Sludge Watch ==> Nova Scotia N-Viro- Dumping sludge on farmland a crappy idea

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin

Interesting - thallium in the milk from sludge fed cows in Georgia
Thallium in the N-Viro sewage sludge 'material' in Halifax
N-Viro doesn't want to talk about it
It is not clear that the N-Viro material that is currently in storage in 
Aerotech Park
would be of a quality that could be legally sold in Canada.  The last I 
heard the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Fertilizer Section had not 
provided a 'letter of no objection' to the material.

Dairy farmers are being asked if they will put this stuff on pasture.
But milk consumers need to be asked if they want to risk drinking thallium 
contaminated milk.

While the Federal Fertilizer Section can review all health aspects of a 
fertilizer or supplement, the Province of Nova Scotia has created sludge 
regulations that do not test the sludge for elements like thallium. This 
would open the door to the free distribution of thallium contaminated sewage 
sludge 'materials'.


The two big dairies in Nova Scotia:

Farmers Dairy (902) 835-4005 or (902) 835-3373
customer.service at farmersdairy.ca

and Scotsburn Dairy
(902) 485-8023
consumerservices at scotsburn.com

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April 24, 2008
Bio-not-so-solids
Dumping sludge on farmland is a crappy idea

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by Chris Benjamin


Last week, after years of pressure from environmental and health groups, 
Health Canada took a step toward banning bisphenol A, which has been 
poisoning us for decades in bottles and cans. That's the latest example of 
20/20 hindsight.

Here's the newest example of negative-20 foresight: sludge (excuse me, 
"biosolids") from Halifax Harbour being dumped on farmers' fields across 
Nova Scotia. That's the vision of the Harbour Solutions Project and N-Viro 
Systems Canada Inc. Neither seems to have much to say for themselves on
the topic.

"We have nothing to do with the marketing," says James Campbell of the 
Harbour Solutions Project. "That's up to the company and we have a 
cost-sharing agreement, but I have no idea what the revenue figures will 
be."

Rae Wallin, CEO of N-Viro, refers me back to "the city" with "any questions 
about that project."

Here is the crux of the idea: Mix toilet water, sink water and storm water 
runoff into a chemical cocktail of organics, suds, pharmaceuticals and 
caffeine, blast it with ultraviolet, then add industrial effluent (shipped 
from the sticks) to reduce acidity, ship the results (sludge or biosolids 
depending on who you ask) back to the sticks and dump it onto the soil in 
where we grow food and raise dairy cows.

"It's a big mistake," says Maureen Reilly, a veteran biosolid researcher, at 
a screening of the film Sludge Diet.

"If we separated industrial waste and just dealt with our own fecal 
waste---it would essentially be a big composting toilet---that would be a 
huge improvement. As it is, the process destroys groundwater and encourages 
industry to pollute."

It also kills cows and people. Sludge Diet, by filmmaker Mario Desmairas, 
details the tragic impact of the four-million tonnes of the stuff spread on 
American farms every year and tells the harrowing stories of cancer-related 
deaths in families living near sludge-covered farms.

Just last month, a federal judge ordered the US Agriculture Department to 
compensate Georgia farmer Andy McElmurray, whose land was poisoned by 
sludge, killing hundreds of cows. The same poisons that killed the cows 
showed up in milk marketed by a neighbouring farmer. According to the 
Associated Press, "the level of thallium---an element once used as rat 
poison---found in the milk was 120 times the concentration allowed in 
drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency."

Thallium is one of thousands of chemicals that the Canadian Food Inspection 
Agency is not testing Halifax Harbour sludge for. The chemical was, however, 
found in samples taken from a lagoon on Inglewood Farms in Truro. Inglewood 
gained notoriety in 2004 after using Halifax-produced sludge on-site, 
poisoning neighbours in the process.

"I had burning skin, I couldn't sleep, I had breathing problems," says Barb 
Rockwell, one of those neighbours. Others came down with chronic obstructive 
pulmonary disease, an agonizing combination of chronic bronchitis and 
emphysema.

After the Inglewood fiasco, the Nova Scotia Farm Practices Board condemned 
the application of biosolids as an abnormal farm practice. The local MP, 
Bill Casey, was practically jubilant in his call for national standards on 
the use of biosolids.

"This should snap everybody to attention," he said at the time, pointing out 
that biosolids are already banned in Newfoundland and Labrador. They are 
also banned or strictly limited in several European countries.

Here in Nova Scotia, we still await the latest test results from the CFIA 
and the EPA. The problem with those tests, according to Rob Hale of the 
Virginia Institute of Marine Science, is that they analyze only one percent 
of the chemicals in sludge.

"You can't find what you don't test for," says Fred Blois, a leading Nova 
Scotian activist against the use of sludge on farms. "And since you have a 
cocktail of chemicals we can't predict how they change their nature in 
combination."

Blois has been working with Tamara Lorincz at the Nova Scotia Environment 
Network to talk with dairy farmers, expected to be the main buyers of 
biosolids. The Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture has already recommended 
that farmers refuse to buy the N-Viro product. Lorincz says farmers are 
still debating the issue.

Brian Cameron, general manager of the Dairy Farmers of Nova Scotia, explains 
why: "Biosolids would provide a cost saving. Commercial fertilizer prices 
shot up last year and that's a huge cost factor." At the same time, Cameron 
acknowledges the risk of "negative public perception" after what happened 
with Inglewood Farms.

What's at stake is far more than public perception. As Andy McElmurray in 
Georgia found out, the livelihood of farmers is at stake. As Barbara 
Rockwell found out, human health is at stake.

One can't help but fear that HRM, like Health Canada with bisphenol A, will 
be the last to know.

http://www.thecoast.ca/Articles-i-2008-04-24-152077.113118-p19973.113118_Bionotsosolids.html