US-FA and Sludge Related Items in The News

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The Dirty Work of Promoting "Recycling"of America?s Sewage Sludge Caroline Snyder, PHD Serious illnesses, including deaths, and adverse environmental impacts have been linked to land application of sewage sludge. EPA and the wastewater treatment industry have worked with Congress to fund wastewater trade associations to promote land application, supporting industry-friendly scientists and discouraging independent research, to prevent local governments from restricting land application and to thwart litigation against municipalities and the industry. Key words: sewage sludge; biosolids; EPA; conflicts of interest; industry influence; corporate control; suppression of research. Read_More	Sewage-Based Fertilizer Safety Doubted by John Heilprin and Kevin S. Vineys Published on Friday, March 7, 2008 by Associated Press It was a farm idea with a big payoff and supposedly no downside: ridding lakes and rivers of raw sewage and industrial pollution by converting it all into a free, nutrient-rich fertilizer. Then last week, a federal judge ordered the Agriculture Department to compensate a farmer whose land was poisoned by sludge from the waste treatment plant here. His cows had died by the hundreds.  Read More	EPA a failure on chemicals, audit finds Assessment of toxic risks inadequate, says new chief By Meg Kissinger of the Journal Sentinel Posted: Jan. 24, 2009 The Environmental Protection Agency's ability to assess toxic chemicals is as broken as the nation's financial markets and needs a total overhaul, a congressional audit has found. The Government Accountability Office has released a report saying the EPA lacks even basic information to say whether chemicals pose substantial health risks to the public. It says actions are needed to streamline and increase the transparency of the EPA's registry of chemicals. And it calls for measures to enhance the agency's ability to obtain health and safety information from the chemical industry. Read More	Farmers Urged to Take a Second Look at Biosolids Submitted by Editor on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 12:55pm. Chris Torres Staff Writer Nearly 200 People Attend Event On Biosolids Use 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. Read More
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.  Read More Farmers Voice Concerns at Sludge Conference in Berks Co. POSTED: 03-10-2009 10:15 AM ET MODIFIED: 03-10-2009 07:17 PM ET Farmers in Berks County gathered Tuesday morning to voice their concerns about something they say might destroy their farms. People packed the conference to talk about the main topic: sludge and how it can hurt farms. Farmers from Georgia facing similar issues are also at the conference in Bowers. WFMZ's Karin Mallett reports.  Read More	Is Your Food Safe? by: John Morgan Sun Mar 15, 2009 at 10:16:03 AM EDT Have you wondered how e coli and salmonella get into your vegetables? Do you have concerns about the artificial animals being bred for food production using genetic science, blasted full of hormones, antibiotics and heaven knows what else to speed food production? Do you wonder why your food has to travel halfway around the world to reach your table? More important are you wondering what will happen to your food after we finish poisoning all our farms with sewage sludge? Companies like Synagro have been spreading commercial, industrial and farm wastes onto their fields in addition to human waste. They want us to think this is safe but the ever increasing threats to our food prove otherwise. Lettuce, spinach, radishes, peppers and other vegetables aren't supposed to be poisoned by e coli and salmonella. How does this happen? Sewage sludge. When you spread sewage on fields these pollutants and contaminants, along with dangerous heavy metals, get into your food. Last week the United Sludge-Free Alliance held a symposium in Bowers, PA where two dairy farmers from Georgia and a reknowned scientist from Cornell told tales of ruin from sludge and the science behind the application of pollutants to our farms. Yesterday President Obama dedicated his weekly radio address to the issue of food safety.  Read More	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 Sunday March 29 2009 The Observer 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."  Read More	Pennsylvania Sludge Busters January 01, 2007 Pennsylvania Sludge Busters How Porter Township Set New Rules for Corporations "We cannot have democracy when large corporations wield their legal rights against communities to deny the rights of citizens to build sustainable communities. ... That's what this is about? who is in charge." -- Thomas Linzey. Across the country, rural communities face a dangerous predator?giant agribusiness corporations of a scale unseen before the age of industrial food production. The agribusiness assault comes in many forms, including 10,000 head hog farms and mountains of toxic sludge that are spread on farm fields, placing people in harm's way. Following the death of two children from exposure to sludge, several townships in Pennsylvania decided to restrict waste corporations' activities. In doing so, they discovered that corporations had a "secret weapon"?the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees big business the same rights as people.  Read More
Locals side over sludge disposal debate Posted on Thu, Mar 19, 2009 By Lynn A. Gladieux; Patriot Correspondent Does sludge pose health hazards to humans and livestock? One side says 'yes' another says 'no.' The United Sludge-Free Alliance, a Kutztown and Kempton non-profit committed to sludge-free farming, recently held a community event to discuss what they see as the dangers of sludge on the environment. "Sludge Fertilizer: The Dangers to Your Livelihood, Land, Farm & Future" held on March 10 at Janelle Hall in Bowers, was sponsored free by the Alliance and was attended by approximately 150 people anxious to gather information about sludge.  Read More	A review of Diane Garvey's Lancaster Farmer article Read Article BIOSOLIDS : THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING .... Ben Oostdam Read Article	Impact of biosolids discussed BY LESLIE RICHARDSON STAFF WRITER Published: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 8:37 AM EDT HEGINS ? Kevin Scheib hunts on the mountain above a farm that may soon accept biosolids fertilizer. He fishes in Deep Creek, which will eventually receive the run-off from that property. ?What will it (the biosolids fertilizer) do to those animals?? Scheib asked Tuesday. ?What will it do to me when I eat that food?? Members of the Citizens Against Biosolids Fertilizer met Tuesday at the Barry Township Grange Building to share their concerns over the use of biosolids on local farmland.  Read More	$117M Biosolids Project Criticized Plant Converts Sewage Sludge Into Fertilizer Reported By Demetria Kalodimos POSTED: 11:30 am CDT April 1, 2009 UPDATED: 11:31 pm CDT April 1, 2009 It's a new plant that converts sewage sludge into fertilizer. The city said it's an environmentally beneficial way to deal with what goes down the toilet. But some critics have said it's a colossal waste of money, creating a product nobody seems to want and some people are downright afraid of. Read Article View Video
Sludge legislation may get amended By Dana Beyerle Montgomery Bureau Thursday, April 9, 2009 MONTGOMERY - The Senate passed one of three constitutional amendments that would prohibit human waste from being sprayed as fertilizer on fields in northwest Alabama Read Article	Sludge Happens By Josh Harkinson May/June 2009 Recycling sewage into fertilizer might be making us sick. Why doesn't the EPA give a crap? IN AUGUST 1987, the National Park Service tore up the White House's South Lawn and tilled in heaps of a new, locally produced fertilizer. The weedy plot's transformation into a carpet of green caught gardeners' attention, and soon there was a waiting list to buy bags of ComPRO, a compost made from nearby wastewater plants' solid effluent, a.k.a. sewage sludge. Four years later, dumping sewage into the ocean was banned, and sludge went national. Read Article	The Top 6 Ways to Convert Poop Into Electricity By Josh Harkinson May 2009 More than half of the 15 trillion gallons of sewage Americans flush annually is processed into sludge that gets spread on farmland, lawns, and home vegetable gardens. In theory, recycling poop is the perfect solution to the one truly unavoidable byproduct of human civilization. Read Article	Crap Happens: A Grist Special Report on How We Dispose of Our Poop Catherine Price May 2009 Three hundred million Americans head to the restroom multiple times a day. The amount of sludge produced staggers the mind - 7 million dry tons per year and counting. And it's not even just crap\it contains residues from everything else we put down the drain, from the detergent in your dishwasher to the chemicals used at the industrial plant down the street. Read Article

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Updated 04/2009