From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Jul 2 10:16:28 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 10:16:28 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Stimulus Cash - Down the Drain - Infrastructure funding feud USA v Canada Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin The first article is about how much money is being spent on sewer infrastructure. The open maw of sewering and sludging needs to be critically reviewed with a red pencil as millions of dollars are spent on sludge processing plants that fail, sewage plants designed to fail, and long distance sludge trucking to farms and landfills. The second story is about Canada's fight back against the unfair US bill that defies the Free Trade Agreement locking Canadian companies out of infrastructure projects. Canada threatens retaliation. The bulk of infrastructure grants go to water/wastewater infrastructure projects. These time sensetive projects have been thrown into chaos as utilities try to meet the 'Buy American' requirements while still respecting the NAFTA free trade requirements. .................. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/stimulus-cash-needs-to-go-right-down-the-drain/article1198129/ Stimulus cash needs to go right down the drain Spend it on waste water and sewage treatment systems Neil Reynolds Last updated on Friday, Jun. 26, 2009 George Jennings, the English sanitary engineer who championed the novel mechanical contraption now known as the toilet (but then often called "a necessary"), built the world's first public washrooms for London's Great Exhibition in 1851. Almost a million people paid a penny each to experience the amenity in opulent "retiring rooms" in the celebrated Crystal Palace. From this success, Jennings proceeded to build a number of underground public washrooms in London, all of them masterpieces of Victorian design and engineering. It was Jennings who asserted that the civilization of a people can be measured by the way they dispose of their own wastes - an environmental conviction of perhaps obvious but nevertheless profound insight. Only seven years earlier, after all, fecal production from Windsor Castle alone filled 53 separate cesspits, all of them to overflowing. The two million people who lived along the banks of the Thames contributed 250 tons of sewage a day to the putrid waterway. First for Britain, and subsequently for much of the world, the toilet was emphatically a revolutionary, and civilizing, innovation - though WaterAid, the London-based charity, says 2.5 billion people still live without it. Although the London plumber Thomas Crapper often gets the credit for it, the toilet was apparently the result of incremental mechanical advances dating back to 1596. Crapper did, however, invent (and patent) the manhole cover - which leads directly to the sobering paradox of sewage disposal: out of sight, which is good; out of mind, which is not good. The toilet doesn't dispose of wastes. As Jamie Benidickson observes in The Culture of Flushing: A Social and Legal History of Sewage, it merely moves them discreetly through the underground, too often to the closest stream, river, lake or ocean. "For most of us," Prof. Benidickson (faculty of law at the University of Ottawa) says in his compelling and encyclopedic 2007 work, "flushing just makes things disappear." The result is that, once the effluent exits the toilet, "it is difficult to find any discernible interest ... in anything that might happen after pulling the chain, pushing the button, pressing the handle or stepping away from the electronic beam." As magnificent a device as it is, the toilet can subvert the environment as much as it civilizes the home or the office. In this sense, Prof. Benidickson says, the space shuttle Columbia may symbolize the ultimate toilet - "[with its] capacity to vacuum human waste into the black holes of outer space." Although the shuttle solution doesn't pollute waterways on earth, NASA's decision - "just get rid of it" - reflects the consensus of most earthlings. In a way, however, the pipes that deliver fresh water to toilets, and that flush away the waste from them, are essentially tributaries of our waterways. (By one estimate, it takes a million kilometres of pipe to deliver water to a large city.) Although much human waste in Canada now gets properly cleaned up in treatment plants, much doesn't. Rivers and lakes still function as "nature's sewers." Oceans still do, too - most egregiously in the flushing of luxury cruise ships. The remarkable thing about sewage pollution is that it is now overwhelmingly a public affair - as it has largely been for centuries. Five hundred years ago, Henry VIII employed sewage inspectors to check for wastes in "streams, ditches and gutters." More than 100 years ago, Toronto employed sewage inspectors to monitor obnoxious waste disposal. (In 1899, eight inspectors filed 18,000 privy reports.) You might think that public control of sewage would ensure that the job would be done properly. You would be wrong. In a report this year in Legion magazine on the crisis in municipal sewage treatment in Canada ("Trouble Underground"), writer Sharon Adams says Ontario's water treatment plants alone sent 1.7 trillion litres of raw sewage into the Great Lakes watersheds in 2006. Ontario's 107 combined storm/septic sewer systems, she says, triggered the release of raw sewage into waterways on 1,544 separate occasions in 2006. In one celebrated instance in the same year, the nation's capital spilled 960 million litres of raw sewage into the Ottawa River. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities says the country needs to spend $30-billion now on water and waste-water services, and another $90-billion in the next 10 years, to restore obsolete pipelines. The federation says 80 per cent of all public infrastructure in the country, not merely sewers, needs to be replaced. The Insurance Bureau of Canada says sewage backup is now the No. 1 reason for home insurance claims - outnumbering fire, theft and vandalism claims. (A single Toronto storm, in 2005, produced $500-million in sewage-related claims.) In 2008, 1,800 municipalities issued boil-water alerts - though some of these municipalities issue similar alerts every year. Waste-water effluent - human waste, prescription drugs, debris of all sorts - has become the biggest source of pollution in Canadian waters. Canada's septic negligence suggests that the country isn't as civilized as we think - and the priority given to it by the stimulus spending of our three levels of government, alas, proves it. ////////////////////////// http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jNx2y0GkIV1GG5ATNOZ1O3P2kMIA Buy American lives on as Environmental Protection Agency talks tough By Lee-Anne Goodman ?June 30 2009 WASHINGTON ? Opponents of the Obama administration's so-called Buy American provisions are working furiously this summer under a Canadian deadline, trying to convince legislators to do something about the protectionist measure before a full-fledged trade war erupts. Their efforts come despite recent Environmental Protection Agency directives reminding local utilities that they need not concern themselves with NAFTA obligations as the federal watchdog also issued stern warnings about Buy American non-compliance. "We're all under the Canadian clock," Dawn Christof-Champney, president of the Waste and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association, said Monday. Champney was referring to the 120-day deadline issued by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities on June 6. It gives the U.S. 120 days to exempt Canada from the Buy American provisions in President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package, or Canadian municipalities will begin shutting out U.S. firms from bidding on local contracts. Various stakeholders opposed to Buy American, including blue-chip American corporations, recently made submissions to the White House Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, the department handling the stimulus package. They urged a reversal of the policy. "We all poured most of our energy into submitting our views," Champney said. Submissions in hand, the Obama administration will now write the final rules on how to implement Buy American. A spokesman for the OMB said recently the legislation is expected to be tweaked, "but to what extent and how significantly, that remains to be seen." Making matters worse for some water companies are the EPA's directives last week that further confounded local utilities and small businesses trying to obey the Buy American regulations. The EPA made it official that its guideline on Buy American requires "substantial transformation" in the U.S. from the component parts used for any water-related infrastructure project. To help local utilities determine whether a good has been "substantially transformed" enough to pass the test, the federal agency provided a series of questions. Even more distressingly from a Canadian standpoint, the EPA reminded local water utilities that there's little chance they need to worry about NAFTA, the North American Free Trade agreement. This despite a caveat that was added to Buy American in February, stipulating that international trade obligations must be obeyed. The caveat is now regarded as meaningless since it didn't apply to the municipal infrastructure projects that make up the bulk of Obama's stimulus spending. "In very limited circumstances, an international trade agreement may apply," the EPA said in its directives to utilities. In addition, the agency threatened to get tough with any utilities failing to comply. "Fraud and abuse will be investigated by The Office of the Inspector General," the EPA said. Champney said the tough new stance, especially on substantial transformation, caught companies in the clean water business by surprise. "We had not anticipated being held to that kind of standard," Champney said. "If there's any question as to it being a U.S.-manufactured product, it has to pass the substantial transformation test. Unbeknownst to us, four months into the program, this test will now apply, and it's going to be a more difficult test to meet." The EPA's new directives have caused chaos at the utilities trying to get their infrastructure projects off the ground. "A number of our members have gone back to the drawing board now to see if the certifications they've signed or the claims that they've made are in compliance," Champney said. "Projects are not moving because we're all still trying to interpret the new rules, and member companies are starting to lay off people because nothing has improved or become more clear, it's just continued on the very slow track of trying to get these projects off the shelf and up and running." In Paris last week, Trade Minister Stockwell Day asked U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to "explore" a deal that would permit Canadian suppliers to continue to bid for U.S. local and municipal government infrastructure projects. Kirk told Day that he would look at the Canadian proposal without making any commitments. But Chris Braddock, a senior director of procurement policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Monday there are some positive signs on the horizon. He pointed to the recent decision by a U.S. federal agency to exempt from the Buy American regulations companies that include Cisco Systems and Alcatel-Lucent, and the computer components they're supplying under a US$4.7 billion program to build high-speed Internet lines. "It's a good step and hopefully some of the other agencies will issue waivers as well," he said. "The EPA has said that if they get a whole bunch of waiver requests, they'll maybe issue a broad waiver in certain areas. It's far from a 100 per cent solution, but it's a start." It's crucial, Braddock said, that the OMB works quickly to provide more guidance to municipalities on Buy American. "They need to get it out fairly soon - there's a high priority on this," he said. "There's tremendous concern on both sides, on the U.S. side as well as the Canadian side, but I think the stakeholders ... are having some success in demonstrating some of the problems with it." Even Congress - where Buy American was born - seems now to understand its shortcomings, Braddock added. "I think there's a realization that there are problems with it and hopefully they won't include any further measures in future legislation," he said. Nonetheless, Champney said, those opposed to Buy American aren't taking any chances. "We continue to work with Congress and the administration to try to work within the law, to make sure 'Buy American' doesn't pop up in any other future pieces of legislation, and to see what we can do to get them to reverse this." From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Jul 2 10:31:40 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 10:31:40 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> New Material Made From Paper Sludge Could Replace Plastic Packaging Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Many rural properties in Southern Ontario have been heaped with paper sludge, which can leach toxic chemcials into groundwater and surface water. Also problems have been found with allergic reactions and airbourne toxins from decomposing paper sludge. In Niagara Hernder Vineyards brought a multimillion dollar lawsuit after the death of grape vines from paper sludge. Despite these problems the Province of Ontario - Ministry of Environment - is proposing to allow paper sludge spreading with NO WASTE PERMIT. Meetings are now set up around the province to explain the new 'Nutrient Management Act' proposal which would also take this sludge waste out of the Ontario Reg 347 waste regulations. Given the proposed horror show of sludge spreading without waste permits this research below looks interesting. Ontario should require wastes to be managed properly...not just dumped on our precious farm lands. .............................................. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090702080523.htm New Material Made From Paper Sludge Could Replace Plastic Packaging ScienceDaily (July 2, 2009) ? Margarita Calafell, a researcher at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UPC?s School of Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering of Terrassa (ETSEIAT), has developed a new material by applying a biotechnological treatment to paper sludge. In many cases, the new material could replace plastic packaging and auxiliary building materials. The new patented material has unique properties. It is low density, mouldable, fire resistant, impermeable, porous and highly resistant, and it may replace less environmentally friendly materials in many industry and production sectors. Recycling paper to obtain more paper or cardboard has been a common process for many years. However, the production of a new, highly resistant, versatile and environmentally friendly material from the unwanted waste of this process is a completely new idea. This has been achieved by Margarita Calafell, a researcher at the UPC?s Terrassa Campus who runs the Enzyme Catalysis Laboratory of the UPC?s Engineering and Biotechnology (ENGIBIO) research group. 1 kg of paper, 1 kg of new material This researcher has devised a new biotechnology method that she has used to modify the chemical and structural properties of the cellulose materials that are left over from the paper recycling process. Thus, she has created a new compact, mouldable, fire resistant, impermeable, strong, porous material that could, in many cases, replace materials that are not environmentally friendly or that are more expensive, such as plastics, wood derivatives or rubber. This is achieved in the most productive way possible, as each kilogram of paper produces a kilogram of the new material, which has numerous applications in various industry and production sectors. Substitute for plasterboard and expanded polystyrene Because the new material is strong, insulating, impermeable and low density, it can replace plasterboard and many other materials used in construction, such as partition walls, soundproofing boards or false ceilings. The material?s mouldability means that it can be used to manufacture all kinds of packaging products and could replace expanded polystyrene or other petroleum-derived products. Highly versatile method The new material has been patented by Calafell, with a UPC patent. The innovativeness of the new material is a result of the great versatility of the new method. The researcher stated that this technique can be used to modify the properties of all kinds of residues from cellulose materials (paper), polymeric material (plastics), and even rubber from tyres. However, Margarita Calafell insisted that the product of the new technique is not a kind of agglomerate, but a new material with unique, uniform properties that has yet to be named. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adapted from materials provided by Universitat Polit?cnica de Catalunya, via AlphaGalileo. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Jul 2 10:43:58 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 10:43:58 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Obama Organic Family Garden: Swimming in Sludge - Huffington Post Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The lead level in the Obama garden is reported at 93 ppm. Normal soil is generally around 12 ppm. So with elevated lead levels...what are the levels of other toxic metals...like arsenic, mercury, cadmium? The story points to the fact that putting sewage sludge on lawns and gardens can permanently increase the levels of toxic metals in the soil. The wastewater industry spread not only COMPRO but also ORGRO on the White House lawn...and these sludge composts can have very high levels of toxic metals. ORGRO can be well over 200 ppm lead. The smug sludge promoters who made public relations hay when spreading these toxins on the White House lawns need to own up to the toxic metals that these 'franken-fertilizers' leave behind as their legacy. ............................................. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kimbrell/the-obama-organic-family_b_224398.html Andrew Kimbrell Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety July 1, 2009 The Obama Organic Family Garden: Swimming in Sludge? Michelle Obama created an organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn earlier this year, the move was greeted with positive headlines and excitement among the food advocacy community. Here, we thought, was a First Lady who understood the importance of locally grown, whole and organic foods in her family's diet. Unfortunately, something happened on the way to the realization of the First Lady's good intentions. Recently the National Park Service discovered that the White House lawn, where the garden was planted, contains highly elevated levels of lead -- 93 parts per million. It's enough lead for anyone planning to have children pick vegetables in that garden or eat produce from it to reconsider their plans: lead is highly toxic to children's developing organs and brain functions. What caused this alarming contamination of the White House lawn? Some news outlets speculated that residue from lead paint might have caused the toxicity. However an article running on Mother Jones online has a more probable explanation. During the 1990s, the Clintons agreed to have the South Lawn of the White House "fertilized" with ComPRO, a commercially available "compost made from a nearby wastewater plant's solid effluent, a.k.a. sewage sludge. " So, the White House lawn became a highly visible example of a little-known, widely conducted practice, "land application". This means disposing of sewage sludge by spraying it over public lands, including parks, and also on an untold number of acres of farmland where our food is grown. Sadly, it's completely legal under current, grossly inadequate EPA rules. Apparently, the spreading of sewage sludge at the White House was a public relations ploy by the Environmental Protection Agency and, no doubt, the sludge industry to convince the public that using sludge in gardens and farms is as safe as using normal compost. The promotion didn't stop there; as part of its PR effort, EPA offered a $150,000 prize to the winner of a contest to re-brand sludge with a more benign sounding name. The chosen euphemism?: "biosolid". It's a term the agency and the industry consistently use to hide the reality of what sludge is. So what is sludge, really? A stinking, sticky, dark-grey to black paste, it's everything homeowners, hospitals and industries put down their toilets and drains. Every material-turned-waste that our society produces (including prescription drugs and the sweepings of slaughterhouses), and that wastewater treatment plants are capable of removing from sewage, becomes sludge. The end product is a concentrated mass of heavy metals and carcinogenic, teratogenic, and hormone-disrupting chemicals, replete with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. There are some 80,000 to 90,000 industrial chemicals, including a host of dioxin-like deadly substances, which are allowed to be present in sludge under current EPA rules. What's worse, there's no way of knowing which toxic chemicals and heavy metals are entering the wastewater stream at any given time or in what concentrations. Sludge is always an unknown quantity, and therefore, assessing whether sludge is safe to use for growing food, is -- in practice -- impossible. Farmers who care about what they grow know this, and -- despite the best efforts of government and the sludge industry -- growing food in sewage sludge is prohibited under the federal organic regulations. Still, sludge is still widely used as a cheap alternative to fertilizer, and unless you're buying organic produce, it's impossible to know if the food you eat was grown in it. Remarkably, the EPA creators of the sludge program claim they didn't anticipate any health problems to be associated with spraying sludge near people's homes or on their food. They assumed that natural conditions would disperse the toxins, and that bad bacteria would die as they naturally do in rich, aerobic soil and in compost. But sewage sludge is not soil; no matter how you treat it, it will never have the characteristics, either physical or biological, that make good soil and good compost so effective at killing human pathogens. It's toxic, and it lays there for years, still toxic. So when people living or working in the vicinity of sludged fields and when diary cows and other farm animals grazing on sludged land have gotten sick from heavy metal, chemical or pathogen based maladies, the EPA has either ignored, denied or, in some cases, even fraudulently covered it up. However it's getting harder for the agency to ignore the toll of sludged land as we see increasing reports in adjacent communities of elevated levels of cancer or deaths believed to be related to sludge exposure. In some areas where sludge has been heavily used, whole families are evincing the same symptoms: sores in their nasal passages, chronic staph infections, crippling headaches and sinus troubles. Yet -- despite the mounting evidence -- EPA wants to continue to promote sludge as a benign alternative to fertilizer. The Obamas may be the newest sludge victims. Certainly Michelle Obama's hopes of having a truly organic garden and healthy vegetables for her own children and other children who visit the White House have been dashed. The impact on their lives is symbolic; it's not just the Obamas under threat, it's all of us. Municipalities around the country have jumped on the bandwagon to sell their "biosolids" to sludge companies, a convenient solution to profitably rid themselves of hazardous waste. Over the last several years, we have all become unwilling guinea pigs, testing the safety of foods raised on sewage-sludged land. We're also unknowing guinea pigs, since none of this produce is labeled to show how it was grown. What can you do about this? Buying certified organic produce raised under rules that forbid this practice is a safe start. Next, let's urge the EPA to place a permanent ban on "land application" of sewage sludge; our foods should never be grown in hazardous waste. And in the best spirit of NIMBY, the Obamas, after removing that contaminated soil from their lawn, should be the first family to push the EPA to halt the sludging of our public lands and farmlands. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Jul 3 03:15:37 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 03:15:37 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Houston ends Synagro sludge spreading contract Message-ID: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6509416.html Houston ends troubled waste firm?s contract Officials cite improper sludge disposal and cost By PURVA PATEL Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle July 2, 2009, 10:46PM CUTTING TIES Read the termination notice http://blogs.chron.com/newswatch/2009/07/documents_on_synagro.html The city of Houston intends to terminate a $28 million contract with Synagro Technologies, a local waste treatment company at the center of a federal bribery investigation in Detroit. So far, the investigation has led to guilty pleas from a former company vice president and consultant as well as a Detroit City Council member, who pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe in exchange for her vote in favor of granting a $1.2 billion contract to Synagro. The termination letter sent Tuesday by Houston to Synagro appears to be the latest blow to the company still reeling from the Detroit scandal. ?The whole city has been aware of the issues taking place up North and we have been concerned about it and monitoring the situation,? said Jo Wiginton, an assistant city attorney. But the city had other concerns aside from the Detroit matter, Wiginton said. In a June 3 letter, the head of the city?s public utilities division asked the city?s purchasing manager to terminate Synagro?s contract because the company was improperly disposing of sludge in landfills instead of hauling it off to be recycled. The city is also concerned with the overall cost of the contract at a time when the mayor is asking all departments to reduce contract costs because of the economic uncertainty, she added. The city has also completed construction of its own sludge-drying facility, which should allow more reuse of treated sludge as fertilizer instead of disposal in landfills, Wiginton said. Synagro will rebid The city plans to terminate Synagro?s existing contract and request proposals on a new contract with a smaller scope of services, a better price and less landfill disposal, she added. Darci McConnell, a spokeswoman for Synagro, said the company has been in discussions with the city about the contract for about a month and knew the city planned to do some of the services in-house. The city terminated the contract ?for convenience,? meaning not for violation of the contract, she noted, adding Synagro will likely rebid . McConnell declined to comment on the city?s claim it disposed of treated sludge in landfills. The company was the only one to respond to a 2007 request for bids, according to City Council records. The city contacted 37 other vendors who said they couldn?t meet the scope of the work, according to city documents. Synagro signed its five-year contract nearly a year later in early 2008. The contract required the company to de-water and haul off biosolids from the city?s 40 wastewater treatment plants. None of the principals listed on the Houston-based company?s Web site or in city documents has given any money to the political campaigns of City Council members since 2007, according to campaign finance records. The federal probe The company?s contract termination comes on the heels of a federal investigation that found a Synagro Technologies representative bribed a Detroit city councilwoman in 2007 to vote in favor of granting the company a $1.2 billion sludge treatment contract. Monica Conyers, the councilwoman and wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Michigan, has since pleaded guilty and resigned, and the Detroit contract has been rescinded. It is unclear whether investigations into the company are finished. ?It is our understanding that Synagro is not a target of the federal investigation. Synagro is cooperating fully with the federal investigation and will continue to do so,? said McConnell. The company is unaware of any other contracts under investigation, she added. A spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit declined to comment beyond a statement issued earlier this week in which U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg said the investigation was complete as to the role of Detroit City Council members but ?continues as to others.? A spokeswoman for the FBI in Houston declined to comment. Court records indicate Conyers accepted cash from someone sent by Synagro consultant Rayford Jackson. Synagro suspended payments to Jackson in June 2008, McConnell said. Earlier this year, Jim Rosendall, a former Synagro vice president of business development in Michigan, admitted he paid bribes to get a contract approved. He was fired after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Chronicle reporter Bradley Olson contributed to this report. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Jul 3 03:22:34 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 3 Jul 2009 03:22:34 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Nova Scotia - Don't put sludge in the plow share of farm soil Message-ID: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Columnists/1129452.html Inconvenient poop By RICHARD SANDERS Sat. Jun 27 2009 I agree with Fred Blois ("Biosolids: from the toilet to your kitchen table," June 25 opinion piece) that "land application (of biosolids) is not recycling; it is pollution transfer." Extending the logic, I think neither composted sewage ("biosolids") nor composted municipal solid waste (MSW) should be applied to agricultural land, as they both may eventually contaminate the human food chain. Both the liquid (sewage sludge) and the solid (MSW) residue of industrial and domestic activity contain potentially toxic substances, once buried in the Earth?s crust, now dispersed in the Earth?s surface environment through the activities of drilling, mining, manufacturing, consumption and waste management. There has thus been, by these activities, an "anthropogenic shift" of material, some of which is directly (heavy metals) or indirectly (carbon dioxide) harmful to human life, from relatively innocuous sequestered locations in the Earth?s crust to the air we breathe, the water we drink and the soil we cultivate. But there is more. In addition to this "anthropogenically translocated" material, sewage sludge and municipal solid waste (and compost derived from these) also contain industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals and pathogens. None of these belongs in agricultural soil, since, as Mr. Blois states, the contamination of agricultural land with human waste streams is essentially irreversible. So what is to be done with sewage and municipal solid wastes? This remains an increasingly significant, essentially unresolved global issue. It is often illegal to discharge waste into water or to incinerate it into air. By default, that leaves the soil as the generally legal, least toxic option. But where in the soil? Surely not in the plow layer of agricultural soil. Perhaps in lined landfill cells with regulated water access and exit. Anaerobic digestion in such cells replaces open air composting for volume reduction. In addition, during anaerobic digestion, carbon components of the waste stream are converted to methane, or similar gases, which can be harvested for their energy content. Looking to the future, if careful records of cell contents are maintained, these cells may, at a later date, be "mined" for specific materials, such as phosphate, after natural deposits of these substances approach exhaustion. Even now, technologies are being developed to recover phosphate from sewage sludge in other jurisdictions. I am hopeful that, in this time of political renewal and economic stimulation, Nova Scotia could begin to rationalize the disposition of its liquid and solid waste streams in terms of chemistry rather than convenience. Richard Sanders runs Sanders Resource Management, Inc. in Halifax. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue Jul 7 14:11:02 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:11:02 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Sludge Legacy on White House Community Garden Message-ID: .hmmessage P {margin:0px;padding:0px;} body.hmmessage {font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana;} Sludgewatch Admin: The sludge composts that were spread on the White House lawn to make it greener also added toxic metal contamination - along with whatever other contaminant payload was in the sludge compost. The Obama?s in a fabulous gesture to support gardening and organic agriculture now have to wrestle with the toxins left behind in the soil that is now their garden. Is the garden toxic? I don?t know. The only soil test we have been told about is 93ppm lead. That is certainly elevated. There is no ?safe? level of lead. All the lead people ingest increases the likelihood of neurotoxic impacts. And kids in DC already have lead in the drinking water supply - so lead clinging to leafy greens or lead tracked into the home on running shoes and subsequently ingested in ?hand-to-mouth? will add to the body burden. And aside from sludging up the lawn of the White House - the Washington DC Water and Sewer Authority WASA - was covering up the high concentrations of lead in DC drinking water: "The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority knew in the summer of 2001 that its water contained unsafe lead levels, but it withheld six high test results and said the water was fine, records show. When it tested over the next two years, records show, WASA dropped half of the homes that had previously tested high for lead and avoided high-risk homes. The EPA, which cited WASA for violations in June, called the utility's practices unprecedented and a "serious breach" of the law. Documents show that water systems across the country have used similar practices." See a pattern here? Remember that the kids drinking lead delivered by WASA's drinking system, may be the same kids now eating lead in the White House community garden. Each exposure adds to their body burden of this neurotoxin - and THERE IS NO SAFE LEVEL OF LEAD. I phoned up the the ?experts? quoted by Eddie in her attempt to refute the sludge story. But the expert I talked to said that the kids needed to be careful to wash their hands from the soil - careful to wash the vegetables - and was not accurately quoted in her Obama Foodorama Blog. So much for Eddie?s scholarship or writing integrity. Dr. Stanford Tackett, professor emeritus of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Chemistry Department, warns that ?one application of sewage sludge to the land adds more lead per acre than 50 years of driving with leaded gasoline.? The point is that putting sludge composts or pellets - with their elevated levels of toxins - puts contamination in our precious soils. And if we allow our soils - whether they are home gardens, lawns, public parks, or farmlands - to be spiked with these municipal sludge ?products? then we will have to do much toxin testing of our gardens, much toxin testing of our food, much toxin testing of our children and put at risk the health of generations to come. The sludge industry was keen to ?own the green? on the White House. Now they need to man up and own the toxic legacy as well. Dear Michelle Obama - please help to ban the use of sewage sludge fertilizers on your lawn, on all public parks, and on farmlands. ////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/07/more-thoughts-sludge-and-white-house-gardenThe Real Stink Behind Sewage Sludge & the White House Garden ? By Josh Harkinson | Sat July 4, 2009 9:44 AM PST ?Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons Since I raised the possibility two weeks ago that sewage sludge fertilizer could have contaminated the Obamas' White House vegetable garden with lead, there has been a flurry of press on the subject. Various food and gardening blogs and dueling Huffington Posters weighed in, followed by the AP, Reuters, and the New York Times after a White House spokeswoman publicly addressed the lead issue on Thursday. Much of the coverage has sought to quell misperceptions that produce from the White House garden is unsafe to eat. Indeed, as I pointed out in my original post, the levels of lead in the garden are still well below those that the EPA says can cause health impacts. But in obsessing over whether the Obamas are poisoning themselves and their guests--and there's no proof that they are--most of the media missed the more interesting question: Is it really a good idea to grow vegetables on land that has been fertilized with sewage sludge? The EPA thinks so, and has promoted the practice for decades as an alternative to landfilling sludge or dumping it in the ocean. In what was probably the single most effective component of a vast marketing campaign for sludge fertilizer, the National Park Service tilled it into the White House's South Lawn through much of the 1990s. Interest in the President's preferred brand of sludge spiked to the point that its makers had a hard time meeting the demand. Today, more than half the poop flushed in America ends up as fertilizer. The safety of sludge might not be such a concern when it's spread your lawn and covered in a layer of grass, but chew on this: Food companies such as H.J. Heinz and Del Monte won't accept produce grown on sludge-treated land. The Netherlands and Switzerland effectively ban the use of sludge on farmland, and the practice is expressly prohibited by the USDA's organics standards. If sludge has been spread on the South Lawn anytime since about 2006, the Obamas' pesticide-free garden could not be certified as organic. The human poop in sludge isn't necessarily the problem. Sludge can contain traces of anything that gets poured down the drain, from Prozac flushed down toilets to lead hosed off factory floors. The EPA sets concentration limits for several heavy metals found in sludge, including lead, but the limits are higher than what is deemed safe in some European countries. For example, the EPA permits sludge to contain up to 300 parts per million of lead, but the Netherlands raises concerns about soil with more than 40 ppm of lead. Advertisement Sludge Happens Recycling sewage into fertilizer might be making us sick. Why doesn't the EPA give a crap? Did Sludge Taint Obama's Garden? The Clintons used "very clean poo" to fertilize the White House South Lawn, now Michelle's garden may be at risk. The 6 Best Poop-to-Power Ideas In the case of the Obama garden, I would be less concerned about lead--which turned up at about 93 ppm, a fairly normal level for urban areas--than with a host of other potential contaminants. Substances like PBDEs, which are highly bioaccumulative and being phased out, and PFOA, a probable human carcinogen, have turned up at high levels in sludge yet are not regulated by the EPA. When I investigated the EPA's sludge policies recently, I turned up this example: In 1979, a Georgia dairyman named Andy McElmurray started applying locally produced sludge fertilizer to his fields. Over the next several years, nearly half his 700 cows died from severe diarrhea. The EPA didn't test his soil, but McElmurray hired his own experts, who concluded that his sludge had contained high levels of thallium. A toxic metal that is the active ingredient in rat poison, thallium rarely turns up in sewage, but it was used as a catalyst by a nearby NutraSweet factory. When McElmurray's experts sampled a local milk brand, they detected thallium at levels more than 11 times above the legal limit for drinking water. McElmurray sued the federal government for disaster relief, claiming sludge had destroyed his farm. He finally won the case last year. "I believe that if the farmer knew the truth, he would never put sludge on his farmland," he says. "It's all a smoke-and-mirrors game that the EPA has played." His view was echoed by the federal judge who ruled in his favor, finding that "senior EPA officials took extraordinary steps to quash scientific dissent and any questioning of the EPA's biosolids program." And lest you think the EPA has cleaned up its act, check out this extremely recent scandal: In May 2007, the EPA learned that sludge had contaminated as many as 5,000 acres of grazing land [in Lawrence County, Alabama] with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a probable carcinogen used in Teflon. The chemical was traced back to a local manufacturer that had dumped contaminated wastewater straight into the sewer. The case prompted the EPA to issue its first-ever advisory on PFOA in drinking water, but it did not ban the dumping of the chemical into sewers or require sludge to be tested for it. Even though the exceedingly high PFOA concentrations in the Lawrence County fields could pose a health threat to animals or humans, as of press time, the Department of Agriculture hadn't tested local cattle for the chemical. For context, it's important to keep in mind that sludge is widely used in US agriculture and hasn't been shown to make people sick (though there are many anecdotal cases). For a full exploration of the debate over sludge, I highly suggest you read our feature story in the May/June issue, "Sludge Happens." From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue Jul 7 14:17:21 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:17:21 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Nexterra - gasification of Vancouver sewage sludge Message-ID: Nexterra selected by Metro Vancouver for next generation fuel testing using biosolids VANCOUVER, July 7 /PRNewswire/ - Nexterra (www.nexterra.ca) announced today that it has successfully completed testing of biosolids as a potential new fuel source for its proprietary gasification technology. The first phase of testing took place last month at Nexterra's product development centre in Kamloops B.C., using biosolids from Metro Vancouver (www.metrovancouver.org), who selected Nexterra's gasification technology to pilot this initiative. Nexterra is actively developing a new application of its proprietary gasification technology to convert biosolids into renewable heat for use in sludge dryers at municipal wastewater treatment plants. This new application can displace fossil fuels currently used for drying and will provide a long-term, renewable energy solution for sludge disposal that will lower fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions for municipalities. Nexterra's biosolids gasification solution is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 4,000 - 15,000 tonnes annually per facility, the equivalent of taking over 1,000 - 3,700 cars off the road. "We are excited to be part of this industry-leading initiative, working with Nexterra to convert biosolids into renewable energy," said Paul Kadota, Program Manager with the Residuals Management Division of Metro Vancouver. "This puts gasification on the radar of opportunities for the management of biosolids. The potential for savings on fuel costs is evident, but there's also the option of creating biosolids pellets which in itself is an alternative fuel or fertilizer." Results from this energy recovery demonstration have been highly successful. Nexterra's gasification technology produced significant high quality thermal energy from the Metro Vancouver biosolids without requiring any major equipment modifications. In addition, third-party commissioned field tests confirmed emission results that were well below the guidelines set by British Columbia's Ministry of Environment. "The use of biosolids as a fuel for gasification truly falls within the definition of conservation and innovation for the future. The ability to turn a costly management issue into an on-site valuable resource using gasification technology allows us to develop a renewable energy source which can result in energy independence for the wastewater treatment community," said Jeanette Brown, Vice-President of the Water Environment Federation (WEF). According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are more than 16,000 wastewater treatment facilities in the United States, with many of these plants owned and operated by municipalities. Biological sludge is a residual product of the wastewater treatment process. Traditional biosolids management methods include trucking to landfills or using as a fertilizer. Many municipalities would like to discontinue this practice due to rising fuel and management costs, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, and diminishing landfill capacity. "This represents a major advancement for the wastewater treatment industry and Nexterra," said Jonathan Rhone, President and CEO of Nexterra. "And we believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. Leveraging wastewater residuals as a valuable renewable energy resource with our expertise in gasification technology has the potential to provide municipalities with a compelling economic renewable energy solution for drying, heating and even power generation applications." Nexterra plans to commercialize its biosolids gasification solution, with the objective of completing fuel testing and selecting a commercial demonstration site before the end of 2009. Nexterra continues to evaluate and test additional feedstock alternatives for their customers to use to offset fossil fuel consumption. About Nexterra Systems Corp. - Nexterra is a leading supplier of biomass gasification solutions that generate heat and power for institutional and industrial customers. Nexterra's gasification technology is fully proven for thermal applications to displace natural gas. Sales to date include projects at the University of South Carolina, Dockside Green, the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Lab, Kruger Products and Tolko Industries. Nexterra is a private company based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. For more information: www.nexterra.ca About Metro Vancouver - Metro Vancouver is a political body and corporate entity that delivers regional utility services, planning and political leadership on behalf of twenty four local authorities in its membership. Through its Sustainable Region Initiative (SRI), Metro Vancouver is committed to moving into action, ideas that are consistent with SRI principles. For more information: www.metrovancouver.org/contact/Pages/default.aspx From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Jul 9 09:38:01 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 09:38:01 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ontario proposes drastic changes to sludge spreading regulations Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: While on the one hand the Province of Ontario proclaims the Green Energy Act which promotes the use of biomass for renewable energy, and spends $25 M on the "Good Things Grow in Ontario" campaign - they then turn around and deregulate sewage sludge - deciding that it will no longer need a waste permit to spread on farm lands. This will mean that 'Certificate of Approval' permits will no longer be required for farms spread with sludge. The province's biggest sludge spreader - Terratec - has wracked up more than $675,000 in fines and 43 convictions - but now the Province will no longer regulate them under the Environmental Protection Act - so they will no longer have the ability to prosecute the violations using these legal instruments. The Province is essentially handing farmers over to this serial offender to risk their soil, crops, groundwater, and livestock at the hands of these wastehaulers. The public and the consumer will have less access to information about sludge spreading locations and practices. While good technologies exist manage sludge - why promote the worst things you can do with sludge? The public needs to ask the Premier to stop the use of sludge on farmlands. This deregulatory move needs a full public debate...not just a few days in July - when farmers are in the fields and other families are on holidays. ............................................ http://www.waterkeeper.ca/2009/07/08/changes-proposed-to-sludge-spreading-regulations/ Changes proposed to sludge-spreading regulations Joyce Cassin, Northumberland Today July 8th, 2009 Sludgewatch member Maureen Reilly says she is shocked by the latest posting on the provincial government?s Environmental Registry (EBR) regarding the spreading of non-agricultural source materials (NASM) on agricultural lands. ?This is a horrible proposal, posted as usual in the middle of summer vacation, and for a shockingly short period of 30 days,? Reilly said. She claims that even though sludge-spreading companies like Terratec, the company that takes waste from the Cobourg wastewater facility, have racked up over $600,000 in fines and more than 43 convictions, the province proposes to say that sewage sludge, paper sludge, and similar wastes will no longer require a Ministry of Environment waste approval certificate of approval. It will be managed like a nutrient, like manure. ?This change in regulations, if adopted, will strip away the enforceability, public accountability, transparency, and environmental safety provisions that are currently required by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment,? Reilly said. If a sludge truck takes sludge to a landfill or an energy plant or an incinerator, it needs a licensed waste permit hauler plus permit to dispose. If the same sludge heads to a farm field, none of these are required, she said. NASM includes materials like leaf and yard waste, fruit and vegetable peels, food processing waste, pulp and paper biosolids, sewage biosolids and any other material that is not from an agricultural source that is intended for application to agricultural land as a nutrient, says Northumberland-Quinte West MPP Lou Rinaldi. According to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, the proposal would manage non-agricultural source material on agricultural land as a beneficial nutrient. the government also says it would streamline the regulatory process by removing overlapping approvals, provide notification to the local district office of the MOE prior to the land application, and ensure environmental protection by including all agricultural land where NASM is applied in Ontario, as opposed to just those farms that are already required to have a nutrient management strategy. Approvals would also be required under the Nutrient Management Act, 2002 for the application on agricultural land of materials with higher metal or pathogen concentrations that are still within acceptable levels (e. g. sewage biosolids and pulp and paper biosolids). The proposed regulatory framework is not a ?one-size fits all? approach to managing NASM. Materials destined for land application would have to follow strict rules and standards set out in the regulation. Materials that do not meet the beneficial quality standards for use as a nutrient would be prohibited from being land applied as a nutrient on agricultural land, states the EBR posting. MOE has been approving the land application of biosolids and other NASM for over 30 years with no objective evidence of health or environmental impacts when requirements were followed, MPP Rinaldi says. A public meeting is scheduled for July 9 in Newcastle. Contact the Agriculture Information Contact Centre at 1-877-424-1300 or e-mail ag.info.omafra at ontario.ca . From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Jul 10 22:29:20 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:29:20 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> BC Company: Feces into Fuel (really: sewage sludge into fuel) Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Remember: sewage sludge (biosolids) is much more than feces. It is everything industries, businesses, and households put down a drain into the sewers. ............................... Sewage may be turned into power source Canwest News ServiceJuly 10, 2009 A B.C. company is turning feces into fuel. Vancouver-area officials shipped eight truckloads of sewage to Kamloops for the pilot project, hoping to create a new source of revenue from one of the city's natural resources. Tests showed the fecal sludge can be used to make fuel, generate power and potentially create a new source of revenue, using a technology known as biomass gasification. The process, developed by Nexterra Energy Corp., involves burning treated fecal matter in an oxygen-deprived environment to create a synthetic gas. The gas can be used to power dryers that dry sewage at waste-water plants. The dried sewage is then chopped into pellets, which can be burned to power the waste-water plants, sold to other users or turned into electricity to be sold to power producers, or used in other Vancouver operations. "This was one of our first steps to take a look at how we can actually recover the inherent energy in biosolids so that it can be used as a fossil-fuel replacement," said Paul Kadota, a regional program manager. http://www.canada.com/Sewage+turned+into+power+source/1777730/story.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Jul 10 22:43:09 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:43:09 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Spreading Ecoli O157 by flies Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Just north of Dateland Arizona there are two farms side by side: one spreads Los Angeles area sludge and the other grows organic baby greens. The flies move freely. .................................................................. Association of Escherichia coli O157:H7 with filth flies (muscidae and calliphoridae) captured in leafy greens fields and experimental transmission of E. coli O157:H7 to spinach leaves by house flies (diptera: muscidae) 09.jul.09Journal of Food Protection?, Volume 72, Number 7, pp. 1547-1552(6)Talley, J.L.; Wayadande, A.C.; Wasala, L.P.; Gerry, A.C.; Fletcher, J.; DeSilva, U.; Gilliland, S.E. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2009/00000072/00000007/art00027 Abstract:The recent outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection associated with contaminated spinach led to an investigation of the role of insects, which frequent fields of leafy greens and neighboring rangeland habitats, in produce contamination. Four leafy greens fields adjacent to cattle-occupied rangeland habitats were sampled using sweep nets and sticky traps. Agromyzid flies, anthomyiid flies, and leafhoppers were caught consistently in both rangeland and leafy greens production fields at all sites. An unexpected number of flies (n = 34) in the Muscidae and Calliphoridae families (known as filth flies because of their development in animal feces) were caught in one leafy greens field. A subset of these filth flies were positive (11 of 18 flies) for E. coli O157:H7 by PCR amplification using primers for the E. coli O157:H7-specific eae gene. Under laboratory conditions, house flies were confined on manure or agar medium containing E. coli O157:H7 tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP) and then tested for their capacity to transfer the microbes to spinach plants. GFP-tagged bacteria were detected on surfaces of 50 to 100% of leaves examined by fluorescence microscopy and in 100% of samples tested by PCR. These results indicate that flies are capable of contaminating leafy greens under experimental conditions and confirm the importance of further investigation of the role of insects in contamination of fresh produce. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sat Jul 11 10:24:11 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:24:11 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Synagro closes Alabama sludge facility after local control vote passes - 2 stories Message-ID: http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=10652617 Synagro closes its doors in the Shoals? Posted: Jul 06, 2009 10:01 PM EDT WAFF Video on Demand Synagro closes its doors in the Shoals? Recent News Stories More>>Hundreds cry out for Reform at Tea PartyLake Guntersville Fireworks showFormer NFL quarterback McNair killed in TennesseeShoals doctor's license is suspendedBig Cove BBQ becomes a favorite of local residentsNot a yard sale, but an auction at the Limestone Co. Sheriff's Department.Constellation project still burning brightly?18-wheeler clips truck, lands on car2 major road projects slated for HuntsvilleAre we seeing more arsons this summer?By Christie Ileto - bio | email LEIGHTON, AL (WAFF) - After more than a year and a half of spreading human waste as fertilizer in Northwest Alabama, Synagro Technologies has shut down. WAFF 48 News went to Synagro Technologies after reports of a slow in production, and just from outside the locked gates, there were no trucks in sight. After calling the business number in the phone book, there was no answer or answering machine. Synagro Technologies sits abandoned, barren and locked to the public after once being an active facility, fully stocked with dump trucks. Steve Johnson works just down the road from the plant, and said he was surprised to see a decline in production. "The odor has dissipated and the flies have really died down in the last week or so," Johnson said. It's an odor Paula Waldrep said she became all too familiar with at her diner. "Even through they would shower and things before they came in to get their food, they would have that smelling stuff on their boots; it smelled really bad," Waldrep said as she prepared her customers' food. WAFF 48 learned the company is named in a civil lawsuit in Russellville, Franklin County citing negligence. Yet, there's still no official notification of what stopped production at the Leighton facility. Just a couple months ago, if you were standing in front of Synagro, you'd be nearly suffocated with the odor coming from the treated human waste. Now locks are all that remain on this fence, and a community wondering if the negatives effects go far beyond an odor. "I believe that we could have some residual effects from what has been distributed in the past," said Colbert County Commissioner Roger Creekmore, who has worked tirelessly trying to get more regulation on the company. "We find that it's much more dangerous than we ever imagined," he said. Both Colbert and Franklin counties have adopted State Senator Roger Bedford's bill to allow residents to vote in 2010 on whether or not they want to keep the plant in the area. .................................. http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090709/ARTICLES/907095034?Title=Biosolid-facility-closes-its-doors Biosolid facility closes its doors By Russ Corey Staff Writer Published: Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 3:30 a.m. COLBERT COUNTY - A controversial facility outside Leighton that transformed treated human waste into a fertilizer supplement has ceased operations, a company official said. For about two years, Texas-based Synagro's Leighton facility processed sewage sludge, including human waste transported to the Shoals from New York City. Colbert County Commissioner Roger Creekmore said it appears the facility on Crockett Lane in rural Colbert County has been closed for several days. "They are gone," Creekmore said. "The gates are locked, the office trailers are gone, the trucks are gone." The only remnant of the business is a (shed-type) building and the company sign, he said. "Since we haven't been informed of anything, my position is that Synagro has suspended operations," Creekmore said. Joseph L. Page, Synagro executive vice president and general counsel, verified the facility's closure. "Synagro has not been processing material at that site for several weeks," Page said. "Synagro has traditionally processed material from New York City at several sites, including the Leighton site, and the company has recently sent the biosolids previously handled at Leighton to another of its ongoing processing sites." Page said the Leighton operation was the only Synagro facility in north Alabama. Creekmore speculated that the company left the area for a variety of reasons, including a lawsuit filed against the company in Franklin County and bills approved by the state Legislature that would allow residents in Colbert, Franklin and Lawrence counties to vote on whether they wanted biosolids distributed in their counties. Page said the company has always adhered to existing federal, state and local laws and regulations required for land application of biosolids in Alabama. "However, recent changes in local regulations, the uncertainty of pending state legislative changes and economic considerations in general have impacted the Alabama operation," Page said. "Therefore, for the time being, Synagro has ceased its operations in Leighton and is evaluating the facility for future use, but has no near-term plans to resume operations there." Residents who lived near the facility complained of foul odors, and those living near farmland where the biosolid material was distributed were concerned with the possibility of groundwater contamination. "Although they are gone, what they distributed remains," Creekmore said. Alabama Department of Environmental Management spokesman Scott Hughes said biosolids are produced as part of the wastewater treatment process and have a high content of nutrients, which makes them attractive to farmers as a supplement to their fertilizing activities. Biosolids from the Synagro facility were distributed on agricultural lands in Colbert, Franklin and Lawrence counties, and for a time in Limestone County. Hughes said the EPA is investigating possible contamination in Lawrence County caused by biosolids that came from the Dry Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant in Decatur. Hughes said the EPA was investigating the possible contamination along with other agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries. Page said Synagro did not distribute biosolids from the Decatur waste water treatment facility. Colbert County Engineer John Bedford, who is in charge of the county's water system, said the county purchases 150,000-200,000 gallons of water daily from the West Lawrence Water Authority. "The EPA or ADEM have not notified us of any problems with the water supply coming from West Lawrence," Bedford said. Creekmore said he doesn't anticipate any legal action by Colbert County unless some significant levels of contamination are discovered in the county's water supply. "I think they saw the handwriting on the wall," Creekmore said. "Our goal was to get rid of it and I would say that we reached our goal." From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Jul 9 09:26:05 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 09:26:05 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Toronto plans to ramp up energy from sludge digester gas Message-ID: Toronto Hydro plan ensures flushables won't go to waste The Ashbridge?s Bay treatment plant could take what you flush down your toilet and use it to generate power. Jun 26, 2009 04:30 AM Tyler Hamilton Energy Reporter The mix of feces and toilet paper we flush down our toilets every day could soon be a major source of renewable power in the city's east end.Toronto Hydro is awaiting final approval on a project that would take the biogas produced at the century-old Ashbridge's Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant and use it to generate up to 10 megawatts of power, or enough green electricity for 6,000 homes annually. Waste heat from the process would also be used by the treatment facility to offset its annual consumption of natural gas. All that's required now is for city council to rubber stamp the project, which could be as early as July 6."With the strike, it's a bit up in the air," said Jack Simpson, vice-president of generation at Toronto Hydro Energy Services, a subsidiary of city-owned Toronto Hydro Corp. "But all signs are good in terms of getting approvals and moving forward."Toronto Hydro has leased property at the city's transportation yard at 7 Leslie St., where the biogas co-generation facility will be based."We anticipate construction starting in the fall and plan to have the project in service at the end of 2010," he said. The Ashbridge's Bay project will likely be the first of several biogas projects the utility plans to build, including an eight-megawatt plant that will use biogas from the Green Lane landfill near St. Thomas. Two smaller two-megawatt plants are also planned for the new green bin processing facility at the Disco Transfer Station and the existing Dufferin Organic Processing Facility, which is being rebuilt.Simpson said Toronto Hydro is also in early talks with the Toronto Zoo about building an anaerobic digester facility that would convert elephant, giraffe and other animal droppings into electricity. The new biogas power facility at Ashbridge's Bay, Toronto's main sewage treatment plant, would be the most ambitious. The plant is the biggest in Canada, processing the organic waste that goes down the drain or gets flushed by 1.3 million city residents. It already has "digesters" that produce and capture methane from the wastewater. Most of the methane is burned in the facility's boilers to produce the heat that's required to run the plant. Some of it is flared.Toronto Hydro has convinced the city it can use that biogas more efficiently. Under the terms of the deal, the utility would purchase the Ashbridge's Bay biogas to generate power, then sell the waste heat from its biogas generator back to the city at costs comparable to using natural gas. The utility would also sell the electricity it generates from the biogas to the Ontario Power Authority under the province's new feed-in tariff program, which would pay 10.4 cents per kilowatt-hour. All of the electricity would likely be consumed within the treatment plant."We're basically seeking a commercial rate of return from this project," said Simpson, who would not disclose the estimated capital cost of the project. Toronto Water, however, would have to pay about $2.5 million to upgrade its existing equipment at Ashbridge's Bay, but it would benefit from having a back-up power supply on site in the case of a blackout. The project would also reduce the facility's greenhouse-gas emissions by 44 per cent, and help the city meet the targets in its climate-change plan.The project, according to a staff report issued to council in May, "is financially superior to the `do nothing' alternative."http://www.thestar.com/business/article/656938 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sat Jul 11 11:10:28 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:10:28 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) in Swedish sewage sludge May 09 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Vancomycin is an antibiotic of last resort. If your infection is resistant to 'normal' antibiotics then this is one that has been held in reserve. However in some juridictions hospital patients undergoing surgery are routinely dosed with vancomycin in advance of their surgery. This means that large volumes of this precious antibiotic enter the public sewers where they are codigested with all the fecal waste in the city...conferring antibiotic resistance to bacteria in the digesters. These vancomycin antibiotic resistant bacteria are then released into the environment in the wastewater effluent (or recycled water) from the plant and in the sewage sludge 'biosolids' that may go to farmfields or other fertilizer 'products'. ........................ Vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) in Swedish sewage sludge Leena Sahlstr?m*?1, Verena Rehbinder?2, Ann Albihn?2, Anna Aspan?2 and Bj?rn Bengtsson?2 Published: 29 May 2009 For best format and display go to: http://www.actavetscand.com/content/pdf/1751-0147-51-24.pdf ....................................... BioMed Central Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica Research Open Access Vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) in Swedish sewage sludge Leena Sahlstr?m*?1, Verena Rehbinder?2, Ann Albihn?2, Anna Aspan?2 and Bj?rn Bengtsson?2 Address: 1Finnish Food safety Authority, Evira, Mustialankatu 3, 00790 Helsinki, Finland and 2National Veterinary Institute, 75189 Uppsala, Sweden Email: Leena Sahlstr?m* - Leena.Sahlstrom at evira.fi; Verena Rehbinder - C.Rehbinder at telia.com; Ann Albihn - Ann.Albihn at sva.se; Anna Aspan - Anna.Aspan at sva.se; Bj?rn Bengtsson - Bjorn.Bengtsson at sva.se * Corresponding author ?Equal contributors Abstract Background: Antimicrobial resistance is a serious threat in veterinary medicine and human healthcare. Resistance genes can spread from animals, through the food-chain, and back to humans. Sewage sludge may act as the link back from humans to animals. The main aims of this study were to investigate the occurrence of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) in treated sewage sludge, in a Swedish waste water treatment plant (WWTP), and to compare VRE isolates from sewage sludge with isolates from humans and chickens. Methods: During a four month long study, sewage sludge was collected weekly and cultured for VRE. The VRE isolates from sewage sludge were analysed and compared to each other and to human and chicken VRE isolates by biochemical typing (PhenePlate), PFGE and antibiograms. Results: Biochemical typing (PhenePlate-FS) and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) revealed prevalence of specific VRE strains in sewage sludge for up to 16 weeks. No connection was found between the VRE strains isolated from sludge, chickens and humans, indicating that human VRE did not originate from Swedish chicken. Conclusion: This study demonstrated widespread occurrence of VRE in sewage sludge in the studied WWTP. This implies a risk of antimicrobial resistance being spread to new farms and to the society via the environment if the sewage sludge is used on arable land. Background Enterococci are naturally occurring bacteria in the intestinal tract of humans and animals, and are often used as indicators of faecal contamination in water [1]. Enterococci are resistant to environmental stress and may persist for a long time outside their hosts. They are not considered severe pathogenic organisms, but some species, e.g. Enterococcus (E.) faecalis and E. faecium, are important causes of nosocomial infections [2,3]. Antimicrobial resistance in strains causing nosocomial infections is a growing problem and vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) in particular are considered a serious threat in hospitals around the world [4]. Vancomycin is often used as a last resort in treatment of antibiotic resistant gram-positive bacterial infections caused by organisms such as multi-resistant enterococci and methicillin resistant staphylococci. In the USA, the prevalence of VRE is mainly documented as nosocomial infection in humans [5,6]. In Europe, nosocomial infections with VRE are less common, but such bacteria are widespread among healthy Published: 29 May 2009 Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:24 doi:10.1186/1751-0147-51-24 Received: 28 November 2008 Accepted: 29 May 2009 This article is available from: http://www.actavetscand.com/content/51/1/24 ? 2009 Sahlstr?m et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:24 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/51/1/24 Page 2 of 9 (page number not for citation purposes) livestock [5] as a consequence of previous use of avoparcin (an analogue to vancomycin) as a feed additive in animal husbandry [7-9]. Vancomycin resistance in nosocomial isolates of enterococci is usually mediated by the resistance genes vanA or vanB [4]. High-level vancomycin resistance (MIC>64 mg/ L) is mediated by the vanA gene cluster, located on the transferable genetic element transposon Tn1546 [10]. Variable levels of vancomycin resistance (MIC 4?1000 mg/L) characterise the vanB genotype and the gene cluster is located on another mobile genetic element, Tn1547 [10]. Some enterococci (including E. gallinarum) may posses intrinsic, but not transferable, resistance against vancomycin, coded by vanC (MIC 2?32 mg/L) [10]. Vancomycin resistance may be spread either by clonal dissemination of resistant isolates or by transfer of the resistance genes to other strains of the same bacterial species or to other species or genera (horizontal gene transfer). Interspecies transfer of transposable (Tn1546-like) genetic elements between different species of enterococci [11] and from enterococci to Listeria monocytogenes [12] have been demonstrated. The first documented case of horizontal transfer of the vanA gene to the most feared cause of nosocomial infections, Staphylococcus aureus, was documented in 2002 in the USA [13]. In addition, Marcineck et al. [14] demonstrated gene transfer between different strains of E. faecalis in the natural environment of a waste water treatment plant. Moreover, E. faecium vanA genetic elements of animal origin have recently been proven capable of transferring to E. faecium strains of human origin in the intestine of human volunteers [15]. Iversen et al. [16] demonstrated 60% prevalence of VRE in samples of raw sewage from Swedish waste water treatment plants (WWTP) and 19% prevalence in treated sewage. These levels are surprisingly high, since nosocomial VRE infections are uncommon in Sweden [17] and the presence of VRE in healthy humans is considered rare [18]. Moreover, vancomycin is seldom used in routine human healthcare in Sweden [17]. Likewise, VRE are rare in Swedish livestock production and avoparcin has not been used as a growth promoter since the early 1980s. Since VRE occur in sewage [16], it is likely that the bacteria can also be found in sewage sludge. Antimicrobial resistance is a serious threat in human healthcare. It is thus important to maintain the low level of resistance among the Nordic food producing animals, which could spread the resistance genes to humans. Chicken consumption increases, and VRE do occur in low numbers in Swedish broiler chickens [19]. If sewage sludge is applied as a fertiliser to arable land, any VRE present could be spread in the environment, with a potential risk of entering food producing animals and thereby the human food chain. Moreover, resistance genes could be transferred to other bacteria in the environment. Novais et al., [20] and Iversen et al., [21] highlight the risk of spreading antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment and of building up environmental reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance genes that might re-enter the ecosystem in human pathogenic bacteria. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the occurrence of VRE in treated sewage sludge from a Swedish sewage treatment plant and to study their prevalence in the WWTP over time. A secondary aim was to compare VRE isolates from sewage sludge with isolates from humans and chickens. Methods Sampling in the wastewater treatment plant Sewage sludge was sampled at the Kungs?ngen waste water treatment plant in Uppsala, Sweden, which serves 200 000 population equivalents. At the plant, sewage sludge is treated with mesophilic anaerobic digestion and dewatered by centrifugation. The site for sampling of dewatered sludge was at the sludge feeder after centrifugation. Samplings started 24 February 2003 and were repeated once a week for a total of 17 times during a period of more than four months, with the last sampling occasion on 30 June 2003. On every sampling occasion five (5) samples of approximately 200 g were taken during 1 hour with 12 minutes intervals from the sludge feeder (screw) after the centrifugation of the sewage sludge. On the first and fifth sampling occasions, only one sample was obtained due to technical problems at the plant. In total, 77 samples were collected and every sample was analysed separately. The treated and centrifuged sewage sludge had a dry matter content of 25?32% according to an electronic moisture analyser (Sartorius MA-30) at the WWTP. Samples were collected in clean disposable vessels and cultured within three hours at the National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden. Bacteriological culture Because of an expected low concentration of VRE in the sludge, samples were pre-enriched in enterococcosel broth (BBL, Baltimore, USA). Ten (10) g wet weight of sludge were mixed in a stomacher with 90 g of enterococcosel broth containing 8 mg/L vancomycin and 0.25 mg/ L clindamycin. Clindamycin was added to improve the detection of VRE by reducing background flora. The concentration of clindamycin used (0.25 mg/L) is much lower than the MIC of enterococci and should not imply selection within the population of enterococci. After incubation at 37?C for 24 h, an aliquot of 0.1 mL from the pre-enrichment broth was plated on Slanetz-Bartley agar Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:24 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/51/1/24 Page 3 of 9 (page number not for citation purposes) (Oxoid, UK) with 8 mg/L vancomycin (Sigma, Germany) and incubated at 37?C for 48 h. In addition to the pre-enrichment procedure, direct culture was performed on the samples from sampling occasions 10?17. For this, aliquots of 0.1 mL were taken from the pre-enrichment broth before incubation (see above), plated on Slanetz-Bartley agar with 8 mg/L vancomycin and incubated at 37?C for 48 h. A total of 8 weeks of sampling (including 5 samples/week) gave 40 samples for direct plating. Confirmation and identification of VRE isolates Colonies with morphology consistent with enterococci were sub-cultured on bile-esculin agar (Difco, Maryland, USA) and horse blood agar (LabM, Lancashire, UK) (37?C, 24 h). From each sample, 1?3 colonies with different morphology were chosen for further identification. Isolates with a positive reaction on bile-esculin agar and in PYR testing (pyrrolidonyl aminopeptidase) (Rosco, Denmark) were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility and identified to species level according to Devriese et al. [22] by use of the following biochemical tests: mannitol, sorbitol, arabinose, saccharose, ribose, raffinose and methyl- ?-D-glucopyranoside. Three isolates (SL26, SL63 and SL68), untypeable by biochemical tests, were 16S rRNA sequenced according to a procedure described by Johansson et al. [23]. In total, 84 suspected VRE strains were stored at -70?C for further analysis. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by a microdilution method following the standards of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) using VetMIC? microdilution panels (National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden). Antimicrobials and ranges tested are given in Additional file 1. In short, 4?5 colonies of a fresh overnight culture were diluted in 5 mL Muller-Hinton broth (Difco, Maryland, USA) and incubated at 37?C for 4 h. Ten microlitre of this suspension were diluted in 10 mL of Muller-Hinton broth and 50 ?L of the diluted sample were inoculated into each well on a microtitre plate containing the dried antibacterial substances. The microtitre plate was then sealed with plastic tape and incubated at 37?C for 16?18 h. To check the purity, a droplet of the suspension was also streaked on blood agar, and incubated together with the microtitre plates. Analysis of the results was based on growth or no growth in the microtitre well. The MIC (Minimum Inhibitory Concentration) value was considered to be the lowest concentration of antibiotic that prevented bacterial growth. PCR for detection of vanA and vanB genes was performed according to Dutka-Malen et al., [24]. Enterococcus faecium BM 4147 and E. faecalis V583 were used as positive control strains for vanA and vanB genes, respectively. Both strains were obtained from the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna, Sweden. PhenePlate The 84 VRE isolated from sewage sludge were subtyped by a rapid screening method for enterococci using PhP-FS microtitre plates (PhenePlate?, PhPlate Microplate Techniques AB, Stockholm, Sweden) [25]. The subtyping of enterococci on PhP-FS plates is based on biochemical tests with 24 different reagents, and was performed according to the manufacturer's instructions. In short, a few colonies were suspended in PhP-suspending media, inoculated onto the PhenePlates, and incubated at 37?C. The plates were read with an optical microplate reader connected to a computer after 16, 40 and 64 h. For the cluster analysis of the PhP-data, the unweighted-pair group method using average linkages (UPGMA) by the PhP-software (PhPlate Microplate Techniques AB) was used. Isolates with a similarity index greater than 0.975 were considered to be of the same PhP-subtype. The subtypes were named ?, ?, ?, ? and ? (Additional file 1). In addition, using the PhenePlate analysis, VRE isolates from sewage sludge were compared to other isolates. These were: three VRE isolated in 1998?1999 from sewage from the same WWTP as the sewage sludge [16]), three VRE isolated from chickens in 2005 (SVA, National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden), two human isolates from SMI isolated 1997 and 2001 (Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna, Sweden), and five human VRE isolated in 2005 in Uppsala (UAS, The University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden). The three isolates from chickens are of the same PhP and PFGE-type as the vast majority of VRE isolated from Swedish chicken within the framework of a monitoring program during years 2000 to 2005 [26]. The five human isolates from Uppsala were from one outbreak and considered identical when typed by PFGE [Torell E: The University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden, 2006, personal communication]. Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) PFGE was performed according to a modified protocol based on Turabelidze et al. [27] to verify relationships of the PhP-subtypes. Two isolates from each PhP-subtype, most distant regarding time of isolation, were chosen for the PFGE. In addition, eight single subtype isolates from the pheneplate screening were analysed by PFGE. Electrophoresis was performed using a CHEF DRII apparatus (BioRad Laboratories, Richmond Calif., USA). In the first block the initial switch time was 3.5 s, the final switch Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:24 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/51/1/24 Page 4 of 9 (page number not for citation purposes) time was 25 s, and the run time was 20 h, and in the second block the initial switch time was 1 s and the final switch time 5 s for 16 h, at 6 V/cm. Sma I was the enzyme used for cleaving the DNA. Lambda Ladder PFG Marker (New England BioLabs Inc.) was used as a molecular size marker. Isolates were considered indistinguishable if the PFGE patterns were indistinguishable or differed by only one band. Results VRE isolates in sludge After enrichment, VRE carrying the vanA or vanB genes were isolated from sludge samples on each of the 17 onceweekly sampling occasions. Sixty-one (61) of the 77 samples cultured (79%) tested positive for VRE (Table 1). In contrast, VRE were isolated from only three of 40 samples after direct plating. Subtyping with the PhenePlate (PhP) system identified 66 isolates (out of 84 analysed), each representing a unique PhP-subtype from a sample (Figure 1). All three isolates from direct culture belonged to one PhP-subtype (Figure 1). E. faecium was the most prevalent species 85% (56/66) followed by E. hirae 14% (9/66) and E. durans 1.5% (1/ 66) (Table 1). Three isolates (SL26, SL63 and SL68) with uncertain species identity as judged from biochemical tests were identified as E. faecium by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The sequence similarity of SL26 to E. faecium, strain DSM20477T (GenBank accession number AJ276355) was 100% and the sequence identity to strain DSM20477T was 99.7%. The sequence similarity of SL63 and SL68 to strain DSM20477T was 100% and sequence identity to strain DSM20477T was 99.9%. However, the three isolates may also represent Enterococcus lactis (Gen- Bank accession number DQ255948), because the sequence similarities to this species is also high (99.8? 99.9%). PCR analysis revealed four isolates to harbour the vanA gene (one E. durans and three E. faecium), whereas the vanB gene was confirmed in the remaining isolates (Figure 1). In addition, E. gallinarum harbouring neither vanA nor vanB genes was isolated from one sample (MIC for vancomycin = 8). The three isolates from direct plating were all E. faecium vanB. PhenePlate analysis The dendrogram in Figure 1 illustrates the results of PhenePlate analysis of 69 sewage sludge(SL) samples (including three from direct plating) and 13 other VRE isolates: human(HU), sewage(SE) and chickens(C). None of the 13 isolates of other origin belonged to the same PhP-subtype as the isolates from sludge samples (Figure 1). The PhenePlate analysis showed that phenotypically identical strains were repeatedly isolated for up to 16 weeks. This observation was strengthened by indistinguishable PFGE patterns of isolates, most distant regarding time of isolation, within each PhP-subtype (Figure 1). Antibiograms Antibiograms of isolates within a PhP-subtype were mostly similar and to some extent discriminatory between subtypes (Additional file 1). However, in E. faecium subtype ?, five (5) isolates (SL33, SL37, SL69, SL70 and SL99) had divergent MIC values for gentamicin; MIC = 8 instead of MIC>512 as in the other 31 isolates. These five isolates were found in weeks IV to XII, i.e. over a nine-week period. In addition, one isolate (SL37) in the same subtype (E. faecium subtype ?) had a MIC 1024. One of the isolates from direct culture (SL93), which also belonged to the E. faecium subtype ?, had a MIC value> 64 to tetracycline, whereas the other isolates had MIC values < 0.5?8. Discussion VRE were isolated every week from sewage sludge during the four-month study. This indicates that VRE as well as enterococci survive mesophilic anaerobic digestion, as earlier shown by Sahlstr?m et al 2004 [28]. Treatment with mesophilic digestion is a common way to treat sewage sludge in WWTPs in Sweden, which means that VRE may occur in sewage sludge in other parts of the country as well. The majority of the VRE isolated were E. faecium harbouring the vanB gene. This agrees with the fact that most VRE isolated from Swedish hospital patients are E. faecium carrying the vanB gene [17,29] but contrasts with the situation in other European countries, where E. faecium vanA is the most common cause of VRE infections [30]. Isolation of VRE in Swedish healthcare is rare and as a consequence, inflow of VRE of human origin to WWTPs should be low [31]. The few human VRE strains analysed in this study differed regarding their PhenePlate profiles from the VRE isolates from sewage sludge. However, further comparisons of VRE from humans and sewage sludge would be interesting. The frequent isolation of VRE in this study could be due to the ability of enterococci (including VRE) to persist in the WWTP environment. PhenePlate analysis revealed that indistinguishable strains were repeatedly isolated from the sludge during a period of several weeks, a finding confirmed by PFGE analysis (figure 2). The longest interval between isolations was 15 weeks. Bruinsma et al. [32] suggest a horizontal spread of the enterococcal vanA gene rather from pigs than from chickens to human strains. The source of human E. faecium Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:24 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/51/1/24 Page 5 of 9 (page number not for citation purposes) iFDsoieglnaudtreredo g1fraomm sshluodwgien g(S U) PGMA clustering of PhenePlate typing data for vancomycin resistant E. faecium, E. hirae and E. durans Dendrogram showing UPGMA clustering of PhenePlate typing data for vancomycin resistant E. faecium, E. hirae and E. durans isolated from sludge (S). For comparison, vancomycin resistant E. faecium from sewage, chickens and humans are included. The horizontal axis of the dendrogram shows the similarities between isolates, and the dotted line indicates the identity level of 0.975. PFGE types are indicated for isolates tested by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Filled circles indicate isolates with vanA, the other isolates carried the vanB gene. Arrows indicate the isolates from direct culture. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:24 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/51/1/24 Page 6 of 9 (page number not for citation purposes) vanB is not known, but could be another animal reservoir [33]. Our findings from sewage sludge, which can be assumed to reflect the human population, give no indication that human VRE in Sweden derive from animals, since we isolated mainly E. faecium vanB, whereas VRE in Swedish chickens are E. faecium vanA [26]. Moreover, VRE of the dominant PhP-subtype isolated from Swedish chickens were not found in sewage sludge (Figure 1), indicating that human colonisation with VRE from Swedish chickens is rare. Our analysis illustrated a good correlation between the PhenePlate analysis (dendrogram) and the PFGE analysis (Figure 1). PhenePlate analysis has previously been found to be less discriminatory for E. faecium than for E. faecalis [34]. The E. faecium isolates, indistinguishable by UPGM clustering of PhenePlate-data (identity level = 0. 975), were likewise indistinguishable by PFGE, whereas less similar isolates (similarity level = 0.969) differed on PFGE (e.g. SE345 vs. SL26). Likewise, the antibiograms also discriminated PhP-subtypes from each other (Additional file 1). The direct platings revealed three samples positive for E. faecium out of 40 samples cultured (7.5%). This is in contrast to the high isolation frequency after selective enrichment (79.2%), which appears to be the preferred procedure for isolation of VRE from sewage sludge. The lower isolation frequency after direct plating was probably due to the fact that VRE constitute a small proportion of enterococci in sewage sludge. In sewage from Spanish WWTPs, VRE were detected in low proportions, i.e. approximately 1:5000 (0.05%) of the total enterococci count, using pre-enrichment in enterococcosel broth [35]. In addition, Ferreira da Silva et al. [36] reported no VRE without pre-enrichment of sewage from a WWTP serving 100 000 inhabitants in Portugal. However in another Portuguese study, 3.1% VRE were isolated from a larger WWTP in the district capital Coimbra by direct plating, but the authors expected that findings would have been higher if an enrichment procedure had been used [37]. All of the vancomycin resistant E. faecium isolates carrying the vanB gene had high MICs to ampicillin (32->32 mg/ L). This is in accordance with a described genetic link between ampicillin resistance and vancomycin resistance type vanB2, which is a subtype of vanB [38-40]. In contrast, the three E. faecium vanA isolates from sewage sludge had substantially lower MICs to ampicillin (0.5?1 mg/L). In addition to E. faecium, other species of Enterococci isolated from sewage sludge were found to have high MICs to vancomycin. One isolate of E. durans from the first sampling of sludge had high level vancomycin resistance (MIC>128 ?g/mL) and harboured the vanA gene. Torres et al. [41] were the first in the world to report E. durans vanA in sewage, but such strains have also been reported in sewage exposed to vancomycin waste [11]. Gambarotto et al. [42] isolated one E. durans vanA from pork meat in France, while Jenney et al. [43] reported isolation of E. Table 1: Species (E. hirae, E. durans and E. faecium) and PhenePlate subtypes of enterococci isolated by enrichment culture during the study period. Sampling week (date) E. hirae E. durans E. faecium subtype ? single single subtype ? subtype ? subtype ? sutype ? single I (24.2)* 1 1 II (4.3) 5 1 (SL19) III (10.3) 1 1 1 (SL26) IV (18.3) 1 2 2 (SL29, SL35) 1 (SL34) V (24.3)* 1 VI (31.3) 1 VII (7.4) 4 1 VIII (14.4) 5 IX (22.4) 1 1 (SL63) X (28.4) 3 1 XI (5.5) 4 1 (SL84) XII (12.5) 5 1 XIII (19.5) 5 1 XIV (26.5) 2 3 XV (3.6) 1 2 XVI (24.6) 3 XVII (30.6) 1 2 The figures represent the number of positive samples (out of 5 samples) on the actual date of sampling. The subtypes were differentiated using UPGMA clustering of PhP data. Identification of single subtype isolates in brackets. *Only one sample obtained Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:24 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/51/1/24 Page 7 of 9 (page number not for citation purposes) durans vanB from a human patient. Enterococcus gallinarum, also isolated in our study, usually has an intrinsic low level resistance against vancomycin, mediated by vanC [10]. However, there are a few reports of E. gallinarum carrying vanA or vanB [44,45]. The isolation of E. durans, E. gallinarum and E. hirae in addition to E. faecium demonstrates that there is a broad spectrum of different species of enterococci carrying vancomycin resistance genes in sewage sludge. These species are not all considered to be especially pathogenic, but the main risk is in their possibility to transfer their resistance genes (except the intrinsic resistance in E. gallinarum) to other more pathogenic bacteria. Conclusion In conclusion, sewage sludge contains vancomycin resistant enterococci, implying a potential risk of spreading VRE and resistance genes to the environment and possibly to the human and animal population. The frequent occurrence of VRE in mesophilically digested sewage sludge implies a need for more efficient hygienic treatment of sewage sludge, in order to avoid possible spread of antimicrobial resistance through use of sewage sludge on arable land. Usage of sewage sludge may contribute in spreading resistant bacteria by building up environmental reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance genes that enter the ecosystem, if there is not efficient hygienic treatment of sewage sludge before use [29,46]. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors' contributions The study was designed by all authors. LS did the field work and the analysis was done by LS, VR and AAS. LS drafted the manuscript and all authors revised, read and approved the final manuscript. Additional material Acknowledgements Thanks to prof Karl-Erik Johansson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences for 16S rRNA sequencing of isolates; to personnel at Kungs?ngen WWTP, Uppsala; to Aina Iverssen, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, for kind supply of VRE isolates from sewage; to both Barbro Olsson-Liljekvist, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna, and Erik Torell, Uppsala University Hospital, Uppsala for kind supply of VRE isolates from humans; and to the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, for funding this study. References 1. Mara D, Horan NJ: The handbook of water, wastewater and microbiology Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Academic Press; 2003. 2. Murray BE: The life and times of the Enterococcus. Clin Microbiol Rev 1990, 3:46-65. 3. Klare I, Konstabel C, Badstubner D, Werner G, Witte W: Occurrence and spread of antibiotic resistances in Enterococcus faecium. Int J Food Microbiol 2003, 88:269-290. 4. Mascini EM, Bonten MJ: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci: consequences for therapy and infection control. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2005, 11(Suppl 4):43-56. 5. Bonten MJ, Willems R, Weinstein RA: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci: why are they here, and where do they come from? Lancet Inf Dis 2001, 1:314-325. Additional file 1 Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for VRE per PhP subtype. Only isolates after enrichment and only one isolate of each subtype per sample are shown. Click here for file [http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/supplementary/1751- 0147-51-24-S1.doc] P?FF,i gGSuLE6r e,p S a2Ltt1e9r,n SsL o2f5 s, eSwL2a6ge, ?s,l uSdLg2e9 ,s aSmL3p4le, sS L(f3r5o,m SL l3e6ft, tSoL 4r7ig hatn)d PFGE patterns of sewage sludge samples (from left to right) ?, SL6, SL19, SL25, SL26, ?, SL29, SL34, SL35, SL36, SL47 and ?. ? = Lambda Ladder PFG Marker, DNA size standard (New England BioLabs Inc.) Isolates SL6 and SL36 represent PFGE type 1 and isolates SL29 and SL35 represent PFGE type 4. 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J Clin Microbiol 1999, 37:3509-3513. 32. Bruinsma N, Willems RJL, Boogard AE van den, van Santen-Verheuvel M, London N, Driessen C, Stobberingh EE: Different levels of genetic homogeneity in vancomycin-resistant and -susceptible enterococcus faecium isolates from different human and animal sources analyzed by amplified-fragment length polymorphism. Antimic Agents Chemoth 2002, 46:2779-2783. 33. Bates J, Jordens JZ, Griffiths DT: Farm animals as a putative reservoir for vancomycin-resistant enterococcal infection in man. J Antimicrob Chemoth 1994, 34:507-514. 34. Saeedi B, Tarnberg M, Gill H, Hallgren A, Jonasson J, Nilsson LE, Isaksson B, Kuhn I, Hanberger H: Phene Plate (PhP) biochemical fingerprinting. A screening method for epidemiological typing of enterococcal isolates. APMIS 2005, 113:603-612. 35. Vilanova X, Manero A, Cerda-Cuellar M, Blanch AR: The composition and persistence of faecal coliforms and enterococcal populations in sewage treatment plants. J Appl Microbiol 2004, 96:279-288. 36. Ferreira da Silva M, Tiago I, Ver?ssimo A, Boaventura RA, Nunes OC, Manaia CM: Antibiotic resistance of enterococci and related bacteria in an urban wastewater treatment plant. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 2006, 55:322-329. 37. Martins Da Costa P, Vaz-Pires P, Bernardo F: Antimicrobial resistance in Enterococcus spp. isolated in inflow, effluent and sludge from municipal sewage water treatment plants. Wat Res 2006, 40:1735-1740. 38. Carias LL, Rudin SD, Donskey CJ, Rice LB: Genetic linkage and cotransfer of a novel, vanB-containing transposon (Tn5382) and a low-affinity penicillin-binding protein 5 gene in a clinical vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium isolate. J Bacteriol 1998, 180:4426-4434. 39. Hanrahan J, Hoyen C, Rice LB: Geographic distribution of a large mobile element that transfers ampicillin and vancomycin resistance between Enterococcus faecium strains. Antimic Agents Chemoth 2000, 44:1349-1351. 40. Lu JJ, Chang TY, Perng CL, Lee SY: The vanB2 gene cluster of the majority of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium isolates from Taiwan is associated with the pbp5 gene and is carried by Tn5382 containing a novel insertion sequence. Antimic Agents Chemoth 2005, 49:3937-3939. 41. Torres C, Reguera JA, Sanmartin MJ, P?rez-D?az JC, Baquero F: vanA-mediated vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus spp. in sewage. J Antimicrob Chemother 1994, 33:553-61. 42. Gambarotto K, Ploy MC, Dupron F, Giangiobbe M, Denis F: Occurrence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in pork and poultry products from a cattle-rearing area of France. J Clin Microbiol 2001, 39:2354-2355. 43. Jenney A, Franklin C, Liolios L, Spelman D: Enterococcus durans vanB. J Antimicrob Chemoth 2000, 46:515. Publish with BioMed Central and every scientist can read your work free of charge "BioMed Central will be the most significant development for disseminating the results of biomedical research in our lifetime." Sir Paul Nurse, Cancer Research UK Your research papers will be: available free of charge to the entire biomedical community peer reviewed and published immediately upon acceptance cited in PubMed and archived on PubMed Central yours ? you keep the copyright Submit your manuscript here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/publishing_adv.asp BioMedcentral Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 2009, 51:24 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/51/1/24 Page 9 of 9 (page number not for citation purposes) 44. Camargo IL, Barth AL, Pilger K, Seligman BG, Machado AR, Darini AL: Enterococcus gallinarum carrying the vanA gene cluster: first report in Brazil. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2004, 37(11):1669-1671. 45. Schooneveldt JM, Marriott RK, Nimmo GR: Detection of a vanB determinant in Enterococcus gallinarum in Australia. J Clin Microbiol 2000, 38:3902. 46. Carrington EG: Evaluation of sludge treatments for pathogen reduction-Final report. European Commission 2001 [http:// ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/sludge/pdf/sludge_eval.pdf]. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sat Jul 11 11:13:41 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:13:41 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Synagro sludge compost site in California closed after long battle with Riverside County residents Message-ID: Derided sludge facility closes TEMESCAL VALLEY: The business shuts down per an agreement that ended litigation with the county in 2004. Download story podcast , January 5, 2009 By ALICIA ROBINSON The Press-Enterprise After battling with residents and Riverside County regulators for years, Synagro Technologies ended sludge composting at its Temescal Valley facility Wednesday. The closure ends a long-running battle. While neighbors saw it as a fight for their quality of life, the company argued it was providing a needed service that helped keep sewer customers' costs down. Since 1998, Houston-based Synagro has run the Dawson Canyon Road facility that turns sewage sludge into compost. Over the years residents complained about odors that they said caused headaches and other health problems, and 27 residents ultimately won small claims lawsuits against the company. Synagro sued Riverside County over how the composting facility was regulated, and four years ago the two sides agreed to a settlement that stipulated the facility's permit to compost would expire at the end of 2008. "There will no longer be any composting at that facility," said David Bristow, an attorney representing Synagro. "All of the requirements from the settlement agreement with the county have been complied with." Synagro's closing means much of the county's sludge -- the byproduct of the sewage treatment process -- now goes farther away to be processed or disposed of, with some of it traveling as far as Arizona. Spokesmen for two major wastewater handlers -- the Eastern and Western municipal water districts -- said their sludge is sent to Arizona. Western contracts with Synagro. The end of composting -- mixing sludge with wood chips or other material to create fertilizer -- is a cause for some residents to rejoice. Resident Steve Teague said even after the closure was announced in 2004, some of his neighbors moved away rather than wait. "Every time we'd do something outdoors, we'd have to smell that stuff. It burns your eyes," he said. "You get headaches." The odor problem dated to 1990, when a company called Recyc moved composting operations from Chino to the Dawson Canyon site. Synagro officials vowed to address the issue when they took over, but the county continued to field numerous complaints from residents. The company tried various methods to reduce odor, but residents weren't satisfied, and the county continued to put new restrictions on Synagro. "No response to their concerns was ever enough," Bristow said. Bristow said Synagro still holds a lease on the property, but he is not sure whether other operations will take place there. Synagro will continue to monitor wells into 2009 to ensure nothing from the composting operation has leaked into groundwater, he said. The closure "kind of defeats the purpose of trying to stem greenhouse gases and really it's irresponsible from a governance standpoint," Bristow said. "We need sewage sludge composting facilities. The question is where do you put them. Nobody wants them next to them." But neighbor Michelle Randall, a 50-year resident of the area and one of Synagro's most active opponents, said this wasn't simply a "not in my backyard" issue. She said when she visited a Bakersfield composting facility on just a few hours' notice, she found it clean and odor-free. "(Synagro) could have done it right. If they had, they'd still be here," Randall said. "They killed themselves." Riverside County Supervisor Bob Buster said the residents were justified in their complaints. "With Synagro, I think we've learned from it, and there would be a whole new approach now if we were to site or permit a sludge plant," he said. http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_E_synagro01.3e36b77.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Jul 13 15:12:07 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:12:07 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Tehran - part of ancient Shushtar water system World Heritage site- destroyed by sludge Message-ID: http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=198836 Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Shushtar ancient ponds tainted by garbage and slush Tehran Times Culture Desk TEHRAN -- The ancient Shushtar ponds have been polluted by sewage and sludge just about three weeks after it was registered on UNESCO World Heritage List as a part of an ancient water system. The sewage and sludge are being brought by the eight wastewater pipes poured into the water system in its path, the Persian service of CHN reported on Sunday. The wastewater was previously fouling the nearby environment, but the garbage and slush have recently added to the pollution. Seven of the pipes have allegedly been blocked and a Shushtar cultural heritage official said that they are trying to shut off the last one. The mass of refuse and sludge has created an unpleasant view of the site, which is frequently visited by tourists and the local people. The Shushtar water system was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List during the 33rd session of the World Heritage Committee in Seville, Spain on June 26. The waterworks comprises bridges, ponds, mills, aqueducts, reservoirs, tunnels, and canals, most of which were constructed in the Sassanid period (224-651 CE), especially during the reign of Shapur I (241-272 CE). Some structures of the system date back to the Achaemenid period. A portion of the Gargar Bridge of the complex was destroyed last week as result of wastewater leakage and erosion From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Jul 13 15:21:40 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:21:40 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Toronto Star investigates the food waste 'composting' scandal Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The expensive mismanaged nightmare that is Toronto's $20M per year sludge disposal program, is also in evidence in Toronto's incompetent (and deceitful) food waste organics program. You see that it fell to the Toronto Star to undertake this expose on the Toronto 'source separated organics' (SSO) program. THe Province has stepped in to investigate. The failure of this program has been staring Toronto in the face as each of its 'compost' sites gets shut down by court cases and by violations. But some 'waste diversion' so-called environmentalists have been acting as apologists for these illegal stink holes...suggesting that this mess is somehow environmentally friendly. Composting is supposed to make soil ammendment to enrich the soil and assist gardening and farming. It is not supposed to make toxic soil - or stink out its neighbours.Toronto needs to be taken out to the woodshed for its smug indifference to this pillaging of the environment and the public purse. Here is the whole series of stories in this excellent expose from the Toronto Star. .................................................. INVESTIGATION TheStar.com | G Green bins: A wasted effort? COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR Toronto compost fares poorly Letter in response to Green bin reports Tonnes of garbage in a gravel pit Raccoon green bin strategy Green bins: A wasted effort? Deep flaws mar recycling program as tons of organics end up in landfills or are turned into compost so toxic it kills plants Jul 04, 2009 Moira Welsh Staff Reporter The City of Toronto boasts that its green bin program diverts a third of our garbage and turns it into "black gold" compost. But a Star investigation shows that the program ? although nobly conceived ? is a sham. There are two problems. First, the city's claim of how much waste the program diverts from landfill is inflated. Second, some of the compost that is being produced will kill your plants because of its high salt content, according to laboratory tests. The Star found that, over the past two years, thousands of tons of organics in various stages of the composting process have been dumped into a gravel pit, tossed into landfills or stockpiled on city property. What's more, some of the material residents are told to place in green bins ? plastic bags and diapers ? has wound up in the belly of a Michigan incinerator, despite Mayor David Miller's vow Toronto will never burn garbage. City residents deserve better, say compost experts. At least $15 million of taxpayers' money goes to truck and treat the organic waste. "Toronto homeowners put a lot of time and energy into separating their kitchen organics," says Jim Graham, chair of the Ontario Waste Management Association. "Residents have the right to expect the processors to do their job ? and to create high-quality compost of consumer grade that they can use on their gardens." Toronto Mayor David Miller was too busy with the strike to comment, a spokesman told the Star on Thursday. Geoff Rathbone, the city official in charge of the organic program, told the Star what happens to the organic matter "is not of concern to us" because it's the provincial Ministry of the Environment's job to enforce standards on processors. The green bin program began in 2002, and today 510,000 Toronto homeowners dutifully separate garbage and put the organic waste into green bins for curbside pickup. Compared to the pure organic programs in Durham and Peel regions, Toronto's was flawed from the start. After public consultations, the city chose the simplest system for homeowners, encouraging plastic bag liners and the inclusion of diapers, neither of which can be composted. The city proudly states that the compost it produces is "safe to use in gardens and lawns." Tests conducted for the Star by A&L Canada, a leading agricultural laboratory, found serious problems with compost produced by two separate companies contracted by the city to process the organic waste. In one case, the lab found the compost was unfinished, meaning it was rushed through the process, in which micro-organisms break the waste down into a high-nutrient soil conditioner. In the second case, the sodium content of compost given out at Toronto's Environment Days was so high that it would kill plants. (More curing time would have removed naturally occurring sodium in vegetables and the salt we add to food.) The Star also looked at the city's so-called "diversion rate," the markers by which recycling programs are judged. Critics say Toronto's one-third rate is inflated. Miller's re-election promise in 2006 vowed to ramp up diversion rates to 70 per cent by 2010, so there's pressure on the city to claim the highest possible rate. Toronto's annual output of 120,000 tons of organics has created a mad scramble for processors. In each of 2007 and 2008, the city shipped 1,000 truckloads to Quebec. By the time the green bin waste arrived, locked inside plastic bags the city wants residents to use, it was sometimes so rotten it went straight to landfill, says Quebec's environment ministry. Some processors can't handle liquefied rotten material. That burns Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who has spent years trying to track the organic waste. "We have an unwritten rule with the public that the green bin system will have integrity, and the materials they put in the bins will be reused in a meaningful way," Minnan-Wong says. "When the food ends up landfilled, or when the compost is toxic, then you are betraying the principles and the reasons why we have this program to begin with." Two major compost processors hired by the city to handle the waste ? such as leftover steak, banana peels and all those diapers ? have been hit with provincial restrictions due to neighbourhood odour complaints. Within the past two months, before the municipal garbage strike began, Orgaworld Canada in London was severely limited in the amount of organics it could process while Universal Resource Recovery in Welland was shut down entirely. Follow the trail of Toronto's organics, and the flaws in the system emerge. The Star found that Orgaworld, which processes about 40 per cent of Toronto's organic waste, has been sending thousands of tons of "residual" plastics to be burned in Detroit. It turns out about one-fifth of Toronto's organic output is being burned or buried in landfills. The city tells residents to put diapers into their green bins. Graham of the Ontario Waste Management Association also owns Try-Recycling in London. He said the diapers are considered diverted when placed in the compost stream, but are immediately screened out. "Makes for good diversion numbers, but they end up in the landfill anyway," he said. Add to that the plastic Toronto wants homeowners to line their bins with. In Durham and Peel, residents are told to buy compostable bags. Toronto has built a multi-million-dollar system that is sup posed to separate organic waste from non-compostable plastic bags. (It is also planning two new local processing facilities, at a cost of roughly $65 million, using the same technology.) But plastics make the food rot quickly, causing odour problems for processors, and large shreds of plastic end up in the compost. Nobody wants to see the green bin program scrapped, just made better. Susan Antler, executive director of the Composting Council of Canada, says some municipalities, such as Durham, are "shining stars." They impose strict limits ? no plastic bags, no diapers, and no dog feces and kitty litter. (The latter two are both allowed in Toronto, with feces contributing to odour issues and kitty litter putting clay into the compost.) "Garbage in means garbage out," Antler says. Orgaworld founder Henk Kaskens, who is based in the Netherlands, came to London, Ont., last month to deal with "the fuss" created when the environment ministry ordered Orgaworld to limit its daily intake of green bin material to five trucks, or about 150 tons. Before that it was taking about 1,000 tons a day. (The order was lifted recently, but a new investigation is underway.) The environment ministry says it has logged 170 odour complaints against Orgaworld since January. At the same time the ministry hit Orgaworld with the limits, it closed down the second largest processor of Toronto's organic waste, Welland's Universal. The ministry told Universal it had logged 120 complaints of odours such as smells akin to "vomit" or "dead animals" since the facility opened last fall. Toronto was caught in a vice, with nowhere to turn, because all but one of its other processors were facing ministry limitations or Environment Act charges. Universal general manager Gerald Pratt said his company is taking the odour issues very seriously and is working very hard to fix the problems at the plant. The problem caused Toronto to stockpile 3,000 tons of organics in city transfer stations ? long before the strike began. Orgaworld's Kaskens, who said he makes "the best compost in Ontario," invited the Star for a tour of his plant. He said the odour problems resulted from ducts that crashed from the walls to the floor because a subcontractor had not properly fastened them. He complained the environment ministry is too enforcement-focused and scares away future investments. Inside the cavernous plant are huge piles of food waste, plastic bags ripped open. Kaskens said his technology turns organics into compost in just 12 to 14 days. The ministry requires it be held another 21 days, but "it is not necessary." The Composting Council's Antler and numerous other industry leaders said they have never heard of compost that can be finished in 12 days. It takes up to six months to cure compost, Antler said. Kaskens pointed out the piles of residual waste, the plastics, in his plant. He said they are trucked to Detroit for incineration. Neither the city nor compost companies could put a firm figure on the amount of non-organic residuals that are burned or landfilled, giving figures that vary from 15 to 22 per cent and higher. Welland's Universal general manager Gerald Pratt put it at 26 per cent, primarily plastic shopping bags. Toronto's organic waste has a "great deal of contaminants in it," Pratt wrote in a June letter to a Michigan landfill he hoped would help him after his plant closed. The Michigan landfill's manager, Dan Gudgel, said in an interview he could not compost Universal's organics because the contamination meant it would take too long to get Michigan government approvals. "I hear you have a state of emergency up there," he said. Moira Welsh can be reached at 416- 869-4073 or mwelsh at thestar ////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/660862 How tons of rotting garbage ended up in a gravel pit Toronto compost fares poorly Letter in response to Green bin reports Tonnes of garbage in a gravel pit Raccoon green bin strategy Green bins: A wasted effort? Jul 04, 2009 04:30 AM Be the first to comment on this article... There is an air of mystery about Toronto's compost. Following its trail is no simple task. The Star discovered that thousands of tons of what provincial officials called "putrescible waste," or partially finished compost, was trucked last year from Orgaworld, the main processor of Toronto's green bin waste, and dumped at Nicli Aggregates, a gravel pit outside London. That much is known. But it remains unclear why the compost was transported to the gravel pit. In a recent interview, Orgaworld founder Henk Kaskens said it was sent there because a local man, Jack Hermans, wanted to sell it for Orgaworld. "He was not very successful," Kaskens adds. But Hermans, whose trucking business is next door to Nicli, says he was "contracted by Orgaworld to take (the compost) and finish it for them." When asked why material from Toronto's largest processing facility was left in a gravel pit, Geoff Rathbone, the city official in charge of the organic program, said he could not comment because he did not know the details. After receiving complaints about the smell, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources ordered that the compost be removed from the gravel pit. Killins Farms in nearby Dorchester agreed to have it dumped in piles on a field. John Killins and Travis Woollings, partners in the 1,600-hectare farm, are now trying to sell Orgaworld's compost to local farmers. And Woollings enthusiastically sings its praises. But when he reaches into the dark pile and grabs a handful, he plucks out shreds of plastic and glass. "You could tell the residents of Toronto to be more careful what they put in their green bins," he says, shaking his head. Woollings says he's had the compost tested and found it was rich in nutrients. "The sodium is a bit high though," he adds. Woollings provided a bag of compost upon request. During the two-hour drive from London to Toronto, the smell of ammonia went from bad to indescribable. /////////////////////////////////////// http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/660864 Toronto compost fares poorly in tests Report error or complaint Toronto compost fares poorly Letter in response to Green bin reports Tonnes of garbage in a gravel pit Raccoon green bin strategy Green bins: A wasted effort? Jul 04, 2009 04:30 AM Comments on this story (3) The Toronto Star had A&L Canada Laboratories test compost from retail stores and two city-contracted compost facilities. One city sample was taken from Killins Farms in Dorchester, Ont., which sells compost from Orgaworld, Toronto's largest processor. The second came from an Environment Day giveaway. It was partially treated at the city's Dufferin processor and finished at All Treat Farms. Toronto's compost did not fare well. Orgaworld's was mineral-rich, but had not finished composting. Its levels of potentially plant-damaging sodium were 30 per cent; the recommended maximum is 2 per cent. The compost was acceptable only for soil amendment and agricultural use, not gardens. Orgaworld says its compost is regularly tested and complies fully with the Ontario Environment Ministry rules laid down in its operating permit. The Environment Day sample was also rich in minerals, but again had high sodium levels. The lab recommended it be mixed carefully with other soil. "If you just put this in a pot, it would kill your plants," says A&L president Greg Patterson. All Treat Farms blames salt-laden foods for the high sodium levels. It recommends mixing one part compost with four parts soil. Patterson says the Composting Council of Canada's recommendations of how to mix and use a compost product should become an industry-wide standard. "Without this," he says, "it is just hit and miss." ////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.thestar.com/unassigned/article/661902 Province steps in to fix green bin mess COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO Mayor David Miller, showing how the city's green bins work in a 2004 photo op, is now under fire after the Star revealed flaws in the program. Toronto compost fares poorly Letter in response to Green bin reports Tonnes of garbage in a gravel pit Raccoon green bin strategy Green bins: A wasted effort? Green bins: A wasted effort? The City of Toronto boasts that its green bin program diverts a third of our garbage and turns it into "black gold" compost. But a Star investigation shows that the program ? although nobly conceived ? is a sham.Crackdown on recycling programs after Star probe found organic matter ended up burned or in dumps Jul 07, 2009 04:30 AM Moira Welsh STAFF REPORTER Ontario has launched a province-wide probe into municipal green bin programs after a Star investigation found serious flaws with the organics program in Toronto. "We have to fix these problems," Environment Minister John Gerretsen said. "I want to change the regulations out there and I want greater oversight from the beginning to the end of the process," he added, in an interview that followed the Star's revelations over the weekend about Toronto's organics program. The probe discovered that thousands of tonnes of green bin materials ended up in gravel pits and landfill or ? in the case of plastic bags and diapers ? was burned. As well, tests conducted by the newspaper revealed extremely high salt content in the compost that was produced, making it a killer for plants. Gerretsen said he now realizes the provincial regulations governing organic programs are out of date and standard rules are needed for all communities. The Star stories compared Toronto's organics program, which allows contamination by plastics and diapers, with that in Durham Region, whose pure organics program is considered a "shining star" of composting. Unfinished Toronto organics have been dumped in a gravel pit. Food waste was put in a landfill in Quebec or stockpiled in city transfer stations. Two of the main processors hired to turn green bin material into compost have faced repeated restrictions from the provincial environment ministry. Meanwhile, Mayor David Miller maintained his silence. Last Thursday, a spokesman said the mayor was too busy to speak, due to the ongoing municipal workers' strike. Yesterday, the head of Toronto's organics program sent the Star a letter asking "our citizens" to continue to have faith in the green bin program. "Despite some minor growing pains, Toronto's green bin program is one of the most effective in North America," wrote Geoff Rathbone, general manager of the city's solid waste management services. Rathbone said the city accurately records the amount of organic material diverted from landfill, but his letter did not give that amount. Instead, Rathbone quoted a 44 per cent diversion rate, a figure the city has previously said represents all of the garbage diverted from landfill ? both organics and recycling. The city's website says 30 per cent of the waste stream is diverted through the organics program. A provincial monitoring agency, on the other hand, says Toronto has an 18 per cent organics diversion rate. The city is under pressure to increase diversion rates after Miller promised in the 2006 election to see 70 per cent of Toronto's garbage diverted by 2010. That goal surpasses the Liberal government's push for 60 per cent. Yesterday, as the province started poring over regulations, a coalition of 11 Toronto councillors called on Miller to halt the city's $65 million plan for two new organic waste processors ? which would use the same plastic- and diaper-friendly technology ? until a full city probe is done on the program. The councillors are frustrated with the lack of transparency and say they simply don't know how much organic matter ends up as compost and how much as landfill. The mostly right-wing and centre politicians who form the "Responsible Government Group" want the city's auditor general to scrutinize the multimillion-dollar program and determine whether residents are getting value for money. "It is important because the green bin program has been a failure in terms of what the public expectations are," said Case Ootes, the group's chairman. "Some of this is ending up in landfill. Plastic bags are being incinerated. This is not what the mayor promised." Miller has been a vocal opponent of incineration in any form, although it is used widely across Europe and in Peel Region. Councillor Brian Ashton said the group wants an "immediate review" in light of the city's plans to spend millions of dollars on new processing centres. Toronto already has one such facility. It uses a giant spool to separate food waste from plastic bags. Thousands of tonnes of recovered plastic are shipped to landfill. The facility partially processes the organic waste and ships the "digestate" material to a composting company paid to complete the job. But critics say plastics are extremely hard to separate from the organic material. "Garbage in, garbage out," they say. And plastic liner bags make the contents putrefy more quickly and create odour problems. The new facilities are supposed to handle the additional waste expected as the green bin program expands to include large apartment and condo buildings. But they will not be able to handle all of it. Toronto is also trying to expand its contract with Orgaworld, a processor in London, Ont., that uses a much different system. Orgaworld faced ministry limitations this spring because of odour problems. Those limits have since been lifted, but a new investigation is underway. Rathbone's letter explains why officials chose to allow plastics in the organics: "Toronto's program was created to maximize convenience for residents, which included being able to use plastic bags and to accept hard-to-process materials such as diapers. "Other jurisdictions with different housing characteristics may not need to allow plastic bags, but Toronto, with 500,000 multi-family homes, does." Experts say food waste sticks to the plastic so organics are sent to the landfill or incinerator with the rest of the "residuals." And the diapers can't be properly composted and end up buried or burned. Rathbone challenged that assumption, saying the Dufferin St. processing facility has no problem dealing with plastics from bags or diapers. "The city is also able to handle the diapers in a way that may not be familiar to your quoted experts," he said. The Star's investigation found that much of the compost created by city-paid processors was of low quality ? too unfinished or harmfully high in salt. Rathbone said it's meant to be used as a "soil conditioner and should be mixed with soil at a ratio of 1 part compost to 4 parts soil." An accredited laboratory hired by the Star tested samples from two city facilities and eight compost products purchased at major retailers such as Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire. Compost from the retail stores, by comparison, was quite good. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Jul 19 11:49:22 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:49:22 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Halifax should protect farmlands from sewage sludge Message-ID: Sludgewatch admin: Halifax sewage sludge is contracted to N-Viro. N-Viro mixes the sludge 50-50 with the cement kiln dust from Lafarge Cement, Brookfield. Lafarge burns used oil as an 'alternative fuel' that is co-fired with limestone to create cement. The used oil leaves toxic metals in the cement kiln dust which is then rolled into the N-Viro material. It is alarming to know we can be eating meat and drinking milk from cattle grazed on the toxins of sewage sludge and industrial waste residues from used oil from cement kiln dust. That same cement kiln dust that is mixed with Halifax sludge was deemed to be too toxic to spread on farm fields by Lafarge. But Lafarge now hands it over to N-viro to spread mixed with the sewage sludge. ............................................ http://thechronicleherald.ca/Columnists/1132478.html Protect farmlands from sewage sludge By MURRAY McBRIDE Wed. Jul 15 2009 Halifax Nova Scotia - Chronicle Herald A recent opinion piece by Rae Wallin, president of N-Viro Systems Canada, has evidently attributed to me a statement that the Halifax biosolids product, if applied at agronomic rates on farms, would be no threat to Nova Scotia soils. I did not make that statement. While it is true that the heavy metal loading to soils, if the material is applied as a lime substitute, would probably not increase soil total heavy metals (at least the ones being regulated) perceptibly over the short term, this statement cannot be made with confidence for toxic metals that are not being monitored (e.g., thallium, tin, silver), as concentrations can vary markedly over time in these waste products. But there are other serious concerns with this type of sludge product as well. The alkaline-stabilized Halifax product has a very high pH (in the 11 to 12 range): this high pH actually makes some metals (such as copper, nickel and molybdenum) more soluble and potentially mobile in the soil almost immediately, increasing the risk for surface and shallow groundwater contamination. In my experience, molybdenum and sulphur can be very plant-available where alkaline sludge products are applied to forages and pastures, a concern for livestock, as poor thrift or disease resulting from secondary copper deficiency can occur. There is the additional problem that no synthetic organic chemicals are regulated in sludge materials, despite the known presence of brominated fire retardants, plasticizers, triclosan, pharmaceuticals, detergents, etc. in the products. Some of these are persistent organic pollutants (POPs) which do not decompose to a significant degree in the wastewater treatment plant, concentrating instead in the sludge. Once applied to farmland, the POPs persist for decades to centuries, and as was learned with DDT and PCBs many years ago, are likely to concentrate into the fat tissue and milk of livestock. In fact, it is already known from published research that the brominated fire retardants accumulate in soils and soil organisms (such as earthworms) where sludges have been applied, and show little sign of decomposing in the soil. Research has also shown that these chemicals can concentrate in the fat tissue of cattle. It is only reasonable to conclude that fire retardant chemicals, and many others, will increasingly enter the human food chain as well as natural ecosystems with continued sewage sludge application on land. In summary, my position is that sewage sludge products should not be applied to our agricultural lands where food crops are grown. There are far too many unknowns and uncertainties about the amounts, behaviour and toxicity of the thousands of chemicals in sewage sludge products, and the precautionary principle must be applied here. Farmlands must be protected as the irreplaceable resource that they are ? we hold them in trust for future generations. Dr. Murray McBride is a a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. .............................. Biosolids on the farm: just the facts By RAE WALLIN Thu. Jul 9 - 4:46 AM Rae Wallin, president of N-Viro Systems Canada, shows HRM Mayor Peter Kelly some of the systems at the biosolids processing facility of the Harbour Solutions Project in Areotech Park last May. (Darren Pittman / Staff) Opponents of the use of biosolids in agriculture want the public to believe that there is little to no governance to ensure that biosolids are treated to strict standards or properly regulated when applied to agriculture lands. They also infer that regulatory bodies have relied solely on the 1993 Environmental Protection Agency rules, and hence are out of date with current science. The facts are simply not in support of their position. The proper use of biosolids has been the focus of hundreds of university and other research studies over the past decades, and these studies have confirmed that the risk of adverse effects to the environment and to human health is lower than other accepted agricultural land application practices. Decades of research by independent scientists have concluded that when biosolids are used in accordance with guidelines and regulations, they present negligible risk to the consumer, crop production and the environment. Governments in Canada, the United States and Europe have been using biosolids on agricultural land for over 30 years. The use of biosolids on agricultural land is highly regulated. These regulations address environmental quality, food safety and human health issues that are associated with improper use or overuse. In Nova Scotia, a pasteurized Halifax soil amendment product (HSA) is produced using the patented process of N-Viro Systems Canada LP. The N-Viro process is sustainable, safe, green and natural. It turns two waste products destined for landfills into a valuable, organic soil amendment. The Federal Fertilizers Act governs HSA. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) administers this act. HSA is regularly tested by independent laboratories and CFIA to ensure that it meets the Fertilizer Act requirements. These tests are also shared with the Nova Scotia Department of Environment to insure that HSA meets and exceeds their guidelines. These test results are posted on the N-Viro web site, www.n-viro.ca. HSA has a significant agronomic value to farmers. It contains much-needed nutrients for crops and helps the farmers better manage the acidic nature of their farmland at an affordable cost. The value of the fertilizer content of HSA is over $175 a tonne, but it is sold for much less than that. Because it is a soil amendment and not a waste for disposal, HSA is only sold to farmers through authorized fertilizer product distributors and is applied to land in accordance with nutrient management plans maintained by the farmers. There is also a growing non-food use for HSA ? land reclamation and soil-blending being two examples. In addition, in Nova Scotia, HSA is being used by sugar-beet farmers to increase crop yields. The beets will be used to produce ethanol. HSA is tested monthly and in some cases every two weeks for the following: arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, zinc, fecal coliform, thallium and salmonella. At a recent symposium put on by the Nova Scotia Environmental Network, Dr. Murray McBride from Cornell University stated the Halifax soil amendment applied at agronomic rates would be no threat to Nova Scotia soils. It is incorrect to assume that what "goes down the toilet" is applied to agricultural land. HSA is treated and the pathogen destruction is complete. HSA has achieved EQ (exceptional quality) status, which places it two levels above Class B biosolids that are currently used for land application. HSA is essentially pathogen free. Class B biosolids are not. Halifax Regional Municipality and N-Viro Systems Canada have agreed to have the CCME (Canadian Council of the Ministers for the Environment) and Nova Scotia Agricultural College conduct further independent testing on HSA. Currently, research using the N-Viro soil amendment is being conducted in Ontario at the Vineland Research Station, Ag Canada Research Station in London, and by Environment Canada. While the application of HSA to agricultural land is a relatively recent program in Nova Scotia, the same soil amendment produced in Ontario has been used by farmers for more than 12 years and in the United States since the early 1980s with exceptional results for soil health, crop production and environmental sustainability. The use of treated biosolids on agricultural land as a beneficial nutrient-rich organic material is good for the environment: It improves soil structure and tilth, increases moisture retention, increases organic matter, decreases soil erosion, and provides much-needed nutrients to our natural capital ? soils. These are the facts. Rae Wallin is president, N-Viro Systems Canada. http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1131370.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Jul 19 12:04:58 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:04:58 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Greenwashing Synagro: Secretive Corporate Giant Has Got the Private Poop Message-ID: This is long - so you may want to enjoy the better formating on the web: http://enclosureofthecommons.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/greenwashing-synagro-secretive-corporate-giant-has-got-the-private-poop/ Greenwashing Synagro: Secretive Corporate Giant Has Got the Private Poop following up on P?s recent post about privatizing sewage? I live near Detroit, so this year has been a doozy. Not only is Detroit (and all of SE Michigan) hit hard by unemployment, foreclosure, restructuring of the automobile industry and long-standing poverty, neglect and racism, but it also recently lost its mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and city council woman Monica Conyers, both of them because of corruption. Beyond the blight, Detroit is dealing with regime change, corruption and political instability. Conyers? mistake was taking bribes from the Synagro corporation, the nation?s largest waste disposal company, who wanted a 25-year, $1 billion contract for handling Detroit?s municipal sewage. In what the local media have taken to calling the ?sludge scandal? ( ? go ahead, google it), Synagro tried to recruit allies on the Detroit city council through bribery. Conyers is the only one so far who has copped to bribery charges, but the palm-greasing probably also included a 2003 junket to Hawaii to see a boxing match with Kwame Kilpatrick (for more, see this story in Detroit Business Magazine Crain?s). Watching the shit hit the fan in Michigan has been sobering. But its also sobering to learn that Synagro has been greasing politicians? palms since 1992, and has spiraled downwards into a mire of sludge and PR which threatens government and corporate transparency, health and safety, the environment, our food supply, and effective environmental regulation. The Backstory: 1988?s Ocean Dumping Act made New York City?s previous waste disposal proceedure (dumping into the Atlantic) illegal and obsolete. By 1993, the city had set up the world?s largest solid waste recycling program, the New York Organic Fertilizer Co., owned and operated by Synagro. Here the relevant palm to grease was Alfonse D?Amato?s. The NYOFC produces Class A organic fertilizer ? carefully sanitized with heat to kill microorganisms. But even this highest grade of treated sludge in the land may contain undocumented levels of plastics, heavy metals and other industrial residues ? not very well regulated by the EPA, freshly excoriated by the Bush Administration (see ?Sludge and Scandal,? 2004). In 2000, the Houston Business Journal noted that Synagro became one of the world?s largest waste management corporations. The SEC?s disclosure of all Synagro?s subsidiaries is pretty sobering. This Texas company now has subsidiaries in Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Canada and Iraq. Everywhere Synagro goes, there is trouble from the locals. In 1992, communities in Oklahoma and Alabama organized to reject New York City waste being used as fertilizer in their regions. As Joel Bliefuss wrote in his truly muckraking piece, ?The Sludge Hits the Fan?: In 1992, the Water Environment Federation, describing itself as a ?not-for-profit technical and educational organization? whose ?mission is to preserve and enhance the global water environment,? received a $300,000 grant from the EPA to ?educate the public? about the ?beneficial uses? of sludge. ?The campaign will tie in with the Federation?s ongoing efforts to promote use of the term `biosolids,? ? reported the Federation?s December 1992 newsletter. ?Beneficial use? is the industry euphemism for the practice of spreading sludge on farm fields. Even before the current push, sludge has been applied to soil for decades. Milwaukee?s sewage sludge has been dried and sold nationally for almost 70 years as ?Milorganite,? a lawn and garden fertilizer. In 1982, the state of Maryland banned Milorganite after it was found to contain high levels of cadmium, a heavy metal. In recent years, other cities have followed Milwaukee?s example offering varieties such as ?Nu-Earth? from Chicago, ?Nitrohumus? from Los Angeles, and ?Hou-actinite? from Houston. Milorganite and other commercially-marketed sludge products usually carry labels warning that they should not be applied on food-producing soil. But most consumers and journalists are unaware that tens of thousands of acres, from Midwest dairy land to Florida citrus groves and California fruit orchards, are already routinely ?fertilized? with byproducts of industrial and human sewage. In theory, this approach harkens back to the time-honored natural system of composting. Of course, the organic farmers of previous centuries didn?t have to worry that their ?night soil? contained a synergistic soup of dioxins, asbestos, DDT and lead that could contaminate themselves, their groundwater, and their food. It is, in other words, quite a difficult situation. Under cover of producing environmentally responsible recycled waste (a rather progressive, sophisticated organic composting program), Synagro helps cities and companies produce waste which is actually a mix of human waste, food waste, garbage, and industrial waste ? whatever goes into the sewer. As Bleifuss points out, ?The environmentally sound approach would have been to develop separate treatment systems for human and industrial waste? Yeah?but we didn?t do that. And so he highlights the non-organic, non-fertilizing parts of sludge for his readers: Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs); Chlorinated pesticides ? DDT, dieldrin, aldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor, lindane, mirex, kepone, 2,4,5-T, 2,4-D; Chlorinated compounds such as dioxins; Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons; Heavy metals ? arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury; Bacteria, viruses, protozoa, parasitic worms, fungi; and Miscellaneous ? asbestos, petroleum products, industrial solvents. Do you want these in your food? I don?t. Do they maybe help account for all the cases of e-coli in packaged produce recently? Could be. In 2002, Synagro acquired Earthwise Organics and Earthwise Trucking, which most likely use Class A organic fertilizer like the stuff produced in New York City. So should we trust that what we?re getting from Earthwise Organics is really and purely organic? Since the 1990s, communities in the Bronx have been organizing to protest the hazards and stench of the New York operation. In 2002 Synagro settled out of court with the family of Shayne Conner, a New Hampshire man who died in his sleep a month after the spread of such fertilizer on a neighboring field. In Riverside County, Calif., a Synagro plant closed Dec. 31, 2008 after years of complaints about what residents called headache-inducing, property-value-sucking smells, about 50 miles southwest of downtown LA. In the Bush era, as the EPA eased up on regulation, Synagro captured a larger and larger share of national and international waste management markets. More and more businesses and municipalities contributed their waste. This waste was then quietly spirited away by Synagro. Synagro not only turns waste into fertilizer (a great idea), but also turns fertilizer into a hiding place for many mysterious industrial residues (a diabolical idea). In 2007, Synagro was bought out by the giant holding company The Carlyle Group. Carlyle, it seems, recognized Synagro?s power to dispose of waste and keep it quiet at the same time. The buyout, they announced, would be accompanied by making Synagro a private company. In Dec. 2007 SEIU protested, challenging Carlyle to disclose information about potential health hazards of using treated sludge to fertilize crops (SEIU Press Release). SEIU convincingly argued that taking the company private would be an excuse for tight-lipped Cheney-esque non-disclosure. They worried that the terrible secrets in sludge might never be revealed. Because the EPA and Synagro aren?t too concerned about whether treated sludge is safe, very justified public outcry has set back the long-term prospects of convincing Americans of the safety of organic waste recycling. The public is scared of sludge now, and with good reason ? but they should not fear eating food fertilized by their own waste. The key for everyone?s own food safety is to know the difference between Class B and Class A Fertilizers, (admin- not much difference between Class A and Class B sludge) and to know the difference between organic and conventional produce. As Bliefuss wrote, Currently, ?certified organic? farmers are prohibited from using sludge on their crops, but the sludge industry is pushing for acceptance by organic farming organizations, and this will be a battleground for industry PR in the future. The amount of farm acreage dedicated to organic farming is currently very small. However, said Brian Baker of California Certified Organic Farmers, ?imagine what great PR it would be for the sewage sludge promoters to say that sludge is so clean it can even be certified organic ? what a way to `greenwash? sewage sludge!? And there you have it! Greenwashing: the insidious PR move of hiding potential environmental waste under the mantle of organic sustainability. Synagro helps us see all of the different things that can be privatized: it privatized its annual statements in 2007, it privatized the waste disposal business, on the vanguard of de-regulation, it privatized waste itself, it privatized information or knowledge about the chemical contents of that waste. Almost anything can be commodified and privatized ? invent a new market out of thin air and someone will usually enclose it, quick. Worst of all, the poorest people are usually the ones who suffer, albeit in various ways. In the Bronx, the poorest New Yorkers are afflicted with stench and mysterious questions about heath and safety. In south-west Detroit, the people are afflicted by the incinerators that Synagro would have replaced, had the dirty contract with the city gone through. In New York, the people suffer because Synagro is ?working hard? (whatever that means), while in Detroit, they suffer because Synagro is ?hardly working.? From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Jul 19 12:09:12 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:09:12 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Decatur - Sewage Waste goes to Lawyer Message-ID: http://dpa.xtn.net/dynamic/News/Story/157188 Sewage waste issue goes to lawyer Friday, July 17, 2009 Jeremy Belk Staff Writer DECATUR -- Meigs County farmer David Stewart didn't get the answer he was wanting when he appeared before the Meigs County Commission Thursday night, looking for permission to spread 400 tons of biosolids that had been dumped on his property to use as fertilizer. Now, County Attorney Vance Baker is looking into the legal options the county can take to make Stewart remove the material. Stewart had sought the Commission's blessing to spread the biosolids left on his property by Synagro, which is contracted by the Knoxville Utilities Board to remove treated human waste. Stewart had attended the Commission workshop last week and a Meigs County Zoning and Planning Commission meeting Tuesday. According to Meigs County Mayor Ken Jones and Stewart, the Zoning and Planning Commission did not have a problem with what Stewart was doing. "They (the Zoning and Planning Commission) were supposed to have a statement that they don't have anything wrong with what I'm doing," Stewart said. However, the only one present at Thursday's meeting who had been at the Zoning and Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday was Jones. Jones said no statement was prepared because the Zoning and Planning Commission couldn't make any recommendations, nor could the County Commission grant permission to spread the biosolid. Jones added it would have to be presented before the Board of Zoning appeals. Jones said zoning ordinances prohibits using land in Meigs County for a commercial landfill, waste disposal or waste-processing facilities that includes any hazardous, toxic, infectious waste or explosives. "I don't know how much more clear we can get that," Jones said. Baker said because it was commercial waste, the Commission had no authority to vote on a variance granting Stewart the ability to spread it. Commissioner Lisa Thompson, who works in the medical field, asked Stewart about a proposed tour of the Athens Utilities Board waste management facility. She then asked if the biosolids were coming from KUB, then why were they looking to AUB for answers. Thompson said she wanted documentation on how the waste was treated and handled to remove infectious materials, and a statement from KUB officials that there was no chance of any form of contamination from the biosolids. "I know what kind of infectious diseases live in feces and urine," Thompson said. "People often take it for granted but things live a long time outside of the body." Thompson said until she was shown significant proof that the biosolids were safe, she would vote against it. Meigs County Emergency Management Coordinator Tony Finnell told the Commission there needed to be a lot more research done on the matter. He said if they looked back into the history of the county they could find similar situations in which the zoning ordinances had kept such action from taking place. Stewart continued to argue the Zoning and Planning Commission had said he was doing nothing wrong and insisted they had said a letter to that fact would be provided for the meeting Thursday. Commissioner Laura Smith said if a letter was provided the Commission could not act upon it because it was not their place. She said that board would have to recommend a change to the zoning regulations. Commissioner Carter Nelson asked Stewart how long he had been spreading biosolids on his farm, and Stewart said he had been spreading it since 1997. "You've been breaking our zoning regulations all that time," Nelson said. Steve Bearden, who lives across the street from Stewart, said he had nothing against Stewart but he felt the biosolids were a health concern. He added he has children in that area and so do other nearby neighbords. * E-mail: jeremy.belk at dailypostathenian.com From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Jul 20 07:34:35 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:34:35 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Urban forager : Squat and the Earth Shall Grow Message-ID: News ? July 20, 2009 Your Crap, Our Compost Squat and the earth shall grow . By Sisi Tang In These Times A bushel of sawdust and a low-tech composting toilet used for compost collection. Poop A generally fecal-phobic society reacts to the thought with a mix of snickering interest and fearful aversion, all dispatched in a single flush. But Nance Klehm, 43-year-old urban forager and grower, transforms human excrement into nutritious soil one bucket at a time. Klehm?s Humble Pile, a local do-it-yourself human waste composting project, introduces a backyard alternative to the machine-churning, power-draining waste-processing facilities tucked away in remote locations. ?I?m not treating it chemically. I trust microorganisms to do it for me,? Klehm says. In early 2008, Klehm sent letters and humorous surveys to households in six Chicago neighborhoods, calling on potential participants to help ?transform waste into fertility, pollution into resource, and isolation into connection.? With no need for ?Compost 101? instruction, complex machinery, electricity or water, Humble Pile asked its 22 volunteer ?nutrient loopers? to opt for dry buckets with snap-on toilet seats when nature calls. To the surprise of Lora Lode, whose household participates in Humble Pile, her two teenage children Kira and Charlie were the most eager to take part in the minimalist procedure. The family of four made room for a bucket in the bathroom and for storage drums on the back porch of their Logan Square apartment. ?I was interested in this as an experiment,? says Lode, who works with artists to combine art, activism and environmental concerns. Her 19-year-old son Charlie is not put off. ?I just think that if I didn?t have a house, this is what I would do,? he says. In place of the routine flush, Klehm supplies the ?nutrient loopers? with sawdust to cover stools after each deposit, both to dispel odor and to facilitate composting. In the summer of 2008, Klehm personally collected the feces from the Lodes and other households and composted the material in 32-gallon drums, stored at a secret location outside the city so as to avoid prosecution for violating ordinances on waste disposal and storage. ?As an ecologist, I don?t expect law to keep up with me?it?s more important to get this done,? Klehm says. Nature doesn?t seem to heed law either: Shit happens, and then goes through a two-year-long natural composting process that burps out nitrate-rich soil that smells like wet basement. The soil will cycle back into Chicago gardens, which include a 5,000-square-foot greenhouse at a homeless shelter and several additional gardens scattered throughout the city. ?I?m just interested in people understanding that their body is producing soil all the time,? Klehm says, ?and there?s no reason not to return it back to earth.? According to Klehm, the locally produced Humble Pile compost is as nutrient-rich as sludge ?fertilizer? from municipal sewage plants. ?Good soil is so hard to have in the city. I?m concerned about the state of our soil?they?re affecting our health, they?re depleted, or they?re contaminated or poisonous,? Klehm says. Deemed a fertilizer by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the controversial sludge is a concoction of everything that goes down the drain?a heavy-metal laden medley of industrial, pharmaceutical and human waste. (In an attempt at linguistic detoxification, the EPA renamed sewage sludge ?biosolids.?) Klehm?s composting method has another home: an abandoned World War II-era U.S. airbase. In the salt flats along the Nevada and Utah border, Klehm and other artists and researchers of the autonomous living system Clean Livin? use urine-diverting dry toilets and a combination of composting and dehydration to process their waste for later agricultural use. Long before Humble Pile, the waste-to-fertilizer process was discovered inadvertently by our nomadic ancestors, who flung waste onto piles that eventually became fertile soil. Later, the Sumerians and Romans hired delivery boys to carry feces in ?honey wagons? to nearby fields for fertilization. The Chinese even commoditized ?night soil? from wealthier households as a valuable good?the feces of the rich being more abundant in nutrients due to their better diets. But now, just as the Western commode is making its widespread debut in China, Klehm is showing at least two U.S. communities that there may be a better option than the water-hungry modern flush toilet. Producing soil and fertilizer locally helps conserve energy and water, and whereas the composition of municipal sewage sludge is to a large extent a mystery, what goes into Klehm?s buckets are participants? own work. What?s more, Klehm ensures that her DIY fertilizer is safe by testing it for E. coli bacteria. For Klehm, Humble Pile is not a novelty. ?I?ve been doing this for four years,? she says. ?Other people think it?s crazy. I just accept it as a way of life.?? GET INVOLVED: ReSource Institute for Low Entropy Systems Spontaneous Vegetation From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Jul 20 09:48:03 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:48:03 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Groups File Petition to FDA to Ban Triclosan for Non-Medical Uses Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Groups may want to join in this petition for the ban of triclosan for Non-medical uses. congratulations to Beyond Pesticides and Water Watch for initiating this petition. ...................................... http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=2081 Groups File Petition to FDA to Ban Triclosan for Non-Medical Uses On July 14, 2009, Beyond Pesticides and Food and Water Watch submitted an amended petition to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requiring that the agency ban the use of the controversial pesticide triclosan for non-medical applications on the basis that those uses violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act. Strong scientific evidence suggests that pervasive use of triclosan poses imminent threats to human health and the environment. Studies show using warm soap and water is still the best option ?Numerous scientific studies and reports clearly indicate that in addition to its human health and environmental dangers, triclosan is not effective for many of its intended benefits and may actually be doing consumers more harm than good,? said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. ?Even worse, is that current regulations on triclosan haven?t been updated since 1994 and much of the science used by the FDA to regulate the pesticide dates back to the late 1970s and early 1980s. The agency?s inconsideration of new scientific research on triclosan represents an egregious failure to properly protect the public against this dangerous pesticide.? Regulated by both the FDA and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), triclosan is commonly found in hand soaps, toothpastes, deodorants, laundry detergents, fabric softeners, facial tissues, antiseptics, fabrics, toys, and medical devices. Scientific studies indicate that widespread use of triclosan causes a number of serious health and environmental problems. Chief among those issues is resistance to antibiotic medications and bacterial cleansers, a problem for all people, but especially vulnerable populations such as infants and the elderly. Triclosan is also a known endocrine disruptor and has been shown to affect male and female reproductive hormones, which could potentially increase risk for breast cancer. Further, the pesticide can also interact with other chemicals to form dioxin and chloroform, thereby exposing consumers to even more dangerous chemicals. Due to the fact that many products containing triclosan are washed down the drain, triclosan also shows up in water systems and sewage sludge. Accumulation of the pesticide in waterways and soil has been shown to threaten ecosystems and produce hazardous residues in fish and food crops. ?Triclosan?s growth to a nearly $1 billion consumer market is indicative of the failure of the FDA to regulate unnecessary, ineffective products that are toxic to both people and the environment,? said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides. ?The marketing of triclosan preys on consumer fears regarding bacterial-born illness, despite the fact that scientific findings show triclosan to be no more effective than soap and water, and may actually cause more harm than good in advancing bacterial resistance.? Triclosan is a widely used antibacterial agent found in hundreds of consumer products, from hand soap, toothpaste and deodorant to cutting boards, socks and toys. A recent study found that triclosan alters thyroid function in male rats. Other studies have found that due to its extensive use in consumer goods, triclosan and its metabolites are present in waterways, fish, human milk, serum, urine, and foods. A U.S Geological Survey (USGS) study found that triclosan is one of the most detected chemicals in U.S. waterways and at some of the highest concentrations. Triclosan has been found to be highly toxic to different types of algae, keystone organisms for complex aquatic ecosystems. A recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) survey of sewage sludge found that triclosan and its cousin triclocarban were detected in sewage sludge at the highest concentrations out of 72 tested pharmaceuticals. For more information on triclosan and its impacts on human and environmental health, visit our Antibacterial program page: http://www.beyondpesticides.org/antibacterial/index.htm From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Jul 20 09:54:00 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:54:00 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Impacted? Center for Food Safety doing research on impacts of contaminated 'organic' fertilizer Message-ID: Are you a farmer or a backyard gardener who uses organic fertilizer? Do you know someone who is? Have you or anyone you know been a victim of ?organic? fertilizer contamination at your farm or in your backyard garden? The Center for Food Safety is currently conducting research on the impacts of contaminated organic fertilizer on farmers, backyard gardeners and public health. Organic fertilizer has been known to contain sewage sludge, harmful synthetics, and other ingredients prohibited by national organic standards. These ingredients can contaminate farms and gardens and cause harmful health implications. CFS needs your help! Please respond ASAP if you are interested in this issue and want to help in this important research. We are looking for TFN members who have had any of the following happen to them: Purchased ?organic? fertilizer that turned out to contain sewage sludge, synthetics, or other ingredients prohibited by the national organic standards If you are a farmer, - lost organic certification for your farm due to organic fertilizer contamination - Suffered adverse health or property impacts from exposure to fertilizer containing sewage sludge, synthetics, or other ingredients prohibited by the national organic standards Please reply to this email (or email: office at centerforfoodsafety.org) if any of these apply to you, and as always, thank you for everything you do for True Food. The Center for Food Safety From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Jul 13 15:28:16 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:28:16 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Investigation report on Toronto's incompetent food waste diversion program Message-ID: Here is the expose onToronto's incompetent (and deceitful) food waste organics program. You see that it fell to the Toronto Star to undertake this expose on the Toronto 'source separated organics' (SSO) program. THe Province of Ontario has stepped in to investigate. The failure of this program has been staring Toronto in the face as each of its 'compost' sites gets shut down by court cases and by violations. But some 'waste diversion' so-called environmentalists have been acting as apologists and are complicit in these illegal stink holes...suggesting that this mess is somehow environmentally friendly. Composting is supposed to make soil ammendment to enrich the soil and assist gardening and farming. No environmentalist should be promoting programs that violate the law, and cost a fortune to contaminate the environment. That is what this program does. Why have we heard not a peep from 'Waste Diversion Toronto' on this one? Composting is not supposed to make toxic soil - or stink out its neighbours.Toronto needs to be taken out to the woodshed for its smug indifference to this pillaging of the environment and the public purse. Here is the whole series of stories in this excellent expose from the Toronto Star. .................................................. INVESTIGATION TheStar.com | G Green bins: A wasted effort? COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR Toronto compost fares poorly Letter in response to Green bin reports Tonnes of garbage in a gravel pit Raccoon green bin strategy Green bins: A wasted effort? Deep flaws mar recycling program as tons of organics end up in landfills or are turned into compost so toxic it kills plants Jul 04, 2009 Moira Welsh Staff Reporter The City of Toronto boasts that its green bin program diverts a third of our garbage and turns it into "black gold" compost. But a Star investigation shows that the program ? although nobly conceived ? is a sham. There are two problems. First, the city's claim of how much waste the program diverts from landfill is inflated. Second, some of the compost that is being produced will kill your plants because of its high salt content, according to laboratory tests. The Star found that, over the past two years, thousands of tons of organics in various stages of the composting process have been dumped into a gravel pit, tossed into landfills or stockpiled on city property. What's more, some of the material residents are told to place in green bins ? plastic bags and diapers ? has wound up in the belly of a Michigan incinerator, despite Mayor David Miller's vow Toronto will never burn garbage. City residents deserve better, say compost experts. At least $15 million of taxpayers' money goes to truck and treat the organic waste. "Toronto homeowners put a lot of time and energy into separating their kitchen organics," says Jim Graham, chair of the Ontario Waste Management Association. "Residents have the right to expect the processors to do their job ? and to create high-quality compost of consumer grade that they can use on their gardens." Toronto Mayor David Miller was too busy with the strike to comment, a spokesman told the Star on Thursday. Geoff Rathbone, the city official in charge of the organic program, told the Star what happens to the organic matter "is not of concern to us" because it's the provincial Ministry of the Environment's job to enforce standards on processors. The green bin program began in 2002, and today 510,000 Toronto homeowners dutifully separate garbage and put the organic waste into green bins for curbside pickup. Compared to the pure organic programs in Durham and Peel regions, Toronto's was flawed from the start. After public consultations, the city chose the simplest system for homeowners, encouraging plastic bag liners and the inclusion of diapers, neither of which can be composted. The city proudly states that the compost it produces is "safe to use in gardens and lawns." Tests conducted for the Star by A&L Canada, a leading agricultural laboratory, found serious problems with compost produced by two separate companies contracted by the city to process the organic waste. In one case, the lab found the compost was unfinished, meaning it was rushed through the process, in which micro-organisms break the waste down into a high-nutrient soil conditioner. In the second case, the sodium content of compost given out at Toronto's Environment Days was so high that it would kill plants. (More curing time would have removed naturally occurring sodium in vegetables and the salt we add to food.) The Star also looked at the city's so-called "diversion rate," the markers by which recycling programs are judged. Critics say Toronto's one-third rate is inflated. Miller's re-election promise in 2006 vowed to ramp up diversion rates to 70 per cent by 2010, so there's pressure on the city to claim the highest possible rate. Toronto's annual output of 120,000 tons of organics has created a mad scramble for processors. In each of 2007 and 2008, the city shipped 1,000 truckloads to Quebec. By the time the green bin waste arrived, locked inside plastic bags the city wants residents to use, it was sometimes so rotten it went straight to landfill, says Quebec's environment ministry. Some processors can't handle liquefied rotten material. That burns Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who has spent years trying to track the organic waste. "We have an unwritten rule with the public that the green bin system will have integrity, and the materials they put in the bins will be reused in a meaningful way," Minnan-Wong says. "When the food ends up landfilled, or when the compost is toxic, then you are betraying the principles and the reasons why we have this program to begin with." Two major compost processors hired by the city to handle the waste ? such as leftover steak, banana peels and all those diapers ? have been hit with provincial restrictions due to neighbourhood odour complaints. Within the past two months, before the municipal garbage strike began, Orgaworld Canada in London was severely limited in the amount of organics it could process while Universal Resource Recovery in Welland was shut down entirely. Follow the trail of Toronto's organics, and the flaws in the system emerge. The Star found that Orgaworld, which processes about 40 per cent of Toronto's organic waste, has been sending thousands of tons of "residual" plastics to be burned in Detroit. It turns out about one-fifth of Toronto's organic output is being burned or buried in landfills. The city tells residents to put diapers into their green bins. Graham of the Ontario Waste Management Association also owns Try-Recycling in London. He said the diapers are considered diverted when placed in the compost stream, but are immediately screened out. "Makes for good diversion numbers, but they end up in the landfill anyway," he said. Add to that the plastic Toronto wants homeowners to line their bins with. In Durham and Peel, residents are told to buy compostable bags. Toronto has built a multi-million-dollar system that is sup posed to separate organic waste from non-compostable plastic bags. (It is also planning two new local processing facilities, at a cost of roughly $65 million, using the same technology.) But plastics make the food rot quickly, causing odour problems for processors, and large shreds of plastic end up in the compost. Nobody wants to see the green bin program scrapped, just made better. Susan Antler, executive director of the Composting Council of Canada, says some municipalities, such as Durham, are "shining stars." They impose strict limits ? no plastic bags, no diapers, and no dog feces and kitty litter. (The latter two are both allowed in Toronto, with feces contributing to odour issues and kitty litter putting clay into the compost.) "Garbage in means garbage out," Antler says. Orgaworld founder Henk Kaskens, who is based in the Netherlands, came to London, Ont., last month to deal with "the fuss" created when the environment ministry ordered Orgaworld to limit its daily intake of green bin material to five trucks, or about 150 tons. Before that it was taking about 1,000 tons a day. (The order was lifted recently, but a new investigation is underway.) The environment ministry says it has logged 170 odour complaints against Orgaworld since January. At the same time the ministry hit Orgaworld with the limits, it closed down the second largest processor of Toronto's organic waste, Welland's Universal. The ministry told Universal it had logged 120 complaints of odours such as smells akin to "vomit" or "dead animals" since the facility opened last fall. Toronto was caught in a vice, with nowhere to turn, because all but one of its other processors were facing ministry limitations or Environment Act charges. Universal general manager Gerald Pratt said his company is taking the odour issues very seriously and is working very hard to fix the problems at the plant. The problem caused Toronto to stockpile 3,000 tons of organics in city transfer stations ? long before the strike began. Orgaworld's Kaskens, who said he makes "the best compost in Ontario," invited the Star for a tour of his plant. He said the odour problems resulted from ducts that crashed from the walls to the floor because a subcontractor had not properly fastened them. He complained the environment ministry is too enforcement-focused and scares away future investments. Inside the cavernous plant are huge piles of food waste, plastic bags ripped open. Kaskens said his technology turns organics into compost in just 12 to 14 days. The ministry requires it be held another 21 days, but "it is not necessary." The Composting Council's Antler and numerous other industry leaders said they have never heard of compost that can be finished in 12 days. It takes up to six months to cure compost, Antler said. Kaskens pointed out the piles of residual waste, the plastics, in his plant. He said they are trucked to Detroit for incineration. Neither the city nor compost companies could put a firm figure on the amount of non-organic residuals that are burned or landfilled, giving figures that vary from 15 to 22 per cent and higher. Welland's Universal general manager Gerald Pratt put it at 26 per cent, primarily plastic shopping bags. Toronto's organic waste has a "great deal of contaminants in it," Pratt wrote in a June letter to a Michigan landfill he hoped would help him after his plant closed. The Michigan landfill's manager, Dan Gudgel, said in an interview he could not compost Universal's organics because the contamination meant it would take too long to get Michigan government approvals. "I hear you have a state of emergency up there," he said. Moira Welsh can be reached at 416- 869-4073 or mwelsh at thestar ////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/660862 How tons of rotting garbage ended up in a gravel pit Toronto compost fares poorly Letter in response to Green bin reports Tonnes of garbage in a gravel pit Raccoon green bin strategy Green bins: A wasted effort? Jul 04, 2009 04:30 AM Be the first to comment on this article... There is an air of mystery about Toronto's compost. Following its trail is no simple task. The Star discovered that thousands of tons of what provincial officials called "putrescible waste," or partially finished compost, was trucked last year from Orgaworld, the main processor of Toronto's green bin waste, and dumped at Nicli Aggregates, a gravel pit outside London. That much is known. But it remains unclear why the compost was transported to the gravel pit. In a recent interview, Orgaworld founder Henk Kaskens said it was sent there because a local man, Jack Hermans, wanted to sell it for Orgaworld. "He was not very successful," Kaskens adds. But Hermans, whose trucking business is next door to Nicli, says he was "contracted by Orgaworld to take (the compost) and finish it for them." When asked why material from Toronto's largest processing facility was left in a gravel pit, Geoff Rathbone, the city official in charge of the organic program, said he could not comment because he did not know the details. After receiving complaints about the smell, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources ordered that the compost be removed from the gravel pit. Killins Farms in nearby Dorchester agreed to have it dumped in piles on a field. John Killins and Travis Woollings, partners in the 1,600-hectare farm, are now trying to sell Orgaworld's compost to local farmers. And Woollings enthusiastically sings its praises. But when he reaches into the dark pile and grabs a handful, he plucks out shreds of plastic and glass. "You could tell the residents of Toronto to be more careful what they put in their green bins," he says, shaking his head. Woollings says he's had the compost tested and found it was rich in nutrients. "The sodium is a bit high though," he adds. Woollings provided a bag of compost upon request. During the two-hour drive from London to Toronto, the smell of ammonia went from bad to indescribable. /////////////////////////////////////// http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/660864 Toronto compost fares poorly in tests Report error or complaint Toronto compost fares poorly Letter in response to Green bin reports Tonnes of garbage in a gravel pit Raccoon green bin strategy Green bins: A wasted effort? Jul 04, 2009 04:30 AM Comments on this story (3) The Toronto Star had A&L Canada Laboratories test compost from retail stores and two city-contracted compost facilities. One city sample was taken from Killins Farms in Dorchester, Ont., which sells compost from Orgaworld, Toronto's largest processor. The second came from an Environment Day giveaway. It was partially treated at the city's Dufferin processor and finished at All Treat Farms. Toronto's compost did not fare well. Orgaworld's was mineral-rich, but had not finished composting. Its levels of potentially plant-damaging sodium were 30 per cent; the recommended maximum is 2 per cent. The compost was acceptable only for soil amendment and agricultural use, not gardens. Orgaworld says its compost is regularly tested and complies fully with the Ontario Environment Ministry rules laid down in its operating permit. The Environment Day sample was also rich in minerals, but again had high sodium levels. The lab recommended it be mixed carefully with other soil. "If you just put this in a pot, it would kill your plants," says A&L president Greg Patterson. All Treat Farms blames salt-laden foods for the high sodium levels. It recommends mixing one part compost with four parts soil. Patterson says the Composting Council of Canada's recommendations of how to mix and use a compost product should become an industry-wide standard. "Without this," he says, "it is just hit and miss." ////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.thestar.com/unassigned/article/661902 Province steps in to fix green bin mess COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO Mayor David Miller, showing how the city's green bins work in a 2004 photo op, is now under fire after the Star revealed flaws in the program. Toronto compost fares poorly Letter in response to Green bin reports Tonnes of garbage in a gravel pit Raccoon green bin strategy Green bins: A wasted effort? Green bins: A wasted effort? The City of Toronto boasts that its green bin program diverts a third of our garbage and turns it into "black gold" compost. But a Star investigation shows that the program ? although nobly conceived ? is a sham.Crackdown on recycling programs after Star probe found organic matter ended up burned or in dumps Jul 07, 2009 04:30 AM Moira Welsh STAFF REPORTER Ontario has launched a province-wide probe into municipal green bin programs after a Star investigation found serious flaws with the organics program in Toronto. "We have to fix these problems," Environment Minister John Gerretsen said. "I want to change the regulations out there and I want greater oversight from the beginning to the end of the process," he added, in an interview that followed the Star's revelations over the weekend about Toronto's organics program. The probe discovered that thousands of tonnes of green bin materials ended up in gravel pits and landfill or ? in the case of plastic bags and diapers ? was burned. As well, tests conducted by the newspaper revealed extremely high salt content in the compost that was produced, making it a killer for plants. Gerretsen said he now realizes the provincial regulations governing organic programs are out of date and standard rules are needed for all communities. The Star stories compared Toronto's organics program, which allows contamination by plastics and diapers, with that in Durham Region, whose pure organics program is considered a "shining star" of composting. Unfinished Toronto organics have been dumped in a gravel pit. Food waste was put in a landfill in Quebec or stockpiled in city transfer stations. Two of the main processors hired to turn green bin material into compost have faced repeated restrictions from the provincial environment ministry. Meanwhile, Mayor David Miller maintained his silence. Last Thursday, a spokesman said the mayor was too busy to speak, due to the ongoing municipal workers' strike. Yesterday, the head of Toronto's organics program sent the Star a letter asking "our citizens" to continue to have faith in the green bin program. "Despite some minor growing pains, Toronto's green bin program is one of the most effective in North America," wrote Geoff Rathbone, general manager of the city's solid waste management services. Rathbone said the city accurately records the amount of organic material diverted from landfill, but his letter did not give that amount. Instead, Rathbone quoted a 44 per cent diversion rate, a figure the city has previously said represents all of the garbage diverted from landfill ? both organics and recycling. The city's website says 30 per cent of the waste stream is diverted through the organics program. A provincial monitoring agency, on the other hand, says Toronto has an 18 per cent organics diversion rate. The city is under pressure to increase diversion rates after Miller promised in the 2006 election to see 70 per cent of Toronto's garbage diverted by 2010. That goal surpasses the Liberal government's push for 60 per cent. Yesterday, as the province started poring over regulations, a coalition of 11 Toronto councillors called on Miller to halt the city's $65 million plan for two new organic waste processors ? which would use the same plastic- and diaper-friendly technology ? until a full city probe is done on the program. The councillors are frustrated with the lack of transparency and say they simply don't know how much organic matter ends up as compost and how much as landfill. The mostly right-wing and centre politicians who form the "Responsible Government Group" want the city's auditor general to scrutinize the multimillion-dollar program and determine whether residents are getting value for money. "It is important because the green bin program has been a failure in terms of what the public expectations are," said Case Ootes, the group's chairman. "Some of this is ending up in landfill. Plastic bags are being incinerated. This is not what the mayor promised." Miller has been a vocal opponent of incineration in any form, although it is used widely across Europe and in Peel Region. Councillor Brian Ashton said the group wants an "immediate review" in light of the city's plans to spend millions of dollars on new processing centres. Toronto already has one such facility. It uses a giant spool to separate food waste from plastic bags. Thousands of tonnes of recovered plastic are shipped to landfill. The facility partially processes the organic waste and ships the "digestate" material to a composting company paid to complete the job. But critics say plastics are extremely hard to separate from the organic material. "Garbage in, garbage out," they say. And plastic liner bags make the contents putrefy more quickly and create odour problems. The new facilities are supposed to handle the additional waste expected as the green bin program expands to include large apartment and condo buildings. But they will not be able to handle all of it. Toronto is also trying to expand its contract with Orgaworld, a processor in London, Ont., that uses a much different system. Orgaworld faced ministry limitations this spring because of odour problems. Those limits have since been lifted, but a new investigation is underway. Rathbone's letter explains why officials chose to allow plastics in the organics: "Toronto's program was created to maximize convenience for residents, which included being able to use plastic bags and to accept hard-to-process materials such as diapers. "Other jurisdictions with different housing characteristics may not need to allow plastic bags, but Toronto, with 500,000 multi-family homes, does." Experts say food waste sticks to the plastic so organics are sent to the landfill or incinerator with the rest of the "residuals." And the diapers can't be properly composted and end up buried or burned. Rathbone challenged that assumption, saying the Dufferin St. processing facility has no problem dealing with plastics from bags or diapers. "The city is also able to handle the diapers in a way that may not be familiar to your quoted experts," he said. The Star's investigation found that much of the compost created by city-paid processors was of low quality ? too unfinished or harmfully high in salt. Rathbone said it's meant to be used as a "soil conditioner and should be mixed with soil at a ratio of 1 part compost to 4 parts soil." An accredited laboratory hired by the Star tested samples from two city facilities and eight compost products purchased at major retailers such as Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire. Compost from the retail stores, by comparison, was quite good. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Jul 19 13:53:10 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:53:10 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Palo Alto Calif looks at mixing sewage sludge with their green waste compost Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Yard waste and food waste can be composted into excellent soil ammendments. However, sewage sludge, with its burden of toxic metals and industrial waste, should not be used for soil conditioning. Cities are having difficulty siting compost operations - especially stinky food waste operations. They are tempted for expediency to locate at sewage treatment plants and then are further enticed to mix sludge into their composts. Bad plan .................................... Full memo on composting July 12, 2009 To: Fellow Blue Ribbon Compost Task Force Members From: Bob Wenzlau Subject: Recommended 2012 Plan for Composting Operations within Palo Alto This memo is offered for consideration during our July 15, 2009 determination of the fate of composting beginning 2012, and our requested recommendation of where the operation and what the operation would be. This 2012 plan is necessitated by timing constrained by the 2012 closure of the landfill and compost operation unless a citywide vote prior to 2012 authorizes composting on dedicated parkland. I have found our current choices -- a local parkland choice or a regional choice -- not adequate to the mission of our task force. As such, I recommend the following for adoption by the Task Force for the 2012 plan: "Within 30 days of approval by City Council, the city staff should begin development of a new aerated static pile composting facility by developing a 5.5 acre site through the relocating Embarcadero Road northward onto now vacant airport land. Permitting, engineering and construction should be scheduled to allow a new operation to commence near 2012. To accommodate any delays (upward of a year) that might occur in permitting or construction, the City should arrange to extend composting operations at a remote facility like Z-Best Composting in Gilroy. Within the next ten years, the site can be further developed toward an integrated organic conversion facility for the city's yard, food and bio-solids for the generation alternate fuels, and consequential greenhouse gas minimization." To facilitate your consideration of this alternative several exhibits are prepared. Figure 1 represents a 30,000 TPY aerated static compost facility (yard waste only) on a rendering of a shifted Embarcadero Road. Figure 2 represent a 60,000 TPY dry anaerobic composting facility able to accommodate yard, food and biosolids. The vacant land shown in both figures would be for storage of received and processed organics. Figure 3 represents a Gantt schedule toward 2012 showing city approval activities, other permitting activities, site development and external events that dictate the schedule. Figure 4 represents existing land use. While the balance of this memo develops rationale for the "where", "what" and "when" of this alternative, several attributes of the proposal deserve immediate highlighting: ? The site does not use parkland. ? The site is local thereby minimizing transportation derived greenhouse gas generation. ? The proposal is a plan that anticipates unpredictability of permitting and construction by allowing the contingent short-term use of a regional facility like Z-Best Composting until the new site is prepared. ? The site is adjacent to the water pollution control plant allowing long?term integrated waste and wastewater derived organics waste management. ? The site is adequately sized, and could further draw upon about one?half acre of space within the water pollution control plant to arrive at a 6-acre facility for accomplishing most organic waste management. ? As a plan that derives from the council's immediate attention and city staff's action, there is greater assurance that the program of the Task Force will be pursued rather than forgotten if its direction were merely strategic toward 2020. Where: There are no existing locations for a local municipal-scale composting in Palo Alto unless a new site is developed. Any existing vacant land has multiple competing interests for its use, and is not a short-term practical choice. The Task Force also found that any facility in Palo Alto would optimally be located near the existing water pollution control plant given the benefit of its staff and physical infrastructure as well as its generation of wastewater-derived organics. Fortunately, the City's anticipated take-over of the Palo Alto Airport by 2012 creates a timely window within which a new site can be developed concurrent with the time when a new site is needed. This allows the city to control the use and development of the land as long as it does not interfere with airport operations. The targeted existing vacant land does not have any anticipated use, and similarly vacant land between Embarcadero and the water pollution control plant similarly has no use other than an existing in-situ sand filter for odor control. There is one sanitary sewer from East Palo Alto that may need to be re-routed given construction plans. While the site is city-owned, it is not been dedicated as parkland. There are expectations for screening that would need to be maintained or developed as part of this plan. There are also transportation impacts that are similar to existing transportation, but none-the-less are an impact (as) the site would interfere with access to the parkland. However, given the subtle change in Embarcadero's routing little change might be noticed by Palo Altans. It should be noted that Figure 1 and 2 do not adequately develop the screening between the site and the roadway. Nor does the rendering show where access would occur. As background, another site option considered by the Task Force was to be located immediately south of the water pollution control plant is not worthy of the Task Group's endorsement. The site would be on parkland. The site's southern extent would have been constrained by the edge of the landfill's lift. The site would have interfered with anticipated screening between the Byxbee Hills Park and the water pollution control plant, and also have been too narrow and small to accommodate a practical operation. Its access would have also conflicted with the park. The question could also be asked if Embarcadero Road should not move, and a facility were to be placed solely on the vacant lot by the airport. This has inherent disadvantages caused by the need to landscape screen the facilities, and that limited storage of pre- and post-processed organics. Also it forces a need to transport biosolids across Embaracadero. What: By 2012, an aerated static pile approach has been selected by the Task Force as practical. A static pile approach uses blowers instead of a scarab windrow turner, and uses covers to control aeration. This approach is offered by several vendors and offers advantages of compactness, dust and odor control. Figure 1 shows an aerated static pile compost by Gore that is representative of the technology. The existing windrow approach now applied appears to require more space, and entails greater heavy equipment usage during the compost process. The static pile could permit the beginning of food waste composting from Palo Alto residences -- a collection not anticipated by the city now. There are numerous long-term conversion technologies. While conversion technologies offer significant advantages in greenhouse gas reduction and organic waste capacity, they are a capital project that could not feasibly be accomplished within the 2012 window. For that reason, they are not pursued for implementation by 2012. Still, the site is large enough to accommodate conversion technologies, and even offers the promise of transitioning from an aerated static pile compost system toward a conversion approach. Ultimately, the Task Force looks forward to a local conversion program. When: Accomplishing this project requires approvals by Palo Alto commissions, state regulatory agencies, an environmental impact report, and the design and construction of the project -- all this within 26 months. Fortunately, the proposal may benefit from alignment of constituencies previously at conflict over the fate of local composting and parkland. The proposal maintains local composting without the use of parkland, and not interfering with other anticipated public projects. The schedule anticipates three broad scheduling elements: Palo Alto city governance, agency approvals, and project design and construction, all schedule elements constrained by key events. The key events that bracket the schedule include the end of composting at the current Byxbee Park (landfill site) and the availability of the airport property through it transfer back to the City of Palo Alto. As a practical approach, the schedule anticipates the use of a regional compost facility if the local compost operation cannot be readied by the time current compost operations must cease. City staff should maintain the ability to utilize the regional facility, but understand that the will of Palo Alto is for a local composting operation constructed as soon as possible. Therefore, a Z-Best regional option might be necessary for as much as 12 months. The following are additional schedule considerations: ? City of Palo Alto Approvals: Staff has indicated an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) will be necessary for this project, a process that could take 18 months. While not a prerequisite for all development activities, it is on the critical path for the project. The EIR will be considered by the Planning and Transportation Commission as well as the City Council. Preceding the EIR, the city would need to procure planning and design contractors to develop the basis of a project and EIR. ? State Permits: The Task Force visited with representatives of the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB). We found that the state seemed very accommodating to develop permitting approaches to facilitate composting operation. This is evident that composting is a waste alternative supported by the state instead of landfilling. The 2012 accommodation could include the ability to extend the boundaries of the disposal site to include new facilities. The permitting constraints of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District were not explored, but broadly the emissions and dust should decrease through this project. ? Project Construction: The duration of the design and construction of the aerated static pile system has been derived from two representative vendors. The design and construction for shifting Embarcadero, and any necessary rerouting of the sanitary sewer from East Palo Alto would need to be developed, but within the broad constraints of the schedule do not seem critical. The schedule for this project will need to be vetted further. The ability to access airport land is critical to the success of the project, and the interest and approach to win use of this land should be pursued by staff. However the availability and general timing of this land is anticipated by this alternative. The Task Force should consider developing more details prior to completion of their study. One area of evaluation this memo is silent on is the economics of the project. A new operation separate from the existing landfill operation will permit revised operation approaches and transparency not seen in the existing operation. That the aerated static composting approach is but an interim technology toward a longer-term conversion technology gives some reprieve toward detailed economics. The short-term effort would create a site, establish new operational protocols, and gain permitting. These sites, protocols and permits would be an asset to the longer-term operations. The task force has found very favorable economics in a local conversion approach given the energy revenues produced, various government green-energy investment credits, and the savings in energy from current bio-solids incineration. A local solution is less vulnerable to oil-price increases expressed as supply is further constrained. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments Posted by eg, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Jul 16, 2009 at 5:14 pm Perhaps you may not know that 'biosolids' is newspeak for sewage sludge. I am not sure that this is a desirable addition to our compost operation. I certainly would not want it in my garden.. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Jul 20 11:10:14 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:10:14 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Chicago water: In public reports, city silent over sex hormones and painkillers found in treated drinking water In-Reply-To: <98420F78BF228648A3F6C7DE89D1644D08F482D1@tmg-mail1.torstar.net> References: <98420F78BF228648A3F6C7DE89D1644D08F482D1@tmg-mail1.torstar.net> Message-ID: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-water-testing-14-jul14,0,4303601.story Chicago water: In public reports, city silent over sex hormones and painkillers found in treated drinking water Pharmaceutical chemicals aren't on list of substances in water that require public notice By Michael Hawthorne | Chicago Tribune reporter July 14, 2009 Annual water quality reports mailed to Chicagoans this month didn't say a word about sex hormones, painkillers or anti-cholesterol drugs, even though city officials found traces of pharmaceuticals and other unregulated substances in treated Lake Michigan water during the past year. Like other cities, Chicago must notify the public if its drinking water contains certain regulated contaminants, including lead, pesticides and harmful bacteria. But pharmaceutical chemicals, which have been detected in drinking water across the country, are not on that list. So Mayor Richard Daley is technically correct in stating that the "pure, fresh drinking water" pumped to 7 million people in Chicago and the suburbs "meets or exceeds all regulatory standards." Drinking water standards haven't been updated for years, in part because little is known about how pharmaceutical concoctions might affect public health. But researchers and regulators are concerned about the potential effects of long-term exposure to these substances, which are designed to have an impact at low doses. Chicago water: What was found in it "We're just scratching the surface with what's been detected to date," said Dana Kolpin, a researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey. "And we don't have a clue about what these mixtures can do." Chicago officials didn't start conducting their own tests until last year, after a Tribune investigation found small amounts of pharmaceuticals and other unregulated chemicals in samples of the city's tap water. The city collected samples of treated Lake Michigan water four times in 2008. According to results posted on the city's Web site, the tests found small amounts of the sex hormones testosterone and progesterone; gemfibrozil, a prescription cholesterol-fighting drug; ibuprofen, an over-the-counter painkiller, and DEET, the active ingredient in bug spray. The tests also found caffeine, nicotine and cotinine, a nicotine byproduct, all of which researchers consider to be indicators of pharmaceuticals from human waste. Drugs end up in drinking water after people take medications and some of the residue passes through their bodies down the toilet. Conventional sewage and water treatment filters out some of the substances, or at least reduces the concentrations, but multiple studies have found that small amounts still get through. Although treated sewage from the Chicago area drains away from Lake Michigan, more than 300 other cities put treated waste and untreated sewage overflows into the lake and its tributaries, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Chicago's tests found tiny amounts of the antidepressant Prozac and sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic, in untreated water collected from Lake Michigan intake cribs. But those prescription drugs weren't found in treated water. Nor were most of the 71 other unregulated compounds the city screened for. The Daley administration first promised to test for pharmaceuticals monthly, then changed course after the first tests turned up inconsistent results. Now officials plan to collect samples three times a year and send the water off to be tested by three different labs. "We haven't seen any patterns yet, so it's tough to reach any conclusions," said John Spatz, the city's water commissioner. "But since it's an emerging issue, we're going to keep following it." As promised, the test results are available online. Yet it requires considerable sleuthing to find them on the Department of Water Management's home page, and the drugs found in the water are not easily discernible amid six pages of numbers. In the Tribune's tests, conducted in March 2008, water drawn from a drinking fountain at City Hall contained trace amounts of cotinine; carbamazepine, an anti-seizure drug; and acetaminophen, an over-the-counter painkiller. The newspaper's tests also found two unregulated industrial chemicals used to make Teflon and Scotchgard, neither of which the city tested for. Even though such substances are turning up virtually every time researchers look for them, the EPA says it still doesn't have enough evidence to limit pharmaceuticals and many other unregulated chemicals in drinking water -- in part because cities haven't been required to test routinely for the compounds. The Obama administration's top water regulator, Peter Silva, promised at his confirmation hearings to step up the government's research efforts. Without direction from federal officials, cities across the nation have slowly begun to test their water for pharmaceuticals, prompted by studies in Europe and later by the U.S. Geological Survey. Milwaukee, which also draws its drinking water from Lake Michigan, added dozens of pharmaceuticals three years ago to its annual testing for unregulated contaminants and posts easy-to-understand results online. Nothing turned up last year, according to the city's site. Water officials say not enough is known to justify spending millions of taxpayer dollars to upgrade treatment plants so they could strip the chemicals from the water. The most effective method, reverse osmosis, is expensive and creates a large amount of waste. mhawthorne at tribune.com From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Jul 20 10:26:06 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:26:06 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Wooster Ohio - Enviroclean sludge plant -complaints - breathing difficulties Message-ID: http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4630886 Residents complain about odor from business July 18, 2009 By BRYAN SCHAAF Staff Writer WOOSTER -- Some residents in Wooster's southeast corridor believe that the byproduct of a local business really stinks -- literally. Off and on for several years now, Enviroclean Services, 515 Industrial Blvd., has been the focus of resident complaints asking city officials to do something about the odor being emitted from the waste treatment plant, which one councilman described as smelling like "rotten eggs." "I received a call from a resident about a stench on the east end that was so strong she found it necessary to close up her entire house," said Councilman Ed Schuch, D-Ward 1. "She said the strength of the odor was such that it caused some difficulty in breathing. That odor came from Enviroclean, and all I needed to do was step outside my home to know what she was talking about." Enviroclean specializes in treating wastewater and sludges, non-hazardous materials and recycling used oil. Company president Bhajan Saluja spoke before city council in September saying he believed he had remedied the problem, but recently the smell has come back. Mike Sigg, director of administration for the city, said the odor violates the zoning permit granted to the business, and he hand delivered a notice on Thursday giving Enviroclean two weeks to correct the problem or its zoning permit would be revoked. "The only thing we've got as far as city ordinances to address this is from a zoning point," Sigg said. "Their zoning permit doesn't allow them to have obnoxious odors beyond their property limits. There is no test for odor. Basically, if it smells bad, it smells bad." Saluja was in Texas on Friday and was not available for comment, although Sigg said he spoke with the Enviroclean owner earlier in the week and said the company is working on the problem. "He said they were making some changes to make things good, but the bottom line is that it's gotta stop," Sigg said. "We have served notice on them and consider this a violation of zoning." Jim Borton, city utilities manager, said in addition to the zoning infraction, the city also has regulatory authority over the business' water discharge, and has some violations that it's addressing with the company. Mike Suttle, northeast media coordinator for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said Enviroclean hasn't required an air pollution control permit, but said the agency has received complaints about the business. Reporter Bryan Schaaf can be reached at 330-287-1645 or bschaaf at the-daily-record.com. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Jul 22 08:55:42 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:55:42 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Knoxville sludge - Meigs County wants it removed from farm field Message-ID: http://www.newschannel9.com/news/county-983012-complaint-came.html Sludge On Farm Causing "Stink" With County Officials July 21, 2009 John Pless A Meigs County farmer is facing a very expensive proposition -- plowing up his cornfields and removing the soil. It's all because of the fertilizer he used earlier this year. "A citizen's complaint came into my office," Meigs County Mayor Ken Jones said. The complaint came to Jones back in the winter and centers around tons of sludge from Knoxville's sewage treatment plant being dumped on David Stewart's farm north of Decatur. It was tilled in the soil months before the current corn crop was planted. A company called Synagro contracts with Knoxville's Utilities Board to remove what's left over in the sewage treatment process, called biosolids, and then dumps the treated material somewhere else. Often times it's dumped on farms and forests. The problem is biosolids aren't allowed in Meigs County. "Meigs County has a zoning regulation that prohibits any land in Meigs County from being used for the disposal of commercial waste," Jones explained. Biosolids are made of human waste mixed with commercial and industrial waste. The EPA and other agencies say biosolids can pose a small risk of exposure to disease-causing pathogens. A January 2009 EPA study shows biosolids also contain up to 27 metals like lead, pharmaceuticals, steroids and hormones. Of course we wanted to get the other side of the story by talking with the farmer, Mr. Stewart. We're told he's out of town Tuesday. We called his cellphone and he said he has no comment. But Mayor Jones said he and the County Commission want the biosolids and contaminated soil removed from Stewart's property. "Meigs County's position is that were are going to enforce our zoning regulations by whatever legal means we can go by," Jones added. The Meig's County attorney is researching the issue and will advise the County Commission what it can and can't do. We did call Synagro to find out why they dumped the biosolids in a county that doesn't allow commercial waste. We were told a member of their legal department will call back. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Jul 22 11:28:54 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:28:54 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Amherst Virginia - Locals assemble to try to monitor Synagro sludge spreading plans Message-ID: ? Jeremy Bryant, director of planning and zoning, told supervisors that Synagro Central LLC has informed the county that it intends to spread biosolids on land owned by Wesley Wright in northern Amherst County and could start doing so as soon as October. The spreading would be the first on county land, Bryant said. Biosolids, referred to by some as treated sewage sludge, is a controversial form of fertilizer that supporters ? usually farmers ? prefer for its affordability. Opponents across Central Virginia for years have raised concerns about potential health effects. Localities have no jurisdiction to prevent the spreading of sludge but can, as Amherst County has done, enact an ordinance to arrange for local monitoring and testing of the material. The 132 acres of Wright?s property slated for spreading is adjacent to Piney River. It is also close to the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway Trail, which Bryant said has caused some concern among citizens. The county has a partnership agreement with Sweet Briar College for David Orvos, a professor, to serve as its local monitor. Bryant said county staff is working on details of the agreement to ensure that liability insurance will protect local monitors from the college. He said the county is also exploring possible avenues of reimbursement from the state for time and effort put toward the testing of the biosolids. ?Some of these costs are reimbursable,? Bryant said. ?We?re trying to work out those details.? The board directed its attorney to research if any changes to the agreement would require holding a public hearing in the near future. http://www2.newsadvance.com/lna/news/local/article/public_to_have_say_on_amherst_county_ethics_code/17875/ From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Jul 22 12:48:30 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:48:30 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Listeriosis Canada -Maple Leaf didn't clean machines, Gov't inspectors didn't inspect, no one told public until people died Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The new report on the Maple Leaf meats listeriosis outbreak that killed 22 people in Canada is out. It was conducted in secret and the author was not allowed to lay blame. Even the press release about the report was edited by the Prime Minister's office. The Agriculture Minister in charge of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is still glib and will not take responsibility for the fact that the CFIA inspectors failed in their inspection of the plant. Listeria survives well in cool wet soils...Canadian soils. And yes, it is found in sewage sludge...in case you wondered. ................................................................ TheStar.com Robert Cribb http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/669868 Twenty-two dead. Hundreds sickened. Six months of inquiry. Nearly $3 million in public money. The result: 57 recommendations for improving a food safety system that allowed listeria buried inside a meat slicer in a Toronto-area Maple Leaf plant to reach nursing homes and stores, gradually claiming lives as officials miscommunicated, waited for crucial test results to travel across the country and prevaricated about the number of inspectors on the job in Canadian food plants. Sheila Weatherill's report on the listeriosis outbreak is not the whitewash many critics feared from an investigator appointed by the Prime Minister's Office to conduct her work in secret without the authority to compel testimony. But it's no panacea either, failing to chart a clear path ahead on such mysteriously elusive questions as how many inspectors we need to ensure our food is safe. With relentless force, the report catalogues a succession of failures that crescendo into one of the largest and most troubling public health tragedies in recent memory. At virtually every stage of the outbreak, it seems things could have ? should have ? gone differently in a food safety system repeatedly hailed by government officials as "one of the safest in the world." "I get so annoyed when I hear them say that," says Rick Holley, a microbiologist at the University of Manitoba and member of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's external advisory panel. "The food safety system in Canada is on the upper end of being mediocre." Changes shall come in response to the report, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz proclaimed yesterday. As for accepting responsibility for the deaths, well, that's another matter. "There are a number of things that contributed to this," Ritz told reporters. "There is no perfect answer ... no one to stand up and (say), `I did it.'" Except, that's exactly what Maple Leaf president and CEO Michael McCain did shortly after the outbreak ? the only person to date offering Canadians an unqualified apology. Tellingly, he's also the only major player in the sad saga who doesn't represent a health agency or government charged with protecting public health. Throughout the report, the CFIA sits dead centre in Weatherill's bull's-eye target. The agency completed only three of the 12 quarterly audits at the plant that produced the listeria-tainted meat between 2005 and 2007, she concluded. Last year, not one was completed. The agency also takes hits for the speed ? or lack thereof ? with which it informs the public of a serious health risk. Media reports have repeatedly questioned why no word of the risk reached the public until people were dying. "Where human death or serious illnesses have occurred, the (CFIA) should promptly disclose the results of its investigation of the implicated plant ... to the public," the report says. Public communications, in general, were a mess in part because of classic right-hand-unaware-of-left-hand puzzlement between different health agencies, she writes. The report's strong call for greater transparency heralds with delicious irony considering its release was delayed a day by the federal Tories for non-public review. CANADA: Company, government faulted in listeria deaths 22.jul.09 Canadian Press Gloria Galloway, Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/company-government-faulted-in-listeria-deaths/article1226682/ Lessons were learned at extraordinary cost and there is no guarantee that listeriosis will not return to Maple Leaf Foods or any other Canadian processor, the company's CEO said in a statement that was full of promises to do better. Michael McCain was responding to a report commissioned by the federal government into the deadly listeriosis outbreak at the Maple Leaf plant in Toronto last summer. "This report is a painful reminder of the factors that culminated in the tragedy of last year," Mr. McCain said yesterday at a news conference. "We thought at the time that we had a strong food safety program and we did not. Had we known then what we know now, we may have saved 22 lives." Maple Leaf's food safety regime is significantly better than it was a year ago when bacteria in a slicing machine found their way into packaged cold cuts, Mr. McCain said. But "in the case of food-borne pathogens, the reality is there is no absolute guarantees, not by Maple Leaf, not by anybody in the world." Maple Leaf Foods has paid $27-million to the victims and families of people made sick by the outbreak. Sheila Weatherill, the former head of Edmonton's health system, wrote in her report that the tragedy was the result of a lack of attention to food safety by senior management in both the public and private sector. Her report said no level of government was prepared for the emergency; a sense of urgency was absent from the start; and communications with the public were inadequate. There was a lack of understanding about which government department was responsible. And it took close to three weeks before senior executives in all key organizations became fully engaged in the mounting crisis. Ms. Weatherill did not make findings of criminal or civil liability. Nor did she single out any action, or any individual government agency or company, as being especially culpable. food we eat." Mr. McCain that Ms. Weatherill's report is tough on his company. "And it ought to be," he said. "We don't protest our innocence. We accept our responsibility. However, no report, no matter how thorough, can match the self-criticism and remorse we have felt as a result of this tragedy." Problems and fixes top CANADA: Lessons from listeria 22.jul.09 Toronto Sun Kevin Connor http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/07/22/10215601-sun.html Lionel Avon hasn't been able to eat any form of chicken since he became sick from eating contaminated sandwich meat. "My health is still not better," Avon, 62, said yesterday in the wake of an independent report into the August 2008 listeriosis outbreak criticized food safety. "I was in hospital for a week and my life is still very painful," Avon said. "The government didn't do (its) job." Twenty-two people died and hundreds more fell ill after eating meats traced to a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto. "You can't put a price on someone's life," said Avon, whose immune system was damaged by food poisoning. CANADA: The report 22.jul.09 Toronto Sun http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/canada/2009/07/22/10216641-sun.html Some of investigator Sheila Weatherill's 57 recommendations to improve food safety: - All federally registered meat processors should be required to disclose any threat to food safety on their premises. (The government has already begun implementing this recommendation.) - An independent third-party audit should be carried out to determine how many meat inspectors Canada needs and how many plants they should oversee. - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency should ensure inspectors receive the right training and equipment. - Companies that manufacture meat-processing equipment should ensure their design allows them to be fully cleaned and disinfected. - When surfaces that come in contact with food test positive for Listeria, the food produced on that line on that day should be tested and the food withheld from the market until the results are known. - Institutions caring for those who are vulnerable, such as nursing homes and hospitals, should rethink serving foods that could have pathogens like Listeria. - The Public Health Agency of Canada should take the lead in the event of a national food-borne emergency. - The federal government and the provinces should co-operate in an integrated national network of laboratories. - The government should develop a plan for communicating with Canadians in the event of a food-borne emergency. CANADA: Public-private calamity 22.jul.09 Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/public-private-calamity/article1226667/ The listeria crisis that killed 22 people and made many more ill has illustrated what happens when a virulent, food-contaminating bacterium emerges in a system woefully unprepared for such an emergency. A report on the outbreak demonstrates the extent of that lack of preparedness and the degree to which it was a public-private partnership. Sheila Weatherill's independent report, commissioned by the federal government, finds Maple Leaf Foods did not follow its own policies in tracking repeated listeria outbreaks in its plant. Nor, for that matter, did Health Canada or the Canadian Food Inspection Agency - in large part because it was not clear what their policies are, or how they work in concert when it comes to tackling a national crisis such as last August's listeria outbreak. Maple Leaf wasn't required to inform CFIA of its positive listeria results dating back to 2007, nor was the inspection agency obliged to request those test results from the company. Contradictory reports from both Maple Leaf and public-health units made it difficult to find out what products were affected and who was contracting the disease. Testing was hampered because many provinces lack the laboratories required. Some Health Canada bureaucrats in charge of assessing health risks were on holiday, leaving "gaps" in Ottawa's response. The lack of clarity and communication identified in Ms. Weatherill's report are often endemic in bureaucratic bodies. But when it comes to public health and food safety, unfocused management on the part of government and business is simply unacceptable. top CANADA: Public protection 22.jul.09 Ottawa Citizen http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Public+protection/1814197/story.html A year later, the preventable deaths of 22 Canadians last summer who ate tainted meat remain both shocking and unresolved. Equally disturbing is that it has taken so long to get even partial answers about what series of events lead to those deaths. The report by government-appointed independent investigator Sheila Weatherill, released Tuesday, is one useful step toward understanding those 22 deaths and preventing future ones. But that will only happen if the federal government takes the findings seriously and acts on them. Weatherill's report paints a picture of a food protection system that, at the time of the listeriosis outbreak at Maple Leaf Foods, was underfunded and poorly organized. She cites inadequate decision-making, an insufficient focus on food safety and a lack of planning and communication as contributing to the tragedy. More worrisome, Weatherill points to a "void of leadership," whereby government officials created confusion and kept Canadians in the dark about the outbreak long after there was evidence of contamination. In particular she singles out the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for criticism, the institution whose mandate is to protect Canadians. This assessment of Canada's food safety system is unsettling news for consumers who need to have faith that the food they buy is not going to harm them. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Jul 22 14:12:21 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:12:21 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> North Carolina study: Too Much Manganese Correlates to Cancer Rates Message-ID: http://wwn-online.com/articles/2009/07/22/study-too-much-manganese-correlates-to-cancer-rates.aspx Study: Too Much Manganese Correlates to Cancer Rates Jul 22, 2009 A Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center researcher has uncovered the unique finding that groundwater and airborne manganese in North Carolina correlates with cancer mortality at the county level. The study, ?Environmental Manganese and Cancer Mortality Rates by County in North Carolina: An Ecological Study,? was published online last month by Biological Trace Element Research. Lead researcher John Spangler, M.D., professor of family and community medicine at Wake Forest Baptist, found that groundwater manganese appears to be positively associated with total cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer death rates, while airborne manganese concentrations appear to be inversely associated with total cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer death rates. ?People need manganese in trace amounts, but if you get too much of it, manganese can be dangerous,? Spangler said. ?It?s my hope that the impact of this study will be to spark additional interest and research. This really just raises the concern that something may be going on and argues for further research into these issues.? To determine whether environmental manganese is related to cancer at the county level in North Carolina, Spangler conducted an ecological study using data from the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, North Carolina Geological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, and U.S. Census. He found that airborne manganese was associated at the county level with a 14 percent decrease in total cancer deaths, a 43 percent decrease in breast cancer deaths, and a 22 percent decrease in lung cancer deaths. Additionally, Spangler found there was up to a 28 percent increase in county-level colon cancer deaths and a 26 percent increase in lung cancer deaths at the county level related to elevation of manganese in groundwater as opposed to air. ?That?s pretty astounding. These are the first data we know of to document a potential relationship between environmental manganese and population-level cancer death rates,? Spangler said. ?The positive association between groundwater manganese and specific cancer mortality rates might be a function of the high concentrations measures, while the inverse relationship between air manganese and death rates might point toward adequate (e.g. healthy) county-level manganese exposures.? Spangler points out that because manganese now replaces lead in gasoline globally, the amount of manganese in the environment is increasing and may worsen the groundwater concentration numbers in the future. The effects of these ecological findings should be confirmed at the individual level or in animal models, he said. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Jul 22 14:18:01 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:18:01 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> "Certified Organic" versus "Natural": " Natural" means pesticides and sludge Message-ID: The Greenwash Brigade Heidi Siegelbaum Horizon Organic to consumers: sewage sludge is good for you! July 22, 2009 Already plagued for falling prices and other woes, the organic food industry is now confronting 800-pound gorilla Dean Food?s decision to create a new line of ?natural? yogurts and milks through its subsidiary, Horizon Foods. For anyone vaguely familiar with advertising claims, ?natural? and ?healthy? are big sellers, regardless of the fact that the terms are barely regulated in the food market and are largely meaningless. The threat ? which is considerable ? is that this move will encourage a shift of organic dollars, the benefits of organic farming and a pretty tight USDA regulatory system toward a Wild West free for all: the ambiguous abyss called ?natural.? The feds (aka the USDA and FDA) have respectfully declined to define ?natural? except for a very narrow class of products. And so Dean Foods will fill that void with their own: natural Dean products will be those ?produced without added hormones, artificial sweeteners, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or high fructose corn syrup.? Well, that?s reassuring. Claims for natural meat and poultry only are defined and regulated by the USDA: for meat and poultry to be labeled ?natural? it must be minimally processed (a process which does not fundamentally alter the raw product). The label must explain the use of the term natural (such as ?no added colorings or artificial ingredients? or ?minimally processed?). But this is where clarity disappears. Dean?s new ?natural? yogurts and milk can ? and will ? come from dairy cows that have eaten pesticide laden feed such as corn and soy, antibiotics, pig and chicken byproducts, and sewage sludge. The only bad boy from the list of conventional animal feed that Dean has prohibited is hormones. So what?s a little sewage sludge and pesticide residue going to do to your kid anyhow? Debates rage on whether organic food is more nutritionally complete or ?better? for the consumer. Opinions vary considerably but even the EPA itself admits that children are particularly susceptible to pesticides for many reasons: children?s internal organs are still developing and maturing due to their lower body weight, children have increased exposure to anything in substances they eat or drink pesticides block nutrient absorption The Score: 1) The International Dairy Foods Association and Grocery Manufacturers Association don?t want a definition of natural (just read their letter to USDA?s Food Safety and Inspection Service from March 2, 2007). 2) Consumers responding to the recent Shelton Group Survey trust natural over organic (note to organic marketers: Get working!). 3) The FDA will not engage in rule making on ?natural? advertising claims due to ?resource limitations and other agency priorities.? 4) The new Horizon products are aimed at toddlers and children (who are particularly at risk for pesticide exposure). 5) Oh, and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology concedes that milk is the number 1 cause of food allergies in children. So, all you confused consumers out there, remember this: ATTENTION ALL SHOPPERS: Natural = pesticides. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Jul 23 12:27:44 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:27:44 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Alert - Salinas - salmonella contaminated lettuce sold 29 states and in Canada Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Here we have it again...pathogen contaminated lettuce from Salinas area - where sewage effluent is used to spray irrigate leafy greens - like romaine lettuce. This lettuce was sold all over Canada and the USA. Hold the lettuce. ................................................. ONTARIO: Health hazard alert ? Certain romaine lettuce may contain salmonella bacteria 22.jul.09 CFIA OTTAWA -- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public not to consume certain Tanimura & Antle romaine lettuce because the product may be contaminated with Salmonella. The affected product, Tanimura & Antle Romaine Lettuce, product of the United States of America, was shipped in cartons of 6, 12, or 24 lettuces, bearing an orange sticker on the carton only with lot code 531380. Individual lettuce is sold unwrapped in bulk, unwrapped with a Tanimura & Antle (T & A) logo rubber band, or wrapped in transparent plastic film. There is no lot code sticker on the individual lettuce. This product is known to have been sold at the following stores, and may have been sold nationally by other independent retailers. Stores Provinces Dates offered for sale A & P ON Up to and including July 20 Big-Way Foods BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, YT, NT, NU Up to and including July 21 Co-op BC, AB, SK, MB, Northwest ON, NU, NT Up to and including July 21 Giant Tiger SK, MB >From July 6 to July 21 Northern / Northmart SK, MB, ON, >From July 6 to July 21 Northern / Northmart Northern AB, NU >From June 26 to July 21 Metro ON Up to and including July 20 Real Canadian Wholesale CM 24 Forwell Creek, Waterloo, ON >From July 2 to July 22 Super A Foods BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, YT, NT, NU Up to and including July 21 As there is no lot code sticker on the individual lettuce, consumers are advised to check with their retailer to determine if they have affected product. There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product. Food contaminated with Salmonella may not look or smell spoiled. Consumption of food contaminated with these bacteria may cause salmonellosis, a foodborne illness. In young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, salmonellosis may cause serious and sometimes deadly infections. In otherwise healthy people, salmonellosis may cause short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Long-term complications may include severe arthritis. Importers are voluntarily recalling the affected product from the marketplace. The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recall. For more information consumers and industry can call the CFIA at 1-800-442-2342 / TTY 1-800-465-7735 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday). For information on Salmonella, visit the Food Facts web page at: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/concen/cause/salmonellae.shtml ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Romaine Lettuce Recall: Tanimura & Antle Romaine Salmonella Scare Tanimura & Antle is recalling its romaine lettuce after the Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture found salmonella in some of its products during a routine test. Tanimura & Antle, based in Salinas, Central California, is recalling lettuce which has been distributed to 29 states. Tanimura & Antle started the traceback immediately after being notified by the Wisconsin agency, according to the release, and was able to contact all customers within hours. Those buyers have been told to destroy the lettuce. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Jul 20 14:55:15 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:55:15 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Biofuels Done Right can Curb Greenhouse Gas Emissions Message-ID: Biofuels 'Done Right' Can Curb Greenhouse Gas Emissions Jul 17, 2009 - BiobasedNews.com (press release) By Chris Emery Biofuels derived from renewable sources can be produced in large quantities and address many problems related to fossil fuels, including greenhouse gas emissions, but only if they are made from certain sources, according to a new article by a team of scientists and policy experts that included several Princeton researchers. "The world needs to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, but recent research findings have thrown the emerging biofuels industry into a quandary," said David Tilman of the University of Minnesota, a noted ecologist and lead author of the paper. "We met to seek solutions. We found that the next generation of biofuels can be highly beneficial if produced properly." The paper coincides with climate change policy debates in the U.S. Congress and tackles land use issues that have generated much controversy in recent years. Specifically, it addresses concerns that clearing land to grow biofuel crops or to grow food crops displaced by biofuel crops can release more greenhouse gases than petroleum use. Titled "Beneficial Biofuels -- The Food, Energy and Environment Trilemma," the paper will appear in the July 17 issue of the journal Science. Robert Socolow, a Princeton professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, said that through careful scientific reasoning the authors of the paper discovered accounting rules to determine which strategies for generating biofuels were promising and which were not. "It is essential that legislation take the best science into account, even when that requires acknowledging and undoing earlier mistakes," Socolow said. "Future carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere will tell us when we're kidding ourselves about what actually works. For carbon management, the atmosphere is the ultimate accountant."? To balance biofuel production, food security and emissions reduction, the authors conclude that the biofuels industry must focus on five major sources of renewable biomass, the raw materials used to generate biofuels: -Perennial plants grown on degraded lands abandoned from agricultural use -Crop residues -Sustainably harvested wood and forest residues -Double crops and mixed cropping systems -Municipal and industrial wastes These sources can provide considerable amounts of biomass, at least 500 million tons per year, which could produce enough fuel to meet a significant amount of the U.S. demand for transportation fuels without releasing substantial carbon dioxide through changes in land use, the authors concluded. The researchers called for biofuels production to transition away from using food crops such as corn to generate fuels and toward the more sustainable sources they identified, which can be produced with much less impact on the environment. Eric Larson, a researcher at Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), said the new paper recognizes that converting farmland to grow a biofuel crop typically releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For instance, growing corn produces a significant amount of greenhouse gases through the use of fertilizers and tractor fuel, and processing corn into ethanol requires burning fuels for heat. Some of those emissions would be offset by the carbon the corn absorbs from the atmosphere as it grows, so there would still be some emissions benefit compared to using petroleum-based fuels. However, forests in other countries probably would be cleared to grow food corn to replace corn from U.S. farms used for fuel, a so-called "indirect land use impact" of biofuels. The researchers calculated it could take up to a century or more for such a tradeoff to result in a net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, because cutting down forests and tilling freshly cleared land releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. "You have to consider the whole life cycle of producing biofuels and the repercussions of converting new land to biomass production," said Robert Williams, a senior researcher at PEI. "In the petroleum industry they talk about the life cycle efficiency in terms of 'well to wheels.' Now we're talking 'field to wheels.'" The discussions that led to the new paper began in June 2008 at a workshop on biofuels and food hosted by the Carbon Mitigation Initiative, a Princeton center headed by Socolow and Stephen Pacala, the Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Princeton University From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Jul 22 09:15:33 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:15:33 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Minneapolis Will Pay $13, 300 for Alleged Environmental Violations Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This is a spill of lime treatment sludge - from water treatment - not from sewage sludge treatment. ..................................................... http://www.pca.state.mn.us/news/data/newsRelease.cfm?NR=281539&type=2 Minneapolis Will Pay $13,300 for Alleged Environmental Violations at Fridley Dewatering Plant FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 07/21/2009 Contact: Sam Brungardt, 651-757-2249 St. Paul, Minn. -- The city of Minneapolis has agreed to pay $13,300 to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for alleged environmental violations at its Fridley Dewatering Plant, 4300 Marshall St. N.E. The MPCA documented a number of alleged violations at the dewatering plant and by contractors who haul lime sludge from the plant for application to fields as agricultural lime. The dewatering plant reported spills from its coagulation basin to the Mississippi River, an Outstanding Resource Value Water and a commercial waterway, on Aug. 7, 2007, and Oct. 22, 2008. An inspection by MPCA staff, following the October 2008 event, revealed a three- to four-foot-wide band of white material, extending 50-75 feet from the plant's storm sewer outlet, which had accumulated on the river bottom as a result of the spill. Once in 2007 and five times in 2008, spills from trucks carrying lime sludge from the dewatering plant were not immediately reported by the hauler to the MPCA via the Minnesota Duty Officer, as required by law. In addition to paying the penalty, Minneapolis has updated its residual solids management plan, which outlines the lime sludge loading process at the treatment plant and oversight and quality assurance responsibilities that the city employs at the plant to prevent or minimize spills and releases.. The city has also modified the language of its contracts to ensure that haulers are aware of requirements for timely reporting and cleanup of spills of dewatered lime sludge. Minneapolis is currently planning upgrades at the Fridley Dewatering Plant that will phase out the lime lagoon treatment area and update facility operations for an improved dewatering process. The MPCA offers outreach and training to help facilities that have the potential to pollute the state's waters. For more information on water quality regulations, visit the agency's Web site at http://www.pca.state.mn.us. A complete list of enforcement actions that the MPCA has taken is available at http://www.pca.state.mn.us/newscenter/enforcement.html. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Minneapolis fined for sludge spills into Mississippi River Star Tribune Last update: July 21, 2009 Minneapolis is fined by MPCA Failure to prevent a suburban dewatering plant's lime sludge from spilling into the Mississippi River has cost the city of Minneapolis $13,300 in fines, state pollution officials said Tuesday. Along with paying the penalty, the city is working to prevent such spills in the future from its facility in Fridley, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The spills were in 2007 and 2008 and involved contractors who hauled the sludge from the plant by truck for use in fields as agricultural lime. PAUL WALSH From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Jul 22 14:28:15 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:28:15 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Prions Are Secreted in Milk from Clinically Normal Scrapie-Exposed Sheep Message-ID: From: Terry S. Singeltary Sr. To: TERRY SINGELTARY Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 8:28 PM Subject: Prions Are Secreted in Milk from Clinically Normal Scrapie-Exposed Sheep Journal of Virology, August 2009, p. 8293-8296, Vol. 83, No. 16 0022-538X/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.00051-09 Copyright ? 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved. Prions Are Secreted in Milk from Clinically Normal Scrapie-Exposed Sheep B. C. Maddison,1 C. A. Baker,1 H. C. Rees,2 L. A. Terry,3 L. Thorne,3 S. J. Bellworthy,3 G. C. Whitelam,2 and K. C. Gough4* ADAS UK, Department of Biology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom,1 Department of Biology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom,2 Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Woodham Lane, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 3NB, United Kingdom,3 School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, The University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, College Road, Sutton Bonington, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom4 Received 9 January 2009/ Accepted 27 May 2009 The potential spread of prion infectivity in secreta is a crucial concern for prion disease transmission. Here, serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification (sPMCA) allowed the detection of prions in milk from clinically affected animals as well as scrapie-exposed sheep at least 20 months before clinical onset of disease, irrespective of the immunohistochemical detection of protease-resistant PrPSc within lymphoreticular and central nervous system tissues. These data indicate the secretion of prions within milk during the early stages of disease progression and a role for milk in prion transmission. Furthermore, the application of sPMCA to milk samples offers a noninvasive methodology to detect scrapie during preclinical/subclinical disease. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, The University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, College Road, Sutton Bonington, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom. Phone: 44-115-9516272. Fax: 44-115-9516440. E-mail: kevin.gough at nottingham.ac.uk Published ahead of print on 3 June 2009. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Journal of Virology, August 2009, p. 8293-8296, Vol. 83, No. 16 0022-538X/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.00051-09 Copyright ? 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved. http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/83/16/8293?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=PRION&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&volume=83&issue=16&resourcetype=HWCIT Wednesday, March 18, 2009 Detection of CWD Prions in Urine and Saliva of Deer by Transgenic Mouse Bioassay http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2009/03/detection-of-cwd-prions-in-urine-and.html Friday, December 12, 2008 Prions in Milk from Ewes Incubating Natural Scrapie Prions in Milk from Ewes Incubating Natural Scrapie http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2008/12/prions-in-milk-from-ewes-incubating.html ****** [5] Italy: Prions suspected in sheep milk Date: Tue 8 Nov 2005 From: ProMED-mail Source: News at nature.com, 3 Nov 2005 [edited] http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1202:5548991170320905::NO::F2400_P1202_CHECK_DISPLAY,F2400_P1202_PUB_MAIL_ID:X,30998 TSS Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Prions Are Secreted in Milk from Clinically Normal Scrapie-Exposed Sheep http://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2009/07/prions-are-secreted-in-milk-from.html -------------------- BSE-L at LISTS.AEGEE.ORG -------------------- From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Jul 24 18:49:37 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:49:37 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ontario - rural West Lincoln doesn't trust gov't move regulate sludge by Nutrient Management Act Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This rural council has had plenty of experience in Ontario's mismanagement of land applied sewage sludge and paper sludge. They clearly don't like the change that proposes to take away the certificate of approval requirement for sludges...and leaves the sludge to be managed by the Nutrient Management Act. Oh - and it calls sewage sludge and paper sludge by the catchy name 'NASM' (non agricultural source material). I guess everyone knows that the pretty 'biosolids' is really the same as 'sludge'. So they came up with NASM so no one would know what they are talking about. Here is the title from the Environmental Registry for public consultation: " Regulatory Framework for the Management of Non-Agricultural Source Materials and Regulatory Amendments Concerning Milking Centre Washwater and Anaerobic Digestion " http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/ Who would guess they mean sewage sludge, paper sludge, or even 'biosolids' based on this title? There is an unseemly rush to race this proposal past the post - 30 days is a very short comment period for this....many municipal councils and organizations don't even meet in the summer and will not have time to comment. ................................... Environment Ministry has double standard July 22,209 West Lincoln Council talked about Non-Agricultural Source Materials (NASM) at its meeting on July 20. A report was prepared to provide Council with information and staff concerns about proposed changes to the regulatory framework for NASM. The Ministry of Environment (MoE) and Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Rural Affairs 9OMAFRA) proposed changes to the Environmental Protection Act and the Nutrient Management Act that will affect how NASM are regulated. NAASM includes materials like pulp and paper applied to agricultural land as a nutrient. Staff are concerned that there is no mechanism for members of the public to provide comments or suggestions on the proposal to apply NASM on farmland. A second concern is the fines and penalties for violation don't reflect those of the Environmental Protection Act. Alderman Sue Ellen Merritt asked if other municipalities are doing this. Planner David Deluce answered that there had been a well attended meeting, including farmers, and corporations that prepare nutrient management strategies. ?I'm not sure how many municipalities were there, but 21 sent correspondence to West Lincoln expressing similar sentiments,? he said. Alderman Merritt then asked if those letters also went to the Ministry. Mr Deluce didn't know, ?but according to the Ministry 84 comments had been received. Many echoed our comments.? Aldermen Merritt thanked staff for bringing the matter to Council's attention. Mayor Katie Trombetta said, ?I can't support this, because I have grave concerns about the Ministry of Environment. It's my understanding they won't be notifying municipalities.? Mr Deluce answered, ?They will notify when a NASM plant is approved. It's not obligated - only a courtesy.? Mayor Trombetta replied, ?That's the key. We want regulatory requirement and mandatory prior notice. I have absolutely no faith in the MoE.? Alderman Merritt said, ?I agree on having no faith in MoE from my experience - and Madam Mayor has been here longer than I have. What are their definitions of temporary and storage?? Continued After Advertisement Below Advertisement Mayor Trombetta said, ?The past has a habit of haunting. Years ago they (MoE) stored material made from human waste for a week, piling it with no regard for their own regulations about setback. Until public outcry was so great they were forced to move it.? Alderman John Glazier asked the mayor, ?Didn't they store it next to you? For a week to 10 days? Within five meters of people?s houses? In violation of their regulations? Mayor Trombetta responded, ?Ministry of Environment never came out to ensure it was plowed under within 24 hours.? Director of Planning Brian Treble told Council, ?Depending on material, some can be stored up to six months.? Alderman Norm Johnson asked the mayor if she was more concerned with setback or storage requirements. ?Both,? replied the mayor. ?Although I'm more concerned with storage. Temporary storage time frame is in months.? Alderman Johnson explained that regulations state when such material can be applied. ?If the ground is frozen, it runs off in the first thaw. In the winter, spring, heavy rain, if the product expired, or is left for weeks, it can run out to streams and watercourses. The Ministry is not on top of everything.? Mayor Trombetta elaborated. ?It's one thing to take manure out of the barn. We're talking bio-solids - human waste. I have seen this in dry form piled on property and left for two weeks. That's my concern.? Alderman Johnson said, ?The Ministry of Environment ignores the two biggest water polluters in Ontario. The first is the city of Ottawa; the second is the Regional Municipality of Niagara. Yet they'll crucify some farmer for spilling a bit of manure. They have a double standard - they'll pick on somebody they know they can beat up.? Article ID# 1667989 http://www.westniagaranews.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1667989 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Jul 24 18:54:25 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:54:25 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Waterkeeper asks Ministry of Environment for longer consultation on CofA for sludged farms Message-ID: Michelle Whitbread Senior Policy Analyst Ministry of the Environment Integrated Environmental Policy Division Waste Management Policy Branch 135 St Clair Avenue West, Floor 7 Toronto, ON M4V 1P5 Fax: (416) 325-4437 CC: Gord Miller, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario July 23, 2009 Dear Ms Whitbread: Re: EBR # 010-6515: A Regulatory Framework for the Management of Non-Agricultural Source Materials and Regulatory Amendments Concerning Milking Centre Washwater and Anaerobic Digestion We are writing to request an extension of time to comment on the above noted matter. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper believes that this proposal involves complex issues that have the potential to negatively impact the environment. In order to provide fulsome, meaningful comments to the Minister on this important decision, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper must have the time to conduct a thorough review of the proposal and research potential impacts. We believe that the thirty days alloted for public comment is not sufficient and must be extended to ensure that the decision reflects public concerns and the best available scientific information. Please feel free to contact Joanna Bull, counsel for Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, at 416-861-1237 if you have any questions or concerns about this request. Sincerely, Mark Mattson President and Waterkeeper 600 Bay Street, Suite 410. Toronto, ON M5G 1M6 T 416-861-1237 admin at waterkeeper.ca www.waterkeeper.ca Proud member of Waterkeeper Alliance From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Jul 24 18:28:37 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:28:37 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Maple Leaf CEO wrings his blood stained hands but doesn't implement food safety step Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The tragic toll - 22 deaths in Canada from listeriosis from Maple Leaf Foods, and here is Michael McCain having the nerve to say we have one of the best food safety programs in the world! Maple Leaf was going to implement High Hydrostatic treatment of sliced meats - the norm for packing sliced deli meats in the European Union. see: Health Canada has notified Maple Leaf Consumer Foods that it has no objection to the food use of Ready to Eat (RTE) meat-containing entrees, meat-containing salads and meat products which have been treated by high hydrostatic pressure (HHP). The Department conducted a comprehensive assessment of these RTE meat-containing entrees, meat-containing salads and meat products according to its Guidelines for the Safety Assessment of Novel Foods. These Guidelines are based upon internationally accepted principles for establishing the safety of novel foods. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/gmf-agm/appro/nf-an151decdoc-eng.php Now word is that Maple Leaf is not going to implement this needed food safety step...so we can expect more listeria. But the responsibility is both on the shoulders of Maple Leaf and the failure of the Federal Food Inspection Agency to inspect plants and to enforce standards and to communicate to health officials around Canada. Very very much like Walkerton. Very very much like sludge regulations. .................................................. CANADA: What we learned? 24.jul.09 Maple Leaf Michael McCain http://blog.mapleleaf.com/2009/07/what-we-learned?-203 This week the report of the Weatherill Investigation into the listeriosis tragedy of last year was released. It reflected interviews with government, Maple Leaf, industry, and victims? family. I said and strongly believe that there is good medicine for government, the industry and Maple Leaf in the report. I hope government doesn?t wait long to move forward with the recommendations. I know we aren?t. Maple Leaf has never ducked responsibility for what happened. We were accountable for the death of 22 Canadians. Our company will never be the same. We have moved from shock and remorse to anger that this happened on our watch and an absolute resolve that we will have one of the best food safety programs in the world. I attribute this disaster largely to one factor - our misplaced confidence in our food safety system that just wasn?t good enough. It?s not that management didn?t care. We went well beyond the regulations. We invested millions. At the time, the Canadian government recommended a Listeria management program but did not require one. Unlike many companies, we followed the recommendation, and we were always early adopters of new standards. We had a detailed testing protocol for Listeria and we aggressively sanitized any location where Listeria was found. We followed our procedures rigorously and we found no violations of that. That is why it was never escalated. But - the procedures were inadequate! The Weatherill report rightly noted that the main thing we got wrong was failing to analyze the pattern of Listeria test findings to trace them back to root causes - like the slicing machine that was harbouring Listeria. The Weatherill report suggested we didn?t follow our own policy. We don?t quite see it that way, but the major point is the same. What trend analysis meant to us in August 2008 was tracking the number of test positives and making sure that every one was sanitized. We did that. What trend analysis means to us now is daily, scientific analysis to look for repeat patterns and root causes, full management oversight, and quarantine procedures. We didn?t do that, because - tragically - it wasn?t in the protocol. It didn?t exist in the Canadian industry or government. It does now. Some people understandably wonder how Maple Leaf could have had Listeria positive after positive without ever warning the public that we had a food safety problem. This is really important to understand - and it?s hard to understand, especially if you lost a loved one to Listeria. Yes, we had periodic positive findings for Listeria. Every plant that tests for Listeria finds positives for Listeria. Listeria exists in every plant, every food establishment and every kitchen - almost every day. We knew we had Listeria in the plant as all plants do - but, not in the food. Every time we found it, we sanitized that part of the plant extra-carefully, and then we retested three times to make sure the Listeria was gone. And we never had a repeat positive. We believed our program was working. We were confident that we did not have a food safety problem. We were sure we had nothing to warn anybody about. We were wrong, tragically wrong. Because we never tracked our positive findings back to that contaminated slicer, we never got to the source of the Listeria - and eventually the Listeria got into some of our food. Would we have acted sooner if we had known then what we know now? Yes - and we could have saved lives in the process. That is something I live with every day, and because of that I will never be satisfied until we have the best food safety system in the world. This is not much comfort to the victims and their families, I know. But it is what I can do to try to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sat Jul 25 12:20:16 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:20:16 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> In 15 years half of world's population will have stressed access to drinking water Message-ID: Mouth-watering prospect 2009/07/25 In 15 years, half of the world?s population will have less or no access to drinking water. However, Singapore is working to produce water supply in an affordable and energy-efficient way. LYDIA GOMEZ writes SINGAPORE: Nestled in a building in Singapore is a test laboratory that is becoming a major player in the water business. The 2-year-old ?Water Hub? is a cradle for some of the most advanced technology in water reclamation and reuse, establishing itself as a frontrunner in boosting international research efforts. For decades, Singapore has faced the task of finding a sustainable water system to feed its industries and its 4.8 million people. But the realisation that time and resources were limited pushed the island nation to flag off a competition last year to find the most cost- and energy- efficient way to convert seawater into drinking water. Siemens Water Technologies is among companies in the republic with staff at the jointly-funded laboratory. The company emerged the winner of the ?Singapore Innovative Technology Challenge?, with the prize of a US$3 million (RM10.5 million) research funding from the Singaporean gover nment. Siemen?s seawater desalination re - duces energy consumption by 90 per cent to just 1.5 kilowatt hours (kWh). This is done by channelling water through an electric field instead of the traditional energy-intensive heating and vaporising processes. The electric field method also halved the amount of energy needed by an earlier method of desalination using reverse osmosis, the most popular method worldwide. In reverse osmosis, the salt is filtered out through porous membranes which can retain up to 99.7 percent of the salt contained in seawater, producing drinking-quality water without requiring after-treatment . Company vice-president Dr R?diger Knauf, during a recent media tour of its laboratories, said: ?I believe we can outdo reverse osmosis. ?But this technology needs four to five years of development before we can sell it in the market. That is our next challenge.? Thus, this technology will have to stay put in the laboratory for now. Knauf hopes to set up a demonstration plant by 2011, with the help of Singapore?s water research communities that includes the Public Utilities Board, Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore and government bodies. The synergy provided a suitable environment and support system to carry out research work. ?This is the way to go forward. You find the right combination of processes to make the water you need. That hybrid can produce phenomenal results.? While Singapore toys with this breakthrough, another is in the works: to minimise sewage sludge from water treatment plants. Siemens researchers are working on the cannibal solids reduction process in which a large portion of the sludge is broken down biologically using bacteria leading to a 50 per cent reduction in sludge mass. Traditionally, Knauf said, the sludge residue had to be dehydrated in large heaters before it was transported out of the plant. Water Hub scientists are in the midst of patenting this ?green technology?, which could also give way to another source of energy where they manage the decomposition process in such a way that methane gas produced can be turned into electric power to run other processes. Other projects are also set to be tested, many of them to detect dangerous contaminants in the water and to monitor water quality. Siemens Corporate Technology head Dr Rudolf Gensler said the demand for safer water was constantly r ising. ?We are developing newer sensor methods to monitor toxic substances in water and to keep water networks safe in case of a terrorist attack.? legomez at nst.com.my From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Jul 27 05:04:35 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:04:35 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> New EIR available for Hinkley composting facility In-Reply-To: <4A6C9A40.5090609@mindspring.com> References: <4A6C9A40.5090609@mindspring.com> Message-ID: http://www.desertdispatch.com/common/printer/view.php?db=desertdispatch&id=6566 New EIR available for Hinkley composting facility By JESSICA CEJNAR, staff writer 2009-07-26 BARSTOW ? After months of waiting, the company behind a proposed composting facility near Hinkley may be one step closer to construction. But opponents of the project hope to get information they need to stop the facility. A supplemental environmental impact report about the Hawes Composting Facility, which Nursery Products LLC plans to build eight miles west of Hinkley, will be available for viewing Monday. According to a notice of preparation issued March 9 by the San Bernardino County Land Use Department, the report will assess the water supply in the area, examine the feasibility of enclosing the composting facility and assess the effect of the project on global climate change. Chris Seney, director of operations for Nursery Products, said after public comment on the supplemental EIR ends Sept. 13, pending approval by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, construction can begin as soon as November. Even though the company pays for the environmental impact report studies, Seney said the company isn?t involved in the process until the reports are ready. ?We have nothing to do with it, which is extremely frustrating,? Seney said. ?It was supposed to be out initially months ago.? Norman Diaz, who lives outside of Hinkley and is chairman of HelpHinkley.org, the group that has been fighting the proposed facility since 2007, said he will take the supplemental EIR to Sacramento, the Sierra Club, the Barstow City Council and other places to get agencies to comment on the proposed facility. The supplemental EIR was prepared after a judge ruled in June 2008 that the original environmental impact report, prepared in 2006, did not identify the project?s water source or examine whether or not it would be feasible to enclose the facility. Seney said Nursery Products asked the county to study the greenhouse gases that may be emitted by the facility. ?We voluntarily put that one in because a lot of projects have been challenged on that,? Seney said. ?On top of it I already know what the answer?s going to be: Composting is green and it reduces greenhouse gases.? Diaz said he was initially told the supplemental EIR would be released in May. The date then got pushed back to June and then the week of July 13. Once it does come out, Diaz said he and his group will travel the state and country to find agencies willing to join them in opposing the composting facility. ?I want everyone to comment good or bad,? he said, adding that he will take the supplemental EIR to the California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. ?I want someone to tell me that this is safe. I want someone to prove to me that this is OK.? Jim Squire, deputy director for Land Use Services, said the supplemental EIR will be posted on the Land Use Department?s Web site. Copies of the report will be available at the department?s offices in Victorville and San Bernardino as well as at the Hinkley Senior Citizens Center and the Barstow Branch Library. Comments should be sent to Carrie Hyke, the project?s principal planner, at the Land Use Services Department, Advance Planning Division at 385 N. Arrowhead Avenue, first floor, San Bernardino, Calif., 92415-0182. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue Jul 28 21:41:59 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:41:59 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Galindo Spain - energy from sludge - payback in 3.92 years Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The Galindo project is 38% cheaper than the classic system of anaerobic digestion followed by drying, mechanical dewatering and incineration. It handles the sludge from a population of 760,000 inhabitants. If you look at the story on line you will be able to see the photos. ............................................ http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/bioenergy/doc/chp/03bm_509_1994.pdf Optimisation of Energy Recovery from Sludge Generated by a Waste Water Treatment Plant 1. Aim The aim of the project is to optimise the recovery of energy in sludge generated by a wastewater treatment plant by converting it into electric power. Wastewater treatment plants are big consumers of electric power, especially when nitrification is involved in the biological process. Thus it is an attractive option for such plants to recover and optimise the energy that is contained in the sludge they generate. Being aware of this possibility, the Consorcio de Aguas Bilbao-Bizkaia has developed and set up a cogeneration plant in Galindo (Sestao, Bizkaia). Photo 1: General view of the sludge incinerator plant 2. Introduction When operating, a wastewater treatment plant generates waste that has been separated from the water during the sedimentation process as well as other waste produced during the biological treatment process. When combined, both kinds of waste form sludge that has to be treated and removed. Sludge should basically be considered as a fuel. To achieve a maximum level of dry matter content, sludge has to be dewatered mechanically by filter presses with polyelectrolyte, in order to recover the organic matter as a source of energy for thermochemical conversion. This option is to be considered more efficient than anaerobic digestion since more energy is generated and the remaining residues after incineration (ash) is minimal. The Galindo plant receives at this moment wastewater from a population of about 760,000 inhabitants. Taking into account the progress of the master plan for sewage disposal in the Greater Bilbao area, some 930,000 residents will discharge in the near future waste effluent into the mains. Moreover, the sewerage system is also collecting -mostly pretreatedwastewater from industrial plants. Consorcio de Aguas Bilbao-Bizkaia has always aimed to recover energy from the sludge and convert it in electric power to be used at the Galindo plant. It was decided to build a fluidised bed kiln which would burn the sludge to produce steam at 40 bar and 400 ?C for power generation. 3. Technical Description Sludge Dewatering In order to optimise the process, sludge must be dewatered applying anionic polyelectrolyte (chemical agents assisting the separation of solid matter) to the sludge and using filter presses for dewatering. It should be remarked that it is not advisable to use lime and ferric chloride with the filter press if the sludge is to be burnt, because these chemicals can cause corrosion and other problems to the scrubbers, the kiln and the boiler. The dewatering process result in an increase in the heating value of the sludge as the water content decreases. For 58 wt% of organic matter, the lower heating capacity is about 21.77 MJ/ kg. At the Galindo wastewater treatment plant after the pretreatment stage, the primary sludge has a dry matter content of 40 wt%. The sludge can be burned autothermally, i.e. no external energy is consumed during the incineration process, provided that there is at least 60 wt% of organic matter with regard to the dry matter content. The rest 40 % of the dry matter corresponds to the ash or inert content of the sludge. It is planned to install a new biological treatment step aiming at 35 wt% dry matter with 65 wt% organic matter. With this sludge quality there will be more water in the sludge to be evaporated during the incineration process but the sludge will have higher value of heat capacity. Cogeneration system The cost of producing energy is determined by the cost of sludge dewatering, settling and thickening. All operations previous to the injection of the sludge into the kiln are carried out so as to maximise the organic matter content of the sludge to about 38- 40 wt%, i.e. enough for autothermal incineration. It must be pointed out that the primary role of the kiln is to reduce the amount of sludge generated by the wastewater treatment plant as much as possible, burning it to ashes, which represents approximately 12 wt% of the injected sludge. The cogeneration plant consists primarily of a steam turbine and a piston-powered engine that runs on natural gas (see photo 2). The operating principle is as follows: steam produced in the recovery boiler is led to the condensing turbine, having a max. output of 1,2 MWe. The steam is automatically controlled before entering into the turbine and is condensed after its expansion within the turbine to a temperature of 35?C since there is vacuum of 50 milibar in the condenser. The condensed water is fed again into the boiler's feed circuit. A 1 MWe natural gas motor has been installed together with the turbine. The waste heat of the flue gases is recovered in order to use it in the process. The exhaust gases from the motor pass through a recovery boiler to produce steam at 15 bar. By means of a heat exchanger (see photo 3) the kiln's combustion air is preheated up to 180 ?C in order to increase the efficiency of the kiln. The water from the engine cooling circuit is used at 95?C to raise the temperature of the condensed water from the turbine, from 35?C to 85?C before entering into the return tank that belongs to the main steam production system. Photo 2: The steam turbine Finally, there is a cooling tower so that the gas motor can run independently. The electric power that is produced is connected to the mains of the wastewater treatment plant at 30.000 V and is used entirely for the plant operational requirements. The power generated by the turbine depends directly on the steam flow produced in the boiler, which depends at the same time on the incineration rate of the kiln. In case of a general voltage shutdown, it has been foreseen that the steam turbine will not stop and that the main equipment continues to operate. 4. Performance of the Plant The quality of the sludge is of primary importance. The organic content of the dry matter achieved after the dewatering process is a determining parameter of the system. At the initial stages of operation of the plant, when the polyelectrolyte system was not used yet, lime and ferric chloride were used to dewater the sludge to 45 wt% dry matter, however, natural gas was needed for the combustion process and moreover, more than 3.30 hours were necessary for the pressing process. With polyelectrolyte, the time necessary for the pressing process has been reduced to only 70 minutes. The sludge quality depends on the weather conditions: sludge is better when the weather is sunny and dry, and it is worse when it rains because of the dilution of the waste waters with rain water. Average quality sludge can generate about 3 t/h steam at feeding flowrate of about 3.3 t/h sludge and preheated air at 180?C. The average operational steam flowrate is 3.0 ? 4.0 t/h at 40 bar and 400?C - 410?C which results in a power generation in the range of 700 - 840 KWh by the turbine. At present the kiln operates below its nominal capacity as the sludge produced by the wastewater plant is not sufficient to meet the kiln's nominal capacity. Nevertheless, when all Photo 3: The natural gas fired piston engine and the waste heat recovery boiler wastewaters from the greater area of Bilbao will be collected and sent to the wastewater treatment plant the there will be sufficient sludge produced to meet the kiln's nominal capacity. In full operation of the kiln the steam production will be increased in the range of 4 - 4,5 t/h steam which will result in electric power production in the range of 840 - 1000 kW. 5. Economic Performance There is a yearly saving of 100.300.800 pts thanks to the incineration of 10.750 t/year dry matter (sludge), which means that 1000 gr dry matter allows to save 9,33 ptas. In other words, solids generated by 13-14 inhabitants produce 1 kWh at a cost of 12 pts. The Galindo project is 38% cheaper than the classic system of anaerobic digestion followed by drying, mechanical dewatering and incineration. The simple payback calculation results to 3.92 years 4. Project Identifiers Project: BM/509/94-SP Owner: Consorcio de Aguas Bilbao-Bizkaia San Vicente 8, 4a Planta E-48001 Bilbao Spain Tel: + 34-94-4873100 Fax: + 34-94-4873110 Contractors: CABAS, IBERESE & PREMATECNICA SA Technology: IBERESE & PREMATECNICA SA Total Cost: 4,535,647 ECU EC Support: 557,248 ECU From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Jul 31 10:26:32 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:26:32 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Prince Edward Island - Cavendish Farms goes to energy from potato biomass Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: You may not recall...but Cavendish Farms - the huge potato processor in Prince Edward Island Canada - refused to take potatoes from fields that had received compost made on the island due to concern about contamination of the potato crop with matter found in the compost. (see bottom story below) Sewage sludge land application in New Brunswick also faced up to the music. In developing a very very expensive land application program for Moncton sewage sludge, the sludge promoters forgot that much of New Brunswick is planted to potatoes, and potato producers won't buy pototoes from farms using sludge fertilizer. Cavendish Farms is building a potato waste biomass facility - with a handsome gift from the taxpayer. If you want to read a report about it with a VERY lively and intelligent public commentary go to: http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=34716&sc=98 ........................................................... http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2910 Cavendish Farms completes potato waste-to-biogas plant By Anna Austin North American potato product producer Cavendish Farms has completed construction of an anaerobic digestion facility to generate biogas from potato waste, a project the company believes is a first for the potato industry. Feedstock materials include potato plant residues, starch, spent frying oil and aerobic sludge from the existing wastewater treatment plant. The facility will handle production rates of 120,000 tons per year of feedstock, or an estimated average blended input of 360 tons per day. Cavendish Farms began developing the facility in 2006, after two years of project evaluation. The wastewater treatment plant has been operating for more than 10 years, and has used the anaerobic sludge resulting from the treatment process as a soil conditioner. Now, the company will use the generated biogas from the anaerobic digestion facility to power boilers in its two co-located processing plants. The leftover digestate material will serve as a fertilizer to be spread over fields in place of potato waste/sludge, reducing odors. Cavendish expects the new plant, in New Annan, Prince Edward Island, will provide numerous benefits and savings to the company, and will potentially reduce its carbon footprint by 30 percent to 35 percent. The company also estimated it will reduce current fossil fuel requirements by 10 million liters (2.6 million gallons) per year, significantly reduce the amount of fueling trucks required, and eliminate trucks required to remove potato waste from the plant?a decrease of 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) or 10 to 14 truckloads per day. ................................... Glass, metal found in Waste Watch compost Last Updated: Thursday, September 18, 2003 | 3:45 PM AT CBC News The Island's largest food processor says compost from the Waste Watch compost plant contains "major potential food hazards.'' Cavendish Farms spokesperson Mary Keith says one of the company's producers ordered a load of compost, which contained metal and glass particles. She says Cavendish immediately notified the rest of its producers not to use the product. "A particle of glass or metal could potentially become part of the food chain or become part of the processing," she says. Keith adds that any risk of hazardous materials could affect the company's ability to export product. She says American food, safety, and border officials have been extremely cautious since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. "One of the concerns, obviously, is bioterrorism. They're looking for assurances that every part of the food chain is without hazard," she says. The company say the note is a warning for the next growing season. Compost is government-approved: IWMC The manager of the Island Waste Management Corporation, Cleve Myers, says there's not much he can do to ensure the compost is 100 per cent free of foreign materials. Meyers says because the material for the compost facility comes from homes and businesses, it's virtually impossible to ensure no foreign materials ? such as paperclips or pins ? enter the composting process. However, he says the compost is safe to use, adding it has been given a category "A" rating by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Myers says all farm fields contain foreign substances of one kind or another, too. "Trucks drive over them. They drop things off them. Potato harvesters. So it's not like if you don't use compost there will never be anything in your soil, and if you do it will be awful," he says. "If Cavendish chooses not to use it, or not to buy product from anybody that does use it, that's their business. We may not happen to agree with it, but they are a private company and they can do what they want. It unfortunately sends the wrong message to people who may be considering using it." Meyers does not expect the Waste Management Corporation to have any problems selling its compost product to other customers. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2003/09/18/mb_compost20030918.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Jul 31 13:01:38 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:01:38 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ontario Farmer - Province rushes consultation to remove waste permits for sludges Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: When the Province started contemplating changes to the Nutrient Management Act to bring sludge under nutrient management by the Ministry of Agriculture instead of waste management under the Ministry of the Environment the only search term you could use to find the legislation was 'Non Agricultural Source Material (NASM)'. Any searches or flags for info on 'sludge', 'sludges', biosolids' would not find this consultation posting. However, if you work for the Ontario government and search using the government website, THEN the proposed changes in sludge regs turned up. No press releases were provided, and the government would not post or publish the location of the so called 'public meetings'. This is the kind of deceitful informational engineering being done to keep the public out of the consultation loop on these ill considered deregulatory moves on sludge in Ontario. More on this soon. Here are two stories from the Ontario Farmer (sent to every farmer in Ontario) ////////////////////////////////// Ontario Farmer Tuesday, July 7, 2009 Feedback wanted on new biosolids rules Some people have been critical of the timing, saying it leaves little time to prepare a response BY FRANCES ANDERSON ONTARIO FARMER Section: News Page: A10 New regulations regarding sewage biosolids, milkhouse wash water and off-farm materials for anaerobic digestors were posted last week. The Ministry of the Environment has designated a 30-day comment period, with consultations starting this week, so "stakeholders" are scrambling to pull presentations together in the face of fieldwork and summer vacations. Deb Vice, a dairy farmer from North Oshawa, only received notice through a former lobby group, Protect the Ridges, which is now disbanded. She has lobbied regarding the unregulated disposal of paper sludge for a decade. The timing and notice is "unfair" said Vice. The notice went up on the Environmental Bill of Rights web site "before a national holiday" when a lot of people take extended vacations and allowed barely a week before the first public meetings -in Kemptville this Wednesday and Newcastle this Thursday. The consultations conclude next week in London and Barrie. Not only that, but people need to register 72 hours in advance, and won't be given the time and address until they do. "I find it intimidating," said Vice. "I'd like to be able to just show up at a public meeting without having to give my name and email." Vice contacted Ontario Farmer(there were no press releases), because, she said, "farmers need to be involved in this process." The regulations are for "governing the application of Non- Agricultural Source Materials (NASMs) on agricultural land." These materials range from leaf and yard waste to food processing waste, pulp and paper and sewage biosolids. Vice is particularly concerned that the regs are being introduced as exemptions to the Environmental Protection Act. Transferring responsibility regarding NASMs applied to farm land from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAF) amounts to "a move to have industry self-regulate," said Vice. "There's a lot of waste from industry that needs to be diverted from landfill and I don't think farmers' land should be a waste disposal site. The producer of the waste should be held accountable." Eileen Smith, who manages policy development for biosolids standards for MOE, replies that focusing on the land is the intent of the new regulations. Instead of requiring a Certificate of Approval under the Environmental Protection Act, for applying higher risk material like sewage biosolids, farmers will need a Nutrient Management Plan approved by OMAFRA. The people that produce the material will be responsible for testing it, and the farmers, responsible for soil testing. The focus becomes the quality of the material, and the nutrients requirements of the soil and the crop, said Smith. The new regulations set out standards: conditions for application such as setbacks from surface water and depth of snow cover, application rates, and waiting periods grazing livestock or harvesting crops after application. "I would say it's more prescriptive," said Smith. "It is not industry self-policing; it is government policing." There will be three categories of material and NASMs with the high levels of metals, pathogens or odour will still need a Certificate of Approval for application. Haulers will continue to need a Certificate of Approval to bring materials to the farm. Non-agricultural lands, such as public parks, will still need a Certificate of Approval in order to apply NASMs. As well, "if there's a material outside the allowable framework, somebody may make the case they want a Certificate of Approval, because it's not going down as a nutrient," Smith said. There are also changes proposed for the storage and land application of milkhouse wash water. Another amendment will increase the volume of off-farm material that farmers can bring onto the farm to feed their anaerobic digester without a Certificate of Approval. The new regulations will double the allowable volume, raising the limit from 25 to 50 per cent. ID: 86016201 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; Ontario Farmer Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Sewage waste concerns generate most interest at biosolids meeting There's plenty of public interest in hearings on MOE's proposed new biosolids rules Source: BY FRANCES ANDERSON, ONTARIO FARMER Section: News Page: A8 Lambeth -The province is discussing new rules for biosolids ranging from lawn clippings to sewage waste, but the latter got most the attention at the information meeting here last week. The proposed regulations drafted by the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) will make material now treated as "waste" under the Environmental Protection Act into "nutrients," managed under the Nutrient Management Act - when they're applied to agricultural land. In order to meet the definition of a "nutrient", non-agricultural source materials (NASMs) must be able to provide some sort of "benefit" explained Sharon Johnson, who develops policy for OMAFRA. At minimum, NASMs must increase organic matter or soil pH, supply plant available nitrogen, phosphorus, and/or potassium, or provide irrigation. "This framework will not lead to higher or lower application rates per se," explained Dale McComb, an environmental specialist with OMAFRA. "It will lead to a number of different limitors. The application rate will be set by the first limit reached and there are limits for nitrogen, phosphorus, 11 metals, sodium, fat, oil and grease, and boron. Establishing standards will allow the people who produce the waste to apply more to the land if they can demonstrate through testing that the material falls within the specified limits. David Nussey, the operations manager for Belle River/Maidstone's Waste Treatment Plant, said they dewater and compost sewage and he anticipates he'll be able to increase application of the peat-like product from eight tonnes per hectare to 20 tonnes under the new regs. Likewise there are standards for odours. They have been determined scientifically, using the European standard, explained Cecily Flemming a scientist with MOE. It's based on a sniff test by a panel of people with trained noses. The level of odour affects storage options as well as setbacks for application. There is also provision, in "limited circumstances" for winter spreading of lower risk materials, Johnson said. They will need to be incorporated right away. WENDY OMVLEE, a goat milk producer from Nanticoke, said the waste generators should not expect farmers to pick up the cost of any aspect of biosolids application. The draft regulations make waste generators responsible for test ing mater ials, but farmers responsible for soil testing. The farmers should incorporate soil testing costs into any agreement to receive NASMs, Omvlee suggested, adding that the waste generators should be glad to pay because it's much cheaper to apply NASMs to farmland than pay tipping fees at a landfill. Farmers receiving higher risk materials such as sewage sludge will also have the cost of developing a NASM plan. It doesn't have to include the whole farm, only "areas where (NASMs) are going to be land applied and stored," Johnson said, adding "The intent is to have the plans for a one-year period. The people developing NASM plans, whether farmers or their consultants, will be required to obtain a Non-agricultural Operat ion Plan Development Certificate. The details are not yet determined, but the certificate will require attending a course, and writing an exam, and fees are likely to be in line with courses for nutrient management . ANOTHER FARMER, Chris Dancey from Aylmer asked about public notice of biosolids use. OMAFRA is to notify the municipality when a NASM plan is approved. And applicators are to notify MOE before spreading. Provincial legislation cannot require a municipality to notify the public, Johnson said, but NASM plans can be accessed through Freedom of Information legislation. Paul Burgher, who works for the Halton Regional Health Unit, asked about complaints since he regularly fields calls from residents concerned about spreading sludge. Flemming said MOE directs callers concerned about health to the local health unit or their doctor, while it handles nuisance and odour complaints. The province is working to do better and MOE and OMAFRA formed a Health and Safety subcommittee last spring to improve the process for responding to complaints. The new draft regulations dropped the requirements for waste generators to have a NASM strategy and the requirement for the generators to have 240 days of storage. Cam Walsh, the manager of waste water services for the City of Guelph, said making storage a best management practice, rather than a regulatory requirement, will make it harder to get funding, because politicians may view "best management" as optional. The 30-day comment period on the proposed regulations is scheduled to end July 29. There were requests at the meeting to extend this period. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Jul 31 13:45:29 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:45:29 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Nursery Products throws up a Supplemental EIR for the proposed Hinkley sludge compost plan Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Here is the Notice from San Bernardino County for the 'Supplemental EIR' for Nursery Products' proposed open air sewage sludge compost site in Hinkley California. To read the whole 57 page document go to: http://www.co.san-bernardino.ca.us/landuseservices/Public%20Notices/EIRs/Nursery%20Products%207-09/1-Draft%20SEIR%20Nursery%20Products%20Hawes%20Composting%20Facility.pdf To read the court decision on the courtcase throwing out the old EIR on Apr 11 2008 go to: http://www.co.san-bernardino.ca.us/landuseservices/Public%20Notices/EIRs/Nursery%20Products%207-09/Nursery%20Products%20Court%20Ruling.pdf ........................................................ http://www.co.san-bernardino.ca.us/landuseservices/Public%20Notices/NOA/NOA%20Nursery%20Products.pdf LAND USE SERVICES DEPARTMENT ADVANCE PLANNING DIVISION 385 North Arrowhead Avenue ? San Bernardino, CA 92415-0182 (909) 387-4147 http://www.sbcounty.gov/landuseservices Fax (909) 387-3223 MARK H. UFFER County Administrative Officer Board of Supervisors NORMAN A. KANOLD BRAD MITZELFELT............................... First District NEIL DERRY........................................ Third District Assistant County Administrator PAUL BIANE.................................... Second District GARY C. OVITT, Chair....................... Fourth District Public and Support JOSIE GONZALES................................. Fifth District Services Group COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO PUBLIC AND SUPPORT SERVICES GROUP JULIE RYNERSON ROCK Director July 27, 2009 To: Interested Parties NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY FOR THE DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT FOR NURSERY PRODUCTS HAWES COMPOSTING FACILITY The Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) for the proposed Nursery Products Hawes Composting Facility project is available for public review and comment. The project site is 80 acres of a 160-acre parcel located south of State Route 58, approximately 12.3 miles east of Kramer Junction and 8 miles west of Hinkley, in the County of San Bernardino. The proposed project consists of a request for a Conditional Use Permit to develop a biosolids and green material composting facility to produce agricultural grade compost. The facility would store a maximum of 7,000 cubic yards of green material feedstock on site. The maximum amount of biosolids that will be stored in the facility will be limited to 2,000 cubic yards. The Facility will process approximately 400,000 tons per year of compostable material. The total amount of active compost is not expected to exceed 250,000 tons. In December 2005, Nursery Products LLC (Nursery Products) filed a discretionary application with theCounty seeking approval of the Project. Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) the DEIR was prepared for the Project and circulated commencing in September 2006 for public review. The public review period extended through November 2006. A Final EIR was issued November 21, 2006, andcertified by the County Planning Commission on November 30, 2006. This approval of the Project was appealed to the County Board of Supervisors, which denied the appeal, approved the Project, and certified the FEIR on February 27, 2007. The Center for Biological Diversity and HelpHinkley.Org jointly filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Bernardino, Barstow District alleging that the County had violated CEQA in certifying the FEIR. The case, titled Center for Biological Diversity, a California non-profit corporation, and HELPHINKLEY.ORG, an unincorporated association vs. County of San Bernardino (Nursery Products, LLC), San Bernardino County Superior Court Case No. BCV 09950 was heard on February 8, 2008. On April 11, 2008, the Court issued its Statement of Decision and Order thereon and found partially in favor of the Petitioners and set aside the 2007 Final EIR. The Court directed the County to provide additional evidence in the Administrative Record that an enclosed composting facility was not economically feasible, and to identify a single water source and conduct a water supply assessment thereof. This Draft SEIR hasbeen prepared to respond to the Court?s Decision and will be used by the County in its consideration of the water supply and economic feasibility of the enclosed facility alternative to the Project. In addition, the Draft SEIR evaluates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change impacts associated with the Project. The Executive Summary is attached for your information. The complete text of the Draft SEIR is posted on the County web page at www.sbcounty.gov/landuseservices. Click on ?Public Notices-Projects? and then scroll down to Nursery Products ?Draft Supplemental EIR?. Notice of Availability Draft Supplemental EIR for Nursery Products Hawes Composting Facility July 27, 2009 Page 2 of 2 A copy of the Draft SEIR may be viewed at the following locations: ? San Bernardino County Land Use Services Department, 15456 West Sage Street, Victorville, CA 92392 ? San Bernardino County Land Use Services Department, 385 North Arrowhead Avenue, San Bernardino, CA 92415-0182 ? Hinkley Senior Citizens Center, 35997 Mountain View Road, Hinkley CA 92347 Note: Senior Center Hours are 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and First Saturday of each month 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. ? San Bernardino County Library, Barstow Branch, 304 East Buena Vista, Barstow, CA 92311 The public comment period will end on September 13, 2009. Comments and questions may be directed to Carrie Hyke, Principal Planner, Land Use Services Department, 385 North Arrowhead Avenue, San Bernardino, CA 92415-0182. For further information, please contact me by telephone: (909) 387-4147, or by email at chyke at lusd.sbcounty.gov Sincerely, CARRIE HYKE, Principal Planner Advance Planning Division Attachment: Executive Summary