I posted this in General Discussion, but think a copy here is appropriate.
April 22nd is Earth Day! And once again I'd like to encourage you to use this event to think about a serious health and environmental situation that is impacting us all, no matter where we live. I'm talking about land applied sewage sludge.
In honor of Earth Day, I’m talking about the serious problems caused by sludge usage, how it impacts us and what we can do about it.
Once we understand the scope of the problem, there are things we can each do to turn it around. One simple thing is to make sure that you do not buy any bags of lawn, garden and plant fertilizer this year that includes sewage sludge (sometimes called "biosolids").
Most bagged fertilizers now include grade A sludge, so you will have to read the information on the bags carefully. If the bag says "nearly organic" or "natural" or any other similar qualifier, it probably includes sludge. Only bags that are marked "organic" without qualifiers are sludge free.
You can also ask the person in charge of ordering in the fertilizer department of your local garden center what fertilizers they offer that do not include sewage sludge/biosolids. If they don't know, they can look it up. It is important for your soil's health and your health to not use these fertilizers, but it is also important that your garden centers and coops begin to understand that this is an issue for their customers that can affect sales.
SEWAGE SLUDGE/“BIOSOLIDS”
A Health and Environmental Crisis and Scandal
by Machaelle Small Wright
Perelandra, Center for Nature Research
This past June (2002), I was handed a packet of information about “biosolids” that was put out by a local biosolids company. I didn’t know anything about biosolids, so I read through the information. “Biosolids” is the industry name for “sewage sludge”, and this information was about using sludge on land as an environmentally sound alternative fertilizer. Something in the literature caught my eye and raised a flag. In several places they discussed a strong odor that comes from biosolids after it’s spread on land. The fact that they mentioned it several times made me think, “Brother, this must be some monster odor if the industry feels it must point it out more than once.” I gave the information to my assistant and asked her to check out “biosolids” on the internet. In short, what was this stuff all about?
She spent the weekend on the internet wading through the world of biosolids and sludge. When she sat down to give me a report, she just said, “You’re not going to believe this,” then went on to outline a major environmental and health hazard that is going on all around us—and few of us even have a clue about it.
I immediately put together a team of five members of my staff and we spent a week combing the internet, making phone calls, and reading books and articles on sludge. It became quite clear that this is a very serious situation and it affects us all.
Here’s the definition of sludge/biosolids from the material put out by the Virginia Cooperative Extension, VA Polytechnic Institute and State University that was included in the packet of biosolids information I received: “Biosolids are solid, semi-solid or liquid materials, resulting from treatment of domestic sewage, that have been sufficiently processed to permit these materials to be safely land-applied.” After you read this paper, you’ll see that the industry definition of biosolids is limited and misleading.
http://www.perelandra-ltd.com/AB1473/webpage.cfm?WebPage_ID=313&DID=8
http://www.perelandra-ltd.com/AB1473/webpage.cfm?WebPage_ID=314&DID=8
Links to more information:
http://www.perelandra-ltd.com/AB1473/webpage.cfm?WebPage_ID=315&DID=8
references:
http://www.perelandra-ltd.com/AB1473/webpage.cfm?WebPage_ID=317&DID=8
http://www.perelandra-ltd.com/AB1473/webpage.cfm?WebPage_ID=542&DID=8
April 22nd is Earth Day!
