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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
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