Sludge Watch ==> Contaminated Milorganite - more contaminated sludge 'fertilizer' every day

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

The PCBs in Milwaulkee's sewers continue to contribute high levels of PCBs 
to the so-called
'Grandpappy of Sewage Sludge Fertilizers: Milorganite".  Long hailed as the 
oldest of the 'recycled' sewage-sludge-into-fertilizer products, the truth 
about the unpredictabiility and pervasiveness of sewage contamination is now 
abundantly clear.  There is no way to stop highly toxic wastes from entering 
the sewers, since every toilet, sink and manhole provides access.

Milorganite now simply illustrates how unwise it is to take the sewers - the 
industrial waste end point and call it the beginning of our fertilizer.

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


Fertilizer sent to landfills: Tainted product could cost MMSD $1.8 million

Tuesday, September 18, 2007; Posted: 02:33 AM



Sep 18, 2007 (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information 
Services via COMTEX) -- WMI | charts | news | PowerRating -- The Milwaukee 
Metropolitan Sewerage District is beginning slowly to dispose of more than 
10,000 tons of contaminated sewage sludge fertilizer -- one truckload at a 
time -- at landfills in Franklin and in Michigan.

On Monday, a pair of trucks from Sheboygan-based Edler Bros. Trucking Inc. 
began carrying loads of up to 23 tons each of the fertilizer from the Jones 
Island sewage treatment plant to Waste Management Inc.'s Metro landfill at 
10712 S. 124th St. in Franklin.

Tainted fertilizer is being mixed with loads of garbage and buried at the 
landfill, a Waste Management spokesman said.

About 200 tons a day will be removed from storage silos to Franklin, said 
Greg Misun, an operations supervisor at Jones Island for United Water. The 
company operates MMSD facilities under a private contract.

Dried sludge fertilizer made at the Jones Island sewage treatment plant 
since mid-June has been contaminated with varying amounts of toxic chemicals 
known as PCBs. The chemicals likely came from the cleaning of two sewers in 
mid-June.

The fertilizer has been held in storage inside silos while MMSD and the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency worked out a disposal agreement.

MMSD is facing costs of $1.8 million or more to deal with its summertime 
sludge problem, officials said Monday.

About 6,400 tons of fertilizer produced to date with less than 50 parts per 
million of PCBs gradually can be trucked off to a local landfill, under the 
agreement with EPA, MMSD contract compliance officer John Jankowski said. 
Disposal cost is estimated at $33 a ton, for a price tag of $211,200.

There is no estimate of the final volume of the fertilizer to be trucked to 
Franklin because contaminated sewage sludge continues to be produced at the 
Jones Island plant at a rate of 100 to 120 tons a day.

Dried sludge with the heaviest concentration of the chemicals, above 50 
parts per million, must be disposed of at specially licensed toxic waste 
landfill near Detroit, the EPA has said.

An estimated 3,600 tons -- more than double earlier estimates -- of this 
heavily tainted fertilizer will be shipped to the Wayne Disposal Inc. 
landfill in Belleville, Mich. The landfill has agreed to accept only five 
truckloads -- about 100 tons or so -- a day, Misun said.

Those trucks are being filled overnight and driven to Michigan to avoid 
morning rush hour commuter congestion through Chicago.

Disposal cost in Michigan is estimated at $210 a ton, or $756,000 for the 
load.

MMSD will not use its dried sewage sludge for any fertilizer products, 
especially Milorganite, until contamination levels consistently fall below 1 
part per million of PCBs, district spokesman Bill Graffin said.

Though federal regulations would allow MMSD to spread sewage sludge on soil 
if it contains less than 10 parts per million of PCBs, the district has set 
a voluntary limit of 1 part per million for Milorganite. This limit was 
adopted to enable the district to sell its nationally distributed 
Milorganite brand in states with standards more stringent than EPA's.

PCBs in the two sewers probably came from historic discharges and not recent 
midnight dumping, MMSD officials have said. The chemicals have not been 
manufactured in the United States since 1977.

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