Sludge Watch ==> Thoughts on putting sludge in Ventura Toland Landfill

[Maureen Reilly]

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/sep/09/keep-sewage-sludge-out-of-toland-landfill/

Posted by Edo on September 9, 2007

Couple of thoughts on Toland Land fill. To the extent that Spiroplasma and 
other pathogens are found in sewage---which they are---, there are issues of 
dust-carried pathogens to surrounding citrus and communities. This needs 
more review for a number of reasons. An EIR needs to be prepared for both 
human and crop disease.

Sewage sludge carries abundant human pathogens and irritants such as 
lipopolysaccharides that cause acute inflammatory reactions and asthma, 
especially at very small levels in dust. EPA has yet to do any human health 
risk assessments on pathogens in sewage sludge. I am on a new scientific 
panel to do just that, thus without a thorough analysis of pathogens, VCSD 
may shoot not only itself in the foot, but the community.

The best studied species of spiroplasmas are Spiroplasma citri, the 
causative agent of citrus stubborn disease. This is a citrus disease that is 
plaguing Kern County, a county that is recipient to most of the sewage 
sludge from the Los Angeles basin.

Sewage sludge contains numerous industrial wastes as well as human waste. 
Since hospitals and similar facilities are hooked up to these sewer plants, 
there are numerous serious human pathogens that are carried into the common 
sewage sludge. Contrary to popular myth, sewage plants do not kill 
pathogens. In fact they actually multiply pathogenesis and enhance 
antibiotic resistance which ends up in the sludge.

The web carried the following comment: “EPA's Office of Water sludge 
advocates and researchers, John Walker, Alan Rubin and Robert Bastian, knew 
of Cornell's research in the 80s which proved that the chemical toxicants in 
sludge would kill without leaving a trace. In the late 1970's a 
neuropathologist, Frank O. Bastian found the Spiroplasma bacterium in the 
brain tissue of a Creutfeldt-Jacob patient. Later he injected the bacterium 
into mice and produced a spongiform disease." This was a bacteria thought to 
cause only insect and plant diseases. Now the spongiform diseases have 
spread through wild life and resemble the cattle downer disease."

This is commonly called mad cow disease and its equivalent in humans is 
variant Creutfeldt-Jacob (vCJD). Credible papers in the literarure indicate 
that up to 13% of Alzheimer's disease is actually vCJD. The prion that 
causes this is not easily destroyed with heat. Brown noted that the 
decomposition point of prions was near 600°C (1100 F) yet the test animals 
still became infected. Brown pointed out that while charred, the shape of 
the charred protein may have allowed the disease to continue merely from the 
template provided information to produce transmissible spongiform 
encephalopathy in the test animals. While Tolan will dry the sludge, will it 
actually destroy the pathogens?

This is a highly debatable question but a question that warrants an answer 
so we do not make a reckless mistake.