Whenever we flush the toilet, problems are created with sewage sludge.
Credit: ELLEN MOORHOUSE PHOTO

Trash Talk delves into some nasty stuff occasionally, but Toronto resident Maureen Reilly has been doing just that almost daily for 15 years. Her subject: sewage and sewage sludge.

We spoke to her over a year ago and thought it timely to check back to find out what’s happening with the waste we all help generate. Indeed, just 120 kilometres northwest of Toronto, Dundalk residents are challenging plans to build a facility that will take sludge, some from Toronto, mix it with septage and industrial waste, turn it into a liquidy fertilizer product for spreading on farmers’ land.

Reilly has immersed herself in disposal issues ever since she fought (successfully) to keep industrial paper sludge off pasture surrounding her country house near Cannington. Her experience with regulatory authorities, politicians and waste haulers changed her life.

Reilly has made it her mission to cull the media for information about sewage treatment technologies, sludge controversies, industry misbehaviour and failures, scientific studies, environmental contaminants, hygiene and health issues. She sends these reports, with critical commentary, to subscribers of her Sludge Watch email service in a dozen countries. (To join, Google Sludge Watch.)

She and many others believe spreading urban sewage sludge on agricultural land is a grave mistake given the contaminants and pathogens that end up in sewers because of our chemicalized and medicated lifestyles and effluents from hospitals and industry. The impacts of these substances on soils, health and ecosystems are not understood, and as Reilly says, “Of the 10 of thousands of toxic compounds that could be in sewage, the sludge is tested for less than 12.”

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FBI surveillance video of John Clark and James Rosendall, Jr. The video was gathered on Feb. 20, 2008 as part of the FBI’s investigation of Synagro Technologies’ sludge hauling contract with the city of Detroit.

Detroit— A corrupt former Detroit City Council aide should get a stiffer prison sentence because he caused more damage to the city than a drug dealer, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office is pushing for up to 16 months in prison for John Clark, who was caught on FBI surveillance video pocketing cash from a contractor. Clark was a onetime aide to Detroit City Councilman Kenneth Cockrel Jr.

"In a real sense, the damage done by the defendant's contribution to corruption in Detroit is far more serious than the damage done by some of the drug offenders sentenced in federal court who receive far more serious sentences of imprisonment," Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gardey wrote Wednesday.

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By Darree Sicher

Who Took A Dump On Your Dinner Plate?

Marcellus Shale drilling looks like big money for Pennsylvania, a tsunami of riches and fuel independence. But there is concern, not only about fresh water quality after the discharge of the known toxic chemicals used in the Marcellus Shale drilling process, but also with the land that will receive the remaining waste. Will the toxic chemicals used in the drilling process be made safe through the “treatment of waste water”?

Millions of people rely on Pennsylvania watershed areas to provide their drinking water via rivers, lakes, wells and purchased bottled water. Water is also necessary to sustain our food supply. Although Pennsylvania’s population is sixth in the nation, citizens throughout America will be affected by the contamination from the Marcellus Shale drilling – just follow the trail of rain water run-off and sewage sludge/biosolids, the equal opportunity pollution sources.

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Local farms are using fertilizer made up of human sewage and residents say they can't drink their water because of contamination.
By Teresa Masterson
Wednesday, Dec 28, 2011

Residents of a Lynn Township neighborhood are upset by the fertilizer spread on farm fields nearby. They say the fertilizer made of human waste has seeped into their drinking water.

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By Jason Fowler on 11/30/2011

I came home the other night to the thick stench of biosolids (treated sewage sludge) on the wind. The trucks had been driving past our cabin for days- and sometimes into the night. I went to collect eggs and close the chickens in as I do every night. I walked in the crisp but putrid night air with a handkerchief around my face. The smell was assaulting but what was even more disturbing was the realization that the real assault is against my family, my neighbors, the land and the future health of our community.

While you may have never heard of biosolids the battle to stop it’s application on agricultural and public lands has been raging for many years. Biosolids, according to the EPA, is said to be: “…nutrient-rich organic materials resulting from the treatment of sewage sludge (the name for the solid, semisolid or liquid untreated residue generated during the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment facility). When treated and processed, sewage sludge becomes biosolids which can be safely recycled and applied as fertilizer to sustainably improve and maintain productive soils and stimulate plant growth.” In the same breathe they admit: “Thirty years ago, thousands of American cities dumped their raw sewage directly into our nation’s rivers, lakes, and bays. Today, because of improved wastewater treatment, our waterways have been cleaned up and made safer for recreation and seafood harvest. And, because of the strict Federal and state standards, the treated residuals from wastewater treatment (biosolids) can be safely recycled. Local governments make the decision whether to recycle the biosolids as a fertilizer, incinerate it or bury it in a landfill.” If biosolids are so valuable why would it be incinerated or buried in a landfill as a waste product?

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Research into producing electricity from urine has been carried out by scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol.

It is claimed the publication of a research paper into the viability of urine as a fuel for Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) is a world first.

They say tests have produced small amounts of energy, but more research could produce "useful" levels of power.

Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos said he was "excited by the potential of the work".

MFCs contain the same kind of bacteria that is found in soil, the human gut or waste water from sewers.

'Regulating the flow'

The bacteria anaerobically (without oxygen) respire just like any other living organism, and this process gives off electrons.

Those electrons are then passed through an electrode and a measure of electricity is generated.

Bacteria feed on the urine, which they effectively use as a fuel to continue to breathe and give off electrons.

"Urine is chemically rich in substances favourable to the MFCs," said Dr Ieropoulos.

"Through this study... we were able to show that by miniaturisation and multiplication of the number of MFCs into a stack and regulating the flow of urine, it may be possible to look at scales of use that have the potential to produce useful levels of power, for example in a domestic or small village setting."

from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-15636544?utm_source=feedbu…

Students in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University had an opportunity to learn about the problem of sewage sludge and its effects on water, air and soil thanks to an information table set up by SSAN at a recent film series event held in the Levine Science Research Center on the Duke campus. The film series was a fundraiser for the Nicholas School's Environmental Internship Fund which was founded by a group of Nicholas School students to facilitate environmental internship supplemental funding.

Our film naming contest concludes. The winning name - submitted by our own Nancy Holt - is

SEWAGE SLUDGE ON OUR FARMS: A TOXIC BETRAYAL

So Nancy wins the prize, a beautiful set of pottery.

In other news...a sewage sludge industry newsletter (North East Biosolids and Residuals Association) has cited SSAN and its film. In their newsletter, they make the statement

"...current evidence certainly suggests biosolids use on soils in accordance with regulations and best management practices is safe for public health and the environment."

It is amazing that NEBRA says land applications of sewage sludge is safe because the EPA will not say that. The reason given by the EPA for no answer of safety to humans, animals or the environment? Because they do not know. (Tracy Mehan, EPA Assistant Administrator, US-EPA, October 29, 2003) and according to the EPA today, the EPA itself does not promote land applications.

Folks, the Sewage Sludge Action Network has produced a video documentary about sewage sludge's harmful effects on the environment. But we have one thing left to be done...we need a title, i.e. a name, for our documentary video. Absent a title, the video is currently described as Sewage Sludge on farmland, but we want and need a formal title for our documentary.

So...we have decided to create a contest for the best documentary video name. The contest ends on Friday, September 30th at 5pm Eastern time. A panel of judges comprised of the SSAN coordinating committee will select the winning name. The prize is a one-hundred ($100) gift certificate to Eddie Smith Porcelain pottery. Here's what Debbie Nichol's has to say about Eddie's pottery:

"I think that Eddie Smith pottery is excellent and I personally own quite a bit of his pottery. He has shown his pottery at the Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild show held every Thanksgiving in Raleigh, so obviously, he is very good."

Please submit one or more names for our documentary video via our contact us form.

By Rob Pavey
Staff Writer
Sunday, July 3, 2011

Michael Holahan/Staff

Bill Boyce and his wife, Carolyn, opened a restaurant behind their house after closing their long-running family dairy farm.

KEYSVILLE, Ga. --- Bill Boyce loves the smell of wood smoke and the telltale hiss of chicken grilled to perfection.

"I still don't fish, still don't hunt and still don't play golf," he said. "But I sure love to cook."

Boyce and his wife, Carolyn, opened Country Boys Cooking in 2005 after spending most of their lives operating a family dairy established by Bill's father in 1947.

Today, the dairy, its 1,400 cows and almost 700 acres are gone.

The Boyces spent years trying to advance their claims that improperly treated sewage sludge -- applied to their land by City of Augusta officials as free fertilizer -- caused the downfall of their dairy by poisoning both cattle and soil.

A $550,000 jury award in June 2003 left the family, in the words of their lawyer, "vindicated but not compensated."

The award was a fraction of the $12.5 million in damages sought by the family in a trial that was watched nationally because of its implications on federal rules governing the use of sludge as fertilizer.

The end of the trial heralded the end of an era for the Burke County family.

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