Dangerous Sewage Sludge

from Poynter.org's "Morning Meeting"


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Dangerous Sewage Sludge

The Gainesville Times reports, "A University of Georgia researcher says that living near land fertilized with sewage sludge can make people ill, and tighter regulations are needed to protect the public.

UGA microbiologist David Lewis, along with agricultural engineering professor David Gattie, caused a stir last month when he published an article in BMC Public Health, a British medical journal.

This was unwelcome news to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has promoted land application as a beneficial way to dispose of sewage sludge.

Sludge is the solid material that's left after most of the water has been removed from raw sewage. Treatment plants in the U.S. produce about 5.6 million dry tons of sludge each year, and 60 percent of it is disposed of through land application. Most of the remainder is stored in landfills.

Here's the Gainsville Times story (page has some useful links):

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20020819/topstories
/460063.html

Here's a link to the study itself:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/2/11/

Sludge Stink In Ohio

Friday, August 16, 2002
Neighbors raise stink over smell
Residents speak out on sludge field

By Steve Kemme, skemme at enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - Larry Baker enjoys having cookouts in his yard and working outdoors. But some evenings, the stench of sludge from a nearby field keeps him inside his Madison Township house.

"This has been going on for a number of years, and it's getting worse as time goes on," Mr. Baker told the Butler County commissioners Thursday. "It's like sitting next to a septic tank."

He asked the commissioners to pressure the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to revoke the permit that allows the city of Middletown to dump sludge on the field on Emerick Avenue. The field is about a half-mile from Mr. Baker's home on Trenton-Franklin Road near Ohio 122.

Mr. Baker said the awful odor is especially noticeable between 8:30 and 9 p.m.

He and 24 neighbors signed a petition asking the county to stop the dumping of sludge on the field.

"We just want the sludge out of there," Mr. Baker said.

"It's gotten to the point where it's unbearable."

The commissioners agreed to talk to Butler County's state legislators and with Middletown officials about the issue.

"We'll see what we can do to help," Commissioner Courtney Combs said.

Mr. Baker said officials told him they had no power to do anything about the dumping permit.

Carol Swallow, who lives a quarter-mile from the sludge site, said the humidity and heat this summer have made the odor worse.

"We have a pool out back," she said. "But sometimes we can't swim because of the odor."

Commissioner Mike Fox said the county is working with a company that's developing a way to recycle sludge.

The recycling process, he said, would eliminate the need to spread it on fields.