From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Mar 1 10:04:20 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 01 Mar 2009 10:04:20 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> California Water Crisis - why sludge over precious water storage? Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Water is precious and irreplaceable. So why does California - a drought state - risk contmination of its last remaining aquifers by spreading sewage sludge? A few years ago the Kern County Water Agency asked all the Kern County sludge spreaders to move their sludge spreading operations off the water aquifer in order to protect the water from seepage of toxins, metals, nitrogen, and pharmacueticals. Most of the sludge spreaders refused. And even though the Salinas Valley - significantly irrigating its tender greens and strawberries with sewage treatment plant effluent - is plagued with repeated crop contamintation with pathogenic bacteria, now there is impetus to put sewage effluent on more and more cropland. Oxnard is looking at irrigation with effluent. So those antibiotic resistant bacteria from the sewer plants will go right on fresh vegetables...the ones we eat uncooked. ......................................................... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/28/MN8H166JE1.DTL&tsp=1 Cities face 20% cuts in water use during crisis Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, February 28, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought emergency Friday, urging cities to cut their use of water 20 percent and paving the way for projects such as desalination plants and water recycling projects to bypass standard environmental reviews. Despite heavy rainstorms this month, state officials say California's water supply remains critically low because of three dry winters in a row, restrictions on water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and a population that has grown by 9 million since the last drought, in 1991. In making the declaration, Schwarzenegger said the state must prepare for several more years with little rain. Experts predict this year's runoff - the critical spring melt from Sierra Nevada snow - will be 57 percent of normal. "This drought is having a devastating impact on our people, our communities, our economy and our environment - making today's action absolutely necessary," Schwarzenegger said. The governor's proclamation stopped short of invoking mandatory statewide rationing, but officials said that option - which would be a first in California history - is available if other tactics fail. "No Californian can use water as though we have an unlimited amount, period," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. About two dozen water agencies in the state, including the East Bay Municipal Utility District, have ordered water rationing to protect dwindling reservoirs. The governor declared a drought emergency last year, but Friday's announcement outlined more sweeping efforts to stem the crisis. In addition to conservation, the governor called on state agencies to expedite water transfers, to study emergency connections between water systems and to streamline the process for approving projects for drought relief and increased water supply. Those could include facilities that turn seawater into drinking water - controversial technology that environmentalists say requires tremendous amounts of energy and could harm marine ecosystems. 'Very disturbing' "It's very disturbing because the state has a record of building large projects that provide water for the short term but don't look to the long term," said Linda Sheehan, executive director of the watchdog group California Coastkeeper Alliance. California's aging water system has come under increased scrutiny in the past several years after the collapse of several important fish species, including the delta smelt, a tiny fish exclusive to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The hub of the state's water system, the delta has become an increasingly inhospitable place for the fish, prompting a series of environmental orders that slashed the amount of water funneled out by giant state and federal systems that send water to two-thirds of California. Farmers hard-hit Farmers, who use the lion's share of the state's available water supply, are among the hardest hit by the pumping reductions and dry weather. In a separate announcement, a state board that issues permits for drawing water directly from creeks and streams said that even "senior" water rights holders - those whose water rights date back as far the Gold Rush era - might not exercise their rights this year. Many senior water rights holders are farmers whose businesses have passed from generation to generation. The last time the state banned water diversion from streams was during a drought in the late 1970s. After plowing under withered plants last year, many farmers this year elected to fallow their land. State agricultural leaders fear the repercussions of the projected losses of 80,000 farm jobs and billions in income from produce not planted. Schwarzenegger's action Friday provides financial aid to laid off farm workers. Like the governor, who introduced a $9 billion water bond last year, many in the farming industry favor building new dams and a peripheral canal that would carry water around the delta to growers and ranchers in the Central Valley. State voters rejected a peripheral canal in 1982. Call for long-term plan The Legislature should follow the governor's lead "with a comprehensive, long-term plan that includes new surface water storage facilities and improved water delivery systems as essential strategies, along with water recycling and others," said Doug Mosebar, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. But environmentalists, who point out that urban, not rural, communities are being asked to conserve, worry that proponents of large-scale storage and canal projects are using the drought to further their agenda. 'Opportunities in crisis' "There are opportunities in crisis," said Laura Harnish, regional director of the Environmental Defense Fund. "We have a chance to scale back within our means and use water more wisely. On the heels of the budget woes in California, it seems an inopportune time to introduce multibillion-dollar bond measures that haven't proven they'll solve the problem." Emergency declaration Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's declaration of a statewide drought emergency Friday called for the following: -- Urban water users cut water use by 20 percent. -- Department of Water Resources expedites water transfers between agencies, offers water management assistance to agriculture industry. -- Labor and Workforce Development Agency to offer job training and financial aid to unemployed workers primarily in agricultural areas. -- State agencies immediately enact water conservation measures in facilities, landscaping, etc. -- Streamline regulatory approval process for projects related to drought relief or increasing water supply, such as desalination and water recycling plants. Source: governor's office From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 2 09:42:42 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:42:42 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Calif- Cases of Valley Fever triple since 2000 Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Cases of Valley Fever have tripled since 2000. The US South West is in the third year of a drought. With less irrigation, and acreage out of production, more particulate will be swept into the air. Remeber the dust bowl, when the topsoil of the west was stripped and swept away in terrifying storms. Now think of all the fields spread with the toxins, antibiotic resistant bacteria and spores from sewage sludge...now descicated and blowing across the country. With climate change, we need to think of what will befall us as these toxic fragments - just like Valley Fever - become more mobile. To see dust storms: http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=dust+storm&rlz=1W1GGLJ_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=uO-rSeTJEZfoMKCSiZgD&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title ............................................................................................................. Rise in Coccidioidomycosis Cases Seen in California Mortality and Morbidity Weekly NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Feb 12 - From 2000 to 2006, the rate of reported coccidioidomycosis cases has increased steadily in California, according to findings released Thursday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In 2007, a slight drop in cases occurred, but the rate is still the highest it has been in the state since 1995. Coccidioidomycosis, also known as Valley Fever, is a disease primarily encountered in southwestern states. Caused by the inhalation of fungal spores released from the soil, the disease usually affects the lungs and can have potentially severe consequences, especially in at-risk individuals such as the elderly, pregnant women, and immunocompromised patients. To cut their risk of coccidioidomycosis, at risk individuals are advised to limit their exposure to dusty air in endemic areas. Clinicians, on the other hand, should consider a diagnosis of coccidioidomycosis in any patients who have recently lived or traveled in endemic areas and who present with influenza-like illness, pneumonia, or evidence of disseminated infection. According to the new report, cases of coccidioidomycosis, a reportable disease in California, averaged about 2.5 per 100,000 population annually from 1995 to 2000. Between 2000 and 2006, however, the rate more than tripled, from 2.4 to 8.0 per 100,000 population. Further analysis indicated that for each year from 2000 to 2006, both the number of coccidioidomycosis cases and the number of related hospitalizations climbed. During this period, coccidioidomycosis hospitalizations rose from 1.8 to 4.3 per 100,000 population. In terms of reducing coccidioidomycosis cases, the report notes that "options for environmental control of coccidioidomycosis are limited, and no safe, effective vaccine for the disease exists currently. Developing such a vaccine appears to be the best option for preventing disease in those persons at risk for coccidioidomycosis." Mor Mortal Wkly Rep CDC Surveill Summ 2009;58:105-109. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 2 10:06:12 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:06:12 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> What's that smell? Moral indignation Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Sludge Spreading - Moral disgust at toxic tresspass and the stench of chemically contaminated feces on neighboring farmsites.... No wonder sludge victims can be seen with well excersized levator labii muscles. Indeed, anyone who has seen sludge being spread on farmland will not forget the profound sense of horror and dismay to see urban industrial toxins spewing over our pastoral heritage. And the foul smell of immorality. ................................................................................................ What's that smell? Moral indignation Moral disgust involves the same primitive emotional circuitry that makes us wrinkle our noses at the sight of a dirty toilet, say researchers ANNE MCILROY >From Friday's Globe and Mail February 27, 2009 Moral disgust involves the same primitive emotional circuitry that makes us wrinkle our noses at the sight of a dirty toilet, Canadian researchers have found. "Immorality is disgusting in the same way rotten food is disgusting," says Hanah Chapman, the University of Toronto doctoral student who is the lead author of a paper published in yesterday's edition of the journal Science. Ms. Chapman works with Adam Anderson, an assistant professor of psychology at the U of T who is investigating the biology of human emotion. They conducted experiments in which separate groups of volunteers were asked to drink something unpleasant, look at images of feces or a bloody wound or to play a game about dividing $10 in which they were treated unfairly. These computer generated illustrations are compositions showing how our levator labii muscle ? which raises the upper lip and wrinkles the nose ? reacts to a range of emotions. (UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO) The scientists attached two electrodes to each volunteer's face to measure the activity of the levator labii, the muscle that raises the upper lip and wrinkles the nose, a universal expression of disgust. In all three experiments, that muscle was activated. This suggests, Ms. Chapman says, feeling disgusted at someone's bad behaviour is similar to how we react to a bitter taste or a repugnant image. Evolution, Ms. Chapman says, doesn't often invent something from scratch, but instead builds on what is already in place. Just as limbs grew from fins, the brain circuitry involved in moral repugnance is built on something more primitive. It may date back 500 million years. Sea anemones, which have been around that long, turn their digestive tracts inside out when they taste something bitter, a response that protects them from toxins. Dr. Anderson, who focuses on the primitive origins of complex emotions, found in an earlier experiment evidence to support Charles Darwin's theory that facial expressions evolved - and are the same in all cultures - because they serve a specific physical function. Take fear, for example. Our eyes widen and our nostrils flare when we are frightened, which enhances our ability to spot danger and take in more air in case we need to flee. In disgust, the effect is the opposite. Our noses and eyes scrunch up, shrinking two entry points for the contagions that can be found in feces, vomit, spit, dead bodies and pus. Some researchers have argued that we find these things so disgusting because they can carry bacteria and viruses, and avoiding them helps keep us healthy. But over time, facial expressions may have proven useful as social signals for humans, Dr. Anderson says. Moral disgust doesn't have anything to do with avoiding hazardous food or illness, he says, but the fact that the facial expression is the same shows that it is born from the same emotion. He has also looked at how the emotion of disgust affects memory, and found that people are better at remembering pictures of a dirty toilet or rotting food than images of snarling dogs or someone with a knife to their throat. "Disgust, more than fear or anxiety, hijacks the attentional system," he says. Perhaps, he says, one of the functions of social disgust is to help us to remember people who treated us badly in the past so we can avoid them. It is hard to get over feelings of disgust. If you see someone put a spoon in feces, says Dr. Anderson, even if they sterilize it you don't want to eat off it. The same may be true of social disgust. This helps explains negative advertising, he says, and why some politicians seek to evoke a feeling of repugnance for their opponents. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090227.wlmoral27/BNStory/lifeMain/home From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 2 10:34:12 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:34:12 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> An unhealthy debate on milk choices? We need a healthy choice re sludged food. Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The post on the Michael Schmidt raw milk trial spurred some feedback from people who point out that raw milk is associated with food safety risks. Yes it is. These are risks that some people want to take with their food. Some people drink raw milk. Some people eat dangerous puffer fish. Some people eat Maple Leaf deli meats. The point was that people can choose to take these risks. Michael Schmidt's milk (as far as I know) has never injured anyone. But the public doesn't have the choice when it comes to sludge toxins in our food. Dairy cows pastured on sludge spread fields are ingesting drugs, hormones, dioxins, PCBs, toxic metals, endocrine disruptors - contaminants that enter the milk and meat, enter our bodies. Fields spread with sludge add to the toxic cadmium burden in the wheat that we eat as bread and pasta. The food safety risks from sludge are not just from 'accidental' contamination. They are from deliberate elevation of toxins in the soil and our food. Foods grown on sludge or with sludged feeds should disclose this information on the label. Better yet, we should no longer allow the deliberate contamination of agricultural lands and the food chain caused by using farmfields for the disposal of sewage sludge biosolids and other industrial wastes. ...................................................................... An unhealthy debate on milk By CONNIE WOODCOCK Toronto Sun 2nd March 2009 Louis Pasteur must be rolling in his grave. He thought his pasteurization process would save the world from disease. Turns out it was just another way for government to oppress us. Or at least, that's the peculiar message rogue dairy farmer Michael Schmidt has been trying to sell. Schmidt is the Durham-area farmer whose trial on 20 charges of selling raw milk wrapped up recently in Newmarket. He's spent years trying to get around the law against the sale of unpasteurized milk and came up with a tricky way to subvert it by selling shares in his cows. Schmidt, who likes to paint himself as a simple hayseed and a martyr to personal freedom, spent his trial arguing the raw milk law is unconstitutional because it interferes with people's "freedom" to make their own choices. His side of the case was heavily reported. What was underreported was the truckload of scientific evidence the Crown introduced to prove the dangers of raw milk. A decision isn't expected for four months. Apparently, there are all kinds of people who put their personal freedoms ahead of public safety. Only last month, a conference in Toronto gathered about 100 people to sing the praises of raw milk and its alleged health-giving qualities. Harper's magazine in the U.S. did a semi-supportive story on him last year. But that doesn't make him right. For all those who think they ought to be allowed to make their own decisions on drinking raw milk, I have one word: Listeriosis. You'd think last summer's huge meat recall -- and the deaths and illnesses that accompanied it -- would have taught us food safety is hard to guarantee and you don't miss it until it's gone. Or here's another word: Salmonella. The recent massive recall of peanut products and the deaths and illnesses should also get the message across. There are lots of other diseases cows are susceptible to and that can be passed on to humans in milk -- such as tuberculosis and E. coli. Raw milk fans argue pasteurization takes out valuable nutrients. Everyone from Health Canada to your local health unit will tell you that's simply not true. POTENTIAL FOR DISEASE Schmidt claims his herd is clean. Ever been in a dairy barn? Even the cleanest is an open sewer. The potential for disease is massive, which is why we have pasteurization. And he's wrong on a couple of other counts. First, we aren't free to consume what we like in this society. You can't buy drugs without a prescription because they're dangerous as well as helpful. You can't buy heroin just because you want to. You wouldn't feed your children cat food or eat a hunk of raw chicken, so why would you drink raw milk? Second, pasteurization wasn't imposed on us from above. It had to be fought for and in Ontario, the leader in that struggle was the Women's Institute, an organization of rural women who knew better than anyone how dangerous raw milk could be. Michael Schmidt is no hayseed and he's not a benign freedom fighter. He's a slick and devious businessman trying to destroy a law that protects us from ourselves and he wants to wreck Canada's supply management system for his own selfish purposes. Food safety for all should trump individual freedom of choice every time. I hope the judge throws the book at him. http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/connie_woodcock/2009/03/02/8585251-sun.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Mar 4 12:55:34 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:55:34 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> EPA finds sludge near Cameron site - brain tumor questions Message-ID: http://www.kmbc.com/news/18845974/detail.html EPA Back In Cameron For More Testing Investigators Sample Sludge At Old Rockwool Plant March 3, 2009 CAMERON, Mo. -- The Environmental Protection Agency was back in Cameron on Tuesday to do more soil testing. The testing is part of an ongoing investigation into what caused a series of brain tumors in the area. The EPA was digging on the east side of the former Rockwool plant, where insulation was once manufactured. Officials started digging at the plant after utility workers reported a gray sludge while installing a line at a nearby electrical substation. "We'll analyze the samples I collected today to determine whether any hazardous substances are present -- (checking if) there is any potential release to the soil, to the groundwater from that material," the EPA's Don Lininger said. Cameron resident Bill Kemper watched investigators work. He lost his wife, Karen, to a brain tumor last year. Kemper is one of the residents urging the EPA to do additional testing. "It doesn't make sense why the city didn't inform the authorities what they found, whether it's something dangerous, we don't know. It'd be nice to know," Kemper said. KMBC's Kelly Eckerman reported that the EPA plans to be back at the Rockwool site for more testing because there have also been reports of an oily, purple substance found near a pump station. The EPA said results from the new sampling could take weeks. Previous testing on slag at the Rockwool site revealed elevated levels of lead and arsenic, but officials told residents it was not at levels that could be linked to the brain tumors. Independent investigations are still under way. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Mar 4 16:05:11 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:05:11 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Californian exclusive: Kern defends sludge ban in appeals court Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Listen to the LA v Kern arguments in court on Mon March 2, 2009 (very enjoyable from this side of the fence) Go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals webpage: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/ go to advanced search and put in 07-56564 under 'case number' You can actually listen to the arguments made in court. .................................... Californian exclusive: Kern defends sludge ban in appeals court BY JAMES BURGER, Californian staff writer jburger at bakersfield.com | Monday, Mar 2 2009 PASADENA ??? Kern County???s battle to keep treated southland sewage sludge off its farmland is now in the hands of three federal appeals court judges. Kern County voters approved Measure E in 2006. The law banned the spreading of biosolids on unincorporated Kern County farmland. At the time, the majority of sludge produced in Los Angeles and a substantial amount from Orange County were trucked to Kern County and spread on farmland. When Measure E passed, Los Angeles, Orange County and the private businesses that hauled and spread the waste sued to overturn the measure. In August 2007, U.S. District Court Judge Allen Feess overturned Measure E ??? claiming that it violated the interstate commerce clause and was trumped by the California Integrated Waste Management Act???s push for more recycling in California. Kern County appealed, setting the stage for Monday???s hearing.Related Stories: One sludge fight delayed, another reignited Group seeks community input for national sludge fight Kern ordered to pay $1 million in sludge lawsuit fees Judge rejects sludge lawsuit fee for Kern County Supervisors agree to appeal L.A. ruling At stake is more than $2 million in legal fees and Kern voters??? control over how their land is used. Lawyers for Kern County and Los Angeles offered oral arguments in the appeal of a U.S. District Court decision that overturned Kern County???s ban on the land application of the waste ??? called biosolids by some, sludge by others ??? on Monday. Justices with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals were presented two critical questions: Does the ban illegally block interstate commerce? Does it illegally foil the state of California???s efforts to promote recycling through integrated waste law? If they answer ???no??? to both those questions, Kern wins and Measure E is reborn. A ???yes??? on either question means Measure E remains dead and Kern must consider further appeals. Justices of the appeals court had hard questions for attorney Thomas S. Hixson, who represented Los Angeles, after he argued that Measure E violates the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. ???Where is the interstate commerce in this case???? asked Justice Diarmuid O???Scannlain. Hixson argued that Los Angeles and Orange County would have to truck their treated sewage sludge ??? also called biosolids ??? to Arizona if Kern County???s fields were closed to them. ???So what???? said Justice Pamela Rymer. Trucking a product to another state is, she said, ???a boon (to interstate commerce), not a bane.??? Hixson said the campaign to pass Measure E argued an economic benefit and that made the law a commerce issue. ???I don???t see what economic benefit there is to Kern County from banning (biosolids),??? Rymer said. Debate over the other issue ??? Measure E???s interaction with state recycling mandates ??? was heated and justices appeared conflicted about which side???s argument had more validity. Kern???s hired lawyer, Steven Mayer, argued that Kern didn???t need to comply with the state law because the waste being recycled is not generated in Kern County. But Hixson argued that Kern County is blocking the only beneficial way to recycle treated human and industrial waste. Allowing Measure E to stand, he said, would permit other jurisdictions to pass similar bans and foil the California Integrated Waste Management Act???s push for recycling. Mayer also asked that the three appeals court justices refer the waste management issue to the California Supreme Court ??? saying a state court is the better place to determine a state law issue. Following the hearing, Mayer said Kern County got a good, fair hearing. ???I thought the judges were interested, extraordinarily well-prepared and they asked incisive questions,??? he said. He refused to guess at the outcome. ???Win or lose, we were heard,??? he said. Attorneys with the city of Los Angeles made no comment after the court hearing. A press officer for Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo issued an e-mail saying his office was ???honored that the court was willing to hear our argument today??? and looks ???forward to the court???s ultimate ruling.??? http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/705151.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Mar 4 20:54:23 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:54:23 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Smart Choices for Biofuels - Worldwatch Institute and Sierra Club Message-ID: Time to Get ?Smart? on Biofuels by admin on February 18, 2009 Time to Get "Smart" on Biofuels Sierra Club, Worldwatch Institute Outline "Smart Choices for Biofuels" in New Report Time to Get ?Smart? on Biofuels by admin on February 18, 2009 Time to Get "Smart" on Biofuels Sierra Club, Worldwatch Institute Outline "Smart Choices for Biofuels" in New Report Washington, D.C.-The Sierra Club and Worldwatch Institute today released a report, Smart Choices for Biofuels, highlighting the need for important policy reforms at this critical juncture in America's effort to increase the use of biofuels. The report outlines the economic and environmental impacts of first-generation biofuels such as corn ethanol, proposes strategies to make the biofuels industry more sustainable, and offers specific policy recommendations in four broad categories: Developing sustainability standards Advancing biofuels production and new technologies Creating green jobs through biofuels Promoting policy coherence across energy sectors "At a time of volatile gas prices and rising concern about global warming, it has become clear that biofuels can play a role in reducing dependence on oil and curbing climate change," said Christopher Flavin, President of Worldwatch Institute. "However, the large and growing scale of the industry make it critical that Congress now make smart choices that promote sustainable biofuels-rather than just more biofuels-as part of a clean energy economy." U.S. biofuels production in 2008 topped 9 billion gallons-the vast majority of which was corn ethanol-and successive Congressional mandates call for the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by the year 2022. Domestic biofuels output has more than doubled since 2005, and the report explores the many issues associated with this dramatic increase in the production of renewable fuels, including: the global warming emissions profile of corn ethanol; the effect on the Conservation Reserve Program; other effects on the nation's air, water, and land; and the lower-than-expected economic benefits for rural communities. "The headlong rush toward biofuels-corn ethanol in particular-has had many consequences, some foreseen and others not," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director. "The downside risks to our land, air, water, and economy have become readily apparent, but the good news is that with smart choices we can make biofuels work for the environment, economy, and climate, while enhancing our energy security." Smart Choices for Biofuels maps a future path for biofuels to ensure that they are more environmentally and socially sustainable and that the use of renewable fuels for transportation contributes to the global effort to reduce global warming pollution. The steps proposed in the report include an accelerated transition to cellulosic feedstocks such as switchgrass and the use of more effective agricultural practices to decrease erosion and soil nutrient depletion. The report also recommends complementary steps beyond improvements in biofuels production, such as the promotion of plug-in hybrid vehicles and increased investments in public transportation, which could also help achieve crucial energy and climate goals. Finally, the report concludes that if a renewable fuels mandate is to contribute effectively to reducing foreign oil dependence and curbing global warming, it must be reevaluated in light of changing circumstances. Changes in four broad policy categories-sustainability standards, advancing biofuels production and new technologies, creating green jobs, and promoting policy coherence across energy sectors-are detailed in the report. Sierra Club and Worldwatch Institute previously collaborated on biofuels and sustainability when they released a report in October 2007 focused solely on Iowa, titled Destination Iowa: Getting to a Sustainable Biofuels Future. A longer Worldwatch report entitled, Red, White, and Green: A New Approach to U.S. Biofuels will be released in early April. Please sign up for our enewsletters to receive updates about our latest publication releases. To read the 16 page report: http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/biofuels.pdf From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 5 10:12:33 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:12:33 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> UK - Sludge to Methane to 4 MW Power plus $8M energy saving Message-ID: Gas producing bugs will turn sludge green Mar 5 2009 Evening Gazette , UK A GREEN energy project that will cut Northumbrian Water?s annual energy costs by millions of pounds is on target for completion. The ?33m project is under way at the company?s Bran Sands treatment works at Teesport to convert sludge, the material left after sewage has been treated, into energy. The project will create enough power to make the treatment process self-sufficient with the 4MW excess meeting half of the Bran Sands site?s entire energy needs. Overall the investment on Teesside will cut the company?s ?40m energy bill by around 10%. Aker Solutions of Stockton is carrying out the contract to design, construct, install and commission the new facility. Vince Lee, Aker Solutions? project manager for the Bran Sands scheme, said: ?Overall the project is now 90% complete and we?re on track to deliver all project requirements by summer 2009. ?All the equipment is on site and we?re ready to start commissioning.? The project will use the emerging new technology of thermal hydrolysis advanced digestion, putting Northumbrian Water at the forefront of its industry. Raw sludge is loaded into stainless steel vessels where steam is injected and the sludge is held at high temperature and high pressure to kill bacteria. This is then cooled and fed into tanks for methane-producing bacteria to digest. The methane given off by the bugs is collected and then used to fuel gas engines, which provide a renewable source of energy. Donna Rawlinson, project manager for Northumbrian Water, added: ?We?re planning to start process commissioning and having Northumbrian Water sludge treated by the new plant within the next couple of months.? She added: ?It?s the most significant energy saving project Northumbrian Water is currently investing in - furthermore we are now also considering similar projects at other key sites for the future.? http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/latest-business-news/2009/03/05/gas-producing-bugs-will-turn-sludge-green-51140-23070681/ From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 5 10:27:26 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:27:26 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Nonylphenol from sludge and effluent - liver tumors in Calif fish Message-ID: To see the article with the photographs go to: http://www.newtimesslo.com/news/2019/tumors-and-sex-changes-a-goby-story/ Tumors and sex changes: a goby story Cal Poly researchers suspect a chemical is affecting Morro Bay fish BY COLIN RIGLEY POISONED Cal Poly biologists thought Morro Bay goby fish were just pregnant before they cut them open and found liver tumors. PHOTO COURTESY OF SARAH JOHNSON It?s hard not to see the irony: A common chemical sometimes used in spermicides may be turning fish into hermaphrodites. The chemical is called nonylphenol (pronounced ?non-il-fe-NALL?) and it is increasingly being eyed as the cause of some unexpected developments in goby fish. The compound is used most commonly for industrial purposes, but is also a common ingredient in detergents, cosmetic products, and spermicides. Studies suggest the chemical could be responsible for giving male fish female parts. Transgender fish haven?t turned up in local waters yet, but in Morro Bay the same chemical is suspected of causing goby fish to grow pale, vein-coursed liver tumors. Local biologists can?t be certain there?s a connection, but they are suspicious. Last spring, Cal Poly biologist Lars Tomanek, along with others from Cal Poly and the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, went to investigate what chemicals might be leaching into local waters. They tested gobies because they?re bottom dwellers and a good indication of what?s in the sediment. Tomanek said some of the gobies looked pregnant?they weren?t. The group soon found that the gobies, and particularly their tumors, were riddled with nonylphenol. ?That?s all we found,? Tomanek said. ?And we?re like, OK, what the heck is that?? He estimated about 10 percent of the fish they found had tumors. Nonylphenol is a degraded form of the chemical nonylphenol ethoxylate. That chemical helps break down other compounds, which makes it useful in products such as detergents. But when the chemical goes through sewage treatment it breaks down to the more hazardous nonylphenol form. Such chemicals as nonylphenol have some environmentalists concerned because they often slip through sewage treatment and end up in the ground and water. Sewage sludge, the solid byproduct, and septic tanks are big contributors of nonylphenol. County officials have banned sludge application to local lands, but that ban will expire in a year. A new ordinance that would allow some land application is working through the approval process, but some environmentalists have raised questions over how the ordinance would prevent chemicals and heavy metals from being leached. For gobies, nonylphenol is like a hormonal guessing game. It?s chemically similar to goby estrogen and, when introduced into males, has been shown to lead to the development of female anatomy, including eggs. Whatever is going on, it doesn?t appear that Morro Bay is the only place it is happening. Tomanek said he found nonylphenol in Tomales Bay and the gobies that live there. At this point, ?We are basically trying to find gobies that don?t have [tumors and nonylphenol] and we don?t know where that?s going to be.? The next testing ground will likely be farther north?probably along the Oregon coast?and those studies will begin in a couple of months. Members of the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project are also taking a look at pollutants that seep into California waterways. They found nonylphenol, too. Steven Bay, who heads the project?s toxicology department, said they have found nonylphenol along with a cocktail of other contaminants. Project researchers also found fish with some signs of gender-switching, he added. Like here, the suspected source of the contaminants in Southern California is treated sewage discharge. Bay said the whole field of analyzing chemicals is still new territory; the tools and methods they use are only about a decade old. For now, the challenge is to sift through thousands of chemicals to find the really nasty ones. ?The information we don?t have right now is how to prioritize which of these chemicals are of the greatest concern,? Bay said. But others have already labeled nonylphenol a big concern. The European Union effectively banned the chemical in nearly all uses. Canada officially classified nonylphenol as a toxic chemical and severely restricted the levels allowed in waterways. It?s a different story in the U.S., where the allowable levels of nonylphenol are about twice those of Canada. Members of the Sierra Club tried to change that, but have so far been unsuccessful. In 2007, they petitioned the federal Environmental Protection Agency to limit the use of nonylphenol because of its potential dangers. A Sierra Club paper on nonylphenol also points out that there are alternatives to the chemical that come with minimal cost increases. Ed Hopkins, who worked extensively to lobby for nonylphenol restrictions, said efforts to limit or ban the chemical were stymied by a combination of outdated policies, the Bush administration, and the political clout of big industry. ?I think it?s just a good chemical to illustrate how far behind the United States is in properly protecting the 
public ?,? Hopkins said. The Sierra Club is still in the middle of a lawsuit with the EPA. The tricky part about nonylphenol is that despite its correlation to hermaphroditic fish and tumors, few seem willing to declare there?s a definitive link. Tomanek and another Cal Poly biologist, Dean Wendt, were reluctant to say there is a cause-and-effect relationship. Instead, they say there is a correlation between nonylphenol and tumors. Still, if their suspicions are correct, researchers from Cal Poly and the regional water board could be helping lay the foundations for a U.S. nonylphenol ban. The research Tomanek is doing right now isn?t unheard of, he admitted. ?But the extent and the levels [of nonylphenol] we?re finding, that seems to be ground-breaking.? So what?s next? There?s little question that nonylphenol is common in coastal waters. The key for Tomanek and others will be to show whether the chemical is hazardous in the amounts allowed under U.S. law. Morro Bay looks to be a kind of Petri dish to answer that question. Local scientists will track the food chain to see if other species, such as larger fish 
or even sea otters, have nonylphenol in their bodies. Even in these early testing stages, it doesn?t look like there?s a direct threat to humans. Tomanek noted that gobies aren?t a common menu item. Even if the chemical is making its way into other more edible fish, fish livers generally aren?t eaten. As for the spermicides, they?re safe, unless you?re a fish. ∆ Staff writer Colin Rigley believes that fish have a right to change genders. Send comments to crigley at newtimesslo.com. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Mar 6 10:30:12 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:30:12 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Georgia - Bill to make sludge spreaders purchase insurance bond Message-ID: Bill to limit application of sludge mired down ATLANTA - Legislation that would have imposed restrictions on companies seeking permits to apply sewage sludge to land as a fertilizer has gotten bogged down in the current session. House Bill 238 would make those companies prove they have sufficient finances to conduct an environmental cleanup if required. The author of the bill, state Rep. Tommy Benton, R-Jefferson, said Thursday that the chairwoman of the House Natural Resources Committee - state Rep. Lynn Smith, R-Newnan - wants to hold the bill for more study during the coming year and consider it in the 2010 session. "She said it was too controversial and there were some things she would like to add to the bill that would make it better," Benton said. The main opposition has come from companies that don't want to have to either purchase an insurance bond or deposit the cash in reserves equal to the cost of a cleanup, according to Benton. The University of Georgia is embroiled in a federal lawsuit over damage caused by sludge applied to two Augusta-area dairy farms, accused of faulty research that the farmers relied on. The city of Augusta settled a suit over the matter with one farmer and lost another suit because it was the source of the sludge, which was found to contain toxins responsible for killing the farmers' cows. Benton said Jackson County commissioners asked him to sponsor the measure. Leaders in that county were virtually powerless to clean up a sludge recycling business in Talmo that caught fire in 2007 and left behind what neighbors considered a stinky mess. http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/030609/gen_405396290.shtml From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Mar 6 13:33:22 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:33:22 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ontario Farmer - Laws not being followed with sludge Message-ID: Tuesday, March 3, 2009 Ontario Farmer Laws not being followed with sludge Edition: Final Column: Letters to the Editor Section: Editorial/Opinion Page: A6 Dear Editor: Staffers from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment come out to rural communities to talk about sludge only if the public is not allowed to ask them questions. Ontario government staffers tell us that there are thousands of chemical compounds in sludge but can only isolate and identify about 115 of them. Then they tell us they have done their 'due diligence and they assert that sludge is 'safe'. Ministry officials come to little towns like Colborne with their mantra that 'Land application of biosolids is safe if the guidelines are followed'. They have no evidence or studies that justify these statements. They have not provided the public with the results of any of the hundred or so sludge illness investigations. Ontario's waste bureaucrats know full well that Ontario's environmental laws are not being followed by Ontario sludge spreaders. How do they know? Because the Ministry has investigated and prosecuted and convicted them. Terratec Environmental alone has at least 46 convictions and fines, including victim surcharge, of at least $685,000. So while one branch of the Ministry of Environment investigates and the legal branch spends taxpayer money hauling Terratec into court and convicting them, Eileen Smith and Waste Management Policy Branch goes out to farmers and tells them sludge spreading is safe when she and her collegues know full well the sludge regulations are not being followed. Do you see Ontario officials going to around Ontario muncipalities pointing to the alternatives to land application and promoting them? No. Why is the Ontario government telling farmers to go into business and risk their farms, their drinking water, and our food supply at the hands of convicted environmental offenders? Maureen Reilly Sludge Watch From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Mar 6 13:36:41 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:36:41 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> India - Need for composting toilets - or methane biomass toilets Message-ID: http://alaiwah.wordpress.com:80/2009/03/06/india-goes-to-the-moon-while-the-public-defecates-in-the-open/ India Goes to the Moon While the Public Defecates in the Open March 6, 2009 Until May 2007, Meera Devi rose before dawn each day and walked a half mile to a vegetable patch outside the village of Kachpura to find a secluded place. Dodging leering men and stick-wielding farmers and avoiding spots that her neighbors had soiled, the mother of three pulled up her sari and defecated with the Taj Mahal in plain view. With that act, she added to the estimated 100,000 tons of human excrement that Indians leave each day in fields of potatoes, carrots and spinach, on banks that line rivers used for drinking and bathing and along roads jammed with scooters, trucks and pedestrians. Devi looks back on her routine with pain and embarrassment. ?As a woman, I would have to check where the males were going to the toilet and then go in a different direction,? says Devi, 37, standing outside her one-room mud-brick home. ?We used to avoid the daytimes, but if we were really pressured, we would have to go any time of the day, even if it was raining. During the harvest season, people would have sticks in the fields. If somebody had to go, people would beat them up or chase them.? In the shadow of its new suburbs, torrid growth and 300- ?million-plus-strong middle class, India is struggling with a sanitation emergency. From the stream in Devi?s village to the nation?s holiest river, the Ganges, 75 percent of the country?s surface water is contaminated by human and agricultural waste and industrial effluent. Everyone in Indian cities is at risk of consuming human feces, if they?re not already, the Ministry of Urban Development concluded in September. Economic Drain Illness, lost productivity and other consequences of fouled water and inadequate sewage treatment trimmed 1.4-7.2 percent from the gross domestic product of Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam in 2005, according to a study last year by the World Bank?s Water and Sanitation Program. Sanitation and hygiene-related issues may have a similar if not greater impact on India?s $1.2 trillion economy, says Guy Hutton, a senior water and sanitation economist with the program in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Snarled transportation and unreliable power further damp the nation?s growth. Companies that locate in India pay hardship wages and ensconce employees in self- sufficient compounds. The toll on human health is grim. Every day, 1,000 children younger than 5 years old die in India from diarrhea, hepatitis- causing pathogens and other sanitation-related diseases, according to the United Nations Children?s Fund. ?Sanitation Crisis? For girls, the crisis is especially acute: Many drop out of school once they reach puberty because of inadequate lavatories, depriving the country of a generation of possible leaders. ?India cannot reach its full economic potential unless they do something about this sanitation crisis,? says Clarissa Brocklehurst, Unicef?s New York-based chief of water, sanitation and hygiene, who worked in New Delhi from 1999 to 2001. When P.V. Narasimha Rao opened India to outside investment in 1991, the country went on a tear. For most of this decade, India has placed just behind China as the world?s fastest- growing major economy. Revenue from information technology and outsourcing jumped more than 300-fold to $52 billion a year as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Infosys Technologies Ltd. and other homegrown giants took on computer-related work for Western corporations. Annual per-capita income more than doubled to 24,295 rupees ($468) in the seven years ended on March 31, 2008, before the full force of the financial meltdown kicked in. Even during the current global recession, India?s economy will expand 5.1 percent in 2009, the International Monetary Fund projects. Hygiene Breakdown Yet India?s gated office parks with swimming pools and food courts and enclaves such as the Aralias in Gurgaon, outside New Delhi, which features 6,000-square-foot (557-square-meter) condominiums, mask a breakdown of the most basic and symbolic human need ? hygiene. Devi, who installed her neighborhood?s first toilet, a squat-style latrine in a whitewashed outhouse, created a point of pride in a village where some people empty chamber pots into open drains in front of their homes. Like most of Kachpura?s residents, more than half of India?s 203 million households lack what Western societies consider a necessity: a toilet. India has the greatest proportion of people in Asia behind Nepal without access to improved sanitation, according to Unicef. Some 665 million Indians practice open defecation, more than half the global total. In China, the world?s most populous country, 37 million people defecate in the open, according to Unicef. ?It?s an Embarrassment? ?It?s an embarrassment,? says Venkatraman Anantha- Nageswaran, 45, an Indian working in Singapore as chief investment officer for Asia Pacific at Bank Julius Baer & Co., which managed $234 billion at the end of 2008. ?It?s a country that aspires to being an international power and which, according to various projections, will be the third-largest economy in 20-30 years.? India has the highest childhood malnutrition rates in the world: 44 percent of children younger than 5 are underweight, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. ?Malnourished children are more susceptible to diarrheal disease, and with more diarrheal disease they become more malnourished,? says Jamie Bartram, head of the World Health Organization?s water, sanitation, hygiene and health group. ?If we collectively could fix the world?s basic water and sanitation problems, we could reduce childhood mortality by nearly a third.? Half of India?s schools don?t have separate toilets for males and females, forcing young women to use unisex facilities or nothing at all. Twenty-two percent of girls complete 10 or more years of schooling compared with 35 percent of boys, a national family health survey finished in 2006 found. Indignity, Infections Devi says she was concerned that her 14-year-old daughter would suffer the indignity and infections she herself endured due to poor menstrual hygiene. That was a major reason she bought a toilet, taking out a 7,000 rupee, interest-free loan from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which enabled her to pay for her new latrine over 18 months. The agency also gave her a 3,000 rupee grant and a 2,500 rupee-a-month job with its Cross-Cutting Agra Project, which promotes hygiene and sanitation in her village. Until then, she, like her husband, was unemployed. Her daughter?s situation has also improved, Devi says. ?When she has her period, it?s especially difficult for her to go out into the fields,? she says. ?It?s better to have a toilet at home ? as it is for every female.? Girls? Education Barriers that keep girls from equal education compromise the nation?s future, says Renu Khosla, director of CURE India, a New Delhi group that works to improve water and sanitation for the poor, including in Kachpura. ?We will have a less skilled population of youth,? she says. ?Every year of schooling reduces household poverty by bringing down the family size and increasing skill levels.? So far, companies looking to locate in India haven?t been turned off by the sanitation shortcomings, says Anshuman Magazine, chairman of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.?s South Asian unit, which manages about 62 million square feet of property in the country. ?India is a completely different planet,? he says. As such, employees know not to drink tap water, and employers provide clean washrooms. ?As far as offices are concerned, I have never come across anyone raising these concerns. Businesses run on making money and opportunities. Since 2004, we have seen huge interest from foreign investors and businesses.? Hardship Allowances International corporations that set up branches in Mumbai and New Delhi compensate by paying hardship allowances of 20-25 percent of employees? salary compared with 10-15 percent in Beijing and Shanghai, says Lee Quane, the Hong Kong-based Asian general manager of ECA International Ltd., a human resources advisory firm. Some big Indian companies count on private utilities, bottled water and walled compounds with electric fences. Infosys?s resort-style campus on the outskirts of Bangalore has manicured lawns, a Japanese garden, a swimming pool, a golf course and a Domino?s Pizza in its multinational food court. Unlike most households in the nearby city of 6.8 million, India?s No. 2 software maker?s headquarters doesn?t suffer water or power interruptions, says Bhawesh Kumar, its facilities manager. Poverty Trap Infosys stores water from the public network in three underground reservoirs that can hold 2.2 million liters (580,000 gallons), or two days? supply. The water passes through sand and carbon filters and purifiers, making it cleaner than what?s available to local people, he says. Attendants clean the brown- tiled bathrooms and refresh supplies of paper hand towels hourly during the business day. Infrared sensors ensure that toilets are flushed after each use. Outside such compounds, dirty water and poor hygiene can trap communities in a cycle of disease, malnutrition and poverty, Bartram says. Worldwide, 18 percent of the population, or 1.2 billion people, rely on open defecation and about 884 million drink unsafe water, according to Unicef. Every year, more than 200 million tons of human sewage goes uncollected and untreated, fouling the environment. Each gram of feces can contain 10 million virus particles, 1 million bacteria, 1,000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs, the UN found. Fetid Waters In Devi?s village, sewage and household wastewater flow along open drains that line both sides of narrow alleyways. The fetid water gathers in a shallow channel choking with plastic containers, discarded footwear and household trash. A woman carrying a folded mattress on her head steps deftly along a narrow bridge spanning the mire. A mechanical pump chugs on the bank, sucking up the liquid to dispense over a nearby vegetable patch. Children play around the edge, alongside tethered, cud- chewing water buffalo. A man walks past, clutching a water-filled plastic bottle, presumably on his way to defecate. The rest of the slurry empties into a trench coursing along a feces-dotted path through a field of cauliflowers. A shoeless boy uses a long-handled spade to create a new sluice for the black sludge to ooze over the vegetable field. What?s not drained from the trench empties into a cesspool on the flood plain of the Yamuna River, which flows through Delhi and then Agra before joining the Ganges at Allahabad, 1,370 kilometers (850 miles) from its pristine source in the Himalayan mountains. ?Remorseless Drain? ?If you?ve got feces all around you, it will find its way into your mouth,? Bartram says. ?Cholera and typhoid are always dramatic because they come through as outbreaks, and outbreaks catch the news. The real burden is this long, remorseless drain of straightforward, simple diarrheal disease.? Like Devi?s village, less than a fifth of Agra is connected to a sewage system. The 1.3 million people generate more than 150 million liters of effluent each day. The city has the capacity to treat 60 percent of the sewage. There are plans to build three more treatment plants by 2012 with funding from the state and federal governments and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, according to the Agra Municipal Corporation. The U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Cross- Cutting Agra Project and other programs are trying to bridge the sanitation gap. The project helped Devi and 39 other households in her village get toilets during the past two years. Spurring Desire The Indian government is also contributing. Rural families living below the poverty line are eligible for a 1,500 rupee subsidy to build household latrines under the Total Sanitation Campaign. The decade-old program focuses on educating people about the link between good hygiene and health to change behavior and spur their desire for toilets. UN agencies such as Unicef provide technical information and recommendations on toilet systems. Governments and aid groups have strived for decades to overcome India?s sanitation challenges. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who led the movement for freedom from foreign domination, grappled with the issue almost a century ago: ?The cause of many of our diseases is the condition of our lavatories and our bad habit of disposing of excreta anywhere and everywhere,? Gandhi wrote in 1925. ?Sanitation is more important than political independence,? he declared. Taboo Topic Gandhi focused on the Hindu caste system that subjugated the lowest social stratum to the unsavory realm of latrines. For some 4,000 years, so-called bhangis or untouchables earned a modest living by scraping ?night soil? from the cavernous household toilet pits of higher castes and carrying it away in pans balanced on their heads. ?Culturally, it was taboo in Indian society to talk about human excreta, night soil and all these things,? says Bindeshwar Pathak, who started Sulabh International Social Service Organization, a Delhi-based group whose name means ?readily accessible.? The organization has built public toilets and campaigned on human emancipation issues since 1970. Pathak says the tradition of scavenging removed the impetus of society, and especially policy makers, to acknowledge and address the sanitation problem. A.K. Mehta, joint secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development, says India?s close-lipped tradition is changing. ?If you have a legacy of thousands of years, you don?t expect it to go away in a decade or so,? Mehta says. ?Progress is significant and in the right direction.? Millions Waiting Today, 59 percent of the people in India?s countryside have access to a toilet, compared with 27 percent in 2004, the Department of Drinking Water Supply says. Ten million toilets have been built annually since 2007. More than 30 million households are waiting. Urban dwellers aren?t spared substandard hygiene. In Mumbai, Delhi and other cities where billboards advertise the latest mobile phones and trendy young women sport Prada handbags, the water that?s piped into homes and apartments must be filtered before drinking. And in most homes it?s available only a few hours each day. ?Even the biggest cities still have that problem,? says Vishwas Udgirkar, 46, executive director of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP?s government and infrastructure division in New Delhi. More unsettling, 17 percent of city residents, or 50 million people, don?t have toilets. Fewer than 10 percent of Indian cities have a sewage system. About 37 percent of urban wastewater flows into the environment untreated, where such pathogens as rotavirus, campylobacter and human roundworm can spread via water, soil, food and unwashed hands. ?Huge Challenge? ?Not attending to this has a cost,? Mehta says. ?Between 2001 and ?26, we would be adding another 246 million people to the urban system. How would we meet that huge challenge is the issue.? India is still struggling to find the best way to clean up the mess. ?A lot of money has been given for constructing the infrastructure,? says Ajith C. Kumar, an operations analyst with the World Bank?s Water and Sanitation Program in New Delhi. ?The predominant experience has been that none of this has worked.? The southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh is a good example. Earlier this decade, the state government helped build 2.95 million household latrines in rural areas. Residents got subsidies worth about $16 in cash plus coupons for 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of rice. Half the toilets went unused or were being used for other purposes, a February 2007 World Bank report found. Roomier Than Homes In the western state of Maharashtra, 1.6 million subsidized toilets were built from 1997 to 2000. About 47 percent are in use. Many toilets are designed without thinking about who?s going to use them, says Payden (who goes by one name), the WHO?s New Delhi-based regional adviser on water, sanitation and health. Some of the new toilets were roomier than homes. ?The toilets were much stronger and safer, so they used them for storing grain instead,? she says. Now India is trying a different kind of cash reward to encourage toilet use. The Nirmal Gram Puraskar, or ?clean village prize,? gives 50,000-5 million rupees to local governments that end open defecation. Thirty-eight villages qualified in 2005. A year later, 760 villages and 9 municipalities got the prize. In 2008, more than 12,000 awards were presented. Toilets That Pay Santha Sheela Nair, India?s secretary of drinking water supply, is assessing another monetary incentive. In a spacious New Delhi office with a white-tiled floor and white walls, Nair thumbs through a leaflet from a desk stacked with foot-high files and books on sanitation. She stops suddenly and points excitedly to a picture of a white toilet adorned with brightly- colored writing. ?This is the first toilet in the world ? in the world ? where you use the toilet and you get paid,? Nair says. The public toilet, in the town of Musiri in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, gives users as much as 12 U.S. cents a month for their excreta. Feces are composted and urine, which is 95 percent water and has already passed through the body?s own filter, the kidneys, is collected, stored in drums and used as fertilizer for bananas and other food crops in a two-year research project by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. ?The day that I can use your toilet and you pay me instead of me paying you, that will be the day when we have really learned to reuse our waste,? Nair says. Menstrual Hygiene Nair, India?s eighth drinking-water chief in less than a decade, is passionate about her job. On this day in November, the sari-clad government veteran chimes in on baby feces, menstrual hygiene, the use of excrement as fertilizer and other topics few bureaucrats have dared to broach. >From 2001 to ?03, Nair was responsible for the water supply in Chennai, formerly called Madras, southern India?s biggest city. Then, as rural development secretary for Tamil Nadu, she helped in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. Nair is challenging the accepted wisdom on everything from modern sewers to flushable toilets, to the value of human waste. She says Western-style toilets are inappropriate for India, especially in areas that lack fresh water and have limited funds for sewage treatment plants. Instead, she says, the country has to find cheaper, more efficient and environmentally friendly technologies. Lunar Mission Inspired by the successful landing in November of the Moon Impact Probe, India?s first unmanned lunar mission, Nair is looking skyward for ideas. ?In space, you have the most vulnerable situations,? she says, playing a 2-minute YouTube video of an astronaut explaining how to manage bodily functions 100,000 miles from Earth. ?They are separating the urine from the feces and drying it,? she says, pointing to her computer monitor. ?The urine is processed for re-drinking because they just can?t carry that much water.? Nair says modern sewers aren?t the answer for India. The country can?t afford to waste water by flushing it down a latrine. Instead, she?s encouraging airplane-style commodes that are vacuum cleared or toilets that are attached to contained pits rather than systems that pipe the effluent miles away for treatment. In Nair?s world, recycling human excrement for use as fertilizer is preferable. ?Our Own Devices? ?We need to invent our own devices which are cost- effective, environmentally sustainable and go with our people,? she says. ?We cannot afford the things which are simply things that some civil engineer learned somewhere.? Converting excreta that have been properly dried for 6-24 months into plant food uses less water than traditional sewage systems and is less likely to pollute waterways, Payden says. Bartram says composted sewage that?s been handled correctly can be used in agriculture and for other beneficial purposes with negligible risk to human health. The challenge is to sanitize it so that disease-carrying organisms are eliminated. ?Different pathogens vary widely in terms of inactivation,? he says. ?Large, robust parasite eggs like the human roundworm, Ascaris, tend to be the longest lived and can remain infectious for years in soil.? Closing the Gap The government has a goal of eliminating open defecation by 2012. Nair says it might happen earlier. ?It?s important for us to do it quickly,? she says. Right now, the number of open defecators is roughly double the number of India?s middle class. ?This gap will keep widening,? she says. ?That is the challenge for us.? For the Devi family, one household in one of India?s thousands of villages, the gap has narrowed. The health and dignity of five people have improved. More of Devi?s neighbors are trying to emulate her example by installing a household latrine and washing their hands with soap. ?We have gone from home to home to talk about sanitation and cleanliness,? Devi says, standing on the bank of the Yamuna River as cattle drink from its fetid waters. ?The solution to a thousand household problems is getting a toilet.? As India strives to build on two decades of growth, the nation?s sanitation struggle reveals how complicated Devi?s goal remains ? and how damaging the failure to meet it may be. To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale at bloomberg.net From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Mar 6 13:43:29 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:43:29 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Iowa - Deep Injection Wells of Hazardous Wastes Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Deep well injection has also been used for sewage sludge in Ohio. Then there were some dramatic Ohio outbreaks - drinking wells contaminated with pathogens, and less has been available about this practice on the internet. ................................................ ROMULUS: Waste well decision expected Thursday Tuesday, February 17, 2009 By Anne Sullivan ROMULUS ? The fight to keep commercial deep-injection hazardous waste wells from operating in the city continues. ?It?s not over until the wells are capped and plugged,? state Sen. Raymond Basham (D-Taylor) said Monday. Basham has led the fight against the wells for years. Federal regulators are reviewing an application for an underground injection control permit submitted by Romulus Deep Disposal Operations, said Phillippa Cannon, a spokeswoman for Region 5 of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. Permits issued to a prior owner of the facility were terminated, that decision was appealed by attorneys for Romulus Deep Disposal Operations and a stay was issued by the EPA?s administrative law judge. That stay expires tomorrow, but could be extended, Cannon said. A decision on an extension would be made tomorrow. The wells are at 28470 Citrin Drive, near the Taylor city limits. The wells were drilled to haul in hazardous and nonhazardous commercial waste and pump it into a layer of the Earth known as the Mount Simon Formation, about 4,000 feet below the surface. The wells opened Dec. 27, 2005. However, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality inspectors found aboveground leaks during an inspection Oct. 23, 2006, and shut them down. About 1 million gallons of waste were pumped into the wells in the 10 months they were operational, about one-fortieth of what owners said the facility would take in. In November 2006, ownership was transferred from Birmingham-based Environmental Disposal Systems to Romulus Deep Disposal, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Detroit police and fire pension system, which has provided an estimated $35 to $54 million to fund the wells. The EPA was not notified of the ownership change, a requirement under the permit. Attorney Ron King, who represents the police and fire pension systems, said Romulus Deep Disposal went to great expense in 2007 to remove the waste pumped in during the 10 months the wells operated. He could not be reached for comment yesterday. Romulus Deep Disposal hired Environmental Geo-Technologies, owned by Detroit businessman Dimitrios ?Jim? Pappas, to operate the wells and it is trying to sell the wells to Pappas. Another controversial aspect regarding the wells also has surfaced. U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has supported residents over the years in their stand against the wells. It now has been reported that her husband, Tom Athans, is working on behalf of Pappas to get the wells reopened. Stabenow had not responded to an e-mail seeking comment for this report as of press time yesterday afternoon. Basham said his goal is ?to get the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to do what it said it would do, terminate the operating license, and stick to its word and not transfer the license.? Residents, city and county officials and U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-15th District) have opposed the wells from the onset. Federal and state permits are required to operate the wells, said Timothy Keyes, Romulus economic development director. Keyes said that, as he understands it, the state was waiting for the EPA to follow its process before taking action on the permits it issues. Now, he said, the state is moving forward with the revocation of its permit. ?Our position has been pretty clear on the wells,? Keyes said. ?The only thing we are asking the state to do is to terminate the permit issued to EDS and that EGT goes through the same process any other operator would.? That means going through the entire permit process, not transferring a permit from one owner to another, he said. If the EPA decides to issue tentative approval to Romulus Deep Disposal to operate the wells, it would hold a public hearing and seek input, Cannon said. It?s a lengthy process to obtain permits to operate a deep-injection well and it took EDS several years to attain its permits which is why Romulus Deep Disposal is trying to transfer the permits, said Robert McCann, DEQ press secretary. There are several complicating factors with these permits, among them that EDS is out of business and cannot request that the permits be transferred, he said. After 19 years fighting against commercial hazardous waste deep-injection wells, Basham said people still are trying to push an operating license through the DEQ. ?I am disappointed with my colleagues in Detroit who wrote a letter expressing a different view,? Basham said. He is referring to a Dec. 18 letter to DEQ Director Stephen Chester signed by diver lawmakers: state Sens. Buzz Thomas and Tupac Hunter, both of Detroit, and state Reps. Bert Johnson, Shanelle Jackson and Gabe Leland, also all of Detroit. In the letter, the lawmakers said in part ?there has been opposition of the (not in my back yard) variety.? They asked Chester if he had succumbed to political pressure and denied the hazardous waste well permits and put at risk the millions of dollars the Detroit police and fire pension system invested in the facility. They also wanted to know why the permits were terminated. ?What is political is EDS got a permit in 2001 when the site review board recommended against it,? Keyes said. ?(Former DEQ Director) Russell Harding issued (the permit) despite the recommendation by the site review board not to do it. Now that is political pressure. I would love the world to remember that.? Keyes? concerns include that many of the same people who were with EDS might be working for EGT and the same problems that occurred with EDS will happen again. The city?s concern is not with inadequate technology, but rather human error, he said. Leaks happened in the past and the city doesn?t want it to happen again. ?This is not a NIMBY argument, it?s about fairness and making sure the operator is capable of operating (the facility),? Keyes said. There are 21 deep-injection wells operating in 11 Michigan counties. Most are near factories that use them to dispose of their own waste. The two hazardous waste wells on Citrin Drive were the only commercial hazardous waste wells in the state where companies paid a fee to dispose of the waste. The wells remain closed. McCann said there are numerous inaccuracies in the letter from the Detroit lawmakers. ?I understand their concerns in the case and pension fund?s loss of money, but that?s not relevant to our decision making,? McCann said. ?Our decision making is based solely on recommendations of our staff and what our attorneys say should be the case.? Right now, the DEQ is moving forward with revoking the permits it issued. That could change, he said. A decision will be made in a month or two, he said. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Mar 6 20:28:22 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:28:22 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Biosolids are inefficient fertilizers - potent pollutants Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: In the US - sewage sludge is used at the agronomic rate - for nitrogen. But since sludge has much of the nitrogen reduced through digestion, sludge is reduced in nitrogen and elevated in phosphorus. So if you apply enough to get the needed nitrogen, you have overapplied phosphorus. And talk about over application. Look at Tule Ranch (Honeybucket Farms) in California. Turle Ranch Annual Report for 2008: www.ocsd.com/pdfs/tule_ranch.pdf While Ontario - under the Guidelines for the Use of Biosolids and Other Wastes on Agricultural Lands allows a maximum of 8 dry tonnes per hectare 5 years on farmland. Here Honeybucket Farms is throwing on 83 dry tonnes per hectare EVERY year. (Tule report electronic page 72) Agronomists out there? Any chance there might be a little over application? Even the Ontario Nutrient Management Act - which is supposed to allow the land application of nutrients only at the agronomic (plant uptake) rate - results in year over year deliberate elevation of phosphorus levels in the soil. Looks like they screwed up the maximum application rates to allow for sludge spreading. Complaints about this overapplication of phosphorus have gone unanswered by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture. ............................ http://www.tidewaternews.com/news/2009/mar/06/biosolids-are-inefficient-pollutants-reader-says/ Biosolids are inefficient, pollutants, reader says Published Friday, March 6, 2009 To the Editor: On Feb. 21, The Tidewater News reported, ?The reason a farmer would be interested (in biosolids) is that it?s basically a free fertilizer.? (?Biosolids may return to SoCo farms,? Feb. 22) That is true, but it is also the most inefficient fertilizer in common use. If a corn crop is fertilized with chemical nitrogen fertilizer, the grain harvested from the field contains about 100 pounds of nitrogen, so about 20 pounds of nitrogen are released to the environment, mostly pollution. In the case of sewage sludge, Nutrient Management Plans are written on the basis that only 30 percent of the nitrogen is plant-available the first year. This is unavoidable, because it takes time for microbes to decompose the organic material in the sewage sludge (or poultry litter) and make the nitrogen and phosphorous available for plant growth. Therefore, to supply enough nitrogen for plant growth, 400 pounds (120/0.3) of nitrogen are applied. This means that 300 pounds of nitrogen are released to the environment. Although some of the nutrients will be consumed by crops in subsequent years, the pollution is tremendously increased over responsible chemical fertilization. Nutrient Management Plans are ?nitrogen-based? and so phosphorus is massively over-applied, especially if poultry litter is used. The economics of cheap disposal of an unwanted waste and the mantra of ?free fertilizer? currently trump water quality concerns by either Virginia or Environmental Protection Agency. Agricultural fertilization practices are the largest source of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of Chesapeake Bay, an undisputed fact that has been known for decades. Unless the efficiency of agricultural fertilization is considerably improved, it is impossible for water quality to improve. Banning the land application of animal wastes is an easy, cheap first step, which would affect only a few percent of Virginia farmers. Animal wastes are better used as biofuels. Lynton Land Ophelia From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Mar 8 12:13:03 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:13:03 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ontario - former federal research scientist comments on sludge policy Message-ID: Comments and recommendations regarding MOE/OMAFRA presentations to Cramahe Council on land application of sewage sludge Feb 17, 2009 First of all I would like to thank MOE and OMAFRA staff members for making their presentations on land application of sewage sludge to Cramahe council on February 17, 2009. I would also thank Cramahe council for inviting the presentations and allowing a public audience. However, the presentation format which had the speakers with their backs to the public audience was ill conceived and most unfortunate. Surely the taxpaying audience deserved to be addressed, and not dismissed and ignored by Ontario public servants. Furthermore the stipulation that no direct questions could be posed by the audience was juvenile and autocratic. What are MOE and OMAFRA staff afraid of? Perhaps they realize that the data gaps in the material that was presented are large enough to drive several 40,000 litre sewage sludge tankers through. As a former federal research scientist specializing in food safety microbiology, I was appalled that despite the lack of any real microbiology data, MOE staff member Eileen Smith repeatedly and unabashedly claimed that the land application of sewage sludge was 'safe', and congratulatorily expounded on the wondrous 30 year history of this 'beneficial' agricultural practice. What is wrong with these claims? First of all, sewage sludge is a highly variable municipal waste product. Second, and more importantly, adequate research has not been done to even begin to characterize the myriad components contained in sewage waste, never mind assess its safety. According to Shelly Bonte-Gelok, the bacterial pathogens Salmonella and Listeria were 'frequently isolated' in digested sewage waste. What is the actual percentage of samples that were positive for Salmonella or Listeria? This data was not presented. Why not? No mention was made of any testing for E. coli O157:H7, or any of the hospital acquired bacterial pathogens. If Salmonella and Listeria can survive in digested sludge and can be 'frequently isolated' then it is very likely that these other bacterial pathogens can survive. Most of these bacteria survive and even thrive once in the environment. There are risks associated with any practice. No amount of spin doctoring or ministerial zeal can change that fact. MOE staff readily and repeatedly admitted throughout their presentations that data gaps exist, while in the same breath advocating the safety of this uncharacterized and widely variable substance. Have these staffers ever been instructed in risk communication? If so, it is time for a refresher course. What about the perceived safety of DDT, dombind, leaded paint, leaded gasoline? Once adequate research was conducted, none of these products are considered safe. Based on their limited research MOE staff attempted to perform a quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA), and failed. I would suggest that if the Ontario government is truly interested in assessing the safety of sewage waste land application, future QMRA funding be directed to personnel in the risk assessment unit of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) , in Guelph. PHAC staff have decades of experience in conducting successful QMRA studies. Until the research is conducted claims of safety are unsustainable. Mayor Coombs asked whether a moratorium on land application of sewage sludge was warranted. The answer from Eileen Smith was 'No'. I would caution the mayor and council that it is foolhardy to accept advice from persons that have anything to gain from the land application of sewage sludge. Sewage sludge is an uncharacterized and largely uncharacterizable waste product of highly variable nature. As such it should not be disposed of on food producing agricultural land. Look within your municipal borders and evaluate your priorities. Cramahe's fiscal strengths lie in agriculture and tourism. Is it wise to allow Cramahe agricultural land to be poisoned by continued application of uncharacterized sewage waste from neighbouring municipalities? Do you dare to threaten your tourist market by the unpalatable admission that Cramahe is a prime location for sewage waste spreading? This would be a hard sell in the nascent 'Northumberland County Premier-Ranked Tourist Destination Project'. Perhaps the tourist slogan for Cramahe should be "Bring the family to see where your municipal sewage waste is taken." Producing food crops on fields treated with sewage waste is a potential health risk and not environmentally sustainable, due to accumulation of toxic substances in the soil. Despite councillor Van Egmond's naysaying, wheat, corn and soybeans are food crops. When was the last time you ate a piece of bread, and where and how were the grain components produced? Where are the studies to monitor crop uptake of sewage waste components in crops and animals? MOE staff admit that tests do not even exist for 850 of 1000 known personal care products that are present in sewage. Where is the safety margin in that data? What are the longterm human and animal health outcomes? No claims of safety can be made until these studies are completed by non-partisan scientists. These studies need to be done in Ontario, rather than extrapolating data from other regions. This is a problem that has been locally created, and which needs to be studied locally. Furthermore, the nitrogen fertilizer 'benefit' of sewage waste is almost negligible when sludge is applied in late fall, as it was in several locations in Cramahe in October and November of 2008, on stubble wheat fields with no crop and negligible weed cover. Application to tile drained land results in almost immediate, rapid runoff events, resulting in contamination of surrounding land, surface water and groundwater. Where is the perceived 'benefit' ? Where is the protection of rural water wells? MOE and OMAFRA need to take responsibility for land application of sewage sludge by notifying adjoining property owners prior to sludge application on neighouring land, so that well water testing can be conducted before and after application. The reality is that Cramahe agricultural land and the surrounding environment have become a dumping ground for municipal sewage waste. I own a 75 acre farm in Cramahe. I have evaluated the available limited information on municipal sewage waste components. Based on that evaluation I will not be advocating land application of sewage sludge on my property, because I value my land and the integrity of crops produced thereon. I would urge council to continue investigating alternatives to the land application of sewage sludge. The only responsible action Cramahe council can take at this time is to follow the example of Prince Edward County (PEC) and declare an immediate moratorium on the land application of sewage sludge. Work with fellow councillors in PEC and urge your MPPs to ban the land application of sewage sludge throughout Ontario. I would also suggest that the Cramahe Agricultural Advisory committee invite Mark Richardson, president of the National Farmers Union to make a presentation. He can be contacted at 613 397-1010. Kris Rahn Cramahe Township From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 9 01:22:35 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:22:35 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Sewage Sludge Grown Food Labeling Bill - reintroduced House of Reps 2009 Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin This is a Bill that would require all food grown on sewage sludge to disclose this information on the label. This bill, or similar bills, are of interest in many jurisdictions. .............................................................................................. Sewage Sludge in Food Production Consumer Notification Act (Introduced in House) HR 185 IH 111th CONGRESS www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/111_HR_185.html 1st Session H. R. 185 To amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the egg, meat, and poultry inspection laws to ensure that consumers receive notification regarding food products produced from crops, livestock, or poultry raised on land on which sewage sludge was applied. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 6, 2009 Mr. SERRANO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A BILL To amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the egg, meat, and poultry inspection laws to ensure that consumers receive notification regarding food products produced from crops, livestock, or poultry raised on land on which sewage sludge was applied. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the `Sewage Sludge in Food Production Consumer Notification Act'. SEC. 2. NOTIFICATION TO CONSUMERS OF FOOD PRODUCTS PRODUCED ON LAND ON WHICH SEWAGE SLUDGE HAS BEEN APPLIED. (a) Adulterated Food Under Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act- Section 402 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 342) is amended by adding at the end the following: `(j)(1) Effective one year after the date of the enactment of the Sewage Sludge in Food Production Consumer Notification Act, if it is a food (intended for human consumption and offered for sale) that was produced, or contains any ingredient that was produced, on land on which sewage sludge was applied, unless-- `(A) the application of sewage sludge to the land terminated more than one year before the date on which the production of the food or ingredient on the land commenced; `(B) the food bears a label that clearly indicates that the food, or an ingredient of the food, was produced on land on which sewage sludge was applied; or `(C) in the case of a raw agricultural commodity or other food generally offered for sale without labeling, a sign is posted within close proximity of the food to notify consumers that the food, or an ingredient of the food, was produced on land on which sewage sludge was applied.'. (b) Adulterated Food Under Egg Products Inspection Act- Section 4(a) of the Egg Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 1033(a)) is amended-- (1) by striking `or' at the end of paragraph (7); (2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (8) and inserting `; or'; and (3) by adding at the end the following: `(9) effective one year after the date of the enactment of the Sewage Sludge in Food Production Consumer Notification Act, if it is derived from poultry that were raised, or that consumed animal feed produced, on land on which sewage sludge was applied, unless-- `(A) the application of sewage sludge to the land terminated more than one year before the date on which the poultry began to be raised on the land or the date on which the production of the animal feed on the land commenced; or `(B) the container bears a label that clearly indicates that the egg or egg product was derived from poultry that-- `(i) were raised on land on which sewage sludge was applied; or `(ii) consumed animal feed produced on land on which sewage sludge was applied.'. (c) Adulterated Food Under Federal Meat Inspection Act- Section 1(m) of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 601(m)) is amended-- (1) by striking `or' at the end of paragraph (8); (2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (9) and inserting `; or'; and (3) by adding at the end the following: `(10) effective one year after the date of the enactment of the Sewage Sludge in Food Production Consumer Notification Act, if it is derived from livestock that grazed, or consumed animal feed produced, on land on which sewage sludge was applied, unless-- `(A) the application of sewage sludge to the land terminated more than one year before the date on which the livestock began grazing on the land or the date on which the production of the animal feed on the land commenced; `(B) the carcass, part thereof, meat or meat food product bears a label that clearly indicates that the livestock-- `(i) grazed on land on which sewage sludge was applied; or `(ii) consumed animal feed produced on land on which sewage sludge was applied; or `(C) in the case of a carcass, part thereof, meat or meat food product generally offered for sale without labeling, a sign is posted within close proximity of the item to notify consumers that the livestock-- `(i) grazed on land on which sewage sludge was applied; or `(ii) consumed animal feed produced on land on which sewage sludge was applied.'. (d) Adulterated Food Under Poultry Products Inspection Act- Section 4(g) of the Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 453(g)) is amended-- (1) by striking `or' at the end of paragraph (7); (2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (8) and inserting `; or'; and (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph: `(9) effective one year after the date of the enactment of the Sewage Sludge in Food Production Consumer Notification Act, if it is derived from poultry that were raised, or that consumed animal feed produced, on land on which sewage sludge was applied, unless-- `(A) the application of sewage sludge to the land terminated more than one year before the date on which the poultry began to be raised on the land or the date on which the production of the animal feed on the land commenced; `(B) the poultry product bears a label that clearly indicates that the poultry contained in the product-- `(i) were raised on land on which sewage sludge was applied; or `(ii) consumed animal feed produced on land on which sewage sludge was applied; or `(C) in the case of a poultry product generally offered for sale without labeling, a sign is posted within close proximity of the item to notify consumers that the poultry contained in the product-- `(i) were raised on land on which sewage sludge was applied; or `(ii) consumed animal feed produced on land on which sewage sludge was applied.'. (e) Relation to National Organic Program- Nothing in this section or the amendments made by this section shall be construed to modify the prohibition contained in part 205 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations, on the use of sewage sludge, including ash, grit, or screenings from the production of sewage sludge, in organic food production under the National Organic Program of the Department of Agriculture. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 9 01:53:52 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:53:52 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Spinning Sludge - WERF develops tools to minimize sludge concerns Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: A few years back, professor Bev Hale at Guelph University got in trouble when she told her students to find out what 'sludge perception' issues bothered the public. Suddenly Professor Hale's students were emailing Sludge Watch asking what 'perception problems' surrounded sludge land application. The students had been instructed to write research papers on sludge issues cast as 'perception' problems, rather than explore the actual issues related to sludge use. A letter to the University Ethics Dept put a stop to that. But...it looks like WERF is also more busy spinning sludge as a 'perception' problem than investigating sludge illnesses. Not one case of sludge illness has yet been investigated by WERF. It is a pity that John Stauber who wrote the famous "Toxic Sludge is Good for You" has now retired from the Center for Media and Democracy. ................................................................................. FROM WERF: Volunteers Needed for Risk Communications Research WERF is seeking subscriber help with our risk communications research. The research, expected to begin in March, will provide WERF subscribers with biosolids pathogen risk assessment and strategic risk communications tools. It will help local officials and regulators determine the effectiveness of biosolids regulations and make needed enhancements. Your assistance will not only benefit our research, it will also give you first-hand knowledge of our communication tools under development. We are asking volunteers to: ? provide examples of any public information you use to inform your community about biosolids; ? participate in research in which we interview community stakeholders ? including local officials, regulators and the general public -- concerning their involvement and views on biosolids. WERF will work closely with your staff on this specific research. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact WERF Program Director Alan Hais as soon as possible. http://www.werf.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Research_Profile&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=8889 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 9 08:10:23 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:10:23 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Michigan - state environmental agency too broke to investigate contamination Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This story vividly illustrates why it makes no sense to allow wastes to be spread over potable groundwater. The State of Michigan is too broke to investigate why these drinking wells are contaminated with industrial chemicals. People cannot count on the state to investigate and remediate pollution. This means that we must be vigilant to protect water resources before they become polluted. .............................................. No money to pursue polluters: State environmental agency can't afford to investigate contaminated wells in Kalamazoo Township by Alex Nixon | Kalamazoo Gazette Sunday March 08, 2009, 6:30 AM Scott Harmsen | Kalamazoo Gazette Residents of Orchard Avenue in Kalamazoo Township just west of Douglas must use bottled water because of contamination of their wells. The state will pay to connect them to the city of Kalamazoo's water system, but doesn't have the money to find the source of the ground water pollution. KALAMAZOO TOWNSHIP -- The state's environmental agency is too broke to investigate who's responsible for contaminating 15 private wells in Kalamazoo Township. So taxpayers will pay $400,000 to connect the homes to municipal water, in addition to $1.2 million they already spent to test water and provide some of the residents with bottled water for the past six to nine months. But those residents are lucky. State officials say shrinking budgets and the depletion of funds from two voter-approved bonds may prevent them from paying for similar projects in the future. "Unless those funds are replaced in the near future, we may not be able to replace water supplies," said Bob McCann, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. "I don't know what I'd tell people. I don't know where that money would come from at this time." Environmentalists say the budget problems have left the DEQ unable to chase down polluters and force them to clean up their messes. While money is available to provide water to the Kalamazoo Township homes, the pollution won't be cleaned up or prevented from spreading. "That is par for the course these days," said Hugh McDiarmid Jr., a spokesman for the Lansing-based Michigan Environmental Council. "The DEQ's budget has been cut more than any other state department." The core mission of the DEQ -- protecting the environment and public health -- is "becoming virtually nonexistent," McDiarmid said. Industrial solvent discovered Last summer, an Orchard Avenue resident called the Kalamazoo County Health Department to complain about a strange smell in the home's tap water, said Deb Cardiff, director of the county's environmental health bureau, which investigated the complaint. The resident's water was tested, and a high level of trichloroethylene, or TCE, was discovered. TCE is an industrial solvent generally used to clean grease from metal parts. It is not thought to occur naturally in the environment, and if ingested in large amounts, it can cause liver damage, coma and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is also considered a probable carcinogen. Officials have sampled all the wells within a one-mile radius of Orchard, a dead-end street that climbs east off Douglas Avenue. TCE, or related dangerous chemicals, were detected in all 15 wells within the one-mile radius, which included one well on Douglas, two on Woodward Avenue and one on North Westnedge Avenue. Eight wells on Orchard and one on Douglas had levels of TCE above a safe level of 5 parts per billion, said Cora Rubitschun, a DEQ analyst. Rubitschun said TCE concentrations ranged from trace amounts up to 80 parts per billion, which is 16 times the acceptable standard for drinking water. Under state law, the DEQ steps in to pay for new water supplies when a responsible party can't be found, McCann said. Some residents unfazed While the DEQ has offered bottled water to all nine homes with unsafe well water, not all residents believe they shouldn't be drinking it. Donald and Brenda Harrison have lived in their Orchard home for eight years and never noticed a problem with their water, they said. Even after receiving a letter from the DEQ warning them to not drink the tap water, and having bottled water delivered to their home, they continue to drink it. "We just use it (the bottled water) to make tea," Brenda Harrison said. But the Harrisons, like other homeowners on the street, will take the free hookup to municipal water, realizing that if they ever want to sell their house they'll need to be connected to municipal water. The township, which received the $400,000 contract to install the water line on Orchard, expects to begin work this spring. The project should be completed by September, Rubitschun said. Source unknown Mark DuCharme, a DEQ analyst who is overseeing the Orchard project, said officials tried to identify possible sources of the TCE pollution by looking at records of nearby businesses that may use the degreaser. "There are no obvious indicators as to where it's probably coming from," he said. To determine where the TCE is coming from, engineers would have to install groundwater-monitoring wells throughout the area, DuCharme said. "In this case, we don't have the resources to complete that work," he said. Nor will anything be done to prevent the pollution from continuing to spread, though DuCharme notes that most homes east of Orchard, in the likely path of spreading pollution from the site, are already hooked up to municipal water supplies. Including the Orchard area, there are 35 known sites of TCE contamination in Kalamazoo County. Budget cuts increase Since 2002, state lawmakers have steadily reduced general-fund dollars to the DEQ -- by about 67 percent, to $33 million for the proposed 2010 budget, McCann said. The department's cleanup program receives none of that funding, he said. In the past several years, the department has increasingly relied on funding from two voter-approved bonds, which as of this year had been mostly appropriated to ongoing projects. The result is little to no funding for dealing with new problems, McCann said. The DEQ last May proposed asking voters to approve a new, $1.3 billion environmental cleanup bond that would be used to deal with thousands of polluted sites. But the Legislature declined to put the measure before voters. DEQ officials have said that since at least 2007, when the Kalamazoo Gazette detailed the agency's budget problems in a special report, funding cuts were reaching a crisis level. DEQ Director Steven Chester then told the Gazette that his organization was rapidly approaching the point where it would be unable to respond to new environmental problems. "Whatever remediation systems we're paying for now, and whatever drinking-water supplies we're paying for now, the money won't be there. It will end," Chester said. "The public won't be able to look to the DEQ for assistance. We won't be there. That's the bottom line." http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2009/03/no_money_to_pursue_polluters_s.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Mar 8 19:27:58 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:27:58 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> 22 Ontario cities test high in lead in drinking water Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The problem of lead in the drinking water supply generally comes from lead in the pipes or solder. Lead was generally used in homes or apartments or offices built before 1955. It is worse in the summer when the weather is warm. The use of 'chloramination' -chlorine and ammonia- to treat tap water also tends to scour more lead out of the pipes and into the drinking water. In Toronto summer testing showed elevated lead in 53 of 100 kitchen taps tested. In the last round of Ontario tests 22 cities had elevated lead levels...including Toronto, Hamilton, London, Thunder Bay. If you suspect your home may have high lead you must contact the Public Health Department who will come out and test for free. If you are on assistance, have suitably low income, and have a child or pregnant woman in the home, the city may deliver free water. http://www.healthzone.ca/health/article/598222 ........................................................ City officials answer questions about lead in tap water Posted: January 14, 2009, 5:50 PM by Allison Hanes lead, drinking water Routine water tests have revealed higher-than-acceptable lead levels still plague the city?s older neighbourhoods. Lou Di Gironimo, general manager of Toronto Water, and Dr. Howard Shapiro, associate medical officer of health for Toronto Public Health, talked to the Post?s Allison Hanes today about what was found, who should worry and what people can do about it: Q: What kinds of tests were done and what were the findings? Di Gironimo: We have to take a minimum of 100 tests at kitchen taps in areas of the city where we have lead services. The first set of samples we took last winter. And we had a number of only six homes out of 100 that exceeded the maximum concentration level. The second set of samples was taken in the summertime when the drinking water temperature is higher. And, as we expected, we had a lot more samples that exceeded. And there were 52 samples that exceeded in that round of testing. Q: Where is the lead coming from? Di Gironimo: Lead is coming from the service lateral, that pipe that connects the house to the city?s watermain. That is jointly owned. The city owns the portion of the service lateral that runs from the watermain to the shut-off valve. And from the shut-off valve into the home, the homeowner owns. Q: Is every home affected? Di Gironimo: Homes that were built in 1955 or earlier, those homes may have a lead service connection. After 1955 lead was not used to connect the homes to watermains. We were using other material, primarily copper. Q: How risky are the levels found? Dr. Shapiro: It?s hard to give a short answer. We?re exposed to lead from a whole bunch of places? It?s not as if your total risk from lead is contained only in the drinking water and the amount of lead that people get from drinking water is not usually most of their exposure, unless the lead is very high. Q: Who is most at risk from lead exposure and what are the effects? Dr. Shapiro: Really the group that we?re concerned about are children ? and we define this as children less than six years of age ? as well as fetuses, but the messaging is really about pregnant woman. The types of health effects we?re talking about are subtle effects on children?s mental abilities. Children with the higher blood-lead levels perform slightly worse on IQ tests. Q: What should people do? Di Gironimo: You should consider changing out the lead service if you do have one. The city does have a program in place now? of lead service replacement, accelerating it so we can change out all of our services over a nine-year period. 2008 was the first year of that program and we changed out about 6,000 services. In 2009 we have programmed about 7,000 services to be changed out. We are changing out our portion and we are encouraging homeowners to change out their portion as well. Q: What precautions can be taken in the meantime? Dr. Shapiro: The thing that everyone should do with a lead service line is be sure that they are using flushed water. So that?s water that basically runs cold for a minute or two from the tap that they?re drinking from ... [People can also] look at an source, particularly as an interim measure, either using a filter device certified to remove lead or bottled water. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/01/14/city-officials-answer-questions-about-lead-in-tap-water.aspx From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Mar 11 11:34:02 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:34:02 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Georgia farmer warns other farmers not to use sludge Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: When livestock eat feed contaminated with heavy metals, some of the metals end up in the meat and milk, and some is excreted. If the manure, now contaminated with the heavy metals is applied to the land, it can end up back in the next crop of feed, only to be recycled back again into the meat, milk, and manure. That is why farmers need to be careful not to risk their farms, feed, and livelihood by spreading sludges that are characteristically high in heavy metals. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=129072 3/11/2009 Georgia farmer issues warning about sewage sludge in Berks By Michelle Park Reading Eagle Georgia farmer Bill Boyce took what was for the taking - and kept taking it. Beginning in 1986 and continuing for years, the city of Augusta spread truckload after truckload of sewage sludge, or "free fertilizer," on Boyce's fourth-generation farm in Keysville, southwest of the city. Years later, cows began dying at the Boyceland Dairy Farm, known for its award-winning cows and ambitious milk production. Over the course of three years, the farm buried about 200 cows more than normal, Boyce said. He said an investigation concluded the cows died because they had eaten feed grown on sludge at the farm. Boyd said a University of Georgia dairy specialist warned him, " 'You can't feed your cows off your land. Your farm is done.' " It was. Boyce sued the city but the $550,000 he got didn't even cover his legal costs, he said. To avoid bankruptcy, Boyce sold all but 60 of his 690 acres. On Tuesday, he warned more than 100 people gathered in Bowers for a conference on sludge that the sewage-treatment byproduct is not necessarily safe. "Regardless of what the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) may say, sludge destroyed Boyceland Dairy Farm," said Boyce, 59. "We lost everything we had." Georgia farmer Andy McElmurray offered a similar cautionary tale, detailing how his fourth-generation farm went from growing cotton, alfalfa and other crops to lying fallow. Like Boyce, McElmurray, 51, lost cows and blames it on sludge spread by Augusta. He said he settled a claim against the city but received only enough money to cover some of his legal expenses. Tuesday's conference was organized by the United Sludge Free Alliance, a Kutztown nonprofit organization. Berks County receives the third highest amount of sludge of any county in Pennsylvania, said Darree A. Sicher, the group founder and president. "Somebody like Bill Boyce ... works his whole life to provide food for America ... and loses everything," she said later. "Where are we going to be as this happens around the country?" But cases like Boyce's and McElmurray's are rare, according to Timothy L. Chronister, who applies sludge to farms for Jesse Baro Inc., Douglassville. "What happened to them is not the norm," Chronister said after attending the conference."If it would be, the program would be stopped." Contact Michelle Park: 610-371-5022 or mpark at readingeagle.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Mar 11 11:49:20 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:49:20 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> How Toronto Sewage Sludge Ends Up On Farms Message-ID: There are many active links in this story...so best to read it on the webpage: http://blogto.com/eat_drink/2009/03/how_toronto_sewage_sludge_ends_up_on_farms/ How Toronto Sewage Sludge Ends Up On Farms Posted by Lauren Filed in Eat & Drink March 9, 2009 Sewage sludge contains every imaginable substance being flushed down toilets, sinks and sewers from homes, businesses, laboratories, industrial applications, and landfills. It is a mess of pathogens, heavy metals, dioxins, and other contaminants that gets treated to become a biosolid. So what does that have to do with Ontario farms? In what some would call "recycling gone wrong" Toronto's biosolids ended up on 15,000 hectares of farmland last year. While coverage of this food safety issue has been picking up in recent months, it's is an area of waste management that many Torontonians know little or nothing about. While the practice of spreading sewage sludge on farmland (aka land application) has been happening at a smaller scale for over 30 years, the widespread land application of Toronto's biosolids has been practiced since 1996. It was driven forward by the stiffened sewage treatment guidelines in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which created an increased volume of sludge and consequently the problem of how to dispose of it. As a solution, the Ontario Ministry of Health encouraged the uptake of land application, which is governed by the provincial Nutrients Management Act (NMA). It is completely legal to spread treated sewage onto farmlands from which we harvest crops (mostly corn, wheat, soy and pasture for livestock). Why are we using sewage on our farmlands? How is this practice considered "recycling" or even acceptable? In the NMA, biosolids are identified as containing beneficial soil nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. They can help improve the pH levels in soil and increase its water retention capacity. And they provide farmers with an affordable (often free) way to fertilize their crops. To make sewage sludge safe for land application, it is treated by anaerobic digestion for about two weeks in an environment heated to 37?C, which is supposed to "significantly reduce" the pathogen content. However, heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium and zinc), dioxins, and pathogens that were not killed during "digestion" can remain in the sludge. So what does this mean for our food? The NMA sets forth waiting periods that must be observed before harvesting or pasturing animals on sludge-covered fields in order to "prevent possible transmission of disease." Assuming these guidelines are followed, the Ministry believes that land application of sewage sludge is safe for humans and the environment. But it has been documented that substances such as PCBs, dioxins, and brominated flame-retardants are being expressed in the milk and meat of cattle. And plants can absorb heavy metals, or they can be left behind as residue on the surface of fruits and vegetables like tomatoes and potatoes. Big names in the food business like Campbell Soup, who operates a plant right here in Toronto, have taken the safe route and refused to use produce from fields being sludged. They claim there just isn't enough information to support the safety. Right now the city is mapping out how biosolids will be managed for the next 45 years. A public consultation process is in place, and the next set of public meetings will take place in June 2009. From there the final Master Plan will be developed and is slated for completion in the fall of this year. Because our solid waste is for the most part out of sight and out of mind, public discourse has been limited. Something to think about next time you flush the toilet... or eat a salad. For current news and updates on the sludge situation in Toronto, you can join the SludgeWatch listserv, which is open to anyone to subscribe and post to. Photo of Ashbridges Bay Water Treatment Plant by Lauren Wilson -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Wed Mar 11 14:07:28 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:07:28 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> ATSDR misses health risks - 'deny, delay, minimize, trivialize...' Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: 'deny, delay, minimize, trivialize...' exactly what happens with sludge complaints. ........................... INSIDE WASHINGTON: Probe finds health risks missed Posted 3/11/2009 7:11 AM ET E-mail | Save | Print Enlarge by Gerry Broome, AP In this May 9, 2007, file photo a sign is posted at an ongoing cleanup pump and treatment center operated by Shaw Corp. on lot 203 at Camp Lejeune, N.C., that treats an underground plume of TCE, or trichloroethylene, created years earlier by a waste disposal site on base that contaminated the water. A new congressional report, prepared for a Congressional hearing on Thursday, March 12, 2009, says officials from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a branch of the Health and Human Services department charged with protecting the public near toxic pollution sites, "deny, delay, minimize, trivialize or ignore legitimate health concerns." (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File) By Rita Beamish, Associated Press Writer The federal agency charged with protecting the public near toxic pollution sites often obscures or overlooks potential health hazards, uses inadequate analysis and fails to zero in on toxic culprits, congressional investigators and scientists say. A House investigative report says officials from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry "deny, delay, minimize, trivialize or ignore legitimate health concerns." Local communities have voiced frustration and confusion at findings by the agency that are challenged by outside scientists or are ambiguous about whether people living near industrial pollution or toxic dumps or breathe foul-smelling air have reason to worry. "Time and time again ATSDR appears to avoid clearly and directly confronting the most obvious toxic culprits that harm the health of local communities throughout the nation," said the report from the House Science and Technology investigations and oversight subcommittee. The health agency declined to comment, saying its director, Howard Frumkin, would address the criticisms when he appears at a hearing before the House science panel Thursday. By law the health agency, a branch of the Health and Human Services Department, assesses health hazards at polluted sites designated under the Superfund cleanup law, and those of concern to local communities. It frequently faces residents who expect environmental answers for a host of illnesses, which science can't always provide. But the agency's critics also include some of its own scientists, including toxicologist Christopher De Rosa, who told Congress last year that his bosses minimized the health risk of formaldehyde in trailers provided for survivors of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Congressional investigators reviewed ATSDR health studies and interviewed scientists and community activists across the country for the House report, which was obtained by The Associated Press. It accuses Frumkin of letting scientific integrity lag behind political expediency and uncomplicated conclusions. Subcommittee Chairman Brad Miller, D-N.C., said the problems "threaten the health and safety of the American public. Fixing ATSDR requires a cultural shift of the agency." David Ozonoff, professor of environmental health at Boston University's School of Public Health, said ATSDR often produces good work, but added: "They don't always use the latest science and the most up to date information. They don't have enough resources and people and breadth of skills and talent. They don't have the trust of communities." Ozonoff took issue with aspects of a new draft health assessment for a contaminated neighborhood in Elkhart, Ind., that addressed elevated levels of the degreasing solvent trichloroethylene. The agency appeared to overlook previous studies showing cancer and birth defects can show up at lower exposure levels than the draft report indicated, thus playing down the potential risk in Elkhart, he said. Among issues raised by other scientists: _ Ronald Hoffman, a professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, uncovered a high incidence of a blood cancer in northeast Pennsylvania while working with the health agency's scientists. The research identified an elevated incidence of polycythemia vera, including four cases on a mile-long stretch of road near a former toxic waste company. Although an abstract by Hoffman and his colleagues said there was significant evidence linking the cancer to environmental causes, agency officials publicly rejected the idea and unsuccessfully pressured Hoffman in 2007 to withdraw from a conference where he was to present the findings. "I thought they were trying to always increase the hurdles so they could disprove what to me was basically pretty obvious," Hoffman said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Ultimately, after additional analysis, ATSDR agreed that the elevated cases were statistically significant and its scientists joined Hoffman in publishing the findings last month. The agency is now considering additional studies. _ Henry Cole, an environmental consultant and former senior scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency, said a four-year study into residents' complaints of foul odors and health ailments near an Ohio waste plant, Perma-fix of Dayton, used insufficient sampling to conclude in December that none of the 100 compounds exceeded safe levels. Nor did it incorporate lawsuit and regulatory information that could have broadened the result beyond ATSDR's sole recommendation that Perma-fix should check for an odor source and mitigate it if possible. That left residents frustrated. "They come in with a very narrow focus and oftentimes they don't come up with anything" to help the community, Cole said in another interview. _ Randall Parrish, a researcher at the University of Leicester, England, found depleted uranium exposure in 20 percent of residents he tested in Colonie, N.Y., where a company once produced uranium weapons for the military. He recommended that ATSDR revisit the area because its earlier health study, without benefit of his test method, assumed it couldn't detect past exposure or tie it to illness years after the plant closed. ATSDR replied that the amount in people's bodies would be so small it wouldn't cause a health hazard, so no further work was warranted, the subcommittee report said. __ http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=cincinnati&sParam=30324477.story -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 12 07:10:30 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:10:30 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> NY - Binghamton water bosses dumped sludge into river Message-ID: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--susquehannasludge0311mar11,0,5857053.story AG: Binghamton water boss dumped sludge into river March 11, 2009 BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - A former Binghamton water plant superintendent and an employee were charged Wednesday with dumping sludge from the city's water treatment plant into the Susquehanna River, a drinking source for downstream communities in three states. Daniel Rose, 31, of Port Crane, the former filtration plant employee, was charged with 14 felony counts of knowingly discharging pollutants into state waters. Kevin Transue, the former plant superintendent, was charged as a knowing accomplice in seven of those counts, said state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Each count carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison. Prosecutors alleged that Rose illegally discharged chemical-laden sludge _ remnants of the water filtration process _ into the river 14 times between March 24, 2006 and Nov. 3, 2007. The plant was allowed to discharge water into the river under specific, limited circumstances, but not sludge, the attorney general's office said. Transue is accused of failing to monitor and report the discharges, and is accused of participating in the dumping. Deputy Attorney General Robin Baker said there was no evidence of any one being harmed by the dumping. Any discharge of sludge would have settled on the river bottom, Baker said. The Susquehanna River flows 444 miles from Otsego Lake in upstate New York through Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay and is the longest river on the East Coast. Transue, 55, who retired last April and now lives in Florida, also was charged with three misdemeanor counts for failing to file an annual report with the state Department of Environmental Conservation as required by the plant's permit. The misdemeanors carry a maximum of one year in jail. "What is alleged to have occurred in this case shows a total disregard for the environment and the many communities through which this vital river flows," Cuomo said. Both men entered not-guilty pleas at an arraignment in Broome County Court before being released on their own recognizance. Defense attorney Michael Mucci did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 12 07:28:52 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:28:52 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Kansas - MagnaGro twice guilty discharging sludge to sewers Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: THis is interesting. MagnaGro has already been convicted of pouring their sewage sludge 'fertilizer' down the drain into the public sewers on at least two occasions. In this story we hear there is more of their sludge into the streets and drainage ditches of this Kansas town. First: they keep calling this 'low grade fertilizer' but clearly the company has historically preferred to pour it down the sewers than deliver it to farmers. Is it even allowed on farmland? Second: Is it hazardous waste? OSHA has made it clear that just because EPA has decided that for their purposes sewage sludge is no longer considered 'hazardous waste' unless it fails a TCLP test, OSHA can still define sludge as a hazardous material. Third: Is this municipal sewage sludge? If so, why has the City hired a company with such a nasty track record of environmental offenses to haul their wastes? Just like Ontario, Canada - where Terratec has at least 46 convictions of Ontario environmental laws. Why do they still have a waste hauling license? Why do cities continue to put taxpayer dollars into the pockets of a repeat offender? ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Chief: Sludge in street likely not hazardous By Mike Belt March 12, 2009 An oily sludge that spilled into the 2200 block of Delaware Street on Tuesday is not thought to be hazardous, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Chief Mark Bradford said. The material apparently sloshed out of a container on a truck at MagnaGro International, 600 E. 22nd St., Bradford said. He said the lid on the container must have been loose. MagnaGro called a private firm, HAZ-MAT Response of Olathe, to clean up the spill in the street and drainage ditch. An estimated 100 gallons spilled from the truck, Bradford said. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is testing samples of the material, which MagnaGro representatives said was a low-grade fertilizer, Bradford said. Those tests could take about 10 days, KDHE spokeswoman Maggie Thompson said. Nothing indicated that the incident was anything but an accident, Bradford said. The city didn?t issue any citations. KDHE was still completing its investigation, and no decision has been made about possible legal action, Thompson said. No one at MagnaGro on Wednesday wanted to comment on the incident. On June 1, MagnaGro owner Raymond Sawyer will be sentenced in federal court after pleading guilty last month to illegally discharging fertilizer waste into the city?s sewer system. Two such incidents occurred, in 2001 and 2007. Sawyer faces a maximum one year in federal prison, plus a fine of up to $25,000 per day of the violation. The company faces a possible fine of $50,000 or more per day of the violation. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 12 11:13:03 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:13:03 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> What is the source of the Ecoli outbreak in Locust Grove Oklahoma? Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This is typical. Someone has died from a pathogenic strain of Ecoli. Three hundred people were made ill. They look at livestock as a possible source of the outbreak. But what about land application of sewage sludge biosolids? Since slaughterhouse waste and meat packing waste ends up in sewage ... sewage sludge certainly is likely to contain pathogenic strains of E.coli. The pathogenic strains generally are better equipped to survive the sewage treatment process. But investigators don't look at sewage sludge. Don't look means don't find. Cities are protected from lawsuits stemming from sludge spreading. Investigators like the lead Health Canada investigator for the Walkerton Enquiry...had no idea that sewage sludge was spread on agricultural land. So she only looked for animal waste. And look at the write up on the New York State E.coli outbreak. Even though the pathogenic bacteria was matched with a leaky septic tank at NY Washington State Fair - the recent write ups about the outbreak state that a manure pile was to blame. Tests on the manure pile did not match the outbreak strain while the septic tank did match. The wastewater industry has been successful in diverting regulatory health investigations away from illness that may be related to sludge spreading. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// OKLAHOMA: Agency: Poultry not likely E. coli source 12.mar.09 Arkansas Democrat Gazette Robert J. Smith http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/254731/ The Oklahoma Department of Health found harmful E. coli strains in three of 17 groundwater wells near Locust Grove that contained the bacteria, but the contamination likely did not come from chickens, the agency reported Wednesday. The findings come a month after Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said chicken farms near the town polluted a restaurant's well and caused an E. coli outbreak last summer. Edmondson's claims prompted the state to test 74 wells near Locust Grove, but not the one at the restaurant. "We know where these infections are found," said Leslea Bennett-Webb, a Health Department spokesman. "They are usually in cattle or sheep, but not chickens." The E. coli strains identified this week by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were O141, O179 and O113. Edmondson's staff on Wednesday scrambled to prove Bennett-Webb incorrect and to show there is sometimes a poultry connection to the O141 strain. "It's fair to say that it's more frequent in cattle and sheep," Edmondson said. "To say none of these are found in poultry is scientifically wrong. It's just wrong. "The Health Department is absolutely baffling to me." Locust Grove, 35 miles west of Siloam Springs, became the center of an Oklahoma Health Department investigation after one man died and more than 300 people were sickened in August after eating at the Country Cottage, a buffet-style restaurant in town. The restaurant, which uses a city water supply, temporarily switched to well water before the E. coli outbreak occurred. The Health Department identified an E. coli strain known as O111 as being in the restaurant's well. James Kaper, chairman of the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said dangerous E. coli are most often tied to cattle. "Cattle is what you think of in terms of human outbreaks of E. coli," Kaper said. E. coli is commonly found in the intestines of humans and other warm-blooded animals. On Wednesday, Edmondson's staff provided copies of journal articles that suggest poultry can be tied to the O141 strain. In 2005, the International Journal of Poultry Science reported 15 different E. coli strains were isolated from poultry, predominately from birds in Bangalore, India. A 2003 article from the Israel Journal of Veterinary Medicine showed O141 had been found in chickens in Nigeria, said Charlie Price, an Edmondson spokesman. Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson said Wednesday they were pleased to see the latest findings from the Health Department. "These findings are additional proof of the inaccuracy of the attorney general's unsubstantiated claim of a connection between poultry litter and last year's unfortunate outbreak," Mickelson said in an e-mail. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 12 11:23:10 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:23:10 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Detroit - Feds up the pressure in Synagro sludge scandal - 2 stories Message-ID: http://affiliate.kickapps.com:80/_Feds-Up-Pressure-In-Bribery-Probe/BLOG/208249/85365.html "Feds Up Pressure In Bribery Probe" Paul Egan and Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News DETROIT -- Federal prosecutors are stepping up pressure on those involved in the Synagro sludge scandal to come forward and cut a deal or face indictment and harsh treatment, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit said Tuesday. That's why prosecutors released documents Monday containing extensive details about the actions of former Synagro official James R. Rosendall Jr. and intermediaries he dealt with when Rosendall pleaded guilty to a bribery conspiracy charge on Monday, said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University and a former federal prosecutor. "Come now or we're coming after you," is the message, Henning said. "This is your time to make a deal." Henning said the details released Monday show prosecutors "have a very strong case against the intermediaries" as they move closer to targeted public officials. Documents filed in the Rosendall case show former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his father, business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick, are among those under investigation in connection with a contract that pays Synagro about \$47 million a year to haul and treat the city's sewage sludge. Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers also is under investigation in connection with the sludge contract, people familiar with the investigation said. Appearances before a federal grand jury in Detroit that has been investigating City Hall corruption are scheduled well into February, people familiar with the investigation said. The long-running and wide-ranging investigation involves the Synagro deal and contracts at Cobo Center and other city departments. It's likely indictments are still weeks away, Henning said. The Detroit City Council approved the contract by a 5-4 vote in the fall of 2007. Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. and the City Council took steps Tuesday to rescind the controversial contract, which Councilman Kwame Kenyatta described as "tainted" and Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said "never should have happened." The pair co-sponsored a resolution, which passed 7-1, asking the Mayor's Office and the Law Department to find a way to revoke the contract without leaving the city open to legal action. Synagro fired Rosendall late Monday, soon after his guilty plea, spokeswoman Darci McConnell of McConnell Communications said Tuesday. He had been suspended without pay since news of the bribery scandal broke in June. McConnell declined comment on the city's latest move to rescind the sludge contract. Watson first tried to rescind the contract in July. She did not have the votes then, but easily won over her colleagues Tuesday. "It never should have been approved," Watson said of the contract. "It is just another layer of bad news. We need to have transparency" in government. Mayoral spokesman Daniel Cherrin said Cockrel "is in support of rescinding the contract if he can do so legally." John Riehl, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207, applauded Tuesday's move and said the contract can be legally revoked because it involved bribes. "This contract is untenable," Riehl said. "They can't perpetuate this fraud forever." Conyers, who is linked to the corruption probe but maintains she did nothing wrong, said the council doesn't have the authority to rescind the deal on its own, and the Mayor's Office would have to do so. She declined comment after the meeting. Assistant Corporation Counsel Lewis Smith asked council members to meet in closed session as soon as possible to discuss the next step. But Watson said the Law Department could have given advice in July when Watson first tried to rescind the contract. She said it was too late to begin trying to offer suggestions. Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel questioned the legality of revoking the contract, which she has described as a good deal for the city, and voted against the move. Payments to Conyers alleged Federal officials have electronic surveillance evidence that allegedly links Conyers to receiving a payment or payments in connection with the Synagro deal, people familiar with the investigation said. Conyers has denied any wrongdoing, and her Detroit attorney, Steve Fishman, has said such allegations should be viewed with skepticism. Fishman declined comment Tuesday. Conyers, at the time the council president pro tem, opposed the Synagro deal but ultimately voted in favor of it. Sam Riddle, a former aide to Conyers, has said his telephone was tapped by the FBI in connection with the investigation. Riddle has also admitted to business dealings with Rayford W. Jackson, a Detroit businessman who was Synagro's local partner in the sludge deal. Jackson is also under FBI investigation and also had his telephone tapped as part of the investigation, sources said. Riddle has not returned phone calls in recent days. Rosendall's actions detailed Documents filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Monday in connection with Rosendall's guilty plea say Rosendall made payments to "City Council Member A" in the fall of 2007 in exchange for that council member's Nov. 20, 2007, vote in favor of the Synagro contract. In 2007, Rosendall was advised that an aide to Council Member A requested money in exchange for the council member's yes vote on the Synagro contract, Rosendall's plea agreement says. When Council Member A voted yes, "despite ... earlier misgivings," Rosendall said he would direct Synagro to wire \$25,000 to an intermediary "for use as campaign contributions and other forms of support to ensure that Council Member A and other supporters of the Synagro contract did not change their positions." Rosendall also was involved as a landowner in an earlier agreement the City Council approved to allow Systematic Recycling LLC to operate in southwest Detroit. According to Rosendall's plea agreement, the aide to City Council Member A told Rosendall that only if Rosendall hired the aide as a consultant would the agreement be approved. When Council Member A learned that an intermediary working with Rosendall had not made a payment or donation to benefit the council member, the council member said, "You don't have my vote and you're short," and cursed at Rosendall and the intermediary after a council meeting, the plea agreement said. On March 28, 2007, the council member voted in favor of the Systematic Recycling deal. The intermediary advised Rosendall that he later paid the council member \$5,000 to \$8,000 in cash, the Rosendall plea agreement says. Henning said he does not believe the prospect of a Democratic president soon appointing a new U.S. attorney in Detroit is affecting the timing of prosecutors' actions in Detroit. No U.S. attorney would attempt to interfere with a public corruption investigation, he said. Such investigations have to be preapproved by U.S. Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., he said. Detroit News Staff Writer Leonard N. Fleming contributed. /////////////////////////////////// March 11, 2009 When will the Detroit City Hall probe end? City smudged with suspicion as 4-year investigation goes on BY DAVID ASHENFELTER AND JOE SWICKARD FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS Nearly four years after federal agents began probing suspected corruption at Detroit City Hall, community leaders are wondering: What's taking so long? While prosecutors scrutinize Kwame Kilpatrick, his father, Bernard, and city officials including Council President Monica Conyers, critics say the city operates under a cloud that damages the reputations of its officials and erodes public confidence in government. It's possible none of the high-profile figures will ever be charged. But one way or another, community leaders hope a resolution comes soon. Some critics and legal experts speculate that recent high-profile losses in Detroit federal court may have made prosecutors reluctant to seek charges -- six weeks after a key figure, former Synagro Technologies executive James Rosendall, pleaded guilty to bribery in a sludge-hauling deal. Detroit's acting U.S. Attorney, Terrence Berg, responded that his office shouldn't be judged on a few acquittals and won't be rushed in this case. "We don't impose artificial deadlines," Berg said. "We recognize the need to move expeditiously in matters that affect the public, but it's wrong to rush a complex investigation." One person familiar with the investigation said of the case: "It would certainly seem if all the things in James Rosendall's plea agreement and complaint are true, they've got more than enough to indict several people." The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing repercussions from the U.S. Attorney's Office, said the court papers filed with Rosendall's plea deal appear to be a road map to further indictments and wondered why "the feds would wait this long to cross every 'T' and dot every 'I?' ". Kwame Kilpatrick lawyer James Thomas and a spokeswoman for Conyers declined comment. Bernard Kilpatrick didn't return calls. 'There's a cloud over this city' The 4-year investigation has expanded and grown even more complex in the past year. Since last summer, federal agents have raided city contractors, hauled witnesses before a grand jury, notified potential targets their phone calls were monitored and played videotape of people taking apparent bribes in an effort to recruit prosecution witnesses. Four have been charged -- Rosendall, and three men tied to contracts at Cobo Center. Meanwhile, the city's image continues to wilt. "There's a cloud over this city," said Detroit political consultant Adolph Mongo, who contends that the public relations damage from last year's text message scandal is being prolonged by the federal government's failure to charge -- or clear -- city officials and others. "Whatever's going to happen should have happened," Mongo said. "People just want the shoe to drop." Detroit City Councilman Kwame Kenyatta agreed. "It's beginning to look like an urban legend," Kenyatta said Tuesday of the ongoing investigation. "All we've heard is what's been in the paper. ... If there are indictments forthcoming, they need to come forth because the investigation holds a cloud of negative suspicion over the council." Probe began at Cobo Center The corruption probe dates to 2005, when agents began looking into bribes to win contracts at Cobo Center. Since then, it has widened to include the Synagro sludge-hauling deal, contracts involving Kwame Kilpatrick pal Bobby Ferguson and city pension investments such as the failed $5-million riverfront Asian Village restaurant venture. Rosendall, a former vice president of Texas-based Synagro, admitted lavishing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, campaign contributions, private flights and pricey champagne on Detroit officials and others to win a $1.2-billion sludge disposal contract. In court papers accompanying the plea, prosecutors said Rosendall handed a bundle of campaign checks to a "City Official A" -- whom sources identified as then-mayoral hopeful Kwame Kilpatrick -- and announced that Synagro was interested in the contract. In 2004, the court papers said, the official told Rosendall to work with "Relative A" -- whom sources identified as Bernard Kilpatrick -- on the contract. And in 2007, an intermediary caused payment to be made to "City Council Member A" -- whom sources identified as Conyers -- to approve the Synagro deal, prosecutors said. Veteran Detroit criminal lawyer James Feinberg said high-profile losses -- such as last year's acquittal of prominent Southfield lawyer Geoffrey Fieger of campaign finance violations -- have made prosecutors cautious, and rightly so. "It's easy to indict people willy-nilly, like in some drug cases, hoping somebody will roll over and cooperate," Feinberg said. "Here, I know they are lining things up, bringing in people, actively talking to people, gathering evidence." Birmingham criminal lawyer Neil Fink said he, too, understands the caution. "It hasn't been unusually long," he said. "And they've been burned so they are going to be careful." Gathering evidence The pace of the Detroit corruption probe appears particularly slow when compared with the quick trigger of other prosecutors in the region. Federal prosecutors in Chicago took only months to charge Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich with conspiring to sell the Senate seat of Barack Obama. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy took eight weeks to charge Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty with perjury after the Free Press broke the text-message scandal last year. Carl Marlinga, former Macomb County prosecutor and a onetime assistant U.S. Attorney, said federal prosecutors tend to "ponder and write memos and examine everything every which way" compared with county prosecutors. Marlinga said Worthy moved quickly partly because the case didn't require wiretaps, financial searches and other time-consuming techniques. "And if you're inside it, you don't even perceive that it is a delay," said Marlinga, who was acquitted in 2006 of federal corruption charges. At the same time, Marlinga said, federal prosecutors need to act with reasonable speed to clear the innocent because "a rumor can ruin lives." Dragging out investigations "is not healthy, it is not good." Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER at dashenfelter at freepress.com. Staff Writers M.L. Elrick and Jim Schaefer contributed to this report. Additional Facts Projects in question Federal agents are investigating suspected City of Detroit corruption on multiple fronts. Here's a rundown: Synagro: Executive James Rosendall of Houston-based Synagro Technologies pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to bribe city officials and others to win a $1.2-billion sludge-disposal contract. He is cooperating with investigators. Asian Village: Agents raided the businesses last year of two men involved in the failed $5-million restaurant and retail complex partly financed with city pension funds. Cobo Center: Two former convention center directors pleaded guilty last year to charges involving bribes they accepted from convention center contractor Karl Kado, who also is charged. City contracts: Agents raided offices of Bobby Ferguson in January. Ferguson, a pal of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, received millions of dollars for city work. Kilpatrick nonprofit groups: A grand jury last year subpoenaed records to find out whether Kilpatrick violated any laws in several nonprofit and political funds he controls. http://www.freep.com/article/20090311/NEWS01/90311103/1001/NEWS/When+will+the+Detroit+City+Hall+probe+end -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Mar 13 08:20:39 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 08:20:39 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Hinkley Calif - Nursery Products sludge compost site looking for permit again Message-ID: http://www.desertdispatch.com/news/composting_5627___article.html/facility_hinkley.html Portions of composting facility review start again March 12, 2009 By ABBY SEWELL, staff writer HINKLEY ? San Bernardino County is beginning to revisit parts of its environmental review of a proposed composting facility near Hinkley that has been an ongoing subject of controversy and litigation. Following a lawsuit by groups opposed to the proposed Nursery Products Hawes Composting Facility, Judge John P. Vander Feer of the San Bernardino County Superior Court ordered the county in April of 2008 to put the project on hold until it could address two issues not included in the original environmental impact report for the project. The judge ordered the county to identify a water supply for the project and to look at the feasibility of building an enclosed rather than open-air facility, a measure that some Hinkley residents had pushed for. However, he found that the existing environmental report adequately addressed the issues of air quality and impacts on endangered species, and that a reduction in the project size from 160 to 80 acres did not call for a new environmental review process as the project opponents had argued. The county announced Monday that it will begin preparing a supplemental environmental impact report after a 30-day public comment period. As well as the water and enclosure issue, the new report will look at impacts of the project on global warming. That portion was not ordered by the court, but Carrie Hyke, a principal planner with the county?s land use services department, said because of growing concern about climate change, standards of environmental review have changed since the initial report was prepared in 2006. Hinkley resident Norm Diaz, who has been one of the most visible opponents of the composting facility, said his group,HelpHinkley.org , felt that the county should have to prepare an entirely new impact report. The group will be actively commenting on the supplemental report throughout the process. Diaz said despite Vander Feer?s decision, the group remains concerned about a range of potential environmental impacts including air quality, water quality and usage issues and impacts on endangered species, Diaz said. ?To us, it?s very straightforward,? he said. ?There are (composting facilities) that want to do it enclosed, so it is economically feasible to do it enclosed.? Nursery Products Director of Operations Chris Seney said once the project is built, local people will see that it is environmentally friendly ? it is expected to run entirely on solar power ? and will bring well-paid jobs to the area. Hyke anticipated that it will be another six to nine months before the supplemental report is completed and approved by the board of county supervisors. In the meantime, the county and Nursery Products are appealing the judge?s ruling that forced it to prepare a supplemental report, but it is likely that the report will be finished before the appeal is over, Seney said. *Contact the writer:* (760) 256-4123 or asewell at desertdispatch.com *To comment* Comments to be included in the draft supplemental environmental impact report for the proposed Nursery Products Hawes Composting Facility must be sent no later than April 13 to: Carrie Hyke, principal planner with San Bernardino County Land Use Services Department, Advance Planning Division, 385 N. Arrowhead Avenue, First Floor, San Bernardino, CA 92415-0182. After the draft report is done, the public will have another 45 days to review it and make comments before the final report is prepared. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Mar 15 14:52:23 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:52:23 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Penn: Farmers Urged to Take a Second Look at Biosolids In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Farmers Urged to Take a Second Look at Biosolids Submitted by Editor on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 12:55pm. Nearly 200 People Attend Event On Biosolids Use Chris Torres Staff Writer KUTZTOWN, Pa. ? When Andy McElmurray and Bill Boyce decided to accept biosolids on their fields more than 20 years ago, they thought they were getting a cheap but adequate alternative to synthetic fertilizer, which can be expensive. Little did they know that two decades later, they would be warning a crowd of the potential dangers biosolids can have on farms. Nearly 200 people came to hear the two farmers and an expert from Cornell speak on the topic at the Janelle Hall near Kutztown Tuesday. The event was organized by the United Sludge Free Alliance, a volunteer group of concerned citizens that seeks to raise awareness over the land application of biosolids, often referred to as ?sludge.? Dr. Murray McBride, director of Cornell?s Waste Management Institute, contends that while biosolids have come a long way since cities and towns across the country started offering it to farmers as a soil amendment in the 1970s, it is still not tested adequately enough for some heavy metals and chemicals. Between 50 and 60 percent of biosolids produced in the country is land-applied on farms, with the rest either taken to landfills or incinerated. Giving the biosolids to farmers, McBride said, has been seen as a cheaper alternative to having it hauled to a landfill or burned. But he said the Environmental Protection Agency?s 503 rule, which was passed in 1993 and sets the groundwork for biosolids testing across the country, is inadequate and is based on out-of-date research. Why? McBride contends that there are many more potentially harmful metals and chemicals in sludge because of the mixture of industrial wastes it may contain that are not being tested. ?With sludge, we found things out about it that we never knew,? he said. The 1993 rule lists nine metals, McBride said, that are required to be tested for before sludge is approved for land application. But results of a survey released just two months ago shows the potential of more metals getting into sludge that can potentially be harmful to animals and humans. The National Sewage Sludge Survey, which was conducted by the EPA last year, showed traces of up to 27 different metals in the samples, including mercury, lead and molybdenum, which he said is used in motor oil. Along with that, the samples also showed various levels of flame retardants, pharmaceuticals, hormones and steroids. The survey included 74 wastewater treatment plants that were randomly selected by the EPA. While many of the samples contained only trace elements of the various metals, McBride warned prolonged exposure to metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead can lead to serious health problems in animals and humans. It?s what Georgia farmer Andy McElmurray thinks led to the demise of his crops and cows. McElmurray at one time raised hundreds of acres of crops and milked more than 500 cows outside of Augusta, Ga. He started applying biosolids on his farm in 1979 after coming into an agreement with the city. Based on what he knew at the time, he felt good about applying what he thought would be a beneficial soil amendment to his land. ?We as a family were led to believe it was just human waste? and that it was perfectly safe to apply on the ground, he said. McElmurray saw an almost immediate benefit. The crops looked better than ever with the added nitrogen and phosphorus. Eventually, however, problems began to arise. The crops weren?t growing like they once were and no one could explain why. Then his herd of cows started to get sick. At one point, the colostrum from his cows was tested and found to have no antibodies. Still, no one could explain what was happening, even though soil scientists, agronomists and veterinarians investigated the problems. In 1994, McElmurray planted cotton for the first time since 1976 on land where the biosolids were being applied. According to him, the results were disastrous. Then a test revealed that the land had high levels of aluminum in the soil. The aluminum was linked to the wastewater treatment plant that was the source of the biosolids being spread on his farm. ?It was very, very high,? McElmurray said of the aluminum content. ?At that point, I asked them to cease application of (the biosolids).? Since he made that decision, McElmurray has been embroiled in several legal cases, mainly against the city who owns the wastewater treatment plant. It has cost McElmurray and his family thousands of dollars in legal fees. Along with that cost, he attributes the death of 360 cows and the culling of another 350 to the biosolids problem. The land he used to farm has been sitting barren since 1998. He has come to the conclusion that biosolids are the only logical explanation for his troubles. Last year, a judge ordered the government to compensate him for the 1,730 acres that he considered to be ?poisoned? due to the application of biosolids on the fields. According to an Associated Press article released last March, samples of the sludge that was applied to McElmurray?s farm contained high levels of arsenic as well as other toxic heavy metals that are not required to be tested. The article states that the judge in the case, Anthony Alaimo, ruled that EPA officials working on the case took steps to ?quash scientific dissent and any questioning of EPA?s biosolids program? and stated that records kept of the toxic metals in the sludge were ?unreliable, incomplete and in some cases, fudged.? The article also states that McElmurray settled with the City of Augusta for $1.5 million for his dead cows. Even though he technically won his battle, McElmurray contends it caused more headaches than anything. ?My point is that the legal system is not very friendly to the problems that people like we have,? he said. ?My concern is for the farmers of this country and the situation you can get yourself into from a liability standpoint.? Bill Boyce, a longtime dairy farmer and good friend of McElmurray, was awarded $550,000 after a judge found the City of Augusta liable for the death of 300 of his prized cows. He accepted biosolids for the same reasons McElmurray did: as a soil amendment. But he said constant exposure to toxic elements by his animals led to health problems and eventually, death. Most of the 690 acres he used to farm has been sold, with only 60 acres remaining. He has now changed his career, running a small diner where he and his family still live. ?I lost everything we had because of sludge,? Boyce said. ?I can tell you people it is not worth it.? But even with their bad experiences, both McElmurray and Boyce concede that sludge can provide a benefit. Farmers just need to be aware of the potential ramifications of accepting it. ?There are so many things you should be aware of before the trucks come out and spread it,? Boyce said. ?It should be safe and beneficial, but it is not always.? McElmurray said farmers must first and foremost get some legal advice before accepting sludge on their farm, making sure they have contracts that cover them from having to clean it up in case there are problems, and protecting themselves from third party claims. Farmers also need to check to make sure whoever is spreading biosolids has the proper permits and that the wastewater treatment plant where it is coming from is properly testing for chemicals and metals. http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/1793 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Mar 15 15:11:39 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:11:39 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> US sludge sent to Jamaica as fertilizer Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: no crops grown on sewage sludge can be marketed or sold as certified organic. The use of sewage sludge or sludge fertilizer is explicitly forbidden in organic agriculture. As we have pointed out there is no market for sewage sludge based fertilizer...so here US sewage sludge material has been sent to Jamaica...and caused a storm of controversy. .......................... Cheap fertiliser threatens exports - Experts wary of importing manure Published: Sunday | March 15, 2009 Avia Collinder, Business Reporter Prime Minister Bruce Golding operates a forklift to unload a batch of fertiliser at Port Bustamante, Kingston Wharves, in October last year. The fertiliser was imported by the Government to provide it at a cheaper cost for farmers. - FILE Any widespread use by Jamaican farmers of fertiliser manufactured from human waste could undermine a growing initiative to access Europe's lucrative market for organic products that carry the Fair Trade certification, farm-sector campaigners and researchers here say. "Human waste may have disease-causing micro-organisms and is quite often mixed with municipal chemical waste," said Dr Joseph Lindsay, a soil scientist at the Mona campus of the regional University of the West Indies (UWI). "Plus, one is uncertain what additives there might be. For vegetables, the use of human-waste fertiliser should not be allowed at all." This, experts say, is bad news for anyone who is into organic farming. The warning from Lindsay, and others, comes in the wake of a raging controversy, ignited by the Opposition People's National Party (PNP), over the importation by the Government of fertiliser from the United States, produced from the sludge left-over from sewerage plants after the treatment of waste. The Government started sourcing the cheaper product via a Miami-based firm as part of an effort to provide a cushion to Jamaican farmers who had been hit by high prices for domestically produced synthetic fertiliser and other imported products. But, faced with questions over the safety of the product, agriculture minister Dr Christopher Tufton accused the PNP of scaremongering, insisting that the imported product met the standards of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. no sewage-plant sludge The product that was processed into a fertiliser could not be properly called human waste or excreta, Tufton and the experts he called in to help plead the case have said. But Raymond Martin, who heads the biological science division at the UWI's Mona campus and is chairman of the Jamaica Organic Agriculture Movement, is insistent that, Tufton's assertion notwithstanding, for organic farming, fertiliser from sewage-plant sludge should not be used. "The sewage system takes in all manner of pollutants," Martin told Sunday Business. "Due diligence would indicate that you avoid usage. In organic farming, once there is a risk, we avoid it." Organic foods, advancing at up to 15 per cent a year, is among the fast-growing segments of Europe's agriculture market and one that Jamaica is keen to break into. Health and environmentally conscious consumers are willing to pay premium price for 'green' products. fair trade conditions Similarly, Jamaica, having gained a toe-hold, wants to expand its role in the Fair Trade movement, where products, certified as grown in environmentally sound conditions and with fair conditions for workers, get better prices. Although still a tiny fraction of world agricultural trade, the Fair Trade market, at US$3.62 billion worldwide last year, represented a 47 per cent increase over 2006. Jamaica's participation in the Fair Trade movement is primarily via bananas, which Banana Exporting Company sought to exploit in an effort to compete in the European market against fruit cheaply grown on Latin American farms that do not meet the requisite labour and environmental standards. Indeed, the European Union funded a project to help Jamaican banana farmers, hurt by World Trade Organisation rulings diminishing their EU preferences, meet Fair Trade standards. Marjorie Stair, a Jamaican specialist who works on the EU project in helping to get Jamaican farmers Fair Trade-ready, is one of the few experts in this area who is unconvinced that fertiliser made from the sludge from sewage treatment could be inimical to the island's Fair Trade aspirations. "Human waste (as fertiliser) has been practised in agriculture from as long as agriculture has been practised," Stair said. "Lots of local coffee farmers and others have used it. In Asia, it's common. Human waste is an organic-type fertiliser. This would be one." nutrients are added Among her colleagues who disagree is Nkrumah Green, the technical adviser on an EU banana-rehabilitation project run by the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre in St Thomas, eastern Jamaica. Green argues that a fertiliser that has its origin in human waste could not properly be described as organic, given that synthetic nutrients are added. The sludge is merely used as a filler. The UWI's Martin has a more fundamental concern: the underlying safety of the product. "Although it does go through a process to kill pathogens, it does not remove all," he explains. "And under the right conditions, they may again increase in numbers and contaminate food, or run off into waterways." Additionally, Martin argues, pathogens in human waste-based fertilisers may also move into dust and spread to wider areas beyond farming zones. applying with their hands "Another issue: Our farmers are applying the fertiliser with their hands and that is also a problem," he said. Martin is concerned, too, that heavy metals which may have been left over in the product, even after the processing of the sewage and the sludge, can be absorbed by plants and become a part of the food chain. Lindsay, the UWI soil scientist, warns that if such fertiliser is used, its application should be selective. "People throw anything down the toilet and the sink," he said. "For fresh vegetables, one would not recommend it. For tree crops there is not as much concern." http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20090315/business/business1.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Mar 15 15:19:09 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:19:09 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Solar and Wind Power - What about Biomass? Message-ID: Solar and Wind Power - What About Biomass? By EarthTalk Mar 14, 2009 - 3:48:52 PM Email this article Printer friendly page (HealthNewsDigest.com) - The oldest and most prevalent source of renewable energy known to man, biomass is already a mainstay of energy production in the United States and elsewhere. Since such a wide variety of biomass resources is available?from trees and grasses to forestry, agricultural and urban wastes?biomass promises to play a continuing role in providing power and heat for millions of people around the world. According to the non-profit Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), biomass is not only a renewable energy source but a carbon neutral one as well, because the energy it contains comes from the sun. When plant matter is burned, it releases the sun?s energy originally captured through photosynthesis. ?In this way, biomass functions as a sort of natural battery for storing solar energy,? reports UCS. As long as biomass is produced sustainably?with only as much grown as is used?the ?battery? lasts indefinitely. While biomass is most commonly used, especially in developing countries, as a source of heat so families can stay warm and cook meals, it can also be utilized as a source of electricity. Steam captured from huge biomass processing facilities is used to turn turbines to generate electricity. Of course, biomass is also a ?feedstock? for several increasingly popular carbon-neutral fuels, including ethanol and biodiesel. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, biomass has been the leading U.S. non-hydroelectric renewable energy source for several years running through 2007, accounting for between 0.5 and 0.9 percent of the nation?s total electricity supply. In 2008?although the numbers aren?t all in yet?wind power likely took over first place due to extensive development of wind farms across the country. According to the USA Biomass Power Producers Alliance, generating power from biomass helps Americans avoid some 11 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions that burning the equivalent amount of fossil fuels would create each year. It also helps avoid annual emissions of some two million tons of methane?which is 20-plus times stronger a ?greenhouse? gas than carbon dioxide?per year. The largest biomass power plant in the country is South Bay, Florida?s New Hope Power Partnership. The 140 megawatt facility generates electricity by burning sugar cane fiber (bagasse) and recycled urban wood, powering some 60,000 homes as well as the company?s own extensive milling and refining operations. Besides preserving precious landfill space by recycling sugar cane and wood waste, the facility?s electricity output obviates the need for about a million barrels of oil per year. Some homeowners are making their own heat via biomass-fed backyard boiler systems, which burn yard waste and other debris, or sometimes prefabricated pellets, channeling the heat indoors to keep occupants warm. Such systems may save homeowners money, but they also generate a lot of local pollution. So, really, the way to get the most out of biomass is to encourage local utilities to use it?perhaps even from yard waste put out on the curb every week for pick-up?and sell it back to us as electricity. CONTACTS: UCS, www.ucsusa.org; USA Biomass Power Producers Alliance, www.usabiomass.org. SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk at emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php. EarthTalk is now a book! Details and order information at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalkbook. http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Environment_380/Solar_and_Wind_Power_-_What_About_Biomass.shtml www.HealthNewsDigest.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 16 09:55:48 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:55:48 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Delaware: Remove sludge pile - inadequate security Message-ID: March 13, 2009 DNREC: Remove sludge pile VFL must explain why it should leave power plant waste in Wilmington By JEFF MONTGOMERY The News Journal State regulators have rejected a plan that would strand as much as a million tons of sewage sludge, coal ash and industrial soot on unprotected ground east of I-495, a ruling that could trigger a multimillion-dollar cleanup problem for taxpayers. In letters to Wilmington officials and VFL Technology, the city's sludge recycling contractor, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control gave the company 15 days to explain why it should not have to remove the entire waste pile when operations end by next year. DNREC officials also demanded an estimate of costs to close the operation and warned that the contractor's proposed $886,200 financial guarantee was too low. One DNREC manager estimated the cost at $17.5 million to dispose of 250,000 tons of the pile, a quarter of the waste at the site. "We're definitely trying to do what's best for the environment in a very difficult situation," said Katherine E. Bunting-Howarth, DNREC's water resources director. "There's no optimum solution here." The state issued its order days after the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans for a nationwide check of risks from coal ash stockpiles and lagoons. EPA officials also said they are considering the release of tougher rules later this year to protect the public from toxic hazards, including heavy metals and mercury, associated with wastes from coal burning. Rising public complaints and coal-ash spills prompted the federal action. In December, a retaining wall broke at a coal-ash lagoon in eastern Tennessee, spilling a billion gallons of contaminant-laced ash across 300 acres, damaging homes and surrounding rivers. Two years earlier, a coal-ash landfill in Anne Arundel County, Md., tainted wells, triggering a cleanup order and a drive for new coal-ash control laws in that state. DNREC ordered VFL to halt further growth of its pile in August, but rejected the company's initial cleanup plan. This week, the agency also ordered Wilmington to join VFL in developing a plan for groundwater studies, well installations and long-term monitoring for heavy metals and other pollutants in coal-ash and sewage sludge. VFL was hired to dispose of sludge from Wilmington's wastewater plant, but the company soon expanded its imports of ash and other industrial waste from other states. More than half the ash and industrial castoffs deposited in the city between 2002 and last year, about 1.2 million tons, came from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Critics have long claimed that VFL's operation was nothing more than a disposal site for of out-of-state coal ash and other industrial wastes in Delaware, without public compensation. John Rago, spokesman for Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker, released a short statement late Thursday saying the city is exploring its options and would have no immediate response to DNREC's letters. A VFL spokesman said Thursday the company also would have no immediate comment. VFL is a subcontractor to Veolia Inc. The city pays Veolia $2 million a year to operate the wastewater plant, which also treats the sewage for most of suburban New Castle County. Wilmington officials have said they are unaware of VFL's profits and cannot answer for the company. "The city is pretending that it doesn't have a problem, but it has a serious problem and it has implications far beyond Wilmington," said city resident John Flaherty, an environmental lobbyist. "For some reason, the city has not been forthcoming, the contractor has not been forthcoming and the state has been looking the other way. It's time to stop this and put all the options on the table." VFL officials said they would eventually remove the waste material when they found a market for it, but the market never materialized. The only current approved use for the stabilized sludge, a drainage and landscaping job at the closed Pigeon Point landfill, ends in a year. Environmental groups previously questioned whether the 1.5 million tons sent to Pigeon Point was excessive. Taxpayers could get stuck with the bill if, as some regulators have warned, VFL simply walks away from the pile. "It is more likely that VFL will abandon the site and forfeit its financial assurance instrument than pay to remove the ash/sludge and restore the site," James Werner, DNREC air and waste management director, wrote in an e-mail overview of the problem last month. Landfill fees for disposal of the sludge alone at Cherry Island could cost $1 million more than the city's payment to VFL. The Delaware Solid Waste Authority has been unenthusiastic about dumping sludge in its heavily burdened landfill space, however. Wilmington also recently proposed using the sludge as a power plant fuel after VFL's services end, state officials said. VFL, now owned by Utah-based Headwaters Inc., operated a sludge recycling plant for years just north of the city-run regional sewage treatment plant near the I-495 interchange at East 12th Street. Its permits allow it to mix power plant ash, incinerator residues, industrial soot, and other materials with the annual 50,000 tons per year sludge output from Wilmington's wastewater plant. The company violated state rules repeatedly over the years, and in 2005 admitted to illegally dumping thousands of truckloads of out-of-state power plant coal ash at Pigeon Point landfill. http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090313/NEWS02/903130350 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 16 11:25:35 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:25:35 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Toilets in space Message-ID: Space toilet. If they can separate feces and urine in space we can do it here too. But should we leave our dung floating around in outerspace? Don't you think we should have more respect for the wilderness of space and bring it back? Space capsules don't spend all their time near the Earth's atmosphere to burn up like a shooting star. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUe2HcFUPSo -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 16 13:33:18 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:33:18 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Releasing urine into outerspace Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The toilets debris in space issue has already generated a great deal of interest. Looks like we need to keep an eye on what technologies are being used and whether human waste is part of space debris. While there is some urine recycling, some urine is still going out into space. And from one subscriber: Twinkle, twinkle, little turd, How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, There you are---splat--in my eye When the blazing sun is gone, When he nothing shines upon, Then you show your little blight, Then the traveller in the dark, Curses you for your tiny splat, He could not see which way to go, With you spread across his visor so. In the dark blue sky you reek, As your brown and tiny splat, Lights of the traveller go dark,? Though I know not what you are, Wrinkle, wiggle, little turd. ................................ Space Plumbing 101 When an astronaut pees, where does it go? By Jacob Leibenluft Posted Thursday, May 29, 2008 A toilet compartment in the International Space StationThe crew on the International Space Station had to make emergency repairs to its toilet?and use an emergency urinal?after a part responsible for collecting liquid waste malfunctioned. What do astronauts do with all the sewage that gets collected? it back to Earth or eject it into outer space. Space toilets separate solid and liquid waste, and the solid waste is tightly bagged until it can be removed. (For detailed accounts of how you go to the bathroom in space in the first place, check out these descriptions by astronauts.) On a space shuttle, solid waste is compressed, stored, and then brought back to Earth. The space station, on the other hand, deposits the solid waste onto an unmanned vehicle (known as a "Progress module") that is eventually released toward Earth, burning up on its re-entry into the atmosphere. Historically, space vehicles have released urine overboard. Because of the low temperatures outside, the wastewater quickly freezes into small crystals. (Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart once described a urine dump at sunset as "the most beautiful sight in orbit.") But urine, like just about anything else humans leave in space, can turn into orbital debris. A study conducted off the Mir space station in the mid-1990s identified "flake depressions" suspected to be caused by human waste. And even tiny objects can cause damage if they are orbiting at high velocity: In one 1983 mission, a paint flake created a crack in the space shuttle Challenger's window, and wastewater was initially suspected as a possible cause of the 2003 Columbia disaster. In fact, the risks posed by frozen pee are limited: Orbital-debris experts say it is likely to sublimate from a solid form directly into gas within an orbit or two. In addition, waste that is released from the shuttle should be moving in the same direction as the spacecraft, limiting the possibility of a collision. Although NASA technology has improved markedly since the days of urine collection and transfer assemblies and "Apollo bags" (which are still used as backup in case of a toilet malfunction), the space shuttle still has a system that dumps wastewater (PDF) during orbit. On the space station?which currently uses Russian technology?urine is instead sent back to Earth along with the solid waste, on a Progress module. In the near future, astronauts may begin to recycle their waste products. Later this year, NASA will send up a new system that should be able to convert urine?along with humidity in the air?into clean water. Once it is up and running, the system should be able to recover about 90 percent of the water in the urine and provide much of the water supply needed for the space station. (The rest of the urine becomes a concentrated brine disposed of as usual.) And in the future, the feces created in space may not go to waste, either: NASA is funding research on a fuel cell that would convert human waste into electricity. Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer. Explainer thanks Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters and Gene Stansbery at NASA's Johnson Space Center and Bob Bagdigian at NASA's Marshall Space Center. http://www.slate.com/id/2192383/Orbital-debris experts say it is likely to sublimate from a solid form directly into gas within an orbit or two. In addition, waste that is released from the shuttle should be moving in the same direction as the spacecraft, limiting the possibility of a collision. Although NASA technology has improved markedly since the days of urine collection and transfer assemblies and "Apollo bags" (which are still used as backup in case of a toilet malfunction), the space shuttle still has a system that dumps wastewater (PDF) during orbit. On the space station?which currently uses Russian technology?urine is instead sent back to Earth along with the solid waste, on a Progress module. In the near future, astronauts may begin to recycle their waste products. Later this year, NASA will send up a new system that should be able to convert urine?along with humidity in the air?into clean water. Once it is up and running, the system should be able to recover about 90 percent of the water in the urine and provide much of the water supply needed for the space station. (The rest of the urine becomes a concentrated brine disposed of as usual.) And in the future, the feces created in space may not go to waste, either: NASA is funding research on a fuel cell that would convert human waste into electricity. Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer. Explainer thanks Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters and Gene Stansbery at NASA's Johnson Space Center and Bob Bagdigian at NASA's Marshall Space Center. http://www.slate.com/id/2192383/ http://www.slate.com/id/2192383/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 16 20:35:28 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:35:28 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Biochar - what's up with that? Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The making of sewage,then processing sewage into sludge and cleanish water...is a hugely energy intensive, expensive process. Huge. To suggest that by taking more energy and using it to process the sludge into char to bury it is 'the only hope of mitigating catastrophic climate change'...stretches this commentator's credulity way way past the snapping point. But research can be interesting. Anyone have experience with char as a soil ammendment? Aren't the heavy metals in the sludge just concentrated in the char? Nano silver? Other nasties? ............................................... Biochar: Is the hype justified? By Roger Harrabin Environment analyst, BBC News Green guru James Lovelock claims that the only hope of mitigating catastrophic climate change is through biochar - biomass "cooked" by pyrolysis. It produces gas for energy generation, and charcoal - a stable form of carbon. The charcoal is then buried in the ground, making the process "carbon negative". Researchers say biochar can also improve farm productivity and cut demand for carbon-intensive fertilisers. There's a flurry of worldwide interest in the technology, but is the hype justified? Fertile ground A ripe whiff of sludge drifts across the sewage works in Bingen, Germany, as a conveyor belt feeds a stream of semi-dried effluent into a steel container. Behind the container, the treated effluent emerges in the form of glittering black granules. In a flash of eco-alchemy, they are turning sewage into charcoal. The charcoal is then buried to lock the carbon into the ground and prevent it entering the atmosphere. Proponents of the technology say it is so effective at storing carbon that it should be included in the next global climate agreement. Burying the biochar can also improve soil fertility, say experts. Field trials are about to begin at Rothamsted, south-east England, to assess the benefits to soil structure and water retention. Experiments in Australia, US and Germany are already showing some remarkable results - especially on otherwise poor soils where the honeycomb granules of biochar act as a reservoir for moisture and fertilisers. A growing worldwide movement is now bringing together the soil scientists fascinated by the benefits of biochar, which was first discovered in Pre-Columbian Amazonia, and the engineers devising new ways of making the char. They are being backed by activists who are concerned about climate change. At Bingen, the design engineer for the biochar plant, Helmut Gerber, originally devised the pyrolysis equipment to overcome the problem of ash from sewage waste choking conventional boilers. Normally, sewage treatment is a significant source of greenhouse gases. The waste is usually incinerated (with more emissions) and the resulting ash is used in the building industry. At Bingen, 10% of the sewage stream is being diverted to the prototype pyrolysis plant, where it is heated with minimum oxygen. Carbon monoxide and methane are driven off and burned to heat the pyrolysis process. Mr Gerber claims his process radically cuts the fuel costs and carbon emissions needed to treat the sewage. 'Carbon negative' process Working with Professor Winfried Sehn from Bingen's University of Applied Sciences, Mr Gerber calculates that 60% of the carbon from the sewage is locked up in the char. The buried carbon will be kept from entering the atmosphere for a projected 1,000 years or more. And as the sewage was originally created from plants, which removed CO2 from the atmosphere, the total process is described as carbon negative. The pyrolyser at Bingen - like others being developed elsewhere - can transform any carbon-based substance, including some plastics. That means pyrolysis can get energy from agricultural waste, food waste and biomass. But the catch is that it creates less energy than burning biomass in a conventional way. Research by oil giant Shell, showing a keen interest in biochar as a carbon storage mechanism, suggests that it can capture half the carbon from the biomass by foregoing a third of the potential energy. ? Now there is a lot of excitement about what biochar can achieve ? Dr Bruno Glaser For all its apparent benefits, there are substantial barriers to the progress of biochar. Perfecting and disseminating the technology at an affordable price will be an issue. Moreover, current financial systems reward energy production from biomass and waste - not carbon storage. Biochar would need clear global incentives. One key to its progress will be ongoing research into the soil benefits. The porous biochar attracts worms. It also captures nutrients that would otherwise run off the land, which reduces the need for carbon-intensive fertilisers. Research at Cornell University in New York, US, suggests that burying biochar appears to double the capacity of soils to store organic carbon (compost releases its carbon in a few years). Research in Australia suggests that biochar also reduces emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide from soil. New studies at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, shows that biochar may almost double plant growth in poor soils. "Research on biochar began back in 1947," says Dr Bruno Glaser, a researcher from the University of Bayreuth. "But this has been forgotten until the 1980s. Now there is a lot of excitement about what biochar can achieve." Dr Glaser is working on studies to see how effective it proves to be on poor soils in northern Germany. At Newcastle University, Professor David Manning is also an enthusiast. He says with the right incentives biochar could perhaps lock up as much carbon as the amount generated by aviation. Several biochar stoves have been developed for use in developing countries. Belize and a number of African governments are attempting to get biochar accepted as a climate change mitigation and adaptation technology for the post-2012 treaty to be negotiated in Copenhagen in December. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7924373.stm Published: 2009/03/16 09:20:04 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7924373.stm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 16 21:35:41 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:35:41 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Nanosilver harmful to beneficial soil bacteria Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Nanosilver in soil (sludge) can harm nitrifying bacteria. .................................... Size Dependent and Reactive Oxygen Species Related Nanosilver Toxicity to Nitrifying Bacteria O K K Y O U N G C H O I A N D Z H I Q I A N G H U * Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211 Received December 24, 2007. Revised manuscript received March 12, 2008. Accepted March 25, 2008. The intrinsic slow growth of nitrifying bacteria and their high sensitivity to environmental perturbations often result in cellgrowth inhibition by toxicants. Nanoparticles are of great concern to the environment because of their small size and high catalytic properties. This work sought to determine size-dependent inhibition by Ag nanoparticles and evaluate the relationship between the inhibition and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Nanoparticles with an average size range of 9-21 nm were synthesizedbyvarying the molar ratios ofBH4 -/Ag+in the solution. The resulting ROS generation was quantified in the presence and absence of the bacteria while the degree of inhibition was inferred from specific oxygen uptake rate measurements, determined by extant respirometry. By examining the correlation between nanoparticle size distribution, photocatalytic ROS generation, intracellular ROS accumulation, and nitrification inhibition, we observed that inhibition to nitrifying organisms correlated with the fraction of Ag nanoparticles less than 5 nm in the suspension. It appeared that these size nanoparticles could be more toxic to bacteria than any other fractions of nanoparticles or their counterpart bulk species. Furthermore, inhibition by Ag nanoparticles as well as other forms of silver (AgCl colloid and Ag+ ion) correlated well with the intracellular ROS concentrations, but not with the photocatalytic ROS fractions. The ROS correlations were different for the different forms of silver, indicating that factors other than ROS are also important in determining nanosilver toxicity. Introduction While nanotechnology has great potential for beneficial environmental uses (1?5), the explosion of nanotechnologyenhanced products raises concerns regarding the adverse effects of nanoparticles on human health and the environment (6?8). Nanoparticles with their high surface/volume ratio are more reactive with the increased catalytic properties (9) and therefore could become more toxic than the bulk counterpart (10). Nanosilver (Ag nanoparticle) is one of the mostcommonly used nanomaterials because of its strong antimicrobial activity (10?12). The mechanisms by which Ag nanoparticles kill microorganisms are, however, largely unknown and the mode of antimicrobial action by nanosilver is not clear. Possible mechanisms by which Ag nanoparticles inhibit microbial growth include particle attachment to cell membranes, causing the changes of membrane permeability and redox cycle in the cytosol, intracellular radical accumulation, and dissipation of the proton motive force for ATP synthesis (10, 12?14). Evidence from scanning transmission electron microscopy also shows that smaller particles (<10 nm) may enter the cell directly to inhibit microbial growth (12). For comparison, the inhibitory effect of Ag+ is believed to be due to its sorption to the negatively charged bacterial cell wall, generating reactive oxygen species and deactivating cellular enzymes, disruptingmembranepermeability, and ultimately leading to cell lysis and death (15?17). Thereactive oxygen species (ROS) including singlet oxygen (1O2), superoxide (O2 -), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and hydroxyl radical (OH? ) are generated constantly through exogenous (extracellular) and endogenous (intracellular) processes as part of aerobic life on the earth (18). While singlet oxygen is often generated following absorption of energy (light), other ROS are formed at the one-electron steps in oxygen reduction (19): O298 e- O2 -.98 e- + 2H+ H2O298 e- OH-+OH.98 e- + 2H+ 2H2O (1) Exogenously, nanoparticles of TiO2 and ZnO with large surface areas and highly reactive catalytic sites can produce photocatalytic ROS in the presence of near-UV light (20, 21). Even withoutUVlight irradiation, nanoparticles of transition metal oxides were capable of generating ROS monitored through fluorescence measurements (9), and Ag nanoparticles were able to produce ROS detected by electron spin resonance spectroscopy (22). Endogenous ROS are produced inside the cells. Normally cells are able to reduce oxygen to water through their eletron transport chains and protect themselves from ROS damage through the use of enzymes such as superoxide dismutases (SOD, to convert superoxide to hydrogen peroxide) and catalases (to convert hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen) (23, 24). Under unfavorable environments such as hypoxia or in the presence of toxins, oxidation stress occurs and endogenous ROS accumulation can damage cellular constituents and disrupt cell functions. Recent studies suggested that ROS generation by Ag nanoparticles or Ag+ ions is responsible for the strong bactericidal activity (22, 25), although a quantitative estimation was not carried out. The objectives of this study were to quantitatively determine the size dependent nanosilver toxicity to nitrifying organisms and evaluate the relationship between the cell growth inhibition and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Ag nanoparticles of different sizes were synthesized to evaluate the size effect on microbial growth. The photocatalytic and intracellular ROS concentrations due to silver exposure were determined and correlated with nanosilver toxicity. Nitrifying bacteria were chosen as model microbes because they are sensitive to a number of environmental conditions such as pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, and temperature, and are therefore susceptible to inhibition (26). A quantitative description of the nanoparticle sizes and ROS production that may affect nanosilver toxicity will ultimately contribute to a mechanistic understanding of nanosilver toxicity for appropriate use and disposal of the nanotechnologyenhanced products in the environment. Materials and Methods General Experimental Design. Aliquots of nanosilver suspensions of different sizes and concentrations were spiked in enriched nitrifying cultures for microbial growth inhibition tests. Aliquots of the same suspensions were used for UV/vis * Corresponding author phone: (573) 884 0497; fax: (573) 882 4784; e-mail: huzh at missouri.edu. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2008, 42, 4583?4588 10.1021/es703238h CCC: $40.75 ? 2008 American Chemical Society VOL. 42, NO. 12, 2008 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 4583 Published on Web 05/08/2008 characterization and size distribution analysis by transmission electron microscopy.ROSformation following exposure to Ag nanoparticles was determined in the presence and absence of nitrifying cultures. For comparison purposes, Ag+ ions and AgCl colloids (average size ) 0.25 ?m) were used as reference materials. The results of nanoparticle sizes and ROS measurements were correlated with the degrees of inhibition by Ag nanoparticles, AgCl colloids, and Ag+ ions. Nitrifying Culture. Nitrification involving the oxidation of ammonium ions to nitrites and nitrates by nitrifying bacteria is commonly observed in municipal wastewater treatment plants and the natural realm. Enriched nitrifying bacteria were cultivated for more than 180 days in a continuously stirred tank reactor (14 L) operated at solids retention time (SRT) of 20 days and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1 day as described earlier (27). The reactor was fed with an inorganic medium containing ammonium (8.3 mM, NH4NO3) as the sole energy source and requisite macro- and micronutrients. Low concentrations of anions such as chloride and sulfate were present in the reactor to minimize their complexation potential withAg+ ions.Sodiumcarbonate (0.5 M) was intermittently added to maintain the reactor pH at 7.5 ( 0.1 and fulfilled both carbon and alkalinity requirements. The effluent concentrations of NH4 +-N and NO2 --N (<1 mg/L) and NO3 --N (? 380 mg/L) indicated complete nitrification. The nitrifying cultures were periodically withdrawn from the reactor forROSmeasurements and inhibition tests. Silver Nanoparticles and Silver Bulk Species. Silver nanoparticles were made from 0.25mMAgNO3(EM Science) by adding different concentrations (0.025, 0.05, 0.09, 0.15, 0.3 mM) of sodium borohydride (NaBH4, Sigma) with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a capping agent. Sodium borohydride was added into a 0.06% (wt) PVA solution, and silver nitrate was then rapidly injected at room temperature. The freshly prepared nanoparticle suspensions were referred to as parent suspensions and used for size characterization and cell growth inhibition studies. Silver nitrate (Fisher Scientific) was used to provide free Ag+ ions in the solution. Silver chloride colloids were prepared by vigorous mixing (700 rpm) 1mL of a 14mMsilver nitrate standard solution and 1 mL of a 28 mM sodium chloride solution with 18 mL of distilled water. Nanoparticle Characterization. Aliquots of the prepared nanosilver suspensions were periodically scanned from 250 to 700 nm to check the characteristic surface plasmon absorption band of Ag nanoparticles at approximately 400 nmusing aUV-vis spectrophotometer (Cary 50, Varian, CA). The concentrations of Ag nanoparticles in the suspension were inferred from the difference between the measured concentrations of Ag+ ions using a silver ion/sulfide selective electrode (Denver Instrument, CO) and the total Ag+ ions added initially. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM, JEOL 1400) was utilized to identify the nanoparticles and determine their size distribution. The nanosilver suspension was added to a standard carbon-coatedTEMgrid and images of the samples were taken at an accelerating voltage of 100 keV. The histograms of nanosilver size distribution were generated fromTEMimages using ImageJ, a free, Java-based image processing package available at http://rsb.info.nih. gov/ij/. Cell Growth Inhibition Measurements. Aliquots of nitrifying cultures (60 mL) were collected from the nitrifying bioreactor and the microbial growth rates were inferred from specific oxygen uptake rate measurements in triplicate using a batch extant respirometric assay (26). MOPS [3-(Nmorpholino) propanesulfonic acid] was added to maintain the solution pH at approximately 7.5 during ammonium oxidation. The biomass suspensions were amended with Ag nanoparticles, AgCl colloids, or Ag+ ions at final total concentrations of 0.05-1 mg/L Ag. Every batch respirometric test was accompanied by a positive control (e.g., untreated nitrifying biomass only). The biomass suspensions were aerated with pure oxygen gas before NH4 +-N (10 mg N/L as NH4NO3) was added.Adecrease in the dissolved oxygen (DO) level in the respirometric vessel due to nitrification was measured by a DO probe (YSI model 5300A, Yellow Springs, OH) and continuously monitored at 4 Hz by an interfaced personal computer. The inhibition of nitrifying bacterial growth, or nitrification inhibition, was inferred from the difference between the measured specific oxygen uptake rate in the absence (SOURcontrol) and presence (SOURsample) of the Ag species (eq 2), as reported earlier (26). %inhibition) (SOURcontrol-SOURsample) SOURcontrol ? 100% (2) Intracellular ROS Determination. Intracellular ROS concentrations were determined using an established fluorescence assay with modification (9). Aliquots of nitrifying cultures were removed from the bioreactor and centrifuged at?10 000 rpm for 15 min. The pellet was then resuspended in a loading buffer solution containing 10 ?M H2DCFDA (dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate, Invitrogen, OR), 20 mMMOPS, 1mMNH4NO3, trace metals, and 4 mg/L K2HPO4 to mimic normal growth and incubated at room temperature for 30 min. After the loading buffer solution containing H2DCFDA was removed via centrifugation, the pellet cells were inoculated with prewarmed growth medium, amended with nanosilver (average size: 15 nm) or silver bulk species at predetermined concentrations, and plated into 96-well plates. The fluorescence of the cells from each well was measured using a microreader (VICTOR3, PerkinElmer, CT) with 485 nm excitation and 535 nm emission filter. Fluorescence data were taken automatically after 30 min incubation. Hydrogen peroxide (30%, Fisher Scientific) was used as a standard for ROS measurements (see Supporting Information Figure S1), and intracellular ROS concentrations due to silver exposure were determined in H2O2 unit. Photocatalytic ROS Determination. Photocatalytic ROS was measured using APF [3?-(p-aminophenyl) fluorescein], a newROSindicator with greater specificity (mainly sensitive to OCl-and OH? ) and higher resistance to light-induced oxidation thanH2DCFDA. According to the vender?s protocol (Invitrogen,OR), superoxide andhydrogen peroxide fluoresce at 3 orders of magnitude lower than hydroxyl radical using APF. Therefore, photocatalytic ROS was mainly related to OH? production, which was determined as molar unit of OCl- in the solution. The APF was added at a final concentration of 5 ?Mto a series of Ag nanoparticle (average size: 15 nm) or Ag bulk solutions of various concentrations (C)0.05 to 1 mg/L Ag) and plated into a 96-well plate. Initial fluorescence of the solution in each well was measured using the microreader with 485nmexcitation and 535nmemission filter described above. The 96-well microplate was placed on the laboratory bench under the room light for 30 min and the fluorescence was measured again. The percentage of fluorescence increase was calculated by comparing the fluorescence before and after light illumination as described previously (28). Hypochlorite (6% NaOCl, Fisher Scientific) was used as a ROS standard for photocatalytic ROS measurements (see Supporting Information Figure S2). Results and Discussion Size-Dependent Nanosilver Toxicity. Silver nanoparticles with an average size range of 9-21 nm were synthesized by varying the molar ratios (R) of BH4 -/Ag+ due to the changes of NaBH4concentrations (Table 1). The synthesized Ag nanoparticles had different average sizes (Figure 1A), UV-visible spectra (Figure 1B), and size distributions (Figure 4584 9 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / VOL. 42, NO. 12, 2008 2). As the concentrations of NaBH4 increased, the fraction of Ag nanoparticles less than 5 nm was reduced, reaching a minimum at R ) 0.6 and became increased as more NaBH4was added (Figure 1A). At R ) 0.1, the relative abundance of the nanoparticles less than 5 nm was thehighestamongthe prepared nanosilver suspensions while the concentration of Ag nanoparticles was low due to incomplete reaction. Because of excess of Ag+ ions in the suspension, red shifts in the maximum plasmon peak occurred (29) when R was less than 0.2. Most added Ag+ ions were reduced to Ag nanoparticles at R equal to 0.36 or above, possibly because PVA functioned both as a reducing agent and a capping agent (30). A plot of the degree of nitrification inhibition as a function of the fraction of nanoparticles of defined sizes in the suspension showed that the inhibition correlated with the relative abundance of Ag nanoparticles smaller than 5 nm (R2) 0.738) (Figure 3a). There was no correlation between the inhibition and the average nanoparticle size (see Supporting Information Figure S3). Some relationship existed between the inhibition and the Ag+ ion concentrations added in the cell suspensions (R2 ) 0.595) (Figure 3b). However, Ag nanoparticles were more toxic to nitrifying bacteria than Ag+ ions at the same total Ag concentrations (Figure 4). Therefore, the high degree of inhibition at low BH4 -/Ag+ ratios cannot be attributed to the presence of Ag+ ions only. We suggested that the Ag nanoparticles less than 5 nm were responsible for inhibiting microbial growth and could be more toxic to bacteria than their counterpart species. Nanosilver Toxicity. In a first set of experiments, the degrees of inhibitiononmicrobial growth by Ag nanoparticles and their counterpart species were determined. Silver nanoparticles had the highest toxicity to nitrifying bacteria (Figure 4) among the Ag species tested. The effective concentrations of Ag nanoparticles, AgCl colloids, or Ag+ ions causing 50% inhibition (EC50) were 0.14 mg/L, 0.25 mg/L, and 0.27 mg/L Ag, respectively, using a saturation-type biological toxicity model (31). Toxicity Related to Intracellular ROS Concentration. Exposure of Ag nanoparticles of 15 nm average size at incremental concentrations onto preincubated nitrifying cultures resulted in an overall increase in intracellular ROS concentrations (Figure 5A). It appeared that at the same total Ag concentrations, AgCl colloids generated at least an equivalent amount of ROS compared to that by Ag nanoparticles. In contrast, Ag+ ions generated less intracellular ROS than that by Ag nanoparticles (Figure 5A). The degree of inhibition by Ag nanoparticles was strongly correlated with intracellularROSconcentration (R2)0.86) using a saturation type model (Figure 6 and Supporting Information Figure S5). Similarly, the inhibition was correlated with intracellularROS levels induced by Ag+ ions or AgCl colloids (R2 ) 0.70-0.89). Taken all Ag species together, however, there was a poor correlation between the inhibition and intracellular ROS concentrations (R2 ) 0.54) by a saturation-type model. It appeared that although there was correlation between the nitrification inhibition and the intracellular ROS concentrations, the ROS correlations were different for the different forms of silver (Ag nanoparticles, AgCl colloids and Ag+ ions). Toxicity Related to Photocatalytic ROS Concentration. ROS generation in cells may proceed through exogenous (extracellular) and endogenous (intracellular) processes. We therefore measured the ROS concentrations induced by Ag nanoparticles, AgCl colloids, and Ag+ions in the absence of nitrifying cultures. Since without light there was no ROS generation in Ag nanoparticle suspensions or bulk solutions (data not shown), the concentrations of photocatalytic ROS was measured after 30 min natural light illumination in the laboratory. It appeared that photocatalytic ROS increased rapidly in the presence of 0.1mg/LAg but gradually decreased as the Ag nanoparticle concentrations increased (Figure 5B). A similar trend applied for AgCl colloids. The pattern of photocatalytic ROS generation by Ag+ ions, however, appeared differently. ROS only increased significantly when Ag concentrations were above 0.4 mg/L. Poor correlation (R2 ) 0.53-0.72) was noticed between the observed inhibition and the photocatalytic ROS concentrations by a saturation-type model (see Supporting Information Figure S6). Therefore, photocatalyticROSconcentrations were not a good predictor of the growth inhibition by Ag nanoparticles. TABLE 1. Properties of Silver Nanoparticles in the Parent Suspensions Made by Varying Sodium Borohydride Concentrations and Their Corresponding Toxicity to Nitrifying Bacteria NaBH4 (mM) 0.025 0.05 0.09 0.15 0.3 molar ratio of BH4 -/Ag+ 0.1 0.2 0.36 0.6 1.2 (AgNO3, 0.25 mM) average particle size, (nm) 9 (5 15 (9 14 (6 12 (4 21 ( 14 Ag nanoparticle concentration (mg/L) 3 ((2.4) 14 ((0.6) 25 ((2.3) 26 ((0.3) 24 ((2.1) surface plasmon peak (nm) 400 400 395 395 395 degree of inhibition 53% 63% 6% 17% 23% at 0.5 mg/L Ag ((4.2) ((8.6) ((9.8) ((5.2) ((4.0) FIGURE 1. (a) Change of relative abundance of Ag nanoparticles less than 5 nm (open circle) and average particle size (filled circle) by varying molar ratio of sodium borohydride to silver nitrate. Error bars indicate the ranges of duplicate determinations. (b) UV-visible spectra of Ag nanoparticle suspensions by varying molar ratios (see values on the figure) of sodium borohydride to silver nitrate. VOL. 42, NO. 12, 2008 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 4585 Discussion Sizes of the nanoparticles play an important role in silver toxicity. Smaller and uncharged Ag nanoparticles with higher surface areas could interference cell membrane function by directly reacting with cell membrane to allow a large number of the Ag atoms to attack or easily enter the cells (10, 12). Our results demonstrated that the inhibition correlated well with the fraction of Ag nanoparticles less than 5 nm, but not with the other particle size fractions (e.g., 10, 15, 20 nm, R2 ) 0.04-0.39), suggesting that these smaller size nanoparticles could be more toxic to bacteria than any other fractions of the nanoparticles. This result is consistent with recent findings that Ag nanoparticles of 1-10 nm sizes interacted strongly with HIV-1 after attached to the virus (32), and the average size of Ag nanoparticles penetrating into an E. coli membrane was 5 ((2) nm even though the average particles size of added nanoparticles was 21 ((18) nm (12). Particles must be sufficiently small to pass through transmembrane porins (typical internal pore size in nm) for transport across cell membranes (33) to cause the damage of cellular constituents and metabolism. The results of ROS measurements showed that Ag nanoparticles, AgCl colloids, and Ag+ ions all induced intracellular ROS generation and accumulation, and the inhibition correlated well with their individual intracellular ROSconcentrations. Previous studies in a variety of cell types suggested that ROS generation might damage cell DNA and induce apoptosis (programmed cell death) with no visible membrane damage (24, 25, 34). Our earlier results from bacterial live/dead assays indicated that cell membrane integrity was not compromised at 1 mg/L Ag for all of the forms of Ag tested (27). This suggested that the toxicity of Ag nanoparticles could be related to intracellular ROS mediated cell death process. At the same level of intracellular ROS or the same total Ag concentrations, however, Ag nanoparticles appeared to be more toxic than Ag+ ions (Figure 4 and 6), FIGURE 2. Size distribution of Ag nanoparticles with an average size range of 9-21 nm made by varying molar ratio of sodium borohydride to silver nitrate. FIGURE 3. The inhibition as a function of (a) the fraction of Ag nanoparticles less than 5 nm and (b) the projected Ag+ concentrations in the biomass suspensions. Error bars indicate one standard deviation (n ) 3). 4586 9 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / VOL. 42, NO. 12, 2008 suggesting factors other than intracellular ROS also affect nanosilver toxicity. It is speculated that the uncharged Ag nanoparticles less than 5nmmaymoreeasily transport across the cell membrane than the charged Ag+ ions. These nanoparticles with high surface areas may directly act on nitrifying cell membranes where key ammonia oxidation enzymes are located. The results also demonstrated that there was poor correlation between the observed inhibition and photocatalytic ROS concentrations induced by Ag nanoparticles or Ag bulk species. According to previous reports, photocatalytic ROS generated by light can induce intracellular ROS in the cell. For example, the photocatalytic ROS generation by TiO2 nanoparticles under sunlight illumination was positively correlated with antibacterial activity (21, 35). Nanoparticles such as TiO2, SiO2, and ZnO are photosensitive to promote ROS generation (20). Because of their transition metal characteristics, they can be catalytically active (9) to inhibit microbial growth under dark conditions (20). Our study, however, showed that Ag nanoparticles did not generateROS in the absence of light. Silver nanoparticles produced photocatalyticROSunder natural light, but the photocatalytic ROS generation had no relationship (or more precisely negative correlation) with the intracellular ROS concentrations. Therefore, there was no direct correlation of photocatalytic ROS with nitrification inhibition. The mechanism of ROS production by Ag nanoparticles remains to be investigated. It appeared to be involved with photocatalysis as ROS production was observed only in the presence of light. Since both OCl-and OH? can be detected in photocatalytic ROS production using APF, it is not safe to say that the photocatalytic ROS was attributed to OH? production only. It is possible to monitor OH? production separately using another fluorochrome called hydroxyphenyl fluorescein (HPF, Invitrogen, OR), but with less sensitivity. Overall, fluorescence-based detection using APF, HPF or H2DCFDAallows to detect only a few reactive oxygen species, mainly hydroxyl radicals. It should be noticed that a direct proof of ROS affecting inhibition was not made in this work. ROS form as a natural byproduct of the normal aerobic metabolism although its levels can increase dramatically under environmental stress (10), as was shown that intracellular ROS correlated with Ag concentration (Figure 5) and with inhibition (Figure 6). The ROS correlations were different for the different forms of silver (nanoparticles, AgCl colloid, and Ag+) indicating that factors other than ROS are also important in determining nanosilver toxicity. Nitrification involves the conversion of ammoniumnitrogen (NH4 +-N) to nitrite (NO2 -) by ammonia oxidizing bacteria and the conversion of nitrite to nitrate (NO3 -) by nitrite oxidizing bacteria. It is generally agreed that inhibition toammoniaoxidation ismoresevere than inhibition to nitrite oxidation in the presence of chemical toxins (36, 37). It is, therefore, not desired to differentiate the inhibition on the two-step ammonia oxidation reactions in this study. High nitrate concentrations (NO3 --N ) ?280 mg/L) in the feed did not inhibit nitrification (data not shown), as was also reported before (37). To delineate meaningful inhibition results, complexation of Ag+ ions or Ag nanoparticles with other anions such as SO4 2-, Cl- was minimized. Work is underway to reduce or remove nanosilver toxicity by complexation. Acknowledgments This research work was supported by the University of Missouri Research Board and the National Science Foundation under grant no. 0650943. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Supporting Information Available The ROS standard curves, correlation analyses between the average nanoparticle sizes,Ag+ concentrationsandthe degree of inhibition, and relationship between observed inhibition FIGURE 4. The degree of nitrification inhibition by Ag nanoparticle (9), AgCl colloid (2), and Ag+ (b). Error bars show one standard deviation (n ) 3). FIGURE 5. The increase of intracellular ROS (a) and photocatalytic ROS concentrations (b) as function of the concentration of Ag nanoparticle (9), AgCl colloid (2), and Ag+(b). Error bars indicate one standard deviation (n ) 8). FIGURE 6. The degree of nitrification inhibition as function of the intracellular ROS (in hydrogen peroxide unit) concentration after 30 min exposure of nitrifying bacteria to Ag nanoparticle (9), AgCl colloid (2), and Ag+(b). Error bars indicate one standard deviation (n ) 8). The best-fit lines are also shown using a saturation-type model. VOL. 42, NO. 12, 2008 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 4587 and ROS concentrations. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org. Literature Cited (1) Giammar, D. E.; Maus, C. J.; Xie, L. Y. Effects of particle size and crystalline phase on lead adsorption to titanium dioxide nanoparticles. Environ. Eng. Sci. 2007, 24, 85?95. (2) Kim, S. C.; Harrington, M. S.; Pui, D. Y. H. Experimental study of nanoparticles penetration through commercial filter media. J. Nanopart. Res. 2007, 9, 117?125. (3) Maynard, A. D.; Aitken, R. J.; Butz, T.; Colvin, V.; Donaldson, K.; Oberdorster, G.; Philbert, M. A.; Ryan, J.; Seaton, A.; Stone, V.; Tinkle, S. S.; Tran, L.; Walker, N. J.; Warheit, D. B. Safe handling of nanotechnology. Nature 2006, 444, 267?269. (4) Page, K.; Palgrave, R. G.; Parkin, I. P.; Wilson, M.; Savin, S. L. P.; Chadwick, A. V. Titania and silver-titania composite films on glass-potent antimicrobial coatings. J. Mater. Chem. 2007, 17, 95?104. (5) Song, H.; Carraway, E. R. Reduction of chlorinated ethanes by nanosized zero-valent iron: Kinetics, pathways, and effects of reaction conditions. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2005, 39, 6237?6245. (6) Alvarez, P. J. Nanotechnology in the environment - The good, the bad, and the ugly. J. Environ. Eng. 2006, 132, 1233?1233. (7) Zhang, W. X.; Karn, B. Nanoscale environmental science and technology: Challenges and opportunities. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2005, 39, 94A?95A. (8) Wiesner, M. R.; Lowry, G. V.; Alvarez, P.; Dionysiou, D.; Biswas, P. Assessing the risks of manufactured nanomaterials. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2006, 40, 4336?4345. (9) Limbach, L. K.; Wick, P.; Manser, P.; Grass, R. N.; Bruinink, A.; Stark, W. J. Exposure of engineered nanoparticles to human lung epithelial cells: Influence of chemical composition and catalytic activity on oxidative stress. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2007, 41, 4158?4163. (10) Nel, A.; Xia, T.; Madler, L.; Li, N. Toxic potential of materials at the nanolevel. Science 2006, 311, 622?627. (11) Pal, S.; Tak, Y. K.; Song, J. M. Does the antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles depend on the shape of the nanoparticle? A study of the gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2007, 73, 1712?1720. (12) Morones, J. R.; Elechiguerra, J. L.; Camacho, A.; Holt, K.; Kouri, J. B.; Ramirez, J. T.; Yacaman, M. J. The bactericidal effect of silver nanoparticles. Nanotechnology 2005, 16, 2346?2353. (13) Sondi, I.; Salopek-Sondi, B. Silver nanoparticles as antimicrobial agent: a case study on E. coli as a model for gram-negative bacteria. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 2004, 275, 177?182. (14) Lok, C. N.; Ho, C. M.; Chen, R.; He, Q. Y.; Yu, W. Y.; Sun, H. Z.; Tam, P. K. H.; Chiu, J. F.; Che, C. M. Proteomic analysis of the mode of antibacterial action of silver nanoparticles. J. Proteome Res. 2006, 5, 916?924. (15) Matsumura, Y.; Yoshikata, K.; Kunisaki, S.; Tsuchido, T. Mode of bactericidal action of silver zeolite and its comparison with that of silver nitrate. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2003, 69, 4278? 4281. (16) Sambhy, V.; MacBride, M. M.; Peterson, B. R. Silver bromide nanoparticle/polymer composites: Dual action tunable antimicrobial materials. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 9798?9808. (17) Ratte, H. T. Bioaccumulation and toxicity of silver compounds: A review. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 1999, 18, 89?108. (18) Kohn, T.; Nelson, K. L. Sunlight-mediated inactivation of MS2 coliphage via exogenous singlet oxygen produced by sensitizers in natural waters. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2007, 41, 192?197. (19) Stumm, W.; Morgan, J. J. Aquatic Chemistry: Chemical Equilibria and Rates in Natural Waters; John Wiley&Sons, Inc.:NewYork, 1996. (20) Adams, L. K.; Lyon, D. Y.; Alvarez, P. J. J. Comparative ecotoxicity of nanoscale TiO2, SiO2, and ZnO water suspensions. Water Res. 2006, 40, 3527?3532. (21) Cho, M.; Chung, H.; Choi, W.; Yoon, J. Linear correlation between inactivation of E. coli and OH radical concentration in TiO2 photocatalytic disinfection. Water Res. 2004, 38, 1069?1077. (22) Kim, J. S.; Kuk, E.; Yu, K. N.; Kim, J. H.; Park, S. J.; Lee, H. J.; Kim, S. H.; Park, Y. K.; Park, Y. H.; Hwang, C. Y.; Kim, Y. K.; Lee, Y. S.; Jeong, D. H.; Cho, M. H. Antimicrobial effects of silver nanoparticles. Nanomed. Nanotechnol. Biol. Med. 2007, 3, 95? 101. (23) White, D. The Physiology and Biochemistry of Prokaryotes; Oxford University Press, Inc: New York, 2000. (24) Farber, J. L. Mechanisms of cell injury by activated oxygen species. Environ. Health Perspect. 1994, 102, 17?24. (25) Inoue, Y.; Hoshino, M.; Takahashi, H.; Noguchi, T.; Murata, T.; Kanzaki, Y.; Hamashima, H.; Sasatsu, M. Bactericidal activity of Ag-zeolite mediated by reactive oxygen species under aerated conditions. J. Inorg. Biochem. 2002, 92, 37?42. (26) Hu, Z. Q.; Chandran, K.; Grasso, D.; Smets, B. F. Impact of metal sorption and internalization on nitrification inhibition. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2003, 37, 728?734. (27) Choi, O. K.; Deng, K.; Kim, N. J.; Ross, L.; Surampalli, R. Y.; Hu, Z. Q. The inhibitory effects of silver nanoparticles, silver ions, and silver chloride colloids on microbial growth. Water Res. in press, available online. (28) Wang, H.; Joseph, J. A. Quantifying cellular oxidative stress by dichlorofluorescein assay using microplate reader. Free Radical Biol. Med. 1999, 27, 612?616. (29) Henglein, A. Colloidal silver nanoparticles: Photochemical preparation and interaction withO2, CCl4, and some metal ions. Chem. Mater. 1998, 10, 444?450. (30) Porel, S.; Singh, S.; Radhakrishnan, T. P. Polygonal gold nanoplates in a polymer matrix. Chem. Commun. 2005, 2387? 2389. (31) Brown, P. L.; Markich, S. J. Evaluation of the free ion activity model of metal-organism interaction: extension of the conceptual model. Aquat. Toxicol. 2000, 51, 177?194. (32) Elechiguerra, J. L.; Burt, J. L.; Morones, J. R.; Camacho-Bragado, A.; Gao, X.; Lara, H. H.; Yacaman, M. J. Interaction of silver nanoparticles with HIV-1. J. Nanobiotechnol. 2005, 3, 6. (33) Madigan, M.; Martinko, J. M.; Parker, J. Brock Biology of Microorganisms; Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2005. (34) Polyak, K.; Xia, Y.; Zweier, J. L.; Kinzler, K. W.; Vogelstein, B. A model for p53-induced apoptosis. Nature 1997, 389, 300?305. (35) Wei, C.; Lin, W. Y.; Zainal, Z.; Williams, N. E.; Zhu, K.; Kruzic, A. P.; Smith, R. L.; Rajeshwar, K. Bactericidal activity of TiO2 photocatalyst in aqueous-media - toward a solar-assisted water disinfection system. Environ. Sci. Technol. 1994, 28, 934?938. (36) Blum, D. J. W.; Speece, R. E. A database of chemical toxicity to environmental bacteria and its use in interspecies comparisons and correlations. J. Water Pollut. Control Fed. 1991, 63, 198? 207. (37) Hu, Z. Q.; Chandran, K.; Grasso, D.; Smets, B. F. Effect of nickel and cadmium speciation on nitrification inhibition. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2002, 36, 3074?3078. ES703238H 4588 9 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / VOL. 42, NO. 12, 2008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue Mar 17 11:38:31 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:38:31 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> St Mary's Cement proposes to burn plastic and paper sludge in 2 Ontario Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Cement kilns have many occupational safety problems. Many are prone to explosions and the development of 'kiln balls'. The use of alternative fuels like tires has been associated with increased dioxin emissions. Responses from enviros (like below) tend to focus on the emissions from cement kilns that burn 'alternative fuels' like sludge, tires, plastics, used oil, auto fluff, carpets etc. Other factors need to be addressed: the increased incidence of explosion, incomplete combustion, occupational health and safety, and the the quality of the finished cement product. Already Lafarge is successfully convicted in a class action lawsuit for a crumbling subdivision near Ottawa. We need to comment on risks related to: - increased emissions - increased explosions - increased collapse of houses, bridges, and infrastructure from corrupted cement product All of these risks need to be addressed when looking at making cement kilns our new incinerators. If we want to burn waste - it should be done in facilities that are specifically designed and engineered to do so. There is so much corporate concentration in the cement business that the only way for the cement companies to get more money is to take the tipping fees as waste facilities....and they want the money that comes from taking waste as fuel. It is up to us to make sure this is not at the expense of the environment, worker safety, and product quality. http://list.web.net/archives/sludgewatch-l/2006-March/001206.html www.waterkeeper.ca St. Marys Cement proposes two ?Alternative Fuels? sites in Ontario St. Marys cement plant in Bowmanville The Ministry of the Environment has notified the public about a request from St. Marys Cement for a temporary approval to burn ?alternative fuels? at its Bowmanville and St. Marys locations. The company proposes to burn paper biosolids, post-recycling and post-composting plastics in addition to its conventional mix of coal and petroleum coke. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and co-applicant Gord Downie reviewed the application and forwarded comments to the Ministry of the Environment . The main concern is that incinerating plastic waste will produce additional dioxins, organic pollutants, volatile gaseous emissions, and residual substances that discharge into the environment. The potential environmental impacts from these discharges must be analyzed and posted on the Environmental Registry for public comment before an approval is issued. To date, the evidence and science necessary to protect the community from increased burning at the plants has not been collected. The Ministry of the Environment has also exempted the alternative fuels proposal from the traditional public consultation process and eliminated the public?s ability to appeal. The proposal would see ?test burns? of approximately 4000 tonnes of waste at the two locations over the course of 30 days. St. Marys would use the burns to measure the efficiency and potential consequences of burning these types of fuels in its cement kilns. The cement company may apply for approval to use the alternative fuels permanently if the results are positive. More information Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and Gord Downie recently completed a lengthy battle for a hearing into a similar Alternative Fuels proposal from cement giant Lafarge. In that case, the company cancelled the project rather than face the scrutiny of an independent tribunal. Read our timeline of events with Lafarge at www.waterkeeper.ca/lafarge Waterkeeper.ca Weekly: Waterkeeper.ca Weekly reflects the meaning and force of environmental justice on Lake Ontario. To contact the editor, please e-mail news at waterkeeper.ca. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper is a charitable organization, no. 86262 2750 RR0001, and a proud member of Waterkeeper Alliance. Please consider making a donation to support our work. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue Mar 17 14:31:34 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:31:34 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Flies plus chicken droppings spread superbugs In-Reply-To: <49BFB8B3.20806@worldpath.net> References: <49BFB8B3.20806@worldpath.net> Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Obviously this may be true of flies attracted by and /or bred in sludge, as well. /////////////////////////////////// http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE52F6ZS20090316?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100 Flies plus chicken droppings spread "superbugs" Mon Mar 16, 2009 [-] Text [+] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Flies, already blamed for spreading disease, may help spread drug-resistant superbugs from chicken droppings, researchers reported on Monday. They matched antibiotic-resistant enterococci and staphylococci bacteria from houseflies and the litter found in intensive poultry-farming barns in the Delmarva Peninsula region of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The findings, reported in the journal Science of the Total Environment, may help explain some of the spread of drug-resistant bacteria. "Flies are well-known vectors of disease and have been implicated in the spread of various viral and bacterial infections affecting humans, including enteric fever, cholera, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis and shigellosis," said Jay Graham of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who led the research. "Our study found similarities in the antibiotic-resistant bacteria in both the flies and poultry litter we sampled. The evidence is another example of the risks associated with the inadequate treatment of animal wastes," Graham said in a statement. As many as 30,000 flies can fly in and out of a poultry house over six weeks, the researchers said, citing a recent Danish study. "Although we did not directly quantify the contribution of flies to human exposure, our results suggest that flies in intensive production areas could efficiently spread resistant organisms over large distances," said Ellen Silbergeld, another of the researchers. (Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Will Dunham and Cynthia Osterman) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue Mar 17 16:03:17 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:03:17 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ecoli Persistance on injured lettuce irrigated with contaminated water Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Salinas Valley is called the salad bowl of America. Much of our fresh leafy greens come from this Valley. However, there are problems with salinity of groundwater through much of the Valley. Overpumping of groundwater has brought in salt water intrusion as ocean water is pulled as much as 10 miles inland. http://ca.water.usgs.gov/groundwater/gwatlas/coastal/quality4.html Farmers cannot irrigate their fields with salt water or the salt will eventually destroy the ability of the soil to support a crop. Where does much of the Salinas Valley get its irrigation water for both certified organic and conventional lettuce and spinach? From the Monterey Wastewater Treatment Plant. http://proliberty.com/observer/20061015.htm The effluent from the plant is run through a sand filter and piped 20 miles or more to spray irrigate the crops. There are no published reports on the microbial quality of the effluent used for irrigation at the point of use. Even if it leaves the wastewater plant with a low bacteria count, what kind of biofilms are contaminating the water that runs through those pipes? The pipes themselves are routinely hit and damaged by heavy farm equipment, allowing intrusion of bacteria. To make it worse: bacteria from a sewage treatment plant will demonstrate antibiotic resistance characteristics from its journey through the sewage treatment process where it contains both with hospital wastes and antibiotics. http://www.cababstractsplus.org/abstracts/Abstract.aspx?AcNo=20033093147 And does irrigating with Ecoli contaminated irrigation water result in Ecoli on the iceberg lettuce. Why yes. It does. ................................................................. Persistence of Escherichia coli on injured iceberg lettuce in the field, overhead irrigated with contaminated water 01.mar.09 Journal of Food Protection?, Volume 72, Number 3, March 2009 , pp. 458-464(7) Barker-Reid, Fiona; Harapas, Dean; Engleitner, Siegfried; Kreidl, Simone; Holmes, Robert; Faggian, Robert http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2009/00000072/00000003/art00002;jsessionid=424to8vq5oocq.alice Fresh produce is increasingly implicated in food-related illnesses. Escherichia coli can survive in soil and water and can be transferred onto plant surfaces through farm management practices such as irrigation. A trial was conducted to evaluate the impact of field conditions on E. coli persistence on iceberg lettuce irrigated with contaminated water, and the impact of plant injury on the persistence of E. coli. Lettuce heads were injured at 14, 7, 3, 2, 1, and 0 days before inoculation, with uninjured heads used as a control. All lettuce heads (including controls) were overhead irrigated with a mixture of nonpathogenic E. coli strains (107 CFU/ml). E. coli counts were measured on the day of inoculation and 5 days after, and E. coli was detected on all lettuce head samples. Injury immediately prior to inoculation and harvest significantly (P = 0.00067) increased persistence of E. coli on lettuce plants. Harsh environmental conditions (warm temperatures, limited rainfall) over 5 days resulted in a 2.2-log reduction in E. coli counts on uninjured lettuce plants, and lettuce plants injured more than 2 days prior to inoculation had similar results. Plants with more recent injuries (up to 2 days prior to inoculation) had significantly (P = 7.6 ? 10-6) greater E. coli persistence. Therefore, growers should postpone contaminated water irrigation of lettuce crops with suspected injuries for a minimum of 2 days, or if unavoidable, use the highest microbiological quality of water available, to minimize food safety risks. ........................................ Title: Antibiotic resistance of E. coli in sewage and sludge. Personal Authors: Reinthaler, F. F., Posch, J., Feierl, G., W?st, G., Haas, D., Ruckenbauer, G., Mascher, F., Marth, E. Author Affiliation: Institute of Hygiene, University of Graz, Universit?tsplatz 4, Graz 8010, Austria. Editors: No editors Document Title: Water Research (Oxford) Abstract: The aim of the study is the evaluation of resistance patterns of E. coli in wastewater treatment plants without an evaluation of basic antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Investigations have been done in sewage, sludge and receiving waters from three different sewage treatment plants in southern Austria. A total of 767 E. coli isolates were tested regarding their resistance to 24 different antibiotics. The highest resistance rates were found in E. coli strains of a sewage treatment plant which treats not only municipal sewage but also sewage from a hospital. Among the antimicrobial agents tested, the highest resistance rates in the penicillin group were found for Ampicillin (AM) (up to 18%) and Piperacillin (PIP) (up to 12%); in the cephalosporin group for Cefalothin (CF) (up to 35%) and Cefuroxime-Axetil (CXMAX) (up to 11%); in the group of quinolones for Nalidixic acid (NA) (up to 15%); and for Trimethoprime/Sulfamethoxazole (SXT) (up to 13%) and for Tetracycline (TE) (57%). Median values for E. coli in the inflow (crude sewage) of the plants were between 2.0?104 and 6.1?104 CFU/ml (Coli ID-agar, BioMerieux 42017) but showed a 200-fold reduction in all three plants in the effluent. Nevertheless, more than 102 CFU E. coli/ml reached the receiving water and thus sewage treatment processes contribute to the dissemination of resistant bacteria in the environment. Publisher: Pergamon Press -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue Mar 17 20:29:42 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:29:42 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Georgia University Pres won't have to give sludge deposition Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The lawyers for David Lewis and the farmers wanted to know what the University president knew. But the lawyers for the other side said he doesn't know anything and mustn't be questioned. So we won't find out what he knows. ............................................. Adams won't testify in sludge lawsuit By Staff Reports | news at onlineathens.com University of Georgia President Michael Adams will not have to give a deposition in a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the UGA Research Foundation over sewage sludge safety, a federal judge has ruled. Lawyers for two Augusta-area dairy farmers and fired EPA scientist David Lewis sought to question Adams in their lawsuit claiming UGA researchers used false data to show, incorrectly, that spreading sewage sludge on their dairy fields was safe, but it killed the farmers' cows. But those questions "do not get anywhere near the heart of the issue before the Court in this action: Whether UGA researchers made false claims in their grant applications to the government and received funds as a result," U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land ruled. Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 19 12:57:16 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:57:16 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Utah - sludge stench - we may have done something wrong Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Tooele City sludge is stinking out the whole community and the visitors. Its Class B sludge surface spread on pastureland. The stench isn't the only issue here. Since livestock graze pastureland and pull up some grasses roots and all - they ingest several kilograms of soil a week. The surface applied sludge - at the surface - is coating not only the crop but also is the top layer of soil that is ingested. That means that the drugs, hormones, PCBs, dioxins, endocrine disruptors, metals, thallium etc in the biosolids is ingested by the livestock and ends up in our meat and milk. Food ingestion is the principal pathway for human contamination by municipal sewage sludge biosolids. .......................................................... Waste raises big stink by Deseret Peak Complex by Tim Gillie Mar 17, 2009 There?s a foul odor in the air along SR-122 between Tooele and Deseret Peak Complex, and it?s leaving residents concerned about negative health and economic impacts. ?It is awful,? said Rachel Silva, a Grantsville resident who drives SR-112 to work in Tooele every day. ?How anybody could tolerate something that smells so bad is unbelievable. When the wind is right, the smell drifts over to the Miller Raceway. How are we going to attract more business and tourists to Tooele County when people get that smell?? Several people concerned about the stench have pointed the finger at a piece of property owned by the family of Tooele County Commissioner Bruce Clegg. The land, which is on the north side of SR-112 east of Deseret Peak Complex, is used by the family to dispose of human waste sludge under contract with Tooele City. These sewage biosolids have been treated to reduce pathogens, but their unpleasant smell remains powerful, particularly with warming temperatures. Clegg concedes the odor could be coming from his property. ?It is possible,? said Clegg, who has had the contract with the city since 2003. ?The city monitors and keeps records on the disposal. Apparently we may have done something wrong this year with the spreading. We have not had complaints in the past.? Clegg said the city is responsible for the actual spreading and tilling-in of the biosolids. However, Tooele City Community Development/Public Works Director Cary Campbell refutes that, saying spreading and tilling are the Clegg family?s responsibility, according to the contract. He said the city simply brings the treated sewage ? classified as Class B biosolids, which according to EPA regulations are suitable for agricultural operations ? to the property. The conflict over who?s responsible for spreading and tilling has kept the smelly problem on the surface ? literally. The sludge has formed a thin film over the pastureland, allowing its odor to waft upward with breezes blowing through the valley. That?s led several residents to worry about possible health risks. Deanna Linares, of Granstville, also drives SR-112 to work and has called the county health department to complain about the problem. ?When you breathe that smell ? in there must be particles of something that is not good to get into your lungs,? she said. ?In Grantsville City we have an ordinance that requires farmers to till manure they spread as fertilizer under the ground within three days. But the county health department said apparently the county has no such laws.? Linares said it?s not hard to identify the Clegg property as the source of the nasty aroma. ?You can see it,? Linares said. ?It is right there along Highway 112. It looks like an overlay of mud spread over the land.? Tooele County Health Department officials say the waste poses no public health hazard. ?The waste has to be treated and tested before it can be spread to make sure contaminants are down to an acceptable level. The spreading is then done according to U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations,? said Jeff Coombs, assistant director of the health department. ?The treated waste is no more harmful than animal waste, and is very good for pasture land.? While not a health problem, Coombs said the smell could be considered a nuisance. ?We keep track of nuisance complaints and if we get more than two or three complaints we do an investigation,? Coombs said, adding the county has not had enough complaints about the Clegg property to warrant an investigation. Tooele City is looking into a long-term alternative for disposing of treated sewage, according to Campbell. ?We have been investigating a method used by other cities for disposal of their biosolids,? Campbell said. ?The process we are looking at involves treating the biosolids further and drying them using solar power. The result is a Class A biosolid that can be used for fertilizer on the city golf course, parks and other city facilities.? http://www.tooeletranscript.com/pages/full_story?article-Waste%20raises%20big%20stink%20by%20Deseret%20Peak%20Complex%20=&page_label=home_top_stories_news&id=2091187-Waste+raises+big+stink+by+Deseret+Peak+Complex&widget=push&instance=home_news_left&open=& -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 19 13:10:48 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:10:48 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> How far do flies travel ? - answer - up to 15 miles Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Isn't sludge study interesting? Who could imagine what you might learn every day. Haven't you found yourself wondering how far flies travel? Answer: far Flies hatching from land applied sewage sludge - or sewage sludge compost sites - could fly as much as 15 miles and transport virulent human pathogens into schools and homes and onto leafy crops - from their dirty little feet and dirty little poops. ......................................... The Dispersion of Flies by Flight Authors: BISHOPP, F. C.; LAAKE, E. W. Source: Journal of Economic Entomology , Volume 12, Number 2, April 1919 , pp. 210-211(2) Publisher: Entomological Society of America Abstract: Up to very recent years it has been generally held by entomologists that flies are comparatively limited in the distances which they will go from breeding places. Dr. Parker's work in Montana indicated that the house-fly is normally migratory in habit and he succeeded in obtaining specimens nearly two miles from the point of liberation. In 1916. the authors conducted some preliminary experiments in which colored flies were liberated in the vicinity of packing houses and a considerable number of these were recovered quite promptly in traps placed in the yard of the packing establishments, a flight of about three-fifths of a mile. The flies liberated in this experiment consisted largely of blowflies of the species Chrysomyia rnacellaria and Phormia regina. Later in the same summer a series of experiments was carried out to determine the distance of flight of several species of blowflies and house-flies under rural conditions. The flies were liberated at a point near the intersection of two roads and four traps were placed at given distances in the four cardinal directions from the point of liberation. A total of 1,745 colored flies were recovered in the sixteen recovery traps and a considerable number of these were in the outer ring of traps which was approximately three miles from the point of release. Another experiment was conducted immediately following this in which the traps were moved outward in the four directions to points approximately 2, .3, 4 and 5 miles from the point of liberation. House-flies, screw-worm flies and the Anthomyid, Ophyra leucostoma, were recovered in some of the most distant traps. In 1918 it was determined to make more extensive tests of the dispersion tendencies of various species of flies. The same general plan was followed as in the previous experiment, four traps being set in each of the cardinal directions from the point of liberation at distances approximately 4 1/2 6, 7 and 8 miles. About 60,000 colored flies were liberated, approximately 58 per cent being screw-worm flies, 39 per cent house-flies and the remainder Phormia regina, Sarcophagids and other species. As in previous experiments the flies in the various traps were killed daily and examined carefully for marked individuals. The day following liberation a considerable number of marked house-flies and screwworm flies were recovered in several of the traps. Even in those located 8 miles in each direction from the point of release, some screw-worm flies were taken. Following this experiment the traps were removed to points east and west approximately 9 1/2, 11, 13, 15 and 17 miles, two traps to the north 13 and 17 miles, and two traps to the south 8 and 10 miles from point of release. A trap was also placed about 7 miles east of south and another about 10 miles south of west of the point of liberation. About 80,000 flies were released in this test. The greatest distance from the point of liberation at which marked flies were recovered was: House-flies, 13 miles; screw-worm flies, 15 miles; Phormia regina, 11 miles and Ophyra leucostoma, 7 miles.It is believed that the following of vehicles by flies in these experiments was unimportant. In general the experiments suggested that there is a natural tendency toward dispersion exhibited by both sexes of all species used in the tests. Many apparently favorable feeding and breeding places were passed in the course of migration. The relationship between direction of travel and the direction of the wind appeared not to be very close. The many practical bearings of the question of distance and rapidity of travel of flies cannot be discussed here, but are apparent to all. It might be pointed out that this is the first series of experiments in which flight studies have been made with flies other than Musca domestica. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 23 08:43:07 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:43:07 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Halifax N-Viro Sludge Biosolids Made Me Sick - Truck Driver Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: In Ontario, workers at the N-Viro plant were ordered by Ontaro Ministry of Health Occupational Health and Safety staff to always wear respirators during their entire shift, due to particulate in the air. Also in Ontario, the N-Viro material created such a huge cloud of dust and particulate when land applied to a farmfield, that the Ministry of the Environment stepped in saying charges would be laid if it happened again. It is hard to understand why our government allows the deliberate contamination of farmland and our food and milk with sewered industrial wastes. You can tell that the N-viro process was used on septage or untreated sewage due to the content of tampons, condoms, and other debris in the finished N-Viro product. ............................................................... Driver: Biosolids made me sick Hauling fertilizer caused headaches, nausea, man says By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE Truro Bureau, Halifax Chronicle Mon. Mar 23,2009 Over a period of about three months last year, a truck driver, who asked not to be identified, would pick up loads of what is identified on these material safety data sheets as Halifax soil amendment and truck 28- to 30-tonne loads to farmers in various communities. (MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE / Truro Bureau) NEW MINAS ? A truck driver says "godawful" memories were rekindled by a recent story in The Chronicle Herald about biosolid fertilizer stored in a field near a daycare in Noel, Hants County. "Think about what biosolids are ? absolutely everything flushed down toilets and drains," said the man, who asked for anonymity. "That?s about as sick as you can get. "I used to haul that stuff and I?m telling you, I had a headache and nausea every single day. "My wife wouldn?t let me in the house by the end of it because I stunk of the stuff." Over a period of about three months last year, he would pick up loads of what is identified on material safety data sheets as Halifax soil amendment and truck 28- to 30-tonne loads to farmers in various communities. The product is made from treated sewage taken from treatment plants in Halifax and shipped to the Halifax biosolids processing facility in Aerotech Park, near the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. N-Viro operates the plant. According to a website, it has Canadian plants in Ontario and Summerside, P.E.I., and in countries around the world. No one from the company was available to comment Sunday. The process in the Halifax facility includes mixing kiln dust with the treated waste and heating the product to obtain stability. It is supposed to destroy harmful bacteria but keep helpful soil bacteria alive. "When this stuff is loaded onto a truck, a cloud of dust goes through the air," said the source. "The workers in the plant wear respirators and you wouldn?t believe the smell. "It gets everywhere, all over the truck, in the cab, and it?s impossible to breathe. "My doctor said the headaches and nausea could be because of what I was breathing in or it could have been psychological because of what it was. "There are three major hospitals in the region and you know people pour all kinds of things down the drain, like paint and turpentine and old drugs, and you have to wonder what it?s doing to you." Moreover, he wonders what is happening to livestock grazing on land that has fertilizer made from this product. "Who would want to eat vegetables grown in this stuff?" Worse, when he first started hauling the loads, he said he saw syringes, tampon applicators and condoms in the mix. "I guess they got rid of those kinds of things with screens when the farmers started complaining and they don?t show up anymore in the loads, but that?s just gross," he said. "I?ll tell you one thing, if my kids were going to that daycare, I?d be hauling them out pretty quick." The source said he wonders about the safety of the product and believes more questions should be asked. ( mmacintyre at herald.ca) From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 23 09:04:03 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:04:03 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Halifax : Brand new conventional sewage plant fails Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This shows that the usual wastewater treatment plants - at their huge building costs and enormous energy costs provide very poor service for the money. Halifax is already back to raw sewage in the Harbour - 20 Olympic swimming pools per day - and the project managers say raw sewage to the Harbour is how the plant is designed to function. It is designed to overflow raw sewage into the Harbour during rain or snow melt. There is alot of rain and snow melt in Halifax. They needed Stephen Salter to give them a hand in understand what is possible in the new world of sewage treatment technology. See Resources from Sewage: Power From the People victoriasewagealliance.org/Salter.pps ....................................................... http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/574896 Raw sewage in Halifax harbour Jan 21, 2009 THE CANADIAN PRESS HALIFAX ? A familiar stench has hung over parts of downtown Halifax in recent days, repulsing residents who thought the days of smells wafting up from their harbour were well behind them. But the rank whiff of sewage has returned to the coastal city after a new treatment facility failed last week, allowing millions of litres of raw waste to once again flow freely into the harbour every day. "My first reaction was, `Oooh, I know that smell,"' said Jennifer Grant of the Ecology Action Centre, days after she was hit by the scent of rotten eggs as she walked along the harbourfront. "It's a pretty sad state of affairs and it's really disappointing to the public." Halifax officials are trying to figure out what has caused the city's main sewage treatment plant to lose power last Wednesday. Its two backup generators are also suspected to have failed, resulting in raw waste to flood the facility waist-deep and submerge expensive electrical systems. Crews have been pumping out the waste in the plant, located in the downtown area, and diverted it to another treatment facility. But city officials said there's little they can do to stem to flow of almost 100 million litres of waste that used to flow freely into the harbour every day ? an amount that could fill more than 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools. "You expect some blips along the way, but you just don't expect them to be this severe`," said Mayor Peter Kelly. "We want to ensure this is not an issue that's going to happen again." The setback came just weeks after the city took ownership of the $332-million project, that includes four waste-water treatment facilities and took years of construction and difficult negotiations between three levels of government. Last summer, the mayor and other city officials strode into the harbour in their swimming trunks to proclaim the water safe and the beaches open after decades of closure due to high coliform counts. The treatment project was supposed to put an end to Halifax's notoriety as one of the few remaining Canadian cities that had allowed fecal matter, tampons, condoms and anything else flushed down the toilet to stream into its bustling harbour for 250 years. But critics have said that in choosing an "advanced primary" treatment system, the city opted for the cheapest technology available and will pay the price for it in these kinds of setbacks. Grant said the municipality will likely have to upgrade to a secondary system when the federal government legislates the standard ? a procedure Kelly estimated will cost $90 million. "They bought what they could afford," she said. "It's not a great sign that it's already been hit with a serious malfunction and no clear timeline of when it's going to be fixed." It's not clear how much damage was done to the plant, who will be on the hook for repairs, or when it will be back up and running. Both Kelly and Coun. Sue Uteck said any damages will either be covered by the city's insurance, a three-year warranty, or could be part of a deficiency list the manufacturer was working on when the city took over the plant on Dec. 17. Uteck said the city can also hold back payment if the deficiencies, such odours and cracked pipes that allow sewage into the water, aren't addressed. "The city does have a holdback on money," she said. "We will not be on the hook for this at this point because we have a warranty." Heavy rains and snow melts have also caused sewage to go through an overflow and out into the harbour when it can't handle an overload of water. But project officials say that's part of the system and not a malfunction. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 23 09:10:33 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:10:33 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> BC: Victoria sewage and sludge options - what a mess Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This story is important. It looks at the pressure fractions on how to decide on wastewater treatment in Victoria BC. There is no wastewater treatment plant at all. Sewage goes out into the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Innovative thinkers have researched European methods of wastewater treatment and the utilization of sewage and sludges for energy, biodiesal, heat pumps, etc. They propose decentralized sewage treatment and using the sludge as an energy resource. The cast of usual consultants however, continue to pressure Victoria Council down the well worn path to the usual ineffective sewage plant designs. Look at what these guys did to Halifax, where multimillions of dollars were spent to get just primary treatment and the plant has failed...so we are back to sewage in the Harbor. It is time for the wastewater industry captains from the last century to step aside and allow 'best available technologies' into the marketplace...conserving water, energy, producing energy, and allowing local control and management of sewage and sewage treatment...including the waste residues. See: Making the Most of Our Sewage http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/features/sewage/2007-waste-not.pdf ............................................................ http://www.timescolonist.com/Technology/What+mess/1416021/story.html What a mess Sewage treatment is the biggest project in regional history with a price tag that could go as high as $2 billion. Some politicians say the current plan ignores an opportunity to save money -- and the environment -- by harnessing resources to produce energy and reusable water. Others think the critics are wasting valuable time. By Rob Shaw, Times ColonistMarch 22, 2009 6:32 AMBe the first to post a comment Aeration tanks, above, insert oxygen into sewage after it has been screened, left, to remove solids at the CRD's Saanich Peninsula wastewater treatment plant in North Saanich. The facility, built in 2000, uses traditional secondary treatment technology and can serve up to 50,000 people from Central Saanich to Sidney. It recently received a $3 million federal grant to draw heat from waste to help warm a nearby elementary school and the Panorama Recreation Centre. Photograph by: Photos by Adrian Lam, Times Colonist, Times Colonist Spend a few minutes with politicians planning sewage treatment in B.C.'s capital, and you'll come to a sobering and perhaps disturbing realization: A growing number feel the whole project is sliding sideways and out of control. There are lots of reports to write and deadlines to hit in coming months for what has become the largest project in regional history. The province has ordered the CRD to come up with a plan to treat its sewage. It wants a business case, with costs and properties, by the end of the year. But the closer we get to decisions, the farther apart the planners seem to be. And there's still an awful lot left to decide: treatment technology, the number of plants, tax implications, property shortlists, land contracts and public input. It doesn't help that there's conflicting information, and prices, on our sewage options. Consultants hired by the Capital Regional District peg the cost of four to 11 treatment plants at $1.2 billion to $2 billion -- meaning a tax hike of hundreds of dollars a year for local residents. But an influential report commissioned by the B.C. government in 2007 suggests the region could build a network of smaller plants that recover heat, water and fuel, for as little as half the cost. And a major utilities company, Corix, has its own plans for roughly the same amount. With nine months left for politicians to cut through all the spin, the community is left with one very important question: Is the sewage treatment project going in the right direction? Long before it was fashionable to criticize sewage planning, Saanich Coun. Vic Derman was doing it anyway. Almost from the moment in 2006 that the B.C. government ordered the CRD to stop dumping waste into the ocean, Derman started warning we could be headed for a "billion-dollar boondoggle." Derman sits on the CRD's sewage committee, where 14 municipal councillors and mayors plan the project and ultimately call the shots. His point is simple: We should have cast a wider net for innovative ideas from the start. The CRD put out a request for expressions of interest in 2006, to seek suggestions from companies around the world. But Derman argues it was flawed because it assumed the responses had to fit within the existing pipe system and long-held notions of plants at Macaulay Point in Esquimalt and Clover Point in Victoria. Maybe we missed a way to cut costs and avoid the $1.2-billion to $2-billion estimate for treatment, he said. "The problem at that point is you've already decided what you're going to build; it's now a competition for who is going build it," he said. "The fundamental nature is already decided with no real investigation of alternatives." Last September, Derman put forward a motion to the sewage committee to cast out for ideas again. Technically, it passed. But the CRD miscounted the votes and said it failed. At the next meeting, Derman tried again but was defeated. Concern mounts, trust drops Slowly, Derman has gone from a lone voice to part of a small chorus of critics on the committee. One of the most serious concerns comes from Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, who alleges that CRD staff and consultants are "funnelling" politicians toward a conclusion they don't necessarily want. "We've been narrowed down in the last two sets of meetings in a significant way, and that's scary to me," she said. For example, in February, CRD consultants Associated Engineering, CH2M Hill and Kerr Wood Leidal recommended the CRD use the bio-solid sludge left over after treatment as fuel for cement kilns and fertilizer for more than 1,800 hectares of willow trees. The CRD would lease land, grow trees, periodically mulch them for wood chips and then, just before the land became contaminated by heavy metals in the sludge, move on to other property. Interesting idea, the politicians said. They received the report for information but did not make a decision. Within a month, the consultants had incorporated the suggestion into cost estimates for three options of four, six or 11 plants. "What I feel, at this point, is it's not the politicians at the table making the decisions, it's the staff," Desjardins said. "We are being channelled, and there won't be any decision left to be made." Dwayne Kalynchuk, the CRD's project director, counters that his staff are simply giving politicians three options. "We identified we're going to develop three options for them and that's what we've done." Yet the criticism exposes a serious problem for the CRD's sewage committee -- some of the politicians don't seem to trust the staff advising them. At least three other committee members have said they agree with Desjardins, including View Royal Mayor Graham Hill, Colwood Mayor Dave Saunders and Saanich's Derman. "If I'm not being heard, clearly my citizens aren't being heard, and that's unacceptable," Saunders said. "My citizens pay the staff's wage." But the rest of the committee -- a majority of as many as 10 members -- isn't quite as critical. That's left working colleagues divided. At recent meetings, there's rarely been consensus on how to move forward. "[The meetings] don't work as well as they should because Vic Derman and Barb and Hill and Saunders keep firing their wrenches into it," said Saanich Coun. Wayne Hunter. "And no one else wants to say, 'Look, why don't you suck it up and realize we need to continue to move down and come to a consensus on the best thing possible.'" Integrated resource management vs. CRD If it sounds as if no one is on exactly the same page, it's because some people are reading from entirely different books. Those who dislike the CRD's current direction turn to a 2007 report called "Resources from Waste" written by local authors Chris Corps, Patrick Lucey, Stephen Salter and Jon O'Riordan. The province commissioned them to examine Integrated Resource Management (IRM), which uses small treatment plants, scattered throughout the region, to sell heat, water and fuel from sewage. This can help pay to operate the facilities. Key to the IRM approach is merging sewage treatment with garbage management -- so kitchen organics and wood waste become part of the treatment process and, in turn, boost energy production. It's a foreign concept to many North American cities that treat garbage and liquid waste as separate problems, but it's done in many European urban centres. The concept remains a powerful draw for local politicians and the public. The IRM report concludes:- The CRD could build a vast decentralized network of up to 32 treatment plants -- four large and 28 small -- for about $870 million. - Digesting kitchen waste and sewage sludge could generate bio-gas to run buses and cars, or sell as natural gas. - Gasifying paper and wood waste could generate heat and electricity. - Annual revenues from resources would pay for the operating costs of plants, even in the most pessimistic scenario. But not everyone agrees with those numbers. A 2007 peer review said the IRM revenue projections and building costs could not be verified. The authors insist their numbers were repeatedly checked, but also acknowledge their report is conceptual. The CRD says you can't compare IRM figures with the work done by its consultants, which conclude resource recovery would be expensive and not come close to covering costs. The CRD has spent more than $1.8 million on consultants' work since 2006, studying the pros and cons of pulling resources from waste. Its consultants conclude:- Four treatment plants will cost $1.2 billion to build, $23.5 million a year to operate by 2030, and produce $3.6 million a year in recovered water, heat and fuel. - Six plants will cost $1.6 billion to build, $29 million a year to operate by 2030, and produce $7.3 million a year in recovered resources. - Eleven plants will cost $2 billion to build, $33.5 million a year to operate by 2030, and produce $8.3 million in recovered resources. Unlike the IRM report, the CRD estimates have not gone through peer review, where independent engineers double check the calculations. That process is ongoing and expected to be done by April. Duelling figures What are politicians supposed to do with two dramatically different sets of estimates that apparently can't be directly compared? The CRD said politicians have to trust their own staff and consultants who've spent time and money investigating and dismissing much of the province's IRM report. CRD chairman Geoff Young said the IRM authors, while credible, didn't have access to detailed data and didn't spend as much time as CRD consultants investigating how resource recovery would work for the region. "I had expected those board members who weren't convinced we were going down the right road would look at the work that's been done [by CRD consultants] and say, 'Well, gosh, I guess maybe we are going down the right road,'" Young said. "And I must admit, I hadn't expected people to be quite so skeptical of what I would have thought is fairly straight-forward engineering work." More than 100 people gathered at Esquimalt town hall earlier this month to listen to both the IRM authors and CRD engineers make their case. Kim Bellefontaine, who helped organize the forum through her Sewage Treatment Action Group, said she came away feeling the CRD needs to spend more time taking IRM seriously. "They've already put the nail in the coffin when they haven't given it a really thorough analysis," she said. "What we're asking for is a real assessment." Meanwhile, other communities are still studying the report. Earlier this month, Metro Vancouver embedded it into draft plans with a suggestion to spend $4 million to investigate the idea by 2012. Needed: New ideas The dissenting politicians at the CRD sewage committee think one way to clear the air, once and for all, is to go back out to the business community and ask for new ideas. The politicians are set to debate that issue Wednesday. "Right now, if someone asked me, I'd say quite clearly no we aren't going in the right direction," said Colwood's Saunders. "The direction should be this: We have enough information, we should go out to a request for expression of interest [REI] and get the private sector or union sector involved to get the best deal we can. ... They are in the business of doing it, they know how to respond with the best methods possible and the cheapest methods possible for our citizens, and I'm not seeing that from the CRD." If the CRD sends out another request for expressions of interest, they'll likely hear from Corix, a utility company with experience in sewage treatment, which already runs Langford's sewer system. Corix could build more than 20 treatment plants for the CRD, recover water and heat in an IRM approach, and do it for "around half a billion," said Graeme Bethell, Corix general manager of utilities for Vancouver Island. That's far less than $1.2 billion or $2 billion suggested by the CRD. Bethell is quick to add he's not criticizing CRD staff, and he's not privy to all their data. But there's clearly a "big gap" between government estimates and those from the private sector, he said. Still, the REI process is not without drawbacks. Companies won't want to reveal proprietary technology or detailed cost estimates to competitors if the CRD isn't planning to award them a contract in the end, Bethell said. And the CRD says the federal and provincial governments would prefer a business case, not another REI, before they share two-thirds of the project's costs. Capacity Aside from price, the Corix and IRM proposals differ from the CRD on another major way: capacity. CRD consultants propose building plants by 2016 to handle growth to about 2030, and then expand -- at additional costs not factored into the existing billion-dollar estimates -- to 2065. Corix would bring plants online as the community needs it in a "just-in-time" approach, Bethell said. Building for 2065 seems to dismiss the idea that future residential communities will treat their own sewage, like Victoria's much-touted eco-friendly Dockside Green development, said Derman. "What if there are opportunities to build more Dockside Greens 10 or 20 years down the road?" he asked. The CRD says it allows for future flexibility but is legally obligated to build a backup system, in case private plants fail. Its own peer-review panel, largely made up of professors and North American consultants, has warned against building too much because technology evolves. "I don't think we're smart enough today to build a complex system to meet tomorrow's needs," said Perry McCarty, a team member and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. Lowest cost, taxes Nowhere in all the work done by either the IRM authors or CRD consultants is a lowest-cost option -- a bare-bones system to meet provincial and federal environmental standards but lessen the cost to taxpayers in a time of worldwide economic downturn. Saanich Coun. Susan Brice, a former provincial cabinet minister, is set to ask for such figures this Wednesday. "This is a project our community needs to get on with, and we need to find a way we could do it that is financially doable," she said. View Royal's Hill, who described himself as "discomfitted" by the current direction, agrees high costs are of great concern. "But what we can't do is build temples of old technology because it happens to be cheapest," he said. How much you'll pay for sewage treatment depends on where you live. Residents of Sooke and the Saanich Peninsula won't pay anything because they already have plants. The only existing tax projections were done in 2008, using an old cost-sharing formula based on flow. Hardest hit is Oak Bay, where average homeowners can expect $712.98 in additional annual taxes by 2017, when the entire treatment system is online. Langford residents are forecast to pay the least, $157.49 annually, followed by $197.81 in Colwood, $408.45 in Esquimalt, $430.88 in View Royal, $464.85 in Victoria and $471.12 in Saanich. Democracy and division The mayors of View Royal, Esquimalt and Colwood warn if the CRD can't come together, it is destined to split apart before it submits a plan to the province by the end of the year. It may already be happening. Quietly, those mayors bypassed the CRD and met with Environment Minister Barry Penner earlier this month to ask him for support in funding pilot projects in their region and gauge what he thinks about them splintering from the project. Penner has remained steadfast that he wants a regional plan first, no matter what happens. "In my view, let's develop the overall plan and see where a pilot plant might fit into that plan," he told the Times Colonist. And he's given no indication he's flexible on a tight deadline to require site locations and costs by the end of this year. Under that timeline, the CRD says it could build plants by around 2017. Instead, Penner's "steely" eyes show little sign he's willing to budge, said Saanich Coun. Judy Brownoff, chairwoman of the sewage committee. "The governments have money on the table and as the federal guidelines come down the track, secondary treatment will be the standard across Canada and lots of communities will be lining up for help," Brownoff said. "So we're at the trough and people are seeing us as a leader." Whether a fractured, bickering CRD can develop an overall plan remains unknown. "I guess I'm just not clear what's going to make those municipalities happy," said Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin. "Ultimately, we are a junior level of government, we have been ordered by a senior level of government to deliver a plan by the end of the year, we have a commitment we must meet." Later this year, the sewage committee will start voting on decisions. A simple democratic majority will rule, which means dissenting communities could find decisions imposed upon their residents. But Derman, the loudest critic who's been shouting the longest, said he's preparing for a worst-case scenario. "Certain municipalities are beginning to talk about opting out," he said. "That's the worst possible outcome in my mind. For regional unity, it's not good. But I don't blame them. "There is a real possibility that this might be a waste of a lot of taxpayers' money and sewage treatment could be done perhaps at a net lower cost especially with a just-in-time, as-needed, where-needed approach. "How can I vote in favour of something if that's the case?" Rob Shaw has covered sewage treatment issues in the CRD since 2006. He blogs about the project on a blog at www.timescolonist.com/sewage - - - CURRENT PLANS FOR SEWAGE TREATMENT Politicians are looking at these options: Cost: Between $1.2 and $2 billion for between four and 11 treatment plants. Locations: No matter what kind of treatment is chosen, consultants say there are likely to be plants at: - Macaulay Point or McLaughlin Point, Esquimalt - Clover Point, Victoria - Haro Woods, Saanich Other general areas where plants might be placed: - Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre - Royal Bay, Colwood - West Shore Town Centre, Langford - Downtown Langford/Costco area - Near the Legislature in James Bay, Victoria - CFB Esquimalt - Town and Country Shopping Centre, Saanich - Oak Bay - - - SEWAGE TREATMENT DECISION TIMELINE The CRD is about to enter a busy period of decision-making on this massive project. The key dates are: - March 25: Report on how to cost-share the project between local communities. - April 22: Peer review team brings back critique of CRD staff and consultant work. - Mid-May: Shortlist of sites start appearing, starting with properties at Saanich East. - May 27: Politicians make a vote on the "system strategy" of number of treatment plants for the region. - End of May: New project consultants hired by CRD. - June 30: Progress report sent to B.C. environment minister. - Sept/Oct: Plant sites are finalized. - Dec. 31: Business case filed to provincial government. - - - How much waste can we recover from sewage? Depends on who you ask IRM authors say a decentralized system could: - Heat 80,095, or 30 per cent, of local homes. - Provide electricity to 26,698, or 10 per cent, of homes. - Reduce land requirements for plants by up to 80 per cent because IRM plants would be smaller. The CRD discussion paper says its system could: - Heat between 18,500 and 31,300 local homes. - Provide water to irrigate 70 golf courses or 116,000 residential lots, increasing to 118 courses and 196,000 lots by 2065. New households with modern pipes could use it for toilet water year-round. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue Mar 24 12:56:41 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:56:41 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> ALERT -Chicago to abandon new sludge pellet plant due to cost Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This business of making sewage sludge pellets - at a cost of hundreds of dollars a ton - to create a high heavy metal low quality 'fertilizer' for which there is no market is a waste of taxpayer's money - and global resources. No one is willing to buy the pellets, and the pellets are prone to both spontaneous combustion and organic dust explosion in storage. The two large pellet plants in Ontario both burned down within a few months of each other. The cost of fuel to dry the sludge into little pellets just goes up and up. The rebuilt Veolia sludge pellet facility in Toronto, it has been recently determined, does not meet the standards that were stipulated in Toronto's contract with Veolia. The old plant that burned down limped its way through 3 or 4 years of intermittent production and never functioned adequately to be turned over to the City of Toronto. So when it burned down it still belonged to Veolia - but it wasn't clear whether Toronto or Veolia were supposed to have put insurance on the facility. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.chitowndailynews.org/articles/print/23647 MWRD faces $42 million recycling dilemma BY MARIAN WANG March 23, 2009 Construction is finished on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago's new biosolids processing plant, which converts sewage-treatment byproducts into nutrient-rich pellets that can be used as fertilizer. But officials are far from celebrating. That's because the plant presents them with a vexing choice: Proceed with testing and opening the plant, which will cost millions more than officials had anticipated, or abandon it at a cost of $124 million. The latter, the Commissioners now realize, is the cheapest option. ?The lowest cost option at any particular time is to abandon the facility,? says an internal district memo. The district contracted with Metropolitan Biosolids Management to build and operate the plant for 20 years at a cost of $217 million. The contractor is now seeking an additional $42 million in payments from the district, mostly because of rising fuel costs. The contract allows the district to buy the plant outright. In that case, officials say, the district could abandon the plant and use existing methods to process sludge left over from its sewage treatment operations. ?When do we tell taxpayers we won?t use the pellitizer plant because it?s too expensive?? asked district Commissioner Frank Avila. Completed three years behind schedule, the facility is part of MWRD?s biosolids processing program, which decades ago began looking for alternatives to hauling sludge left over from wastewater treatment to landfills. Existing methods of processing biosolids include eight lagoons and five drying sites. The pelletizer plant relies on heat-drying technology, which produces a more condensed product, limiting the volume of material that needs to be transported. MBM's $217 million bid was the lowest to build and operate the plant. Its contract calls for MBM to build the facility at the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant and operate it using recycled oil for a period of 20 years. At the end of 20 years, the pelletizer plant?s ownership would convert to the District. The plant was expected to be completed by spring 2006, according to MBM's website. The District plans to levy nearly $2 million in liquidated damages to date against MBM because of the delays. MBM recently informed the District that the pelletizer plant is ready for a 60-day test run, after which it could begin churning out 150 tons of biosolid pellets a year (ADMIN: this should read 'per day'?). But the company also advised that it would need an additional $42 million to operate the plant over the next 20 years, due to the higher cost of fuel, an issue which is further complicated by the contractor?s request to switch fuel sources from recycled oil to natural gas. Natural gas is approximately twice as expensive as recycled oil. ?We want to use reclaimed oil. The problem is that the market is changed. The difference is in the inflation of gas,? said Bart Lynam, a partner with MBM. According to MBM, recycled oil is not available in the necessary quantities, but this fuel change is not responsible for the increased cost because under the contract, MBM must split the cost of the new fuel with the District, 50-50, so as to incur no extra cost on the District. Under the terms of the contract, MBM is permitted to switch fuels, as long as it can prove that the fuel it used in the bid is not available. The switch must be approved by the Board of Commissioners, which has thus far withheld its approval. The District is awaiting proof from the contractor showing that it must change fuels. MBM is expected to provide such documentation by the end of March. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Tue Mar 24 13:12:00 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:12:00 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Nova Scotia sewage sludge biosolids start to be spread on farmland Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Halifax decided to use the N-Viro method of getting rid of sludge. Their sewage sludge is mixed with cement kiln dust from Lafarge Cement in Brookfield. HOwever, Lafarge Brookfield uses used oil as alternative fuel, and this means that the cement kiln dust is contaminated with lead and thallium. The sludge cement kiln dust mixture is very high pH. It is supposed to be used only ever few years to act as a liming agent rather than a fertilizer. It should not be used on fields that have a normal range of pH since the high pH corrosive material will cause the release of some metals that can then pose risks to livestock and wildlife. See abstract below the story. /////////////////////////////////////////////// March 24th 2009 HRM Bio-solid waste spread on Valley farms Waste a farming alternative in Annapolis County By Heather Killen/Spectator/NovaNewsNow.com Signs of urban life are spreading out in a few fields of Annapolis. Diane Cook, of Clarence, said she first noticed several piles of funny-looking dirt appear on neighbouring fields last fall and thought the landowner was stockpiling lime, or sand. But the smell soon told her something was off. She later found out the piles were bio-solid, a byproduct of processed sewage from the Halifax Regional Municipality that is further processed by N-Viro, a company based in the Aerotech Business Park near the airport. At a distance, it resembles a dark powdery lime and is being sold in the province as a soil amendment. Some farmers have begun using it in as a cheap alternative to fertilizer. While the compound is subject to testing by the Department of Environment and has been deemed safe for fields, the idea of spreading bio-solids from HRM around fields in Annapolis County is not a welcome one to Cook. "The birds and animals won't go near it," she said. "And that's very unusual." While she has heard the treatment process renders the bio-solids safe from pathogens, she said she isn?t convinced the substance is completely safe from leaching heavy metals. She?s also concerned that the piles of bio-solid are situated too close a brook that runs into the Annapolis River. Cook said up until now, these neighbouring fields have been mostly used for hay, corn, and extra turnout for cattle rather than growing food crops. Still, she doubts her husband will be turning his cattle out in the field after it?s been treated with the compound. Cook added that while the fields are still too wet to treat, she?s not looking forward to the smell in a few weeks after the bio-solids have spread around. Andy Sharpe, of the Clean Annapolis River Project said he's known for a while that a few farmers have been trucking in the material as an affordable alternative to fertilizer. He checked with the Department of Environment and verified that the samples were within the appropriate guidelines and is safe to use on the fields. He said that while the idea of spreading even treated human waste on fields is unpleasant to imagine, it may actually be a greener solution than traditional fertilizers that rely on large quantities of petroleum. "The sludge is actually a rich source of nutrients and crops need nutrients," he said. "While it's icky to think about, the waste has to go somewhere." There are new methods and treatments for the bio-solids. The process binds the sludge with lime and locks up the heavy metals to prevent them from leaching. (ADMIN: high pH lime treatment temporarily makes some toxic metals less available, and makes other toxic metals more environmentally available) The process also neutralizes bacteria. Henry Vissers, executive director of the Federation of Agriculture, said that while spreading domestic bio-solids is still a relatively new idea in Nova Scotia the practice has been used in other areas for about the past 30 years. ?It?s a product that?s being sold to farmers under the same federal regulations as fertilizer,? he said. ?It?s not a necessary practice for agriculture, but it is available.? He said that the federation has opted to take a neutral position on the subject. In 2004, the federation?s council of leaders stated that the federation wouldn?t encourage the practice of using domestic bio-solids as soil amendments on fields until a strategy was developed to allay public perception of the practice. Also it suggested that the disposal of domestic bio-solids is a municipal concern and the municipalities that generate the waste should be ultimately responsible for its safe disposal. http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-317410-Biosolids-a-local-agriculture-reality.html /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// MOLYBDENUM EXTRACTABILITY IN SOILS AND UPTAKE BY ALFALFA 20 YEARS AFTER SEWAGE SLUDGE APPLICATION Murray B. McBride and B. Hale. 2004. Soil Science, 169(7):505-514 ABSTRACT Molybdenum (Mo) at elevated concentrations in nonacid soils is readily taken up into forages, particularly legumes, and can result in secondary copper deficiency or molybdenosis in ruminants. Because sewage sludge products are commonly higher in total and available Mo than soils, amendment of soils with sludges could cause health problems in livestock. To determine the long-term potential for sewage sludge amendments to raise forage Mo concentrations, alfalfa was grown on two controlled experimental sludge application sites at the University of Guelph, where three different sludge types (high Ca, high Al, high Fe) had last been applied 20 years earlier. Analysis of the alfalfa harvested from these two field sites, which had near-neutral soils of different texture, showed that more than about 5 kg ha-1 of cumulative Mo loading 20 years earlier could lower the forage Cu/Mo concentration ratio below 2/1, considered to be the lower limit to protect the health of grazing ruminants. The decreased Cu/Mo ratio was due to increases in alfalfa Mo concentrations, as alfalfa Cu was not significantly increased by the sludge amendments at either site. All six sludge treatments (three sludge types at two application rates) investigated at Elora and four of six treatments at Cambridge showed significant increases in alfalfa Mo relative to the controls. At Elora, the critical forage Cu/Mo ratio of 2 was reached with about 10 to 12 kg ha-1 total Mo applied historically from sludge, whereas this ratio was reached near 6 kg ha-1 total Mo applied at Cambridge. Soil analyses revealed that although CaCl2-extractable Mo was significantly increased in five of the six sewage sludge treatments at Elora and four of the six sludge treatments at Cambridge, most of the Mo applied in several sludge materials (particularly the high-Ca sludge) had been lost from the topsoil at both sites. Over all experimental plots at both sites, the alfalfa Mo concentration was correlated to readily extractable Mo (by 0.01 M CaCl2) in the soil. Total soil Mo and past Mo loading to soil were less reliable predictors of Mo concentration in alfalfa than the soil test for readily extractable Mo. The results revealed that residual plant-available Mo in sludge-amended soils can persist for decades with some types of sludge materials, but leaching losses of Mo may reduce the impact of residual Mo in soils. The need for stronger regulation and monitoring of Mo in waste materials intended for forage, pasture, and range land application is indicated. Keywords: biosolids, copper deficiency in ruminants, copper/molybdenum ratio, heavy metals, hypocuprosis From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 26 08:46:23 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:46:23 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Indiana - stimulus project to burn coal/sludge for fuel Message-ID: LMU Looking at Ways to Burn Sludge: Stimulus Money and State Grants Could Fund $4 Million Project Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Mar. 25--Logansport Municipal Utilities is exploring ways to burn biosolids, or sludge, at its Race Street power plant. Superintendent Paul Hartman announced at Tuesday's Utility Service Board meeting that LMU had applied for funding for the estimated $4 million project from both the federal economic stimulus package and the state's revolving loan fund. If the proposal is approved, instead of using three semis a day to dispose of sludge from the wastewater treatment plant at a nearby landfill, LMU would convert the biosolids into a useable fuel that would be taken to the generating plant. "This is a new thing for Indiana, no one else is doing this in the state," Hartman said. "We are in a unique position because we are at an advantage with both the power plant and wastewater treatment plant. We have an opportunity to make a name for ourselves." Because the project is so unique, LMU might also apply for grant funds from the Department of Energy, Hartman said. The bulk of the $4 million price tag is for the equipment to conduct the drying process. Hartman said the sludge must be heated to 225 degrees to dry it out and remove bugs before it can effectively be burned at the plant. While sludge can be used as a fuel source, it has to be burned with coal rather than in place of it, Hartman said. At 10,000 BTU (British thermal units), compared to 11,000 for coal, Hartman said biosolids "are not that far away" from being a comparable fuel source. During the meeting, board member Jeff Muller asked Hartman whether at $4 million the project was worth the investment if LMU still has to use coal as its primary fuel source. Hartman said that LMU was now burning 10,000 tons of coal a month when the plant is operational, and does not have access to similar amounts of biosolids. Using sludge, he said, isn't likely to reduce the amount of coal used at the plant by that much, he said, but it is more environmentally friendly. "By using that, we are burning green," Hartman said. "We are recycling and using a source of renewable energy." If the project goes ahead, LMU will save around $300,000 a year in costs to transport the sludge from the plant to the landfill. Hartman said grant applications had already been submitted and he was waiting for an answer. "We hope to hear any time," he said. Kevin Smith can be contacted at (574) 732-5148 or via e-mail at kevin.smith at pharostribune.com ----- http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3148370 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 26 08:51:27 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:51:27 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Victoria BC: The Case Against Sewage Treatment Plants Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: We need to bear in mind what some people in Victoria have in mind: spend $2 billion on sewage plants that will routinely overflow and continue to spill raw sewage into the Straits. And they will generate sludge that will be land applied perhaps to grow trees for fuel or switchgrass. After a few applications the land will be too contaminated to use and more land will be sought, spread, contaminated, and more land will be sought, spread, contaminated. This sludge management is certainly not 'sustainable'. Victoria needs to look to new solutions. ............................................. The Victoria Times Colonist The case against treatment plants One group favours discharging screened liquid waste into ocean By Rob Shaw, Times Colonist March 22, 2009 While the region's politicians push forward with sewage treatment, a group of business people and scientists continues a campaign to abolish the project. Responsible Sewage Treatment Victoria argues that the current system, in which liquid sewage that has been screened to remove solid objects more than six millimetres in size is discharged into the ocean via underwater pipes, does not harm the environment. And therefore, the group argues, there's no need to spend up to $2 billion treating waste on land. "As far as I'm concerned, RSTV will continue to make the CRD board, the province and the federal government aware, from a public health and marine science point of view, the current deep sea outfalls do a great job and we do not believe there's going to be any benefit overall to the environment," said Dr. Shaun Peck, retired deputy provincial health officer and the founder of the group. The group argues that treating sewage will require additional energy to operate plants, create greenhouse gas emissions as trucks transport sludge, and contaminate the land with toxic biosolids. But in 2006, the province ordered the CRD to start planning sewage treatment, after a consultant's report found the sea beds around the outfall sites were contaminated with unsafe levels of toxins such as copper, mercury and lead that exceeded provincial contaminated site levels. At the time, Environment Minister Barry Penner said the scientific scales had tipped in favour of treatment. Subsequently, the federal government brought in environmental guidelines on sewage. "Across Canada, provinces and the federal government have accepted nationwide standards for a minimum of secondary sewage treatment and we don't want to ... be a national laggard," said Penner. The CRD has refused to engage the anti-treatment critics, nor has it spent any money on advertising to justify its position, largely arguing that the decision to treat was imposed from above. "To me, it is absolutely a question of, this is inevitable," said CRD chairman Geoff Young. "There's no way we can continue to do this, and fighting tooth and nail to put it off for a year or three does not seem worthwhile." Undeterred, Peck still attends almost every CRD sewage committee meeting. Over time, RSTV has evolved to advocate other ideas, such as exploring the lowest-cost option for taxpayers and increasing consultation with the public. As well, Peck said he's critical of politicians for not asking enough questions and being led by staff and engineers. "It's apparent to me that all the local politicians were being fairly unanimous and determined to follow the province's order," he said. The RSTV website is www.rstv.ca http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/case+against+treatment+plants/1416032/story.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 26 08:52:36 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:52:36 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Halifax Nova Scotia Biosolid nestles in near day care in Hants County Message-ID: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1112249.html Biosolid nestles in near day care By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE Truro Bureau Fri. Mar 20 - 5:13 AM NOEL ? There?s a pile of fertilizer in a field behind the volunteer fire department in this little Hants County community. Perhaps no one would have taken notice if there wasn?t also a daycare centre in the building. Perhaps if the material was run-of-the-mill cow manure, no one would have even blinked. But the material is what is known as a biosolid, the end product of what begins in the toilets and sinks of Halifax Regional Municipality. After the sewage is treated at one of three water treatment plants in that municipality, it is further processed by N-Viro, which has the municipal contract, at the Aerotech Business Park. The company?s website describes the end product as a "biologically stable, low-odour, safe, soil-like material." No one from N-Viro was available to comment Thursday, but the product has been licensed for sale to farmers and deemed safe as a soil amendment. Fred Blois figures that doesn?t make sense. "I don?t think farmers are falling all over themselves to buy this soil amendment and if they?re growing food with it, it should be labelled as such," said Mr. Blois, a member of the Nova Scotia Environmental Network and a member of the former biosolid advisory committee. "The thing is there is no real testing of this material," he said. "This material is being spread on the ground and no one knows anything about it." The material is tested for heavy metals, E. coli and salmonella, but Mr. Blois suggests it should also be tested for drugs and chemicals, considering what some people pour down drains. One source who didn?t want to be identified said he believes it?s important to ask questions. "That?s all I?m saying. From the municipality to the province and on to the federal government, we should all be satisfied that this product is safe and that it?s tested." He said neighbours don?t like the smell from the product. "It smells like stale urine or an old outhouse," he said. Area councillor Wayne Green said Thursday he hasn?t received many calls of concern. "I received one call and there are 2,500 residents in this district, but I?m taking the concern to council to see what we can find out," said Mr. Green. "It?s been approved by the Department of Environment for use in agriculture and there are stringent guidelines to even buy the stuff." For his part, Mr. Blois figures it?s a classic case of urban waste becoming a rural problem. ( mmacintyre at herald.ca) COMMENTS: Biosolid nestles in near day care webeditors wrote on March 20, 2009 06:17AM (IP Logged) NOEL ? There?s a pile of fertilizer in a field behind the volunteer fire department in this little Hants County community. Perhaps no one would have taken notice if there wasn?t also a daycare centre in the building. xiapal1 wrote on March 20, 2009 06:29AM (IP Logged) This story is closed to comments. As for there not being many complaints, I wonder how many people realize what that pile is and wait until they do find out. I believe there should be a list of all farmers that are using this crap on their fields and the public should have access to this list. Out of curiousity, does the HRM ever use any of this "fertilizer" in their area??? oiseau wrote on March 20, 2009 07:00AM (IP Logged) I have no idea about the safety of this product, or lack therof. Perhaps we should be checking with those more in the 'know' before we all fly off the handle and freak out. BTW, I haven't been in Gore in years but it is a lovely place. Green Highlander wrote on March 20, 2009 07:32AM (IP Logged) Only a complete idiot would think that taking what goes down our toilets and spreading it onto our crops and then eating them is a intelligent thing to do. I'm as disgusted with the thought of that as I am with our elected officials who approved this 'idea'. kurifu wrote on March 20, 2009 07:44AM (IP Logged) What we have here is a plethora of uneducated public people freaking out when they don't have any knowledge on the topic. If you want to lobby the council or the department of agriculture or whomever for studies or reports on the materials, that is fine. But so long as it is deemed safe by the people who regulate the industry and there is no evidence to show that it is harmful, there is absolutely no need to drag the farmers into such a stupid argument. A little bit of research on the topic easily shows that it isn't a new type of fertilizer, having been around since the early 90's, and that most governments have approved the use as safe. In Europe biosolids are used extensively, they all still seem to be fine. Meandmywhine wrote on March 20, 2009 09:08AM (IP Logged) kurifu, this plethora or uneducated opponents to this idea are like myself. I don't want to eat ---- from your toilet my toilet plain and simple. As far as these regulatory boards you refer to, I don't believe a bloody word coming from any of them. You obviously failed to read the water reports the past few days in the media. All the plastics containing BPA and whatever else we don't know enough about that we have been long exposed to were also government approved. I don't want to consume the birth control, anti-depressants and detergents in what is supposed to be my healthy intake of vegetables. Google wrote on March 20, 2009 09:58AM (IP Logged) Wow, Spreading waste on fields? I hear some countries spread Cow, goat, sheep and even chicken poop on fields....and PEOPLE EAT THE FOOD growing in this,,,manure! Those cute little "button mushrooms" that come in cans, from China, have been grown in human feces for years. You eat those! Where do you think the crap from a billion people goes? I think it is mostly an issue for those that think too much about it. If we don't use it lets fill up the old mines we emptied with these "heavy metals"? Barton J Cutten wrote on March 20, 2009 10:02AM (IP Logged) As a point of order, Fred Blois sat on the NS biosolids advisory committee that gave approval to the N-Viro process. A process the committee deemed safe. So why is he missleading people? Regardless, we all must take greater consideration of what we pour down the drains as most of the foreign compounds end up in our waterways after the waste water is treated. Did you know that over 99 percent of all material entering a sewage plant is water? Most foreign contaminants are water soluble meaning their already extremely low concentrations are primarily discharged back into water ways. Using biosolids is much better for the soil because it has high levels of organic matter that increases soil structure and drastically decreases soil erosion. Using biosolids is the practice of recycling nutrients which is key for a sustainable future. Currently we depend on nutrients that are mined from the ground or derived from natural gas ( nitrogen ) to feed our plants. Groups like the Nova Scotia Environment Network should focus more on educating people to become more aware of what they flush down the drains instead stirring up uneducated fear in people. A treated pile of N-Viro is safer than raw cow manure. What is wrong with the world when an environmental group opposes recycling? Sounds like intolerant, fear mongering NDP members up to their tactics again. My question about this story; Why is a pile of fertilizer sitting on frozen ground? LIFE SUCKS wrote on March 20, 2009 10:04AM (IP Logged) yuck,anyone gonna have a ham and turd sandwich today.not me.get rid of this stuff the way it is supposed to be gotten rid of.i just hope that no local farmers are using this crap(pun),they will defeat their own purpose if they do. Quiet Comment wrote on March 20, 2009 10:10AM (IP Logged) Green.. and what would like to do with it? This is fertalizer. It is used all over the world and does not pose a problem. Most of the imported food we get has been grown with it. It is a sensible use for the waste. SFU wrote on March 20, 2009 10:29AM (IP Logged) kurifu has it right. Before you get too up in arms please do some research. If you are still upset then feel free to complain. Considering the types of hormones and antibiotics used in the cattle industry I'm not so keen on raw cow manure. This stuff is being applied without any type of treatment or testing. Personally I'd rather biosolids. Also, if you are buying produce from other countries there is a good chance you are already eating food grown in biosolids. Seajay wrote on March 20, 2009 10:44AM (IP Logged) NO FECES IN MY FOOD PLEASE! There should be mandatory labelling od ALL food and food products that are fertilized with bio-solids!!! I for one do NOT want to eat food grown with someone's feces, not even my own!!! There NEEDS to be a way for consumers to make this choice, not the growers!!! If you are a farmer, PLEASE don't use this 'crap' to fertilize your crops no matter how safe you are led to believe it is. I, and the vast majority want nothing to do with it!!! Barton J Cutten wrote on March 20, 2009 11:56AM (IP Logged) Seajay wrote: NO FECES IN MY FOOD PLEASE! --- Does that include animal poop as well? How do you suggest we feed plants and renew the soil then? CapeHalifax wrote on March 20, 2009 11:59AM (IP Logged) The Department of the Environment certified it without doing tests on it ? This sounds like DDT all over again. Which Tory brother-in-law has his signature on the paper ok'ing it ? LMacLean wrote on March 20, 2009 12:08PM (IP Logged) One person called about it? That's discusting. That just goes to show you how unaware people are of the food they eat everyday and what is going on around them too (I guess everyone else likes the smell of p---). Enjoy!! annmarie wrote on March 20, 2009 01:07PM (IP Logged) xiapal1: HRM sent out an environmental flyer or green flyer quite awhile ago and advised residents that after the Sewage Treatment Plant was finished processing our crap, they were going to bag it up and sell it as fertilizer, to whom: farmers, perhaps, maybe back to us. I read the article, but how many people did, they probably just threw it in the garbage. As you probably know, the residents have little to say on what the municipality does. Seajay wrote on March 20, 2009 01:08PM (IP Logged) Excuse me, allow me to clarify the obvious, NO HUMAN FECES ON MY TABLE!!! Composted animal feces has been acceptable for centuries. Human feces as fertilizer IS the issue here, NOT cow or sheep manure, and the right of consumers to be able to make informed choices when purchasing produce. Why is my choice, or not, of animal feces derived compost relative to these issues with human toilet compost use in our foodchain??? Stick to the issue at hand which is the consumer's right to know what they are putting on the table. The consumer has the right to choose and not have the choice forced on them!!! nofreebee wrote on March 20, 2009 01:48PM (IP Logged) Human waste no problem as long as the drugs and chemicals were out and when placed on the land it was tilled right under. Be thank full that the solids are taken out, would not be able to handle a carrot growing in a condom. Check out the book "The Humanure Handbook Third Edition" By Joseph Jerkins available on the web in a PDF format. Joseph-Jerkins.com Bindysue wrote on March 20, 2009 02:13PM (IP Logged) I live in Noel, and I for one, am not concerned about the Biosolids being spread on the fields. It does not smell nearly as bad and pig, cow, chicken or horse manure that is spread on the fields. I don't see the big concern. Too many people jumping to too many conclusions, or are set in the "old fashioned" ways. Times they are changing. It's better to treat the biosolids and use them for fertilizer, than to dump it in the Bay of Fundy... xiapal1 wrote on March 20, 2009 06:20PM (IP Logged) There are some local farmers using this "fertilizer" and their produce has been sold at farmers markets around the area...people just aren't aware of it. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 26 08:59:58 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:59:58 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Great little video at Board Meeting - Teacher uses fecal matter to instruct Message-ID: North Carolina: Teacher gives us all a lesson on why biosolids on land is a problem: http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-sludge-090325,0,7185491.story From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 26 22:21:59 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:21:59 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Hong Kong - yet another sludge treatment plant becomes tourist destination Message-ID: Sludge plant aims to slip onto tourist trail Patsy Moy , Hong Kong Standard Friday, March 27, 2009 A sludge treatment plant as a tourist destination? The idea may seem far-fetched, but environmental officials revealed that such a plan is among those being considered for the HK$5 billion project set to rise in Tuen Mun by 2012. The plan calls for an environmental learning center, a warm- water swimming pool and even a spa using heat generated by the treatment plant to be built as part of the facility. According to a senior environmental official, who did not want to be named, the blueprint will be discussed with representatives from Tuen Mun District Council today before being tabled for deliberation in the Legislative Council's environmental affairs panel on Monday. The key element in the treatment plant will be its architectural design, for which tenders will be sought worldwide, he added. An ash lagoon at Tsang Tsui near Nim Wan in Tuen Mun has been identified as a prospective site. The ambitious plan is not without successful models. Sludge treatment plants in Osaka in Japan and Vienna have been so nicely designed they have become landmarks, the official said. "They don't look like treatment plants at all. The one in Osaka is full of bright and vibrant colors, like a children's playground. "We have plans to turn the plant in Tuen Mun into an education center for environmental protection." The plant, which will reduce sludge in the city by 90 percent, is necessary as landfills are running out of space. In its Legco paper, the Environmental Protection Department said continuing to bury sludge at landfills could lead to slope failures and sludge slides. The incinerator will handle 2,000 tonnes of sludge a day by 2016. It will also create 613 construction jobs and 60 permanent jobs, according to the Legco paper. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=80147&sid=23251615&con_type=1 From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Mar 27 12:58:28 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:58:28 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> PMC BioTec - new process stinking out the neighbors Message-ID: March 27, 2009 03:53 am Residents not satisfied with sewer smell explanation By Angeljean Chiaramida Staff writer SEABROOK ? This week's Selectmen's meeting started off well, with its agenda intent on clearing the air of the rotten egg smell that's sporadically permeated the environment around the sewer plant since a new sludge reduction process was installed last summer. But by the end of two hours Wednesday night, even after experts promised the problems are fixed, the debate dissolved into anger, with name-calling and threats of legal action by a union president fed up with employees having to endure the smell. The new process installed into Seabrook's previously smooth-running and relatively odor-free wastewater treatment plant appeared to be a blessing when first proposed in 2007. It would reduce the sludge produced when water is extracted from sewage by as much as 80 percent and cut the rising cost of sludge disposal as well. The cost to truck unwanted sludge away in 2007 was about $160,000. In 2008, the cost would have risen to almost $200,000, instead of the budgeted $23,000 with the new process. Proposed by PMC BioTec, the new system uses microorganisms to gobble up most of the sludge. BioTec installed the $600,000 worth of equipment last spring with no up-front payment from cash-strapped Seabrook. The repayment plan extends over decades, using the money Seabrook would have spent on sludge removal. It wasn't projected to cost the town any additional money at all. But its cost to nearby residents living along Route 286 and South Main Street ? where Seabrook's wastewater treatment facility is located ? is intangible, the neighbors say. It's brought horrible odors that stick to clothing, cause eyes to water, set off asthma episodes, and chase away buyers and summer renters due to the unforeseen problems getting the system to work right, they said. Sewer treatment operator Phil Maltais and PMC BioTec President Don Rogers said the odor problem began after the December ice storm caused power outages that halted blowers, allowing hydrogen sulfide gas to build up in the vats. Local residents have a different story. Selectman Bob Moore said the smell started in the fall, when he started getting calls. "We had that smell all last summer, not just in November and December," said South Street resident Lisa Roberts. "And nothing was done about it until we started to complain." "I've lived there for 15 years," said Grey Meyer, a South Main Street resident living closest to the plant. "We never had the smell before (the new process began.) You have no idea what I've gone through with that smell." Private industry, such as pharmaceutical manufacturers with complex sewage to dispose of, have used PMC's new sludge reduction system successfully at a number of international sites, Rogers told residents. Household sewage is less complex, Rogers said, and Seabrook was breaking new ground as the first municipal system in the country to try out the system. But what was finally discovered a few weeks ago was that 70 percent of the waste tank diffusers had clogged completely, probably due to the blowers' inaction during the outage. Hydrogen sulfide gas continued to build up, spewing so much foul-smelling gas that the state Department of Environmental Services said the plant required immediate action. Rogers, Maltais and Sewer Superintendent Warner Knowles assured residents they've unclogged the diffusers and will do so again if necessary. They are also planning to install new diffusers that won't clog. All three men said they felt the smell would disappear once new diffusers were in, but residents wanted none of it Wednesday night. "You can turn this off tomorrow," Ken Tobey told selectmen. "And I think you should. My family aren't lab rats. You should turn it off tomorrow morning until these guys get their act together. Then we can try it again." For Billy Knowles, president of the Seabrook Employees Union, having workers get sick from breathing unsafe levels of the noxious gas is a problem. The selectmen's desire to terminate the meeting without taking a vote on the future of the process while Knowles and others still had questions was the final insult. He threatened unfair labor practice actions until a solution was found and the smell was gone permanently. Selectman Brendan Kelly said selectmen would closet themselves away with their attorney before making a decision on what to do, but he gave no time line. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Fri Mar 27 13:05:44 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:05:44 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Woonsocket Synagro sludge burner to shut down for one week Message-ID: For more background on this plant go to: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2003_Nov_6/ai_109827104 http://www.woonsocketcall.com/content/view/78445/112/ Sludge burner to shut down for one week on 03-26-2009 Woonsocket Rhode Island By RUSS OLIVO WOONSOCKET ? The Synagro sludge incinerator on Cumberland Hill Road is shutting down today while it performs routine maintenance and makes some upgrades to its state-of-the-art ?fluidized bed? core ? work expected to last about a week. ?As part of its ongoing effort to continue optimizing the latest technologies to minimize odors and maintain efficiencies, Synagro Technologies, Inc., will be shutting down its fluidized bed incinerator in Woonsocket for one week,? the company said in a statement. Dyana Koelsch, a spokeswoman for the company, said the city-generated biosolids that usually flow into Synagro through the wastewater collection system ? and those trucked in from dozens of surrounding communities ? will all be trucked away to be treated at other Synagro facilities while the work continues. The plant is expected to resume normal operations after the work is completed on April 3. Synagro has often been a source of odor complaints from the surrounding neighborhood, but Koelsch said the temporary change in operations would not result in an increase in odors emanating from the facility. Synagro installed the high-tech fluidized bed system to replace its ?multiple hearth? technology about two years ago. Koelsch said the new system went on line in May 2007 and has been operating ?round the clock, seven days a week, ever since. The fluidized bed incinerator is basically a matrix of sand-like, granular material that is mixed with biosolids and heated to some 1,400 degrees to neutralize harmful bacteria and other environmental toxins. The idling of the plant is an opportunity for Synagro to ensure the system is working at peak efficiency and to install some new components that have become available since it became operational, said David Abbamonte, plant manager. ?While this shutdown is routine, it is also an opportunity for us to check out operational systems, inspect all equipment and components and implement additional upgrades that will ensure we continue to be a good corporate neighbor,? Abbamonte said. Based in Houston, Synagro bills itself as the fastest-growing company in the nation focused on the ?organic residuals management? industry. The publicly traded company aims to be a major player in the field of wastewater privatization services to municipalities throughout North America. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Thu Mar 26 22:42:08 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:42:08 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Toxic Sludge is Good For You - The Move Message-ID: You've read the book - now see the movie: http://intercontinentalcry.org/toxic-sludge-is-good-for-you/ Toxic Sludge Is Good For You The fact that corporations and governments feel compelled to spend billions of dollars every year manipulating the public is a perverse tribute to human nature and our own moral values. The public relations industry has stolen our dreams, and returned them to us packaged as illusions. It must be our duty to dream more deeply, and to participate in the process of transforming those dreams into reality. ?quote from the book ?Toxic Sludge Is Good For You,? 1995 Based on the book of the same name, ?Toxic Sludge Is Good For You? is a film that examines the advertising industry?s invisible partner, the public relations industry. The film tracks the development of the PR industry from early efforts to win popular American support for World War I to the role of ?crisis management? in controlling the damage to a client?s image. To read 'The Sludge Hits the Fan' for free on the web go to: http://www.ejnet.org/sludge/sludge.html From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sat Mar 28 01:07:14 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:07:14 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> England - children eating sludged veggies / working sludge farm Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: This project has some very disturbing aspects. Sewage sludge is used to grow vegetables by special needs youngsters. Should special needs children and young people be exposed to sewage sludge? They cannot give informed consent. Should children be fed vegetables grown in sewage sludge fertilizer - as this story alleges? Certainly not. Just how high are the heavy metals in the sludge used for growing vegetables (leeks, cabbages, eggplants)? The sludge is also used on apple, pear and plum orchards. So what about windfall fruit...is it covered in bacteria and parasite eggs? Children are likely to eat fruit they find on the sludge - contaminated ground under the fruit trees. And what about the risks of exposing children - with their undeveloped immune systems - to the pathogens in sewage sludges? Kids in drug rehab programs need safe working conditions. Eating sewage sludge grown food as well as working at the sludge site could lead to high exposure to sludge toxins. The same kind of thing was happening at the Edmonton Alberta Co-composter. The staff at the Edmonton sewage sludge co-compost site were growing vegetables in high heavy metal sludge / waste compost and then giving the sludged veggies to poor people at the Edmonton Food Bank. ......................... Developing abilities by Simon Creasey Horticulture Week 27 March 2009 Wakefield England A pioneering enterprise for youngsters with special needs is combining training with innovative horticulture, reports Simon Creasey. Using sewage sludge to fertilise allotments and biomass crops, combining fish-rearing with hydroponic cropping - these alone would mark out Yorkshire's ABLE Project as innovative. But it is the project's approach to training and education that really sets it apart. Since its launch in 2003 the project's Wakefield site has hosted more than 2,000 young people, mostly between the ages of 12 and 16, many of them suffering from learning and physical disabilities or behavioural and mental health problems. Physical work on the land or with the fish - and watching things that they have planted and nurtured grow - spurs the attendees on, says Graham Wiles, project officer at the Green Business Network (GBN), which jointly runs the programme. Some have only attended for a day, others for months, but all have taken away a greater understanding of horticulture and aquaculture. Wiles' next task is to focus on around 20 young people with behavioural problems who will attend the site permanently for a year. "These kids are not engaged in the normal education process," he explains. "There's no point trying to put round heads in square holes because it doesn't work for them - you need something different. So we adopt an overall well- being approach and give them some good, transferable skills that will help them find employment." The project is currently looking into how the diverse work experiences encountered at the site can be turned into a National Vocational Qualification. It has all come a long way from when GBN began a simple cardboard-recycling scheme for people with severe learning difficulties in the 1990s. This evolved into a composting scheme incorporating horse waste and worms. Before long, Wiles noticed that he had a surplus of worms on his hands, and after researching potential markets for them he realised that the fish-farming industry provided a natural fit. A local philanthropist who had read about Wiles' efforts offered some redundant land and buildings at Lepton, near Huddersfield, to help Wiles create a scheme to help young, disadvantaged people. After discussing this with the local health authority he identified local drug addicts as the group in greatest need of help. Wiles says the first year of the scheme saw young people in drug rehab programmes tasked with sprucing up the site, with work on the fish farm starting in year two of the project. But the scheme turned out to be so successful that Wiles quickly realised he needed to move to a bigger space. "We found that we were very successful with a small number on the drug rehab side, but we also realised that far greater numbers were going into the (rehab) system than we were taking out," he explains. "As a small operation, for us to be really effective we needed to intervene at an earlier stage and focus on kids who were just starting to get into trouble." Fortunately, a Yorkshire Water official saw a speech Wiles gave about the project and approached him with the offer of a 14ha inert landfill site beside sewage works near Wakefield. ABLE1 was to be on a much grander scale. The fish farm was still at its heart but this time horticulture was a major component too, as Wiles wanted to grow willow as a biofuel to heat the fish tanks. But being inert, the earth lacked nutrients. Wiles calculated that the site needed around 8,000 tonnes of compost a year, and that the entire amount could be supplied by the adjacent sewage treatment works. "It's been done for hundreds of years," says Wiles. "Nowadays the perception is 'yuck - it's sludge', but in fact it's a good, high-quality compost. We've done the toxicity tests so we know there's nothing wrong with it, and things grow beautifully when it's mixed into the topsoil." The sludge is used on the project's vast allotment area, which is filled with quick-growing giant leeks, cabbages and courgettes, testimony to the sludge's fertilising powers. It also sustains the community orchard, containing 100 apple, pear and plum trees donated by the West Yorkshire Probation Service, which sends 10-15 offenders to the site six days a week. Growing continues inside the fish farm polyhouse. The project has abundant crops of watercress, which are fertilised by the fish waste produced by the 3,000 ornamental koi, 7,000 tilapia, 1,000 edible carp and smaller numbers of catfish and sturgeon in its tanks. Production of leafy salads, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes will also be stepped up once a series of aquaponic greenhouses is completed. Some vegetables are sold to a nearby community cafe, but most are taken to a new kitchen that has been built on the project's grounds to teach the children how to cook healthy meals for themselves. "Initially, the idea of growing food was for the fish, to save us from buying fish food," says Wiles. "But at the end of the first crop the kids were saying, 'Wow, I haven't seen a vegetable look like that before - I've only seen it in a plastic bag in the supermarket'. The kitchen was a natural progression because they were so interested in the food that they had helped to grow and I knew that they weren't eating healthily." Today, ABLE is a self-sustaining project, but it has taken significant help from the local primary care trust, the Coalfield Regeneration Trust and Biffa to get it up and running. Wiles has since been approached by a number of different local authorities keen to replicate the project's success in their own areas. A scheme at Rotherham - which will reproduce the template established by the Wakefield site but will also host sessions for parties of children from mainstream schools - recently got the green light from planners and should be operational by 2010. However, this was a rare fillip for Wiles, who has grown increasingly frustrated at what he perceives to be the shortsightedness of government departments. "Joined-up thinking doesn't exist and it's so frustrating for us because government funders cannot think outside the box," he says. "We're a small social enterprise at the cutting edge of a new industry but you can't even get the local authority to come and have a look at it." To his annoyance, Wiles was also refused funding to create apprenticeship schemes so he could keep more young people on the site and give further training in aquaponics (see box, below). But despite such setbacks he vows to continue to help project attendees integrate back into society. "Some of the kids can't read and write and they're really not ready to go into the big wide world at the moment - they still need support," he points out. "These kids are saying to me 'I'm staying here, I'm not going anywhere', because they feel safe and secure here, they feel ownership. We're offering them an all-encompassing care package and I don't think that anyone can walk on this site and not be inspired." AQUAPONICS - HOW DOES IT WORK? Aquaponics is based on a simple water-recirculating system: waste water from the fish provides nutrients for the plants, which are kept in compost beds. In turn the plants filter the water, which flows back into the fish tanks. At the ABLE Project Graham Wiles and his team have built a series of aquaponic systems housed in greenhouses not much bigger than a typical family greenhouse. These are fitted with two fish tanks, four beds and a raised bed for growing tomatoes, peppers, watercress and salad leaves. Within nine months the facility can also produce 300 to 500 fish of marketable size, depending on the species. The project has the ambitious long-term aim of one day harvesting caviar from the 30 or so sturgeons the tank currently rears. The unit design package, including fish, costs in the region of ?10,000, and payback time is reckoned to be about two years. Wiles has attracted a lot of interest in the greenhouse model from as far afield as Africa and Nepal - and students from the University of Stirling are investigating the development of aquaponic techniques using the model. Although it is still at an early stage of development, Wiles believes the technology could provide an alternative revenue stream for farmers, and educational opportunities for schoolchildren and prisoners. http://www.hortweek.com/news/893076/Developing-abilities/ From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sat Mar 28 11:04:19 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:04:19 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Michigan Minergy resigns - Detroit area struggling to make glass aggregate from sludge Message-ID: NSSD hires consultant to run Zion sludge plant March 28, 2009 BY ED COLLINS Special to the News-Sun GURNEE -- Trustees of the North Shore Sanitary District have decided to contract April 1 with their engineering consultant, Donohue & Associates, Sheboygan, Wis., to temporarily replace the resigning Minergy staff at the district's sludge recycling facility in Zion. NSSD General Manager Brian Dorn told trustees at Wednesday's monthly meeting that the interim two-year contract with Donohue & Associates would give the district time to decide what to do in the long term about permanently staffing the Zion plant. Minergy Inc., a Wisconsin company, was recently sold and has changed its corporate focus. For the past two years, the NSSD has struggled with a series of nagging problems in bringing the new sludge processing facility on line. It was designed to convert sewage sludge into a marketable glass aggregate that can be sold as a base for road building projects. If successful, the plant would be the first in the nation to recycle sewage waste into a viable commercial product. Previously, the sludge was buried in Zion landfills. Since the landfills have been capped, the waste sludge from the district's three sanitary treatment plants in Waukegan, Gurnee and Highland Park are now being trucked to landfills in Wisconsin until the Zion plant becomes fully operational, NSSD has spent several million in consulting fees with Donohue & Associates and other consultants in trying to make the $50 million plant functional. While Donohue, as an engineering design and consulting firm, ordinarily does not handle operations, they agreed to a temporary two-year contract to give the district time to decide on permanent arrangements. Brian Jensen, Donohue's vice president who formerly was NSSD's general manager, has been named to manage the plant and oversee 10 staff people in bringing the Zion plant online. Jensen, a professional engineer was involved in the plant's design from the beginning, both as a district employee and as an independent NSSD consultant. http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/1499982,5_1_WA28_NSSD_S1.article From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Mar 29 13:17:16 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:17:16 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Proposed Encina Calif sludge pellets cheap 'fertilizer' and 'biofuel' - Not Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: In the 'maybe if they say it often enough its true catagory' here we have a wastewater district on the coast of California just north of san Diego claiming that they are making 'pellets for profit'. Oh really? Lets see, how expensive is it to make sludge pellets. Toronto documents from 2007 say it costs $239.98 per dry tonne to make the pellets. How much will Encia get paid for their sludge pellets? A few dollars a tonne? http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2007/pw/bgrd/backgroundfile-5412.pdf And look at Chicago. With the cost of the energy to dry the pellets going up and up they have now decided to scrap their brand new sludge pellet plant. ?The lowest cost option at any particular time is to abandon the facility,? says an internal district memo. The district contracted with Metropolitan Biosolids Management to build and operate the plant for 20 years at a cost of $217 million. The contractor is now seeking an additional $42 million in payments from the district, mostly because of rising fuel costs. Read the whole story at: http://www.chitowndailynews.org/articles/print/23647 An you can pretty much count on a pelleting plant to have fires and explosions. Look at Toronto - Veolia (USFilter Canada) plant burned down, Windsor Ontario plant burned down, Bronx fires (Who can forget the headline "Dung Flung in Bronx Blast"?), and several terrible fires in the Milwaukee Milorganite plant that resulted in worker injury. And don't forget the Milorganite experience with PCB contamination in 2007. How can Encina both clean its sewers when that process pushes old toxins into the sludge they want to call 'fertilizer'. See again what happened when PBCs from Milorganite sewage sludge contaminated public parks and school play fields. http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/29445149.html Look at this Audit of the Honolulu biosolids pellet fire and the spiralling costs of the pellet drying facility. http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?ece5843c-e4f0-419d-ac37-187b0db458d4 or How about the fire at this municipal sludge biosolids drying fertilizer plant October 29 2008 ? - New England Fertilizer Company closed after fire in Quincy Mass. http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x67112988/Quincy-fertilizer-plant-closed-after-fire Making sewage sludge into pricey little pellets to call 'fuel' or 'fertilizer' will never recover the cost of making the stuff. And keep the fire department on speed dial. ........................................................... http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/29/lz1mc29pellet234937-pellets-profits/?zIndex=74363 Pellets for profits Encina wastewater plant is the first in West to recycle sludge into material for biofuel, fertilizer By Michael Burge Union-Tribune Staff Writer March 29, 2009 Installation of a biosolids manufacturing plant, including the dryer facility in the background, will be the last project of Mike Hogan's career at the Encina Wastewater Authority. He is retiring Wednesday. - Eduardo Contreras / Union-Tribune CARLSBAD ? When Mike Hogan started in the sewage-treatment business 40 years ago, treating waste was mostly a mechanical process with little thought given to the environment. As Hogan recently walked the grounds of the Encina Wastewater Authority in Carlsbad, he remarked on the changes he has seen during his career. ?When I started up we were in the treatment and disposal business,? said Hogan, who will retire Wednesday. ?Where we are today is in the resource recovery business. ?It's a green factory,? Hogan said of the plant. This month the authority began producing pellets made from solid waste that it will sell as biofuel or fertilizer. ?It was the last thing on my list of things I wanted to do before I retired, was finish this project,? said Hogan, Encina's general manager for the past 10 years. ?We're one of the first in the western United States to install this system.? Hogan said the first customer for the pellets will likely be a cement plant in Vacaville, which will use them as biofuel. He said fertilizer distributors also are showing interest. The authority treats sewage from six member agencies ? Carlsbad, Vista, Encinitas, the San Marcos-based Vallecitos Water District, the Leucadia Wastewater District and the Buena Sanitation District. Its main facilities are on Avenida Encinas in central Carlsbad, where it treats 22 million to 30 million gallons of wastewater a day. The biosolid pellets plant is a forward-looking step for Encina, which serves 300,000 north coastal residents. ?They're actually going to pay us for this,? Hogan said as he showed off the biosolids manufacturing plant. The pellets ? about the same size and shape as confectionary sprinkles ? are made from the sludge that is left over from processing and are typically hauled to a dump. ?We're going from paying $2 million (to dispose of it) to selling it as a revenue source,? Hogan said. ?This is the wave of the future.? David Greenwood, president of the California Water Environment Association, a wastewater professional group, said Encina is a leader in its environmental approach. ?Encina is somewhat unique for a smaller agency in being progressive,? said Greenwood, a supervising engineer for the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts. Smaller agencies often don't take on such an ambitious project as converting sludge to pellets because it's expensive. In the long run, however, such an investment reduces operating costs and cuts the amount of sludge hauled to landfills, Greenwood said. ?Encina is out in front and probably a lot of that is Mike's leadership,? he said. The association has honored Encina many times over the past 20 years, including awarding it plant of the year in its class in 2005. Hogan was named operator of the year in 2000. Hogan, 59, said the biosolids project is the latest example of an industry that has improved its standards since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. The biosolids processing facility is part of a $40 million expansion that includes improvements to the authority's electricity cogeneration plant, which went on line 25 years ago. The cogeneration plant uses methane gas from the waste as fuel to generate electricity. The plant also uses the cogeneration plant's exhaust heat to dry the sludge, cutting natural-gas consumption. Hogan, who lives in Solana Beach, will continue in the water business after he retires from Encina. He has been on the Santa Fe Irrigation District board of directors since 2003. In 2006, he became Santa Fe's representative on the San Diego County Water Authority board. He began in the industry in 1969 as a teenager, digging ditches and laying pipes for the county. He began taking courses at Palomar College, getting an associate's degree in wastewater technology in 1975. He later earned a degree from University of Phoenix. ?I recall the days when the old Solana Beach and Cardiff treatment plants were in San Elijo Lagoon and discharged into the lagoon,? Hogan said. Treatment was primary, meaning it removed 60 percent to 65 percent of the solids. In 1965, the county built a new San Elijo Water Pollution Control Facility, which improved treatment and added an ocean outfall. Hogan worked at that plant from 1972 until he took a position with Encina in 1983. Today Encina removes 98 percent of the solids and sends the effluent into the ocean through a 1.5-mile-long pipe. Three of Encina's six member agencies reclaim and recycle as much as 10 million gallons of wastewater before it enters Encina's process. Vallecitos recycles as much as 5 million gallons, Carlsbad 4 million gallons and Leucadia 1 million. The reclaimed water is used to irrigate golf courses and landscaping. The use of wastewater as a supply will be vital for Southern California's future, Hogan and others said. ?The water world and wastewater world ? those worlds are merging,? Hogan said, especially in places like San Diego County, which imports nearly 90 percent of its water supply from outside the region. Ken Weinberg, director of water resources for the San Diego County Water Authority, said reclaimed wastewater has become a significant contributor to the region's supply. ?In 2020 we were projecting recycled water would meet 6 percent of the region's needs,? Weinberg said. ?By 2010 we'll be there. ?That's water we don't have to import.? Hogan said the technology and philosophy in today's treatment plant is light-years ahead of where it was four decades ago. ?We've gone to almost a zero tolerance of what we do in this business,? Hogan said. ?No spill's acceptable.? Encina's 52 acres still hold the old-style settling tanks that perform the first stage of sewage treatment. But its administration building is high-tech, with computers flashing data about the treatment plant's processes, remote pumping stations and pipes. Operators monitor the system. Hogan said the public's demand for cleaner wastewater has led to a more skilled work force than when he started. ?Forty years ago when you said you worked at the wastewater treatment plant ... you didn't want people to know what you did,? Hogan said. ?People who work in the wastewater industry today ? they're really proud of what they do. It requires people who have the skills to do all these things.? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Burge: (760) 476-8230; michael.burge at uniontrib.com From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Mar 29 21:45:17 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:45:17 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Bacterial timebomb in sewage sludge and effluent Message-ID: Shampoo in the water supply triggers growth of deadly drug-resistant bugs Household cleaning products are creating a bacterial timebomb in our drains and rivers Robin McKie, science editor, UK Guardian The Observer, Sunday 29 March 2009 Fabric softeners, disinfectants, shampoos and other household products are spreading drug-resistant bacteria around Britain, scientists have warned. Detergents used in factories and mills are also increasing the odds that some medicines will no longer be able to combat dangerous diseases. The warning has been made by Birmingham and Warwick university scientists, who say disinfectants and other products washed into sewers and rivers are triggering the growth of drug-resistant microbes. Soil samples from many areas have been found to contain high levels of bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes, the scientists have discovered - raising fears that these may have already been picked up by humans. "Every year, the nation produces 1.5m tonnes of sewage sludge and most of that is spread on farmland," said Dr William Gaze of Warwick University. That sludge contains antibiotic-resistant bacteria whose growth is triggered by chemicals in detergents, he explained. "In addition, we pump 11bn litres of water from houses and factories into our rivers and estuaries every day, and these are also spreading resistance." The study is important because it suggests that the problem of drug resistance is not merely the result of the over-prescription of antibiotics or poor hygiene standards in hospitals. However, the team stressed the emergence of the most deadly superbugs - such as MRSA that has caused thousands of deaths in hospitals - is not linked to the use of disinfectants. "Our research shows drug resistance is not confined to hospitals, but is out in the community. It is spreading and all the time it is eroding our ability to control infections. It is extremely worrying," said Professor Liz Wellington, also of Warwick University. In their study, the scientists looked at quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) that are used in many household cleaning goods. Every day, huge volumes of these chemicals are flushed from homes and factories into sewers and rivers. In high concentrations, QACs kill bacteria. However, in sewage, these chemicals become diluted and bacteria have evolved resistance to them. "That is a natural evolutionary process," said Gaze. "If other bacteria are killed, those that are resistant to QACs will survive and, without competition, will multiply in vast numbers. However, it turns out that the piece of DNA that confers that resistance also contains genes that confer resistance to antibiotics. In this way, we have created an ideal environment for the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in our drains and sewers. These microbes are now being spread round the country in river water and in sewage sludge used on farms." As part of its study, the team - which also includes Professor Peter Hawkey of Birmingham University - looked at soil contaminated with QACs and sewage sludge in the Midlands, the Cotswolds, Hertfordshire and other areas. Using techniques similar to those involved in DNA fingerprinting, they then looked for the presence of antibiotic-resistant genes - and found these in high concentrations. "The inference is clear," added Gaze. "We are producing sewage and river water that have more and more drug-resistant bacteria in them and that these are now poised to enter the food chain." Wellington added: "Once they are in the land, these bacteria will get into the bodies of agricultural workers or people who use the land recreationally and will form reservoirs of drug-resistant microbes that could pose all sorts of problems. This is going to need a great deal of monitoring." In addition, the team found that antibiotics used to treat farm animals - in particular pigs - are also helping to spread drug resistance in the soil. In their tests, the team found samples of pig slurry that possessed high levels of antibiotic-resistant genes, raising fears that strains of resistant bacteria were contaminating the land by another route and could enter the food chain. "We might think of special measures that will help us control or localise drug-resistant bacteria in hospitals, but the problem is much more widespread than that," added Wellington. "It is now out there in the environment." http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/mar/29/detergents-drug-resistant-bacteria/print From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Mar 29 22:14:31 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:14:31 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Stamford Wastewater Sludge to Energy Project May be Withdrawn Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: St Paul's Minn has a gasification plant for sewage sludge that is saving the municipality at least $3-4M per year. It was producing about 3 mega watts of power in 2007 with three fluidized beds by Austrian Energy. This story below is about making sewage sludge into a synthetic gas (syngas) through pyrolysis. I haven't yet seen a biosolids pyrolysis plant that works. Different sewage sludges have differing BTUs...but sewage sludge does have fuel value. Good emissions controls are essential. .................................. http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localnews/ci_12021066 Stamford waste-to-energy project may be withdrawn Critics say waste plan not viable By Magdalene Perez Staff Writer 03/28/2009 STAMFORD -- The Water Pollution Control Authority board may temporarily withdraw its $40 million waste-to-energy project from the capital budget following public uproar over the proposal, the authority's director said. WPCA Executive Director Jeannette Brown is considering the change after the Board of Finance sought to clear the air last week over public concerns the project, which accounts for a quarter of the mayor's proposed capital budget this year, is financially and scientifically unfeasible. Brown said she wants more time to produce a sound financial plan for the board's review. As proposed by the mayor and approved by the Planning Board, the capital budget includes $20 million for the project this year, and another $20 million next year. The WPCA plans to finance the project through borrowing paid for by user fees. The plant will produce enough energy to sell power back to the grid, Brown said, creating a revenue stream that would help pay for its cost. The waste project is a proposal to build an energy plant that would power the city's water treatment facility through gasification of dried wastewater sludge. Brown and Mayor Dannel Malloy have championed the plan, saying it will put Stamford at the national forefront of clean energy. Gasification, developed in the 1800s, converts organic matter into carbon monoxide and hydrogen through a reaction with oxygen at extreme temperatures. It was commonly used in the 19th century to produce gas for lighting and cooking, and it later powered vehicles in Europe with wood gas generators during World War II. It fell out of use in the 20th century with the rise of oil and natural gas. Vocal opponents of the plan say the project is an unworkable model and a financial boondoggle. They have brought their criticism to a crescendo since the capital budget was released last month, packing budget hearings and flooding city officials with calls and e-mails. Critics, including a recently formed budget hawk group, Stamford Taxpayers Political Action Committee, say the project's scientific foundations are unproven. They also have questioned whether the city should borrow so much money in this year's punishing financial environment. "You've got an inexperienced team that's doing research and development," said Bruno Valenzisi, the group's treasurer. "No municipality should ever get involved in research and development. The risk is too high." Much about the plan is still unclear. Brown initially proposed building a 15-megawatt plant, but with state and federal officials demanding projects be "shovel ready" to be eligible for federal stimulus funds, Brown is now proposing a 5-megawatt "modular" plant that could be expanded to 15 megawatts at a later date. Opponents have disputed how much energy can be produced from dried wastewater sludge and whether the city would have to import dried waste to reach its goal of producing 5 to 15 megawatts. Brown told the finance board last week the city produces enough sewage to fuel a little more than 1 megawatt. That would be enough to power the waste treatment facility, heat the facility's water and still have some left over for the grid, Brown said. Paul Nadziejko, an opponent of the project, said the city must consider the cost and environmental effects of importing dried wastewater pellets, which few municipalities produce. "Are they going to be shipping in sludge?" Nadziejko said. "No matter how you look at it, it's not financially viable." Critics say the WPCA already has spent too much on a $17 million system that converts the city's sludge into dried pellets. The WPCA sells the pellets as fertilizer. But if the city began using the dried wastewater as a power source, that revenue stream would be eliminated, said George Stadel III, chairman of the taxpayers group. Brown has not provided the thorough financial analysis of the waste-to-energy project her critics demand. She said she expects to receive federal funding for the project, but how much is unclear. The federal Department of Energy already has contributed $3 million to the WPCA's research efforts. Brown told the Board of Finance last week she did not want to begin estimating how much it would cost to build the plant, a stance she echoed later. "We're in the process of putting all this stuff together right now," Brown said in an interview after her meeting with the finance board. "I'd just rather not quote a number right now until we get everything together." The WPCA board likely will consider at its Wednesday meeting whether to withdraw the proposal from the capital budget, Brown said. Even if the board takes such action, the waste-to-energy plan will not disappear. In such a scenario, the board likely would resubmit the proposed project with more detailed plans after the budget is set in May, Brown said. -- Staff Writer Magdalene Perez can be reached at magdalene.perez at scni.com or 964-2240. ........................... February 2009, Vol. 46, No. 1 Biosolids-to-Energy Project Leads to 15-MW Power Facility Stamford waste gasification system will produce power, opens new market for biosolids Stamford, Conn., has proven that when gasification ? a century-old technology known for its role in ?clean coal? ? is combined with biosolids, it produces power. About 6 years of research, design, and testing for the Stamford project has culminated in the design of a 15-MW biosolids gasification facility. This first-of-a-kind project in the United States may increase the value of wastewater facilities and assist with energy independence. ?I came out as a skeptic, but I became a believer,? said Jeff Fournier, a senior project manager with Carlan Contracting (Waterford, Conn.). Biomass gasification has been used in Europe and Japan to generate energy but has not been embraced in the United States. ?It?s a relatively new market,? said Brian Gackstatter, a senior project manager for CH2M Hill (Englewood, Colo.). Search for Power Stamford sits in an electrical congestion zone, where power costs are high. The city needed a power solution and also had the desire to be a green community, said Jeanette Brown, executive director of the Stamford Water Pollution Control Authority. Brown proposed the waste gasification project when Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy was discussing renewable energy. Malloy then brought the idea to U.S. Sens. Lieberman and Dodd, who advocated for the cause in Washington, D.C. As a result, the city received $3 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy to research the project. ?I?ve been very aggressive on [the project?s] behalf,? Malloy said. ?We?re going to prove this technology.? Over the last 2.5 years the project team has researched, designed, and built a solids drying facility; constructed a pilot reactor; and performed full-scale testing. The team is completing its assessment and beginning the design of a 15-MW power plant ? the first in the country to turn human biomass pellets into energy. The power plant will supply enough electricity to operate Stamford?s wastewater treatment plant ? approximately 1 MW ? and sell the rest. A new gasification system has recently been designed in Stamford, Conn. The system shown above is located in the fabrication shop where the project team constructure the pilot-scale research plant. The pilot plant was built between April and June 2008. Photo courtesy of Carlin Contracting Co. Inc. (Waterford, Conn.). Click for larger image. Moving Solids Disposal to Profit The proposed facility offers an alternative to land application and other disposal methods, and will use more biosolids than the city generates. Neighboring communities could use the facility as a disposal outlet. ?Biosolids disposal can be a problem and this may be another way to dispose of it with a very beneficial use,? Brown said. Fournier noted that waste gasification is not the most efficient way to make energy, but, he added, ?it?s revolutionary in the management of our oldest waste.? With gasification, biosolids mass is reduced 95%, he explained. ?Waste management is moved from cost to income.? The greatest savings may be that energy-intensive anaerobic digestion, which reduces the volatile content of waste activated sludge, can be eliminated from the wastewater process, Brown said. While any biomass containing carbon can be used for gasification, high volatile content is needed to generate the highest Btu product. Even with methane recovery systems working in concert with anaerobic digesters, Brown added, there is still solids disposal to deal with. According to Fournier, ?about 60%? remains. How It Works In Stamford, biosolids are dried and pelletized, then converted to a charcoal-like substance by pyrolysis. Then, the matter is converted to synthetic gas, or ?thin gas,? at temperatures between 875?C and 925?C (1600?F and 1700?F). The product of gasification can then be fed to a generator to produce power. Gasification results in a very high Btu gas, composed of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane. Fine tuning the temperature range is essential; if the temperature is too low, there is too much tar; if it is too high and exceeds the fusion point, then ?you make moon rocks,? Fournier said. A member of the project team loads palletized solids feedstock into the top of the system. The team ignites the pyrolysis zone from the top. Photo courtesy of Carlin Contracting. Click for larger image. The process also uses ?virtually zero energy? to reach the high temperatures, all that is required is a 1.5-hp blower, Fournier said. "No external heat sources is required, and the working temperature of 900 degrees Celsius is easily achieved with a small blower or vacuum." The blower pulls air through the system during gasification so that the reactor reaches the desired temperature. ?And that?s the amazing part,? he added. Going Green ?Gasification is really a clean technology? because there is no carbon dioxide released into the air from the gasifier, said Brown. Other processes, such as incineration, result in carbon dioxide emissions, she added. Other typical byproducts from power generation ? nitrogen and sulfur oxides ? will be included under a modified version of Stamford?s existing air quality permit for the pelletizer. An ash byproduct from the gasification process contains the carbon dioxide and metal oxides in solid form. The byproduct can be reused in asphalt, concrete, and possibly ceramic tile. The team is also looking at capturing waste heat from the process to preheat air going into the pelletizer and using cogeneration to heat wastewater treatment facilities, lowering reliance on natural gas. ?Our goal is to use everything beneficially,? Brown said, explaining that her team looks at the wastewater process holistically, and adding gasification reduces the city?s carbon footprint. A Dodge Neon, donated to the project by the Stamford Vehicle Maintenance Department, is used to demonstrate that the motor can be run using gas derived from a pelletized fuel source. The project team piped Syngas (primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide) to the inlet throttle body of the car to successfully power the car. Click here to see a video showing the car in operation. Photo courtesy of Carlin Contracting. Click for larger image. Issues to be Resolved Currently the project team is selecting the gasifier style and vendor for the Stamford installation. Because most gasifiers are designed for large coal-powered energy facilities, Stamford?s choices are limited, Gackstatter said. In terms of scale, vendors? testing units are about the right size for Stamford?s proposed plant. The team is choosing between updraft and fluidized bed technologies, finalizing power generation requirements, and exploring gas cooling and conditioning equipment. ?Gas cleanup in the process is really important,? Fournier said. ?The program has developed a proprietary cleaning measure. It?s incredibly unique. It removes tar and moisture from the gas stream.? Unpolished gas, which the team tested in Oklahoma, creates steam with emissions, he noted. Next Steps Brown is hopeful that grant money will be available to help finance construction of the 15-MW plant ? a $60 million project ? so the city can sell its energy at a low cost. The success of the testing has attracted attention, according to the team. ?There are other clients around the country looking at this,? Gackstatter said. ?The technology is developing. There will be a market, in my opinion, an expanding market in the future.? ?We probably know more about biosolids gasification than perhaps anyone in the world,? Brown said. ?I?m hoping our project is really the impetus for other people looking at this.? When venture capitalists are calling, ?you know you are close to a breakthrough,? Fournier said. ? Andrea Fox, WEF Highlights http://www.wef.org/ScienceTechnologyResources/Publications/WEFHighlights/February09Features.htm From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 30 08:45:48 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:45:48 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Wisconsin: Fox Valley Energy Center (formerly Minergy) banks on tires Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: The technology that was Minergy seems to have branched away in a number of directions, both in terms of corporate ownership and technology. The original Minergy Neenah plant has been using papermill sludge to make steam to provide back to the papermills. This technology was likely partly inspired by the excellent Wisconsin risk assessment for dioxins in papermill sludges that showed the negative consequences to grazing livestock of exposure to paper mill sludges ('paper fiber biosolids' in industry speak) used as soil ammendments. Now the Neenah plant is looking at taking tire derived fuel. Is this a good idea? It really depends on the emissions. Is the plant engineered to burn tire materials? Does it reach the optimum temperatures and conditions for a clean burn? Does it have the pollution control equipment to remove the particulate, mercury, or other contaminants before they are discharged? Will they co-fire the tire fuel with paper sludge? Are the two fuels compatible? These aren't simple questions. Its like buying a car. An old car may have terrible air emissions while a well engineered modern car may have an excellent emissions record. But it may not be easy for the lay person to understand what is at stake. What is needed is a reliable cadre of well-trained regulatory scientists and policy makers who are guardians of the environment and the public trust. But as we see - governments are often underfunded in their regulatory reach, and scientists muzzled in the interest of corporate escapades, it is harder for the public to access the needed information to weigh in on these projects. What about the generators? The companies that make tires and make paper should be the ones responsible for footing the bill for the whole life cycle of those materials. They need to be accountable to the people of Neenah - and elsewhere - for the management of these wastes. ......................................................... http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20090329/OSH03/90328080 Neenah steam plant banks on tires By Duke Behnke ? Gannett Wisconsin Media ? March 29, 2009 NEENAH ? Fox Valley Energy Center will ask state regulators for permission to burn shredded tires on a continuous basis to fuel its steam plant overlooking downtown Neenah. ?The plant ran exceptionally well using tire-derived fuel,? company president Thomas Shepard said Wednesday, referring to the 90-day trial authorized by the state Department of Natural Resources. Shepard said the company would petition the DNR within the next two to three weeks for a permanent permit to burn shredded tires. The DNR?s review process is expected to take three to six months. Fox Valley Energy Center, 231 Millview Drive, burns natural gas, coal or paper pellets to recycle industrial paper sludge into steam for sale to nearby paper mills. It processes about 70 tons of paper sludge daily, diverting the waste from landfills. The plant, formerly Minergy Neenah, no longer makes a glass aggregate byproduct for use in the construction industry, as it did in its earlier years. The company wants to burn shredded tires as an efficient, lower-cost fuel. Since the trial period ended last month, the plant has been burning paper pellets with paper sludge. ?The tire-derived fuel has a higher Btu (British thermal unit) per pound than paper pellets,? Shepard said. ?It operates better in the furnace.? A public hearing last fall on the temporary permit to burn shredded tires drew about 90 people, many of whom were concerned with the potential for hazardous air pollution and odor. The air-quality data from the test period is still under review by the DNR, but there was no public outcry during the trial. Mayor George Scherck said he received only two complaints, both from the same person. ?We didn?t get much of a reaction,? he said. Fox Valley Energy Center has stayed current on all of its city water bills since it resumed operations in January, and Shepard said it plans to reinstall a steam line to its primary customers ? Neenah Paper Co. and Kimberly-Clark Corp.?s X Mill ? by Labor Day. The steam line was removed as part of the city?s redevelopment of the Glatfelter site. Without the steam line, the plant has been using a steam turbine to generate electricity for sale to We Energies. Fox Valley Energy Center employs 22 people. Duke Behnke writes for the Appleton Post-Crescent. From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Mon Mar 30 13:58:25 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:58:25 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Spain - Mad cow expert may have died from the disease Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: Just a note that there were a rash of cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease among rose garderners. Bone meal used as animal food and rose bush fertilizer is considered infectous and cannot be fed to animals per a recent FDA ruling. Neither should it be handled by gardeners with out proper personal protective equipment. Once used, that area of the garden should also be cordoned off and no one allowed to enter without proper protective clothing on. .................................................................. Mad cow expert may have died from disease >From Per Nyberg CNN (CNN) -- A Spanish pathologist who specialized in a human strain of "mad cow" disease has died, and officials said Sunday they suspect the disease played a role in his death. The doctor was head of the anatomy pathology section at the University Hospital Principe de Asturias in Alcala de Henares, outside of Madrid. He died Saturday night, at the hospital where he worked, health ministry officials said. The doctor's name was not released at the request of his family. Several samples have been sent off for testing, the health ministry said, but results are expected to take a month. The doctor was well-known both in and outside Spain for his work in the pathology field. His speciality was on the human strain of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It is not known how the doctor might have contracted the disease, but the ministry said it was not thought to be through ingestion of contaminated meat. Authorities are investigating whether the doctor had been exposed to contaminated human tissue through his work. Since 2001, 702 cases of human Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases have been reported in Spain, of which 87 have been reported in Madrid http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/29/spain.madcow/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca Sun Mar 29 22:00:42 2009 From: maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca (Maureen Reilly) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:00:42 -0400 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Stamford Wastewater Sludge to Energy Project May be Withdrawn Message-ID: Sludgewatch Admin: St Paul's Minn has a gasification plant for sewage sludge that is saving the municipality at least $3-4M per year. It was producing about 3 mega watts of power in 2007. Different sewage sludges have differing BTUs...but sewage sludge does have fuel value. Good emissions controls are essential. .................................. http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localnews/ci_12021066 Stamford waste-to-energy project may be withdrawn Critics say waste plan not viable By Magdalene Perez Staff Writer 03/28/2009 STAMFORD -- The Water Pollution Control Authority board may temporarily withdraw its $40 million waste-to-energy project from the capital budget following public uproar over the proposal, the authority's director said. WPCA Executive Director Jeannette Brown is considering the change after the Board of Finance sought to clear the air last week over public concerns the project, which accounts for a quarter of the mayor's proposed capital budget this year, is financially and scientifically unfeasible. Brown said she wants more time to produce a sound financial plan for the board's review. As proposed by the mayor and approved by the Planning Board, the capital budget includes $20 million for the project this year, and another $20 million next year. The WPCA plans to finance the project through borrowing paid for by user fees. The plant will produce enough energy to sell power back to the grid, Brown said, creating a revenue stream that would help pay for its cost. The waste project is a proposal to build an energy plant that would power the city's water treatment facility through gasification of dried wastewater sludge. Brown and Mayor Dannel Malloy have championed the plan, saying it will put Stamford at the national forefront of clean energy. Gasification, developed in the 1800s, converts organic matter into carbon monoxide and hydrogen through a reaction with oxygen at extreme temperatures. It was commonly used in the 19th century to produce gas for lighting and cooking, and it later powered vehicles in Europe with wood gas generators during World War II. It fell out of use in the 20th century with the rise of oil and natural gas. Vocal opponents of the plan say the project is an unworkable model and a financial boondoggle. They have brought their criticism to a crescendo since the capital budget was released last month, packing budget hearings and flooding city officials with calls and e-mails. Critics, including a recently formed budget hawk group, Stamford Taxpayers Political Action Committee, say the project's scientific foundations are unproven. They also have questioned whether the city should borrow so much money in this year's punishing financial environment. "You've got an inexperienced team that's doing research and development," said Bruno Valenzisi, the group's treasurer. "No municipality should ever get involved in research and development. The risk is too high." Much about the plan is still unclear. Brown initially proposed building a 15-megawatt plant, but with state and federal officials demanding projects be "shovel ready" to be eligible for federal stimulus funds, Brown is now proposing a 5-megawatt "modular" plant that could be expanded to 15 megawatts at a later date. Opponents have disputed how much energy can be produced from dried wastewater sludge and whether the city would have to import dried waste to reach its goal of producing 5 to 15 megawatts. Brown told the finance board last week the city produces enough sewage to fuel a little more than 1 megawatt. That would be enough to power the waste treatment facility, heat the facility's water and still have some left over for the grid, Brown said. Paul Nadziejko, an opponent of the project, said the city must consider the cost and environmental effects of importing dried wastewater pellets, which few municipalities produce. "Are they going to be shipping in sludge?" Nadziejko said. "No matter how you look at it, it's not financially viable." Critics say the WPCA already has spent too much on a $17 million system that converts the city's sludge into dried pellets. The WPCA sells the pellets as fertilizer. But if the city began using the dried wastewater as a power source, that revenue stream would be eliminated, said George Stadel III, chairman of the taxpayers group. Brown has not provided the thorough financial analysis of the waste-to-energy project her critics demand. She said she expects to receive federal funding for the project, but how much is unclear. The federal Department of Energy already has contributed $3 million to the WPCA's research efforts. Brown told the Board of Finance last week she did not want to begin estimating how much it would cost to build the plant, a stance she echoed later. "We're in the process of putting all this stuff together right now," Brown said in an interview after her meeting with the finance board. "I'd just rather not quote a number right now until we get everything together." The WPCA board likely will consider at its Wednesday meeting whether to withdraw the proposal from the capital budget, Brown said. Even if the board takes such action, the waste-to-energy plan will not disappear. In such a scenario, the board likely would resubmit the proposed project with more detailed plans after the budget is set in May, Brown said. -- Staff Writer Magdalene Perez can be reached at magdalene.perez at scni.com or 964-2240. From oen at oen.ca Tue Mar 31 11:25:20 2009 From: oen at oen.ca (OEN) Date: Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:25:20 -0500 Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Spreading antibiotics (found in manure) in the soil affects microbial ecosystems Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.1.20090331102513.05cc87f0@oen.ca> Public release date: 29-Mar-2009 Spreading antibiotics in the soil affects microbial ecosystems http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/sfgm-sai032609.php Antibiotics used extensively in intensive livestock production may be having an adverse effect on agricultural soil ecosystems. In a presentation to the Society for General Microbiology meeting at Harrogate International Centre, today (Monday 30 March), Dr Heike Schmitt from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands described how antibiotics passed from the animals in manure that was then spread on farmland. Although higher organisms, such as earthworms, would only be affected at unrealistic concentrations of antibiotics, changes in soil bacterial communities have been found repeatedly using molecular microbiological techniques. Bacteria involved in the nitrogen cycle, which replenishes nutrients in the soil, seem to be particularly affected. The effects persisted over several weeks and were still seen even when the antibiotics had broken down significantly. In addition the microbial population of the soil changed as fungi replaced the bacteria suppressed by the antibiotics. "The antibiotic concentrations that to date have been found in agricultural soils are smaller than the concentrations at which the adverse effects start occurring", said Dr Schmitt, "However, this might not be the case for 'hot spots", for example, when manure is not mixed thoroughly in the soil." ### Society for General Microbiology Disclaimer: http://oen.ca/index.php?page=about Ontario Environment Network P.O. Box 1412, Station Main North Bay, ON P1B 8K6 t: 7058402888 f: 7058405862 http://www.oen.ca The OEN is an affiliate network of the Canadian Environmental Network . Please visit their web site at http://www.cen-rce.org . -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: