| Action | Amendment of Regulations Pertaining to Biosolids After Transfer from the Department of Health |
| Stage | Proposed |
| Comment Period | Ended on 4/29/2011 |
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Those promoting the current land application policies don’t just spread sludge.
They spread myths:
1. Myth: Sludge is fertilizer.
Fact: According to the Federal Clean Water Act, sewage sludge is a pollutant.
2. Myth: Sludge only contains what’s flushed down household drains or toilets.
Fact: Sludge contains industrial hazardous chemical compounds, toxic metals, surfactants, pharmaceuticals, carcinogens, and disease causing pathogens. Every month, every business and industry in the country is allowed to discharge 33 pounds of hazardous waste into sewage treatment plants. Most of these contaminants concentrate in the resultant sewage sludge.
3. Myth: Sludge is safe because it is tested.
Fact: Only a fraction of the tens of thousands of man-made chemicals in this complex mixture is tested and regulated. Regulating and monitoring individual components, while ignoring the toxicity of breakdown products and interactions, does not assure safety. A 2002 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel warned that the risks of this unpredictable contaminated waste can not be reliably assessed.
4. Myth: Sludge spreading is safe because it is based on sound science.
Fact: The NAS panel concluded otherwise. Current state and federal rules are based on outdated or lack of science. Former EPA Deputy Administrator, Paul Gilman admitted that his agency can no longer guarantee the safety of sludge spreading and that the whole issue “has to be revisited.” Because of so many reported “incidents,” EPA no longer promotes land application.
5. Myth :“Natural biology” breaks down the chemicals; “cooking kills the pathogens.”
Fact: Toxic metals never break down. They accumulate in the soil or are picked up by animals and plants. Treatment inactivates most of the indicator pathogens. But more robust disease-causing pathogens can survive and re-grow, especially if sludge is stockpiled in cool and moist climates. One of the most dangerous emerging pathogens, E.coli0157:H7, can survive the treatment process and survive in soil.
6. Myth: New Hampshire rules are among the strictest in the nation.
Fact: Totally false. NH sludge management rules are among the most lenient in the nation. NH permits lengthy stockpiling, grazing on sludged dairy pastures, mixing sewage sludge with industrial sludge, has no pH monitoring requirement, permits sludge (at 500 tons per acre!) on spent sand pits located above stratified drift aquifers, and does not require sludge to be incorporated into the soil.
7. Myth: Sludge farming is a sustainable practice. You can use sludge forever.
Fact: The few European countries that still use sludge have much stricter regulations to protect agricultural soil. The US lets toxic materials accumulate in soils, until there is a 50% yield reduction. By then, farms have been turned into low-level waste dumps. We know of NO published scientific study that indicates that using sludge on farmland or forests is safe or sustainable.
8. Myth: Class A EQ sludge is so safe you can eat it.
Fact: Class A EQ sludge can legally contain up to 32 mg/kg of arsenic, 14 mg/kg of cadmium, 10 mg/kg of mercury, 300 mg/kg of lead, copper and zinc way in excess of what is needed for healthy crops, as well as potentially harmful organic chemical compounds and viable disease-causing pathogens. Yet use of this material is essentially unregulated in the state.
9. Myth: Only a vocal uneducated minority questions the current sludge policies.
Fact: The National Academy of Sciences is hardly uneducated. Neither are internationally renown soil scientists of the Cornell Waste Management Institute. The National Farmers Union opposes the use of sludge for farming, as do grassroots environmental organizations across nation. Food processing companies such as Heinz and Monsanto will not accept produce grown on sludged land.
10. Myth: Sludge has never impacted people, livestock, or groundwater.
Fact: False. Hundreds of sludge-exposed rural people have reported serious respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses. In Greenland NH, dozens of neighbors got seriously ill, and one young man died, after 610 tons of sludge were chain dragged on a ten acre hayfield located next to their houses. Cattle have been killed by ingesting forage, grown on sludged fields. New Hampshire and Maine drinking water sources have been impacted. Industry lobbying groups, such as NEBRA, are covering up these reported and documented incidents.
11. Myth: There are no other solutions to our septage and sludge disposal crisis.
Fact: Sludges and other nonrecyclable wastes can and are being used beneficially as a renewable source of clean energy without environmental impacts.
2-23-07 For documentation and additional information contact info@sludgefacts.org and visitwww.sludgefacts.org