Public Health Threat or Environmental Benefit? Microbiologist Panel speak out on sewage sludge biosolids

Land Application of Organic Residuals: Public Health Threat or Environmental Benefit?

 

Land Application of Organic Residuals:  Public Health Threat or Environmental Benefit? A report based on a workshop chaired by Gary King, Ph.D., chair of the Public and Scientific Affairs Board Committee on Environmental Microbiology.  The workshop was held in Washington, DC to discuss microbiological concerns about land spreading, the appropriate disposal of biosolids and the role of microbiology.

Last Updated on Monday, 22 August 2011 09:47   http://www.asm.org/index.php/policy/biorep8-2011.html

 

Love a little bit of common sense applied to a controversy http://organicfoodhealthinfo.com/biosolids-brouhaha/

Love a little bit of common sense applied to a controversy http://organicfoodhealthinfo.com/biosolids-brouhaha/ 

Free Compost for Locals! Excellent explanation of process and benefits! http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_18745252

Quote from:
Free compost from Las Cruces Utilities

By Esmeralda Almanza For the Sun-News

 

Growers' best-kept secret - bio-solid compost endorsed in 1981... (Emerald Almanza/For the Sun-News)

"When I started working at the wastewater treatment plant I decided to start growing vegetables, and learned about the free compost to fertilize," said Laura Montoya, senior lab technician. "Now I have ripe tomatoes, jalape-os and the biggest squash you could imagine."

 

Ever since Montoya started adding compost to her garden, her squash grows to a foot or more if she doesn't cut them daily.

 
"My garden grows so fast and so big that if I leave a squash that's ready to be cut, by the next day it's almost too big," she said.

Bio-solid compost can be added to soil to make it more fertile, or mixed with water for ...

see full article

What's the difference between biosolids (aka treated sewage sludge) that fertilize farms and composted biosolids that can be used at home, for parks and landscaping, and at sports fields?

As pictured, the biosolids (aka treated sewage sludge) trucked from wastewater treatment plants are typically treated in digesters. The solids are held in giant “crockpots” (digesters) for approximately 20 days at 98 degrees Fahrenheit, which allows microbes to digest the sewage solids and create biosolids. This digestion process is a way of “reverse engineering” the process of digestion in our own bodies; in this case we are removing the pathogens with the help of microbes.

As with our own bodies, the digesters also create gas. Fortunately, many plants capture and scrub the biogas in order to use it onsite in large electricity generating facilities that can fuel a significant portion of the treatment plants’ electricity needs. The biogas is renewable energy source - a big environmental win from sewage treatment.

Biosolids People with Passion: From the Desert Storm to Desert Farming - Marine Master Sergeant John Winn is a Win for the Biosolids Team

 

From Desert Storm to the Desert of Yuma, Arizona, retired Master Sergeant John Winn had a Marine Corps career spanning 23 years,  9 duty stations, 27 medals and award ribbons, and two combat tours. How could the Master Sergeant top such a great career? 

Instead of running military operations in the desert, John is now running biosolids operations in the desert. Using biosolids (aka treated sewage sludge) to fertilize farms is an environmentally beneficial recycling of the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and a host of other valuable nutrients and microbes to grow non-food crops.

After he retired in early 2005, he was hired to be an office manager, dispatching a few loads per day. He is now general manager of the operations that include hauling more than a dozen biosolids trucks per day and using them as fertilizer on local farms.

“I work with a good team. They are all very professional.”

When I asked about his first impressions of the job John says, “Interesting.  I had never heard of biosolids and never thought about this aspect of recycling. I’m really impressed with how effective they are on the farm. It’s just amazing how well they work!”

As with many of us, John’s greatest job satisfaction has stemmed from one of his biggest challenges. When John first started, some scheduled maintenance was falling through the cracks resulting in breakdowns and missed loads. John is proud of being able to turn things around by creating a more proactive maintenance routine so they almost never miss loads and have very few breakdowns.

Like a lot of the truck drivers he works with, John loves the hitting the open road in his spare time. Instead of an 80,000 pound, 40-foot truck, he can be found cruising on his motorcycle.

“The company has grown tremendously over the last six years. I’m excited about the future and learning more about the cropping and harvesting process that the farmer does – the actual product of biosolids."

Eugene’s sludge is sweet!!! Hallelujah! Register Guard-Cottage Grove #biosolids odors

Hallelujah we have some good news on the odor front! 

I was worried about these odor complaints and am so happy they are resolved! The neighbors are saying they wouldn't have known the biosolids were being used if they city hadn't told them. I love the Register Guard's headline - Sweet!!!!

Biosolids are Best with no odors and no impacts to neighbors! Biosolids people are working hard everyday to make sure we don't impact anyone. We've spent at least the last decade honing in and spreading the word about best management practices (like talking to the neighbors and producing low-odor biosolids) so that we can recycle biosolids in their highest and best use!

Thank you Cottage Grove for your patience!

Link to Story:

Sludge spread without a stink

After complaints about Cottage Grove spreading smelly treated sewage, the reaction to Eugene’s sludge is sweet

 http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/26736029-55/sludge-eugene-biosolids-junction-spreading.html.csp

Can you use Biosolids (aka composted sewage sludge) on veggies?

YES! Freshly harvested from our garden this morning are these YUMMY Big tomatoes and Golden cherries!

• More nutritious and protected from urban soil metals because of Biosolids!
• Healthier soil microbes.
• Local, sustainable, renewable alternative to chemical fertilizers.
• We are soo lucky to have access to this great soil amendment!

BETTER WITH BIOSOLDS!

Sustainability of Biosolids Recycling Confirmed using 20 Year Study #sewage sludge Fact Sheet: http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/consumer/az1426.pdf

Sustainability of Biosolids Recycling Confirmed via a 20-year Study - Fact Sheet: http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/consumer/az1426.pdf

The University of Arizona conducted this study in an attempt answer some of the most commonly asked questions regarding biosolids. Here are some of the questions answered by this study and presented in this factsheet.

• What Are Biosolids? (includes data - yeah!)
• What are the Biosolids Regulations?
• Land Application of Biosolids in Arizona and in the US
• History of Biosolids Research at the University of Arizona
• Biosolids Research in Arizona: Emerging Issues
• Biosolids Use for Land Reclamation
• Answers to Concerns about the Safety of Biosolids Land Use
• How can we contribute to the safe [use] of biosolids on land?
• Remember
• References and Websites of Interest

First, I love the Remember section and other blue-boxed sections: 

• "As the population grows so will the production of biosolids and the need for safer disposal options.

Biosolids can continue to be valuable renewable source nutrients for agricultural soils, rangeland, and land reclamation as long as the quality of these residues continues to improve.

This can be done by controlling unwanted chemicals (metals, synthetic chemicals, medicines) in sewage streams and by improving biosolids pathogen and pollutant reduction methods."

• "Healthy soils contain hundreds of millions of beneficial bacteria and other microorganisms per gram that recycle plant nutrients, and degrade pathogens and organic pollutants.

Also, healthy soils usually have an excess capacity (minerals, organic matter and favorable chemical conditions) to trap and retain metals preventing them from contaminating plants and polluting other environments.

Soils can continue to provide this valuable service as long as they are not overwhelmed by excessive amounts of wastes, pollutants or other adverse soil conditions."

• "Biosolids are not a significant health threat as long as they are treated, stored, handled, and applied to land following accepted guidelines and regulations.

But, federal and state biosolids guidelines, regulations and monitoring programs must continue to evolve. They must adapt to new concerns about biosolids based on new scientific information."

Although worded very scientifically-jargonistically, the scientists concluded that:

• "Application of biosolids for nonfood agricultural crop production at this arid southwest site seems to be sustainable with respect to soil chemical entities."
• "The study showed that land application of Class B biosolids had no significant long-term effect on soil pH and CaCO_3. However, land application significantly increased soil macro-nutrients (C, N and P). Soil nitrate values in plots that received biosolids or inorganic fertilizer amendments were high indicating the potential for groundwater contamination. In addition, total and available soil P concentrations increased to values above that necessary for plant growth but P values attenuated to background levels at a soil depth of 150 cm. Total metal concentrations attenuated rapidly with increasing soil depth, and were generally similar to values found in control soils at a depth of 150 cm."
• "Overall, the 20 annual land applications showed no long-term adverse effects, and therefore, this study documents that land application of biosolids at this particular site was sustainable throughout the 20-yr period, with respect to soil microbial properties."
• "Data show that land application of ClassB biosolids had no significant long-term effect on indigenous soil microbial numbers including bacteria, actinomycetes, and fungi compared to unamended control plots. Importantly, no bacterial or viral pathogens were detected in soil samples collected from biosolid amended plots in December (10 mo after the last land application) demonstrating that pathogens introduced via Class B biosolids only survived in soil transiently. However, plots that received biosolids had significantly higher microbial activity or potential for microbial transformations, including nitrification, sulfur oxidation, and dehydrogenase activity, than control plots and plots receiving inorganic fertilizers."

This section is also worth including. Consumer awareness, responsibility, and actions are critical for all environmental issues!

    “What can be done to make biosolids a safer and more valuable fertilizer source?

• As end-users of numerous household products that contain toxic and hazardous chemicals, limiting the use and disposal of these products into the sewage system will continue to improve the quality of biosolids. What should we do?
• Use no or low phosphate, biodegradable soaps and detergents at manufacturer recommended amounts.
• Do not dump leftover household chemicals such as oil products, pesticides, paints, solvents and medicines down the toilet or sink. Instead, take unused or spent products to local recycling centers.
• Do not use or limit the outdoor use of yard pesticides and avoid chemical spills on driveways, as these activities can contaminate runoff water entering the sewage system.”

Biosolids are Probiotic!??!! Should I eat them??

No, I'm not saying Eat Biosolids! 

By probiotic I mean biosolids build beneficial (Good-guy) bacteria in soils!

Based on what?
 - University of Arizona 20-year study:

• "Overall, the 20 annual land applications showed no long-term adverse effects, and therefore, this study documents that land application of biosolids at this particular site was sustainable throughout the 20-yr period, with respect to soil microbial properties."
• "... plots that received biosolids had significantly higher microbial activity or potential for microbial transformations, including nitrification, sulfur oxidation, and dehydrogenase activity, than control plots and plots receiving inorganic fertilizers."
• http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/consumer/az1426.pdf

- Related blog post: http://biosolidsgrow.blogspot.com/2011/08/feed-your-soils-healthy-plants.html
- Personal interview with Arizona farmer discussing the biosolids-soil-root interactions that take place. The farmer was telling me about the microbes in the biosolids that help the plants' roots better access the nitrogen contained in the biosolids, which means bigger, better, healthier plants.

Added cross-referenced post - 8/25/11

World-wide Phosphorus Crisis, but Biosolids Recycling to the Rescue (at least 1%)

THE PROBLEM: World-wide Phosphorus Crisis!

• "Global reserves of phosphorus are running out and, since plants need phosphate to grow, this poses an enormous challenge for global food production in the foreseeable future. A shortage of phosphate could ultimately result in large-scale famine and social-political turmoil. Surprisingly, phosphorus depletion did not seem to be on the political agenda some time ago.
• A key question is whether it will be possible to feed a growing global population in the future. Often it is simply assumed that resources necessary for increased food production will be just as available as they are today. This might not be the case for phosphorus (P) which is a macronutrient indispensable for plant growth, and also irreplaceable.
• In the pre-industrialised era, when there was a much smaller global population, crop production relied on natural phosphorus supplies in the soil, with or without additional supplies from organic manure. Human excreta were also used as input. Increased food production was necessary to feed the growing global population. This became possible from around 1850 onwards, based on the input of artificial fertilisers, which boosted agriculture tremendously. However, since phosphorus is an important component of artificial fertilisers, this also accelerated phosphorus use.
  Currently we are in a situation in which global food supply has become dependent on continual inputs of phosphate fertiliser to maintain soil fertility. However, phosphate deposits are finite. The problem of phosphorus depletion is further complicated by the fact that, similarly to fossil fuels, the control of phosphorus resources is in the hands of a limited number of countries. Most of the known reserves are in Morocco, the US and China and the latter recently imposed an export tariff on phosphate."
• Link to the website and leaflet to learn more.
• Here is a website that lists the states where phosphorus depleted soils may be present.

THE SOLUTION: Sustainable Use of Phosphorus
The authors of the phosphorus depletion report above "authors stress the need to re-use and recycle phosphorus." They created a list of recommendations that includes recycling human and agricultural organic matter (aka poop, treated sewage sludge, biosolids).

Here's where biosolids recycling comes to the rescue - at least for the approximately 1% of US agriculture that uses biosolids. Because biosolids contain phosphorus, using them to fertilize farms and gardens will replenish your soil without having to further deplete phosphorus mines.


THE CAVEAT: Phosphorus in Moderation
Phosphorus is necessary to grow food in soil, but it is a pollutant in water. Ensuring best management practices, applying at agronomic rates, and preventing agricultural run-off are critical in balancing the critical need to recycle phosphorus with the environmental degradation that occurs with too much phosphorus.

Mining the phosphorus from animal and human wastes can help (article on mining from sewage). However the cost for this equipment is energy (climate change) intensive and expensive. The return on investment based on current phosphorus pricing probably doesn't pan out for wide-scale mining, especially where phosphorus is not scarce yet. 

It's interesting that some soils are rich in phosphorus and phosphorus retained in the soil can keep soils productive for years (Western Farm Press article).  

Bottom-line?
We are already seeing the monitoring and controls of phosphorus increasing along with the incentives for recycling and renewable mining.

Let's ensure that the low-energy direct use of biosolids on farms and gardens continues to help this situation!

Support Biosolids Recycling, have your voice heard here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/biosolids/

http://wdict.net/word/phosphorus/

Many missing major Climate Change issues; focused on contaminant minutia

The current issue of BioCycle offers an eloquent and thought-provocating article by Sally Brown, Research Associate Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. I've included a few of the great quotes from the article and a link to BioCycle to read more.

"But we aren't talking about streams. The question was about irrigating crops. I told the reporter about a new publication on the safety of reclaimed water put out by the WateReuse Research Federation that places risks into prespective. An agricultural laborer - someone who would be considered a highly exposed person to this synthetic estrogen - in a field irrigated with reclaimed water would need to spend 16,000 years working in the field to get the same exposure to the estrogen as you find in one birth control pill." 

"Instead he asked about plant update. The straightforward answer would have been to continue with the comparison, i.e., that plants take up very little if any of these compounds and that they will degrade in soils, and that you would have to eat nothing but those plants (e.g., salads) for decades and decades to get one birth control pill. But instead, I told him about studies we've done showing no plant update and I did talk to him about that one paper out of Toldedo where they had to add chemicals to the water to get concentrations high enough to even see them in plants."

 "There is consenus, certainty, within the scientific community on climate change - manmade climage change. For the general public though, more are worried about that part per trillion in reclaimed water than the catastrphic flooding, droughts, and so on."

Read more of Sally's " Keep Talking" ( Subscription required )
BioCycle July 2011, Vol. 52, No. 7, p. 42
Climate Change Connections, Sally Brown

CompostNow.org - Hot New Idea Seeks Support!

This is a Great idea and a Great way to present it!!! This catchy little video has a new, locally based compost business model to back it up. Maybe the new way composting gets done!

Visit http://www.compostnow.org/  or Ripple to Support: http://www.rippple.com/request/compost-now-fundraiser-52




CompostNow Campaign from andrewvanover on Vimeo.

Another day, another defense of biosolids. #sewage sludge

I use biosolids and love it -especially on our tomatoes. We've studied the science of biosolids for decades alongside demonstrating safety. They even have amazing protective powers (http://biosolidsgrow.blogspot.com/2011/08/sewage-sludge-has-super-powers-that.html). They are the a local, sustainable, renewable option (critical as we are running out of phosphorus) alternative to synthetic (including petrochemical) fertilizers. Biosolids that go back to farms and gardens also help fight climate change by sequestering carbon that can generate carbon credits (not true when it's burned as a fuel). It is critical to understand that presence does not mean the plants will uptake that material (peer-reviewed science here showing that use of biosolids REDUCES metals uptaken in plants compared to control (that took up More metals!) http://biosolidsgrow.blogspot.com/2011/08/sewage-sludge-has-super-powers-that.html. Finally, if you think buying something else without sewage sludge in it is the answer, think again. Here you'll see that biosolids compost has the same amount stuff as other organic amendments - actual data included (http://biosolidsgrow.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-contaminants-lurk-in-sewage-sludge.html). But, biosolids has lots and lots of good stuff inside too cause it comes from us and all the vitamins and great food that we eat. The plants love vitamins and grow like crazy cause it's good stuff!  Even has probiotic powers! 

Sewage Sludge has Super Powers that Protect Metals from Uptake into Plants!!

Heavy metals in sewage sludge (aka biosolids) and their potential for environmental impact has been a concern over the years, especially when it comes to recycling treated sewage sludge on farmland and composting it for home garden use.

This is exactly why I again enlisted the help of Rufus Chaney, a long-experienced USDA researcher on metals in biosolids and soils and plant uptake who worked for decades on this subject with a very long list of peer-reviewed journal articles. He even mentored another legend, Sally Brown with University of Washington who has also done some amazing work with biosolids, carbon sequestration, and greenhouse gas calculations (theme for another article).

It is important to recognize the difference between knowing that a metal or any other compound is present and knowing whether it is actually taken up by the plants that you may grow and eat. Nature can be very complicated in this way. Rufus to the rescue! He has worked with romaine lettuce as an indicator for highly sensitive crops - those that should up take the most bioavailable metals.

In the presentation below and the similarly titled peer-reviewed paper, the research compares control (unamended with biosolids soils) to biosolids amended soils which had received high rates of biosolids applications and contained significant concentrations of metals. Despite higher total soil cadmium, lettuce accumulation of cadmium was significantly lower in biosolids-amended soils than control soils that had never received biosolids. This was true for soils even decades after the applications occurred, meaning that the amazing biosolids properties stay in tact for as long as we can measure. You can see that the plants consistently accumulate more metals from the control soils even if there is a lot more of the metal present in the biosolids / sewage sludge.

I have heard Rufus present in person, and he is emphatic about the importance of the ratio of cadmium to zinc. If they are present in a ratio of 1:100, for instance, (for every one part cadmium there are 100 parts of zinc), then there will be a enough zinc to prevent the uptake of cadmium by the plant at any significant level; even protective of people eating large amounts of the lettuce. We often hear of a potentially similar "protection" mechanism in our bodies when we take zinc supplements to try to boost our immune systems during the flu season. Luckily, most biosolids have lots of zinc and iron (another protective metal that likes to bind with lots of compounds).

The implications of these finding go far beyond whether biosolids is safe to use in crops and home gardens. It means that biosolids have amazing assimilative and protective powers! For instance, urban soils often contain high levels of metals (from car brake pads, emissions, etc.). Biosolids have been added to these soils to remediate these contaminated soils so that inner city folks can again garden and play in the soils safely. Biosolids have been used to remediate mine tailings with high levels of metals. (Good fodder for future articles!)  

Another note from this study is that because of the tremendous success of modern industrial source control programs (they require prevention or treatment onsite at industries that discharge metals and other pollutants), modern biosolids - treated sewage sludges do not contain levels of metals that would be of concern for uptake. For instance, the metals in Orange County's sewage has been reduced by over 95% since the 1970's when the Clean Water Act began implementation. This equates to proportional reductions in the final biosolids - treated sewage sludge. The metals in these biosolids are significantly under the EPA's most restrictive criteria, which means they are so low that the cumulative loading is not of concern.

In other words, our nation has made great strides in cleaning up metals in the environment, which ensures that biosolids can be safely recycled to fertilize farms as well as turned into compost for home use. And our gardens and farms will actually be protected by the biosolids! Now that is Amazing!!

On a sad note, it is so unfortunate, disappointing, disheartening, and potentially an environmental disaster when fear and politics rule and biosolids are ban from use, forcing municipalities to use technologies with larger carbon footprints (it takes lots of energy to dry biosolids or refine into another product), and frankly, it’s a waste of significant resources. We are wasting precious non-renewable phosphorus that otherwise needs to be mined from the earth again to replenish fields. We put more pressure on farmers to turn to expensive, non-renewable, synthetic fertilizers. Banning biosolids is creating the environmental disaster that the politicians are ironically trying to prevent. 


VOICE YOUR SUPPORT! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/biosolids/ 

Kukier chaney-2005-effect of biosolids on phytoavailability of cd

View more presentations from Deirdre Bingman.

Sustainable Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus Cycling: Garden to You to Manure/Sewage Sludge/Biosolids and Back!

Biosolids grow from You sustainably - www.biosolidsgrow.com

View more presentations from Deirdre Bingman

By recycling biosolids we are completing the natural cycle - sustainably. Cycling the organic matter that comes from all of us back to the soil for growing is critical. It connects the carbon cycle, allowing natural carbon sequestration and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change issues. 


Biosolids are also important to the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles; key sources of plant nutrition (high in nitrogen and micro and macro-nutrients). The Earth's phosphorus supplies are diminishing and will be gone in the next 100 years. They retain water so water-soluable nutrients stay in the soils (not running off and polluting local water ways like "hot" synthetic fertilizers). Biosolids are treated to remove pathogens, have been used safely for decades, and their rich properties have a protection effect that keeps metals and other pollutants in soils and not available to plants. 


Support Biosolids Recycling, have your voice heard here:http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/biosolids/ Follow me on Twitter @BiosolidsRGreat and Like our Biosolids Buzz page on Facebook!

Food Security and Sustainability with Urban Farming Square Foot Gardens - Sustainability from Sewage Sludge through Succulent Tomatoes

Worried about what's in your food or how it was grown? If you want the job done right, then do it yourself!   The move to urban gardening and locally grown sustainable foods is growing fast. Even in urban areas.

My friend Karen just started her own garden was watering it during our recent visit. "Everything just tastes better when it comes from your own garden. And you know whats in it." Karen started her garden with herbs like oregano and thyme, peppers, and tomatoes. She is lucky enough to have an acre of land to plant away.


What about those of us with "normal" Southern California homes (very small back yards) or even our tiny back patio at our condo. There is hope!

My husband used Mel Bartholomew's "All New Square Foot Gardening," as his guide when he created our own little veggie patch.  He used Mel's method to install a garden in a 5 foot by 2 foot area, and our garden is already providing some beautiful bounty!

Urban soils are notorious for legacy contaminants from previous activities as well as air deposition of lead from brake pads and other pollution. Add in some really gnarly soils types (clay, rocks, weeds ready to germinate) and you have a depressing urban garden picture.

But gardening in containers or raised beds "lift you above all these concerns." You have a clean slate to start your garden out on the right foot. Give it the best foundation you can.

Another benefit is planting each small area (square foot) at a different time (vary by a week or two) so your fruits and veggies don't ripen all at the same time. Because the square foot areas are big enough for a plant that produces plenty for that time frame, but they are small enough that you can plant several different items or similar items with different timings. There are also several different configurations for square foot gardens. We saw some at the fair that make good use of vertical space as well as horitzontal.


Of course our garden includes biosolids (aka treated sewage sludge) compost in that initial mix. Biosolids comes from all of us, so it contains lots of nitrogen and phosphorus to feed the plants and a complete mix of macro and micro nutrients and even beneficial microbes that do great things in the soil to help the plants. Biosolids have been treated to remove pathogens but have all the other good stuff that is natural to recycle back to the soil and sustainable. Biosolids are local (from your treatment plant), comes from you, is a wonderful alternative to synthetic fertilizer, and is a renewable (which is critical when we are facing running out of all mined sources of phosphorus in 100 years).

Some worry about other unwanted things in biosolids.  Modern industrial programs and permits have reduced metals exponentially. One pharmaceutical study found that it would take 50,000 gallons of biosolids to equal one dose of Viagra. Add these factors to the amazing protective properties of biosolids (biosolids has rich organic and inorganic factions that create complex binding) keep unwanted constituents permanently bound and not available to plant uptake. (see other related articles here).

The plants do uptake the nitrogen, phosphorus, and lots of nutrients not available in such a complete form with synthetic or chemical fertilizers.

Then let the Beautiful Bounty Begin!

Biosolids Boy and the Compost Kid and the Secret of the Super Soccer field

Mixing biosolids (treated sewage sludge) compost into native soils as a base on sports fields builds the health of your soils which creates great grass and turf. Biosolids premium soil amendment, cost effective, and a local, renewable, environmentally-friendly product. Slow-release nitrogen feeds turf over a long-time and water quality is protected with biosolids water-holding capacity. Biosolids help create a softer, more spongelike soil that actually helps reduce sports injuries. Biosolids are a great foundation when building a new sports field or top-dressing existing fields. They have a host of micro and macro nutrients, retain water, and can actually remediate contaminants in urban soils with a tremendous protective power that keeps contaminants locked in the soil (not available to plants).

Biosolids boy and the compost kid and the secret of the super soccer field

View more presentations from Deirdre Bingman.

"Present-day sewage sludge is Wicked stuff." Wicked parallel between biosolids and Wicked Witch of the West.

This analogy popped into my head when reading yet another one of those “letters to the editor” where the person spouts of “facts” that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Yes, Biosolids (also known as treated sewage sludge) is as Wicked as the Wicked Witch of the West in the recent musical. It’s a sad parallel both involving a bad reputation that proceeds them based on first impressions, perceptions, and misinformation.

I am saddened every time I read one of these editorials or an article by a reporter wanting to make an issue sound sexily controversial. Every story worth reading needs a “good” guy and a “bad” guy. Unfortunately because of how biosolids looks (and smells), it has been type-cast as the bad guy.

Yet biosolids, just like the Wicked Witch of the West, has been completely misjudged and actually has a lot to offer the community and the environment!

Science and demonstration over decades has shown that it is safe and amazingly effective product.  The EPA’s peer reviews have time and again upheld the regulations as protective of public health and the environment. The State of California Water Quality Control Board’s Environmental Impact Report picked land application of biosolids as the environmentally superior option for managing biosolids. Canada just finished a public consultation that will likely support biosolids recycling as a superior choice.

Sequestering the carbon in biosolids to the soil is incredibly important to climate change initiatives and recycling phosphorus (supplies will dwindle to nothing in next 100 years), making biosolids recycling a critical component of our society's sustainability. Sometimes the "cheapest option" is also the most road-tested, traditional, and environmentally-sound! 

In addition, using local sources of biosolids is an environmentally-sound alternative to manufacturing petroleum-based synthetic fertilizers that cannot provide the plethora of critical vitamins, mineral, nutrients, and microbes to build the soil the way that biosolids can. Although there are some studies that infer problems with using biosolids based the presence of contaminants in small quantities, the robust field trials that actually test the soil and the plant uptakes show that biosolids actually bind and prevent uptake - even remediating soils contaminated with metals and allowing them to again sustain life. Biosolids can contain small amounts of compounds (not in toxic quantities or plant wouldn't grow - one studied identified two detectible pharms in biosolids sample and concluded you'd need to ingest 48,000 gallons of biosolids for one dose of Viagra). 

The bottom-line? I just had a tomato this morning shared by a colleague using biosolids compost. It was delicious! She gave her friend a bucket of our compost, and he grew a tomato plant noting that he couldn’t believe how flavorful these tomatoes are.

We are lucky that we have a compost product that we can use in our gardens. We are lucky that we can be part of closing the recycling loop, and appreciate the benefits after the odor dissipates. There are a lot of communities who endure the temporary odor and do not get to taste the fruits and benefits of biosolids. They are the communities most impacted and angry. We have worked over the last decade to minimize impacts by improving best management practices and choosing recycling locations away from neighbors. I hope someday we can get to a win-win place where all can appreciate the beauty and benefit of biosolids!

Contact me if you’d like citation for any of my facts above. I encourage everyone to tour their local treatment plant and learn the real facts - don't be afraid of what lies beyond your toilet! Growing with that which comes from you and me is a good thing!  www.biosolidsgrow.com

What contaminants lurk in sewage sludge (biosolids) compost? Watch out if you EAT more than 60 pounds per day!!! Wanna see the data?

The EPA's "503" regulations that was the most thorough health risk assessment ever completed for any material looks at many complex pathways of exposures (including direct ingestion). They looks at many organic (and inorganic) compounds. After oodles of analyses they determined that only the main heavy metals were contained in high enough concentrations to regulate.

Since then, many of the large urban areas have reduced metals 90% lower than they were in the 1970's when some of the original sewage sludge safety and plant uptake studies were done. The sewage sludge (biosolids) have an amazing simulative capacity and binding capacity that holds on tightly to the metals and other constituents that are present so they are not bioavailable to plants. Then the biosolids go above and beyond and have the ability to remediate (further incorporating even more metals). See early post.

Yes there are metals present in sewage sludge (biosolids). Some may see the data and the numbers may appear to be high. But we have to consider these binding properties of biosolids. PRESENSE DOES NOT EQUAL AVAILABLE TO PLANTS OR THE ENVIRONMENT. This has been demonstrated for decades now and even aging biosolids (sewage sludge) does not "release" these contaminents that they hold so tightly.  

I found this memo on the internet (re-uploaded to Scribed). It gets to some of the questions of other modern organic chemical contaminents in sludge. San Francisco had a wonderful compost program that made compost available to local gardeners. This memo was written in response to attacks from a group that was concerned about what's in their compost.

You'll see the organic contaminents listed are in extremely tiny concentrations that would not be measureable if plants do updake. The memo mentions that dioxins were proposed by EPA in 1999 and then they decided that the risk was so low they didn't need to regulate them. The memo shows the TEQ (toxicity equivalency) in parts per TRILLION. One part per trillion is ONE-TWENTIETH of a drop of water in an Olympic-size swiming pool!

The memo shows that ALL available soil amendments (adding organic matter to your soil along with macro and micro nutrients and beneficial microbes) are comparable in the levels of contaminents they contain. These are very, very low numbers. And I've seen previous reports that show that synthetic fertilizers and any other products will also be in the same ranges. But synthetic fertilizers are not renewable and carbon sequestering (climate change benefits) like biosolids-base products.

One part per trillion (1 ppt) is a proportion equivalent to one-twentieth of a drop of water diluted into an Olympic-size swimming pool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parts-per_notation 

There is nothing "clean" in our world. Technology has brought us ultra-low detection limits, so we are finding "contaminents" everywhere (chemical and microbial). We have to consider the levels at which they are present. Very very low levels do not pose health risks. The EPA has done the most thorough risk assessment on biosolids (and these other products on the shelves have similar contents - animal products probably have higher levels of steriods and anti-biotics but they probably are not availabe to the plants).

As Sally Brown recently stated (July 2011 BioCycle article), people are more worried about micro-constituents in the world and missing the big picture of climate change. That is something real, big, and most people don't believe that's true despite the unequivocal science that says it's happening. Biosolids sequesters massive amounts of carbon to the soil to help prevent climate change, but all the debates about contaminents are forcing many biosolids managers to energy options that just add to carbon emissions rather than sequestering in the soil.