SLUDGE
Government:
EPA'S OFFICE OF WASTE WATER MANAGEMENT
BIOSOLIDS GENERATION STATISTICS
Organizations:
- National Sludge Alliance Fact Sheets
- Sewage Sludge Homepage
- GreenBeat! TOC
- Safe Soil - Björn Gillberg, Scientist, Miljöcentrum and environment/consumer advocate. The following excerpts are from the editorial magazine Environment and the Future (Miljö och Framtid), No. 6,1996 - The farm turned waste dump:
"Conventional [chemical] phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers contain, in fact, lower levels of heavy metals [than are found in sludge] and none of modern industrial society's synthetic chemicals."
"The rules set by SNV (the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency) regulate how much of the nitrogen and phosphorous can be provided through sludge. The agency has also determined the maximum levels of lead, cadmium, copper, chromium, mercury, nickel and zinc allowed in sludge [to be land applied]. There are also maximum levels of these metals allowed for agricultural soils. If these levels are exceeded, sludge may not be applied to that soil. [However] there are no regulated maximum levels for synthetic or organic chemicals such as solvents, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, disinfecting chemicals, or hormone mimicking chemicals. In other words, it has been and still is permitted to spread sludge on farmland containing unlimited levels of DDT, PCB, phenols, chlorine phenols, dioxins, etc. Many of these compounds are taken up by growing plants and will become part of our food. Furthermore, a grazing cow ingests on average about two pounds of soil per day!" [And that ingested soil would, of course, contain sludge.]
A Letter on SLUDGE from Professor David Pimentel, Ecology and Agricultural Sciences, Cornell University. "Although sludge might be viewed as a beneficial resource with valuable nutrients, the risks of applying the sludge to agricultural lands has too many risks for the available benefits."
Sludge Information /Resources List Working Paper, March, 1999
Charlotte Hartman, National Sludge Alliance
- Informative site that warns about certain "fertilizers": Florida
http://members.tripod.com/~banbenlate/index.htmlbenlate - Fear in the Fields, Duff Wilson, Seattle Times special series, July
1997; PO Box 1926, Seattle, WA 98111; by mail $1; or
http://www.seattletimes.com/news/special#fields - Sludge Information Web Sites
http://www.essential.org/cchw/nsa/nsaindex.html Center for Health,
Environment & Justice, also CCHW. - http://www.hookele.com/cure The Hawaii Environment & Health News
- http://www.nosludge.org Antelope Valley, CA
- http://www.websida.com/danger Sweden
- http://www.devenswatch.org Fort Devens, MA
- http://www.riles.org ReSource Institute for Low Entropy Systems in
Boston - http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/Reports/SludgeMemo/sludge.html
Environmental Working Group - http://www.monitor.net/rachel/rehw-index.html Rachel's Newsletters
- http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/pen/issues/sludge/index.html
Pennsylvania Environmental Network - General Accounting Office (GAO) Reports ordered by phone (202) 312-6000. The first issue is free.
- Nuclear Regulation: Action Needed to Control Radioactive Contamination
at Sewage Treatment Plants (May 1994, GOA/RECED-94-133) - Environmental Protection Interim Actions to Better Control Cement Kiln
Dust (August, 1995, GAO/RECED 95-192) - EPA/Allegations by Employees (whistleblowers) GAO/RCED-99-61R, January, 1999 released 3/1/99
- Nuclear Regulation: Action Needed to Control Radioactive Contamination
- Cornell - The Case For Caution Recommendations For Land application of
Sewage Sludges and An appraisal of the US EPA's Part 503 Sludge Rules by
Ellen Harrison, Murray B. McBride and David R.Bouldin, Working Paper
August 1997 Revised February 1999 To order write to Cornell Waste
Management Institute, 100Rice Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
14853-3601. Call (607) 255-1187
Web site http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/wmi - The Science of the Unpleasant: Risk Assessment and Urban Sludge Panel
Presentation at the American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science,
February 14, 1998 (also available from Cornell) - Methyl Mercury Contamination and Emission to the Atmosphere from Soil
Amended with Municipal Sewage Sludge, Anthony Carpi, toxicology, Journal
Environ. Quality 26:1650-1655 (1997) Genetic Analysis of Drinking Water
Pathogens on web
http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/%7Escience/faculty/carpi/home.htm - Genetic Polymorphism among Cryptosporidium Parvum Isolates: Evidence of
Two Distinct Human Transmission Cycles, CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases
Vol. 3 NO 4, 1997 to order (404) 639-3311
Web http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol3no4/beard.htm Comment: This
report suggests that the Milwaukee outbreak was from sewage overflows
and inadequate treatment - Emerging Infectious Diseases New Reemerging and Drug Resistant Diseases
Role of the Sanitarian Ralph J. Torch, US Department of Health and Human
Service presented at Fourth World Congress on Environ. Health May 27-31,
1996 http://atsdr - Enumerating Salmonella in biosolids for compliance with pathogen
regulations, William A. Yanko et. al, Water Environment Research , Vol.
67, No 3, 1995 - Recycling Human Waste: fertile Ground or Toxic Legacy? By Gary Gardener,
World Watch Magazine Jan/Feb 1998 address Worldwatch Institute, 1776
Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036 - University of Pittsburgh laboratory research has concluded that HIV risk
does exist for wastewater workers because it remains stable for up to 12
hours. CDC contends that the study does not reflect how HIV behaves in
the natural environment. Because HIV is fatal, even a small risk is a
problem and health experts recommend employees be educated about the
dangers and trained to minimize risk of workplace exposure. For
information on workplace pathogens CDC (404) 639-2239 OSHA 800-356-4674
(Industrial Wastewater Jan/Feb 1998) - THE WORKBOOK, Southwest Research and Information Center, PO Box 4524,
105 Stanford SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106; Tel (505) 346-1455; Fax (505)
346-1459 Activists search for answers about sludge and its impact on
our food supply, Summer, 1998 (Copies $3.50 ) - Rachel's Environmental & Health Weekly sludge related issues #560, #561,
#564 # 636
Tel (410) 263-1584 (web site listed above) - Toxic Sludge is Good for You! by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton to
order (608) 238-2236 Chapter 8, the Sludge Hits the Fan is available on
http://www.envirolink.org/enviroissues/sludge/sludge.html - Dying from Dioxin by Lois Gibbs and CHEJ (703) 237-2249
Living Downstream by Sandra Stiengraber (ecologist looks at cancer and
the environment) - Our Stolen Future by Theo Colburn, Dianne Dumanoski, John Peterson
Meyers (available at bookstores) - Endocrine disrupter video cassette series for loan. Contact your local
library Interlibrary Loan Dept. Request should be made to Librarian
World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th St. NW, Washington, DC 20037-1175 email
carla.langeveld@wwfus.org (loans cannot be made to individuals) - National Research Council Use of Reclaimed Water and Sludge in Food Crop
Production
Telephone order (800) 624-6242 - New York Health Department Study of Composting site in Islip,
(Bioaresols) Telephone order (800) 438-1138 - David L. Lewis, microbial ecology, works as a research microbiologist
for US EPA Ecosystems Research Division, and is an adjunct scientist at
the University of Georgia. "Out of Control: Ten Case Studies in
Regulatory Abuse." Excerpt from 'Sludge Magic' at the EPA "according
to scientists working for EPA Office of Research & Development, the
sludge rule on land application of municipal wastes (40 CFR Part 503)
promulgated in 1993 may be the most scientifically unsound action ever
taken by the agency. Rather than being protective, the rule actually
threatens public health and the environment."
http://members.aol.com/lewisdavel/ - Land farming Sludge Fact Pack, CHEJ, PO Box 6806, Falls Church, VA 22040
Tel (703) 237-2249 ($7.00) - Impact of Sludge Disposal on Human Health and the Food Chain, Citizens'
Environmental Coalition, 33Central Ave., Albany, NY 12210 (518)
462-5527 ($10) - State by State data on drinking water systems with health violations,
toxic chemical discharges directly to water, and more http://www.ewg.org - For researched company background information EBIC (814) 867-7341 email
ebic@environlink.org