To: President Donald Trump
The new EPA administrator must ban the land-application of sewage sludge biosolids
Mr. President, please appoint a new EPA administrator who will ban the land-application of sewage sludge biosolids. EPA must no longer ignore the warnings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Cornell Waste Management Institute, the Sierra Club, dozens of other health, farm, and environmental organizations, and its own scientists, who all emphasize the hazards of the current sludge policies.
Why is this important?
IF YOU EAT, THIS ISSUE CONCERNS YOU. The basics: After ocean dumping of sewage sludge was banned, spreading it on the land became the next cheapest option. Regulations were drawn up by EPA, arm and arm with municipalities (the producers) who want to save money, and spreaders (corporations) who make huge profits on waste disposal. The sewage sludge name was changed to “biosolids” and the product (toxic waste) is now given to landowners as free “fertilizer”. Full disclosure of the sludge contents is not required and indeed is impossible to ascertain. Only 10 components are regulated, while there are close to 100,000 possible known and secret (proprietary) chemicals that could be present and interacting. As well, sludge contains pathogens, antibiotics and other medications including endocrine disrupters, slaughter house and morgue wastes, and everything else that goes down the drain. All these pollutants are concentrated in the sludge as the waste water treatment plant purifies the water so it can legally re-enter the water system. The landowner is told about the nitrogen content in the sludge and about the amount of money that can be saved on fertilizer, while the risks to human health and that of the environment are ignored. These pollutants and toxins, once applied to agricultural land, become absorbed into the food chain.
Land applied sewage sludge has sickened people, killed livestock, polluted water, and degraded healthy soil. Many countries, including Japan and Switzerland, now ban the practice. Sewage sludge biosolids do not belong on the land where we grow our food or graze our animals.
Land applied sewage sludge has sickened people, killed livestock, polluted water, and degraded healthy soil. Many countries, including Japan and Switzerland, now ban the practice. Sewage sludge biosolids do not belong on the land where we grow our food or graze our animals.