Sludge Watch ==> Ventura Calif - giving away free composted sludge - shovels provided

[Maureen Reilly]

"To encourage this practice, the Las Virgenes and Triunfo districts provide 
free community compost on Saturdays, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Rancho 
Las Virgenes Composting Facility. Everyone is invited to pick up a supply to 
enhance landscapes, ornamental areas, lawns and vegetable gardens."

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/may/01/area-agencies-provide-compost-to-public/?printer=1/

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Area agencies provide compost to public
>From staff reports
Thursday, May 1, 2008


KRT file photo The Rancho Las Virgenes Composting Facility produces compost 
for the community in three months.

Are you aware of compost?

A couple of local agencies are here to remind us that this is a good time to 
think compost — and to use compost.

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District and its Joint Powers Authority 
partner, Triunfo Sanitation District, are inviting the public to join in the 
observation of International Compost Awareness Week, which begins Sunday.

Coordinated by the U.S. Composting Council, the week will feature activities 
spanning the globe as compost advocates encourage everyone to use compost.

Locally, "Class A — Exceptional Quality" community compost is produced at 
the Rancho Las Virgenes Composting Facility, from biosolids separated in the 
wastewater treatment process at the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility.

During Compost Awareness Week, providers remind the public that the "full 
circle" of recycling only works when the public does its part by returning 
processed biosolids back to nature.

To encourage this practice, the Las Virgenes and Triunfo districts provide 
free community compost on Saturdays, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Rancho 
Las Virgenes Composting Facility. Everyone is invited to pick up a supply to 
enhance landscapes, ornamental areas, lawns and vegetable gardens.

The composting facility is at 3700 Las Virgenes Road, at Lost Hills Road, in 
Calabasas. Residents picking up compost should bring containers with covers 
or strong plastic bags with ties; pickup trucks must also bring plastic 
covers for the beds.

Shovels are provided.

For information, call 818-251-2200.

As part of the districts' commitment to "Total Beneficial Reuse," community 
compost transforms waste material into a valuable product that diverts 
material from landfills, thus benefiting the environment and providing a 
long-term solution to disposal.

It takes three months to produce community compost, with extensive 
monitoring and testing required throughout the process.

The Class A — Exceptional Quality rating means that the compost is safe to 
apply to crops grown for human consumption. It is an excellent soil 
amendment for use on local gardens and landscapes with organic soil 
conditioning properties that aid water retention in light soils and help 
break up and aerate heavier soils.

Community compost also contains both readily available and long-term 
slow-release nutrients for greener, healthier plants.


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Posted by Helane_Shields on May 1, 2008 at 12:43 p.m.

The federal Clean Water Act defines sewage sludge as a pollutant. EQ 
"compost" from the Virgenes treatment plant is Class A sewage sludge.

Pathogen reduction at the sewage treatment plant does NOTHING to eliminate 
toxic chemicals in Class A or Class B sewage sludge. The US EPA's Toxics 
Release Inventory indicates over 5 billion pounds of hazardous chemicals and 
toxic metals were discharged to US sewage treatment plants in 2006.

Official EPA policy is to dispose of landfill and Superfund leachates, 
radioactive wastes, and toxic commercial and industrial chemicals into 
public sewer systems where the wastewater treatment process reconcentrates 
them in the sewage sludge.

In 2004 the US EPA Office of Inspector General issued a critical report 
saying industrial pretreatment programs are at risk, they are low priority 
with EPA, toxic pollutants are still being transferred to sewage treatment 
plants, and “the impact to human health and the environment of some of these 
pollutants may still not be known;”

FEDERAL LAW permits every business and industry in the United States
to dump 33 pounds of hazardous wastes into public sewers every month with no 
reporting requirements [ 40CFR 403.12)P)(2) ] and this same law provides for 
only a one time reporting if acutely hazardous wastes, or more than 33 
pounds of hazardous wastes, are dumped into the public sewers.

In 2006, the Cornell Waste Management Institute released a peer reviewed 
study which found that some sewage sludges have such high levels of toxic 
pollutants that they exceed the US EPA’s Superfund Soil Screening Limits. 
Sludge testing is done on only 9 metals -- tens of thousands of other toxic 
pollutants are untested, unmonitored and unregulated.

People around the country have been sickened from exposure to BOTH Class B 
AND CLASS A sewage sludge. Class A sewage sludge "exceptional quality" 
"compost" should not be spread anywhere children, with their hand to mouth 
behavior, will have contact. Because of uptake by plants of pollutants, 
Class A "EQ" sludge compost should not be used in home vegetable gardens.

Helane Shields, PO Box 1133, Alton, NH 03809 sludge researcher since 1996

http://www.sludgevictims.com