Sludge Spread on Fields Is Fodder for Lawsuits

Note error in this story:  organic farmers are not allowed to use sewage
sludge.

June 26, 2003
     Sludge Spread on Fields Is Fodder for Lawsuits
     By JENNIFER 8. LEE


     The farmers outside Augusta, Ga., say the hay had a musty chemical
odor and was dark and mottled. But they fed it to the cows. Then the
cows started to waste away, growing so thin that their ribs could be
counted through their skin, the dairy farmers say. The cows died by the
hundreds.

     "We just couldn't save them," said Andy McElmurray, whose family
has been farming here since 1946. "They wouldn't respond to antibodies.
They wouldn't respond to IV fluids. They wouldn't respond to anything.
They just ended up dying."

     The McElmurrays and the Boyce family, which owns another farm in
the area, Boyceland Dairy, blame the fertilizer they used on their
hayfields - processed sewer sludge from the city of Augusta, which they
say was tainted by industrial waste from surrounding factories. When the
families sued the city, Jim Ellison, the lawyer for Augusta, argued that
the cows' deaths were unrelated to the sludge. On Tuesday, a jury sided
with the Boyces, awarding them $550,000 in damages. The McElmurray suit
is pending.

     Since Congress banned ocean dumping starting in 1992, using
processed sewer sludge as fertilizer has become the most popular way for
municipalities to deal with waste. Sixty percent of the 5.6 million tons
of sewer sludge disposed of in the country is processed, relabeled
"biosolids" and applied to land, according to industry figures.

     There have been no conclusive scientific studies on the link
between sludge and health, and the Environmental Protection Agency,
which regulates the sludge fertilizer industry, has agreed to do more
research.

     But industry representatives and the E.P.A. say complaints are an
exception to an otherwise successful effort. "Biosolids, properly
applied, are safe," said George Clarke, a spokesman for Synagro, a
leading waste management company.

     In fact, many farmers say processed sewer sludge is a cheap and
effective fertilizer, and organic farmers prefer biosolids over chemical
fertilizers. "It actually raised my protein content in my wheat that
goes for milling," said Andy Domenigoni, a farmer in Winchester, Calif.,
who is disappointed that his county banned sludge just over a year ago
because of health concerns.

     But some farmers say that E.P.A. regulation has not guaranteed
safety. There are 15,000 municipal wastewater treatment plants in the
United States - too many for inspectors to visit regularly. These
farmers contend that toxic residues in improperly treated sludge have
hurt health, crops and land.

     One Georgia farmer, H. J. Peterson of Stockbridge, sued DeKalb
County in 1995, saying 61 of his cows died after eating hay grown using
sludge; the suit is pending. Chris Bryan, 31, a road construction worker
from Dublin, Ga., said that tainted hay used in building roads made him
and other workers ill. Mr. Bryan said nausea, chills, shaking and liver
damage forced him to go on disability leave for four months. And
Atwater, Calif., was cited in 1996 by the California Regional Water
Quality Control Board for excessive sludge applications after 13 cows on
two farms died of nitrate poisoning.

     Some environmental and citizens groups are culling what they call
anecdotal evidence of problems linked to sludge. The Cornell Waste
Management Institute has compiled more than 250 sludge-exposure
complaints in more than 25 communities, ranging from dust inhalation to
water runoff contamination. The list includes four lawsuits; two cases
involve deaths. One suit was settled, and the others are continuing.

     James B. Slaughter, a lawyer for Synagro, said the complaints were
relatively few given as "many locations as we are talking about, for as
many states, and as many years."

     In a 2002 report, the National Academy of Sciences looked at the
science behind sludge. "The committee recognizes that land application
of biosolids is a widely used, practical option," the report said. It
noted that while there was "no documented scientific evidence" that the
sludge regulation had failed to protect public health, "additional
scientific work is needed to reduce persistent uncertainty about the
potential for adverse health effects."

     The agricultural use of sewer sludge strikes a delicate balance.
Most processed sludge is organic enough to be fertilizer, but toxic
enough to be regulated. A 1978 E.P.A. memorandum acknowledged the toxic
substances in sludge but said the risks "just have not been demonstrated
to be that great." Sludge should be considered separately from other
toxic wastes because "it contains nutrients and organic matter which
have considerable benefit for land and crops," the memorandum says.
"Most industrial wastes do not have such benefit."

     A Georgia Department of Environmental Protection report, made
public through the Augusta lawsuits, called for ending use of the
fertilizer. "The land application program should be shut down
immediately," it said, in part because the wastewater facility was
"grossly neglected."

     Mark Pollins, director of the water enforcement division at the
E.P.A., said his office had to prioritize use of its limited resources.
"The agency addresses significant harms first," Mr. Pollins said.

     He said the agency issued about 390 administrative orders relating
to sludge from 1997 to 2002 - 110 of them punitive.

     Nonetheless, the E.P.A. inspector general, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and the National Research Council, each citing
the growing anecdotal evidence, have issued reports urging more research
into the effects of sludge.

     The E.P.A. issued a proposal for research in April. "We're taking
a hard look at the issue of the science," said Pamela Barr, a deputy
director of the Office of Science and Technology in the E.P.A.'s office
of water.

     Critics are skeptical that the E.P.A. can objectively assess the
program, given its promotion of sludge since it set new regulations in
1993 under the Clean Water Act.

     For example, a 1994 E.P.A. brochure says that biosolids may
"protect child health." The brochure cites a study showing that animals
that ingest "biosolid-treated soil and dust may have a decreased
absorption of lead into the blood stream, thus lessening the potential
for lead-induced nerve and brain damage."

     A researcher with the Sierra Club, Caroline Snyder, said, "Instead
of protecting the public, they are right there in there with industry
promoting the practice."

     One of the agency's most senior scientists left as a result of a
dispute over sludge research. In May, the agency terminated the
scientist, David Lewis, a 32-year veteran who had published an article
in the journal Nature raising questions about the agency's sludge
research.

     "To me, of all the environmental issues, this is Mount Everest,"
said Dr. Lewis, who won the agency's top science award in 2000. The
Labor Department ruled in 1996 and 1998 that the E.P.A. had retaliated
against him for whistle-blowing.

     Other groups say the E.P.A. research proposal is not rigorous
enough. "It's not looking at health outcomes," said Ellen Harrison, the
director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute, who helped write the
National Research Council report. Ms. Harrison said most of the research
was being done by groups with a history of promoting sludge.

     "There has to be a change in the way that E.P.A. operates," she
said, "so that it's not just lining up the same old guys."



     Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company |

Healthy Heart Fats are Sludge Free Fats

http://www.enn.com/news/2003-05-16/s_3522.asp

Choose wisely for heart-healthy fats

16 May 2003
By Orna Izakson, E/The Environmental Magazine

Some environmentally savvy dieticians say that if you can afford to buy
only one organic food item, it should be culinary oils. They base their
assertions on several things, but at the top of the list is the fact
that
heavy metals (which can show up in sewage sludge used to treat some
nonorganic farms) and industrial chemicals such as pesticides tend to
stick to fats.

Many common cooking oils — canola, soy, and cottonseed chief among
them — are genetically engineered to withstand more pesticide spraying
than their common counterparts. Although the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) finds them safe for human consumption,
environmentalists are increasingly concerned about the effects on the
ecosystem and on their bodies. One way to make sure GE plants are not
in your food is to buy organic.

Further, noncertified oils and those not labeled "cold" or "expeller"
pressed may be extracted using the solvent n-hexane, a nervous system
toxin. N-hexane, made from crude oil, primarily raises health concerns
for
workers exposed to it as it evaporates. The FDA does approve chemically
extracted oils, but people who choose to buy organic may find such
assurances inadequate.

Critical Building Blocks

Despite the real concerns about too much fat in modern diets, the right
amounts of the right kind of high-quality oils are critical for health.
Fats
make up the building blocks of hormones and are especially critical for
babies as they develop their nervous systems, since the oils help coat
growing nerve cells.

"Oil is very important," explained Dr. Chris Meletis, a naturopathic
physician and dean of the National College of Naturopathic
Medicine. "Without oil, there's increased inflammation, altered
immunity,
and increased menstrual cramps." He said fats "are critical for the
creation of every cell."

Fats have gotten a bad rap because two kinds — saturated and transfatty
acids — feed heart disease. Saturated fats come from both animal and
plant sources. Oils with high saturated content are generally solid at
room
temperature: Think of coconut and palm oils, or butter and lard.

Transfatty acids occur when oils are modified to make them solid at room

temperature, as in the case of margarine. That process, known as
hydrogenation, also reduces or eliminates many of the healthy
components of the oil.

Dietician Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington

University, says transfatty acids and saturated fats cause the same
kinds
of heart-health problems. She recommends using oils in lieu of hardened
fat whenever possible. That might make for a denser cake, she says, but
the health benefits are worth it.

But other types of fats are critical to good health. Monounsaturated
fats
actually help undo the heart-blocking effects of saturated fats. Olive,
canola, peanut, sesame, almond, apricot, avocado, and high-oleic
safflower and sunflower oils each have more than 50 percent
monounsaturated fats, according to Spectrum Naturals, a leading oil
distributor.

Polyunsaturated fats, composed of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids,
also have some cholesterol-lowering properties. They are also the most
important oils nutritionally, because the body can't synthesize them.
But
getting the right balance isn't always easy. Most dieticians say the
body
needs two or three times as much Omega-3 as Omega-6. (This is bad
news for hemp advocates, since their oil has the reverse ratio.) Common
culinary oils such as canola, corn, safflower, sunflower, walnut,
sesame,
and soy are rich sources of Omega-6 but offer little if any Omega-3.
Canola and hemp both have better ratios but remain relatively heavy on
plentiful Omega-6.

Flax seed oil is the best vegetable source for righting the Omega-6 to
Omega-3 imbalance, with a ratio reverse that of hemp. Fish such as cod,
salmon, and mackerel are also excellent sources of Omega-3s. Their oil
is available in supplements but also survives cooking in the meat.
Plant-
based sources should not be heated.

Care and Handling

All oils need to be protected from heat and light, which oxidize them
and
make them rancid. Oils high in Omega-3 are particularly sensitive and
should be refrigerated.

Aside from smelling and tasting bad, rancid oils are high in free
radicals,
said Jim Gallagher, a professor of nutrition at Bastyr University. Free
radicals bond to protein layers in the body and break them down, leading

to a host of health problems.

Oils can go rancid over time simply by exposure to air, so Gallagher
recommends buying oils in small quantities so they are used quickly.
Bulk bins often leave oils exposed to oxygen, but if the oil sells
quickly it
will have little time to develop problems. Clean containers well so
you're
not adding good oil to rancid remnants.

Heating oils speeds the oxidation process, which is one reason fried
food
is bad for you. Burned oils — those that start to smoke — can be
downright dangerous: "A lot of oils when they get superheated turn into
cancer-causing agents," Meletis said. That's true of burned popcorn oil
and the smoking oil that comes up from the coals during a barbecue.

To avoid such problems, choose the right oil for the job. For high-heat
frying, searing, and browning at temperatures up to 500 degrees
Fahrenheit, Spectrum Naturals recommends super canola oil, almond,
apricot kernel, high-oleic safflower or sunflower, peanut, or soybean
oils.
For stir frying and baking below 375 degrees, try canola, walnut,
sunflower, or sesame. Use olive, corn, or any of the higher-heat oils
for
sauces, baking, or light sautéing under 320 degrees. Save flax, hemp,
wheat germ, borage, and black currant oils for salads or for drizzling
on
foods after cooking.

The Canola Controversy

Canola oil — made from the seed of a broccoli relative unfortunately
named "rape" — has become controversial among health food advocates
in recent years. The debate began with an article in Perceptions
magazine, which describes itself as "dedicated to the wholeness of life
and sovereignty of the human being." The article made several claims,
including that canola is an industrial lubricant and a carcinogen.

According to the FDA, rape plants (also known as wild mustard) were
grown for centuries in Central Europe, and oil extracted from the seed
was used extensively in Canada during World War II as a substitute for
scarce petroleum lubricants. But animal studies of long-term consumption

of rapeseed oil linked one of its constituents, erucic acid, to heart
lesions.
Canadians began cross-pollinating the rape plants and, by the 1970s,
developed a variety that contains less than 2 percent erucic acid. That
oil,
known as Canadian oil or canola, is what appears on supermarket
shelves today.

No one contacted for this story could link canola to cancer beyond the
concerns associated with overheating. Some of the concern appears to
be a misunderstanding of the difference between hybridization (the kind
of
cross-pollination that developed corn larger than a finger or wheat that

doesn't shatter until it's ready for harvest) and genetic engineering,
which
uses laboratory procedures to add genes that were never naturally
present in the plant. Canola has been the subject of both kinds of
modification, first to lower erucic acid levels and then to increase
pesticide resistance. And while pesticide-heavy, genetically engineered
canola is a concern for many people, organic varieties are free from
both.

Cindy Moore, director of nutrition therapy at the Cleveland Clinic
Foundation, recommends canola oil because it has low saturated fat
levels, a good balance of mono- and polyunsaturated fats, and even
contains up to 10 percent Omega-3. It takes the heat of baking and mid-
range stir frying.

Meletis of the National College of Naturopathic Medicine won't weigh in
on
the controversy himself but said he opts for olive over canola. He said,
"I
never suggested canola even before the controversy because the
Mediterranean diet has been proven to be heart friendly and generally
promotes overall good health."

Orna Izakson uses natural oils in Portland, Ore.