Farm field as Superfund site? Such a concept may not be far off.

For decades, sewage sludge has been used as fertilizer on farms across the nation. Though controversial, EPA and USDA assert that "biosolids" are a safe alternative to commercial fertilizers. Of the 7 million tons of sewage sludge produced each year, more than half is applied to farmland as a free service to farmers. The rest is burned or buried (a more costly method of disposal).

But a recent court ruling has validated opponents' concerns that sewage sludge contains toxic substances, including unhealthy levels of heavy metals that inevitably land in the bellies of livestock and consumers.

At issue were the deaths of hundreds of cows, which the farmer links to sewage sludge poisoning (the cows ate sludge-treated hay), and a federal court judge agreed, ordering USDA to compensate the farmer for his damages.

Making matters worse, some of the contaminants responsible for the cows' deaths were found in milk marketed by a neighboring dairy farm. One of the pollutants, thallium, a former rat poison, was found in the milk at a level 120 times the allowable amount by EPA standards for drinking water. EPA lists thallium as a toxic heavy metal and USDA considers it a potential threat to the food supply if used as a bioterrorism agent.

The sludge came from Augusta, Atlanta, and, in addition to thallium, tested high for arsenic (at twice the allowable standard) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (at 2,500 times the EPA standard).

As food-producing acres start to resemble pollution sites registered on the National Priorities List, EPA and USDA must see the irreparable harm of this easily avoidable pollution of our fields and food.

Source: Associated Press

Comments (5)

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Heavy Metals....
written by Fritz, March 11, 2008

Where did the heavy metals come from? There has to be a reason for the metals in the manure...right? Maybe they came from other pesticides, a water source, from feed, etc. I'm just guessing. I'd rather see people get to the root of the problem.

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recycling, or concentrating po
written by Alex, March 12, 2008

All else equal it's great to be able to reuse this sludge. It's not like burning or burying it are trouble-free solutions either, burning makes other pollutants and dumps them all into the atmosphere. Burying is clearly unsustainable, and will eventually add the pollutants to groundwater.

But if this practice also serves to concentrate pollution - adding in whatever other junk people dump down the drain (which I would guess is how the heavy metals got there) - then the other options start to look better.

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Eat Your Greens
written by Bee, March 13, 2008

I think this is absolutely disgusting!
I am thinking of all the drugs coming out of this sludge and going into the food

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...
written by wow, November 02, 2008

Thanks for sharing this.

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11-23
written by OPPLE, November 08, 2008

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