Sludge Watch ==> Poisonous Biosolids? by Dianne Saxe

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

We know that some Ontario sewage plants produce sludge that don't reduce 
Ecoli to the required levels.  Even if there are some sludges that meet 
those levels there is no research to demonstrate the public health impact 
from pathogens from land applied sludges.

So how can government officials say this practice is safe?

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


http://envirolaw.com/2008/03/18/poisonous-biosolids/

Poisonous Biosolids?
by Dianne Saxe

In McElmurray v. USDA, 2008 WL 516751 (S.D.Ga.), a U.S. court has strongly 
criticized American biosolids policy, and awarded compensation to a farmer 
whose fields were poisoned by sewage sludge. McElmurray sought federal 
disaster compensation, on the ground that Augusta, Georgia’s municipal 
sewage sludge had so contaminated his dairy farm that nothing could be grown 
on it; even the dairy cows died.

After five years of legal wrangling, Judge Alaimo agreed. Between 1979 and 
1990, due to bad record keeping and a “grossly neglected” sewage plant, 
the McElmurray Farm had been heavily dosed with erratic sewage sludge. 
Sludge regulations in both the US and Canada assume well-run pre-treatment 
programs, which was “not the case” in Augusta.

As a result, more than 2,000 acres of the farm was unusable, containing 
random “hot zones”. Many samples showed high levels of cadmium, 
antimony, arsenic, selenium, thallium, PCBs, chlordane etc.. Several parts 
of the farm were more contaminated than Superfund sites.

Even more distressing than the carelessness of the Augusta sewage plant was 
the U.S. EPA’s apparent cover-up. Government sampling seemed designed to 
minimize the chance of finding contamination, taking samples only from 
surface soils and analyzing only composite samples, thus diluting high 
contaminant levels in particular locations.

“Other evidence of record calls into question the fairness and objectivity 
of the EPA’s opinions with respect to the sludge land application 
program…Senior EPA officials took extraordinary steps to quash scientific 
dissent and any questioning of EPA’s biosolids program.” One scientist, 
Dr. David Lewis, was forced to resign after 31 years at EPA “because his 
biosolids research was at odds with official EPA policy”. According to 
Lewis, “the EPA had politicized scientific research at the agency and 
utilized unreliable and fraudulent data to support the continuation of the 
[US] sludge land application program.”

In a chilling conclusion, Judge Alaimo commented that “experts have yet to 
reach a consensus as regarding the safety of land application of sewage 
sludge generally.”

Canada typically follows the lead of the US EPA, but it is not yet known 
whether any of these US problems are relevant in Canada.



1comment

1 hshields { 03.18.08 at 7:54 pm } The recent Federal District Court ruling 
ordering the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture to pay a Georgia dairy farmer for no 
longer being able to grow food chain crops on his land because it was 
contaminated by sewage sludge is only the tip of the iceberg. Other dairy 
farms around the country have suffered sick or dead animals after feeding 
them fodder grown in sewage sludge.

A few years ago, a Missouri court found that sludge contained “substances 
and compounds, toxic to humans and animals, i.e., fluoride, cadmium, lead, 
mercury, iron, arsenic, aluminum, selenium and molybdenum.” Said 
substances and compounds migrated from the land to the neighboring dairy 
farm, “causing damage including diminished milk production, death of cows 
and loss of breeding opportunity. ”

In 2005 Raleigh, NC, had to appropriate $15 million dollars for costs 
associated with surface and groundwater pollution because of ” . . . 
improper disposal of sludge by over-application, as well as the improper 
disposal of sludge and raw waste by dumping in the Neuse River.

Sewage sludge has sickened (and killed) people and animals and contaminated 
surface and groundwater around the country. http://www.sludgevictims.com 
Recent research by the U. S. Geological Service found earthworms 
bioaccumulate toxic chemicals from sludge, which biomagnify in birds and 
other animals as the pollutants work their way up the food chain.

The US Environmental Protection Agency admits toxic industrial pollutants 
and drugs and pharmaceuticals are disposed of in public sewers. The 
wastewater treatment process partitions the chemicals either to the effluent 
discharged to surface waters or to the sewage sludge “biosolids” 
disposed of on land. Recent research has found fish and birds adversely 
impacted by chemicals including endocrine disrupters, in sewage effluent and 
sludge.

New technology is widely available to convert sewage sludge from a 
toxic/pathogenic environmental time bomb into a valuable and inexhaustable 
resource by drying it, and converting it into clean fuel. European countries 
are rapidly discontinuing land application and using sludge to produce 
biogas and other energy, thereby reducing dependence on expensive foreign 
oil and eliminating greenhouse gases and other air and water pollution.