 at 11 a.m. in the Warkworth 
Legion at 12 Norham Rd in Warkworth. In a press release this week organizers 
Wendy Deavitt and Maureen Reilly said an increasing number of citizens 
across Ontario are becoming concerned about sewage sludge, otherwise known 
as “biosolids,” on agricultural land.

“Public officials and environmental groups have raised alarm bells as 
reports of illness are springing up at an alarming rate,” they said, noting 
that there are “hundreds of pages of complaints now on file in government 
offices across southern Ontario.”

Deavitt and Reilly stress that sewage sludge is more than human waste. It 
also contains pollutants from industrial sources and household wastes, along 
with pollutants from hospitals, morgues and slaughter houses.

The sludge being being used to fertilize many area farmers’ fields contains 
metals, drugs, organic compounds and disease-causing organisms, they said, 
noting that among the contaminants now being found in biosolid waste are 
steroids, non-prescription drugs, insect repellents, detergents byproducts, 
disinfectants, fire retardants, antibiotics, insecticides, reproductive 
hormones, prescription drugs and solvents.


In an interview this week Deavitt said forum organizers want to educate the 
public and raise awareness of what has now become an issue world-wide. “We 
want to look at all the avenues and present speakers on both side of the 
fence so that the public can make their own informed decisions when they 
walk out that door.”

In addition to presenting a range of perspectives, organizers are hopeful 
this forum and others will convince all levels of government, the media and 
agriculture and health organizations to take the issue of biosolids more 
seriously, said Deavitt, who has sent invitations to attend the forum to 
everyone from Premier Dalton McGuinty to Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge 
Medical Officer of Health Dr. Lynn Noseworthy and representatives of the 
Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the National Farmers’ Union.

Among the guest speakers at the forum will be Reilly, whom Deavitt called “a 
world-renowned” biosolids researcher, and Jim Pouschinsky, the chair of the 
Ottawa Citizens Against Pollution by Sewage. Pouschinsky has visited the 
Plasco Energy Group facility in Ottawa to observe a conversion system 
designed to process a range of waste streams efficiently and cleanly.

In addition, Deavitt has been in touch with Liberty Energy in California, a 
company that is converting organic waste streams, also known as biomass, 
into renewable fuel gas, which is used on site to produce electricity. She 
is hopeful that a representative of Liberty Energy, possibly the company’s 
chief executive officer, will come from California to speak at the forum.

Deavitt has also invited Ontario Ministry of Environment District Manager 
Pauline DeRoches to speak on the guidelines governing the distribution and 
use of biosolids. “We would like to know why the guidelines are dated 1996 
first of all. They are outdated.”

Deavitt said that with an election in sight politicians need to be aware 
that biosolids have become an Ontario-wide issue. A Sept. 4 meeting in 
London attracted more than 200 people, she said. And other public meetings 
and forums are scheduled in townships across the province. “This is a 
political issue. More and more concerns are being raised by area citizens 
and researchers alike, who are saying that this is a dangerous practice and 
needs to stop. We need to look at alternative solutions.”

Deavitt said she is concerned that the biosolids issue will get put on the 
back burner for another five years after the Oct. 10 election. “We want 
different levels of government to start investigating alternatives. Enough 
talk, let’s do it.”

Invitations have also been sent to Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowksy, 
Northumberland MPP Lou Rinaldi and Minister of Environment Laurel Broten. 
Organizers of the forum have also emailed weekly and daily newspapers across 
Ontario, Global News and the CBC. The media must become more aware of the 
biosolids issue, Deavitt said. “My biggest hope is that the media starts to 
pick this up. I mean it’s wonderful that our local community papers pick 
this up, but it needs to go further now, it needs to go to the next level, 
and that is province-wide.”

She said the number of people, especially new rural residents, who have 
never heard of biosolids or the controversy surrounding them, “is scary.” 
That’s why awareness must raised, she said stressing that everyone has a 
vested interest in the food they eat and the water they drink.