3/26 Kitsap Sun
Risks over recycling sewage into biosolids are still not resolved
By Christopher Dunagan
When the city of Bremerton started applying processed sewage sludge to its forestland west of Gorst, the trees began to grow dramatically faster.
One can see the result 20 years later in tree rings when the Douglas firs are cut down: skinny rings before the application, fat rings ever since.
Some people consider biosolids — produced from sewage sludge — to be a prime fertilizer, rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and organic material.
Others raise questions about an array of low-level compounds found in the material, from toxic industrial chemicals to pharmaceutical drugs to personal health care products.
More at
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2011/mar/26/risks-over-recycling-sewage-are-still-not/
Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: Puget Sound |
In addition to prions and other pathogens, sewage sludge biosolids contains a great deal of toxic industrial wastes. Land, water, humans and animals have suffered great harm from this EPA sponsored activity. (http://www.sludgevictims.com )
Feb. 2009: Farmers in Franklin County, Alabama, filed a class action lawsuit against nation-wide sludge spreader, Synagro, and local industries which discharged toxic, carcinogenic PFOAs and PFOS (perfluorooctanaoic acid and perfluorooctyl sulfonate) into the sewers, resulting in sludge contaminating 5000 acres of farmland, water and livestock. Synagro claims they didn’t know the hazardous chemicals were in the sludge.
Raleigh, North Carolina, had to appropriate $15 million to extend municipal water lines to residences whose well water was contaminated by landspreading of the City’s sludge. Sludge runoff also polluted the nearby Neuse River, a drinking water resource for communities downstream of Raleigh.
Summer, 2007: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, had to spend over $4 million to scrape tons of Class A sewage sludge “Milorganite” off 35 public parks and playgrounds because it was contaminated with toxic, carcinogenic PCBs (polychloride biphenyl ethers). Some PCB levels in the sludge exceeded EPA superfund limits and had to be disposed of at great expense in an EPA-licensed hazardous waste landfill. Between 2007 and 2009, PCBs in Milwaukee sewers have caused 3 more incidents of PCB contamination of its Class A sewage “biosolids” Milorganite. Industrial dumping is believed to be the source of the PCBs in sewers.
On February 22, 2010, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that Milwaukee sludge containing up to 1100 parts per million of toxic lead was spread on Wisconsin farm fields. It is unclear whether any of the lead contaminated sludge also ended up in the Class A Milorganite sludge. EPA regulations limit the lead in Class A sludge to 300 parts per million.
October, 2009, Distribution of Class A sewage “biosolids” from the sewer plant in Dalton, Georgia, is halted when high levels of industrial chemicals PFOAs and PFOs are found in the Dalton sludge compost. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division found the sludge-borne toxic, bioaccumulative chemicals in land, groundwater and surface waters including the Conasauga River and Holly Creek. Bass and catfish are already tainted and future fish and wildlife contamination studies are planned.
For more information on infectious human and animal prions in sewage sludge biosolids, http://www.sludgevictims.com/pathogens/prion.html
For more information, hshields@tds.net