FARMER'S CAVEAT II
http://www.eidn.com.au/ukcsirosewagesludge.htm#(iii)%20Toxic%20Organics
"Many pesticides such as dieldrin, heptachlor and chlordane have been found in sewage sludge, along with a variety of
other chlorinated organic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls. Such compounds when ingested by
animals tend to accumulate in the body fat where they can persist for many months or years. Some plants
such as lucerne, cowpeas or oats are known to take up organochlorine pesticides into their tissues, although the route
of uptake has not been clearly determined. As such compounds tend to become more concentrated in each
animal group up the food chain, human beings are at significant risk of having the highest concentrations
of these pesticides, which have caused cancer in laboratory animals."
"There have already been several incidents in Australia (e.g. Werribee) of cattle contaminated with
organochlorine residues after grazing on sludge treated land. A major problem appears to be that close
cropping animals tend to ingest significant quantities of soil as well as plants."
"In sharp contrast to these microtoxins, laundry detergents and surface cleaners are produced in large
amounts and are quantitatively the most important synthetic organic compounds in municipal wastewater.
Compounds such as linear alkylbenzenesulphonates (LAS) and nonylphenolpolyethoxylates (NPnEO),
although partially degraded under aerobic conditions, are lipophilic and not degraded anaerobically.
Consequently, they and their degradation products, such as nonylphenol, become highly enriched in
sewage sludge at concentrations in the range 1-10g/kg total dry solids. This represents a concentration at
least 1,000 fold greater than found for the chlorinated organic micropollutants.
http://www.eidn.com.au/ukcsirosewagesludge.htm#(iii)%20Toxic%20Organics
" (i) Pathogens
Most pathogens in the raw sewage are concentrated into the sewage sludge and present a considerable
hazard when any handling of the sludge is contemplated. They can be separated into four categories - viruses,
bacteria, protozoans and larger parasites such as human roundworms, tapeworms and liver flukes. Such
microorganisms can cause disease in humans, the transmission occuring in several ways eg by inhaling
sludge aerosols or dust, by eating vegetables or fruit contaminated by sludge, drinking water contaminated
by run-off or by eating meat from livestock infected whilst grazing pastures fertilised with sludge.
http://thailand2009.blogspot.com/2007/06/sewage-sludge-as-fertilizer-in-soybean.html
Tawadchai Suppadit
The Graduate Program in Environmental Management, School of Social Development and Environment, National
Institute of Development
Administration, Bangkapi, Bangkok 10240, Thailand
SEWAGE SLUDGE AS FERTILIZER IN SOYBEAN PRODUCTION
The results showed that soybean growth, yield, yield components, seed quality, protein and lipid were significant (P<0.
05), showing the best potential productivity at 5% by weight and being better than chemical fertilizer. The residues of
heavy metals (lead, cadmium and mercury) accumulated in leaves and seeds, including in soil before and
after the study were also significant (P<0.05) related to the quantity of sewage sludge used. Soil nutrients of
all treatments were also significant (P<0.05). The data varied similarly to the residues of heavy metals. The replacement
of sewage sludge for chemical fertilizer in plant production including soybean could be as a nutrient source. However, it
must used in an appropriate rate. Moreover that, it should not be used in plants for human and animal
consumption because heavy metals may accumulate in plant products.
ILLINOIS
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0411090232nov09,1,6836178.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Radium filtering
doesn't get rid of it
It's taken out of water but put on land, in rivers
By Michael Hawthorne
Tribune staff reporter
Published November 9, 2004
Dozens of northeastern Illinois communities are stripping their drinking water of cancer-causing radium, only to dump
the radioactive element back into the environment in sludge spread on farm fields and wastewater pumped
into rivers and streams.
State officials say the disposal methods won't threaten human health, food crops or wildlife. But critics, including some
federal regulators, fear that in the rush to make drinking water safer, towns might be trading one radium
problem for another.
"In an August draft report intended to give local officials advice about radium treatment and disposal
methods, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concluded that spreading radium-contaminated sludge
on corn and soybean fields could create radium hot spots that would require future cleanup."
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CANADA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Maureen Reilly" <maureen.reilly@sympatico.ca>
To: <Sludgewatch-l@list.web.net>
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 10:55 AM
Subject: Sludge Watch ==> Ontario ordered to pay farm family $1.7M afterfarm
contaminated with waste
Sludgewatch Admin:
This is a signal court victory for this farm family...who bought a farm that
had been dumped with roadway construction wastes. In assessing this award
to the family and requiring the Province of Ontario to pay the family $1.7M
the courts have sent a shot across the bow.
Ontario has recently allowed farms to take off-farm waste into farm
digesters - opening to the door to untold contamination as farms are used as
unlicenced waste sites. Similarly the huge mountains of papermill sludge
that sit decomposing and leaching into groundwater on dozens of farm fields
while the Province looks the other way are lawsuits waiting to happen.
JUSTICE
Ontario ordered to pay family $1.7-million after farm was contaminated
ALLISON JONES
The Canadian Press
January 25, 2008
TORONTO -- An Ontario judge has ordered the provincial government to pay
more than $1.7-million to a family whose dairy farm was contaminated by
concrete and asphalt, writing in her decision that officials took a
"cavalier and careless attitude" to "what was obviously a serious problem."
The decision was made after a 14-year court battle between the Ontario
government and the family, who had to go all the way to the Supreme Court of
Canada to have the case brought to trial.
When Ben and Maria Berendsen bought their farm in Teviotdale, northwest of
Kitchener, in 1981, they were unaware that surface waste from highway
reconstruction had been buried there in the 1960s.
Within a year of taking possession of the property, an unusual number of the
Berendsens' cows fell sick and died. Some were deemed unfit for human
consumption, and eventually dead-stock haulers refused to accept the
Berendsens' dead animals.
"The cows sensed there was something wrong with the water," the Berendsens'
lawyer, Richard Lindgren, said Wednesday. "The cows would drink just enough
water to stay alive, but not enough to really thrive and produce sufficient
quantities of milk."
By the late 1980s, the family began experiencing health problems, such as
hair loss and stomach aches, and they stopped drinking the farm's well
water.
“In 1990, the government installed an underground water storage tank and paid
for clean water to be delivered to the farm every other day. But after
nearly three years, the government stopped paying for the shipments, forcing
the Berendsens to pick up the tab of between $2,500 and $3,000 a month.”
“They still own the contaminated property - now abandoned - because nobody
wants to buy it, Mr. Lindgren said.”
MAINE – SLUDGE TO DOMTAR LANDFILL – PEOPLE DON’T WANT IT FOR “FERTILIZER” ANY MORE
http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=112491&z=177
Baileyville, Domtar work out sludge deal
Saturday, April 23, 2005 - Bangor Daily News
BAILEYVILLE - A cooperative effort between the town and its largest employer for sludge disposal will save taxpayers
thousands of dollars, town officials announced this week. The Montreal-based Domtar Industries Inc. has
relicensed its pulp and paper mill landfill to accept the town's dry sludge, "which means that we don't have
to haul it off, at great cost, to a facility outside of the county," Town Manager Scott Harriman said recently.
Gardy Rolfe, superintendent of the town's wastewater treatment plant, said trucking the sludge to the
nearby Domtar landfill would save the town around $12,000 a year.
In the past, dried sludge was used as fertilizer. Rolfe said property owners invited the town to spread it on
their land. "The people don't want it anymore," Rolfe said. "Plus it's such a problem, when you have a wet
summer, to get onto the fields. Then you end up in the fall with a real short time to do it, and sometimes you don't get it
done." He said that last year's wet summer was problematic.
http://business.scotsman.com/agriculture.cfm?id=436332005
Sun 24 Apr 2005
Scots farmers turn up their noses at using human waste on fields
KATH GOURLAY AND JEREMY WATSON
jwatson@scotlandonsunday.com excerpts
IT MAY not be to everyone’s taste but it is certainly causing a stink. A row has broken out between food producers and
scientists in Scotland over the controversial use of human fertiliser on farmland.
“But some producers fear that, despite scientific assurances, consumers will reject food that has been produced in this
way. One local meat co-operative is already considering withdrawing from QMS over concerns its
reputation will suffer and others may follow suit.
Edgar Balfour, manager of Orkney Meat, said: "Scientifically it’s not an issue, but the general public are the
people who will or won’t buy our product. “
“
Cheesemakers in the Orkney Islands are also concerned their products will be tainted by accusations they come from
cows that graze on land covered with human waste.
Hilda Seator supplies Grimbister Farm cheese to Harrods and the Savoy.
She said: "Never would I use milk from such land. It makes your stomach churn."
“The threat of a boycott if customers find out, however, is not an idle one.
Tim Deakin, the marketing manager of Orkney Cheese, said: "We’ve got a very high-quality reputation - and
reputations can be lost overnight.
"We have written to all the dairy producers in the area saying we would not accept milk from animals fed on
human waste by-products."
Deakin added that, as a firm supplying major supermarket outlets such as Tesco, Safeway and Asda, it could
not afford the adverse publicity. "It’s a marketing nightmare we were not willing to be part of."
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