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
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