Can anyone give scientific evidence that sewage sludge is harmful?

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In our near by sludge treatment plant the sludge is spread over the land . Is this harmful? Is there any scientific evidence or study carried out indicating that this is harmful??

6 Answers

  1. Tia, in many countries treated domestic sewage sludge are used beneficially in agriculture, composting and land rehabilitation and there's an abundance of evidence for this. Depending where you are there must be disposal guidelines for municipal sewage sludge. A specific answer can be given if you can mention the country you are living in.

  2. We've reduced our landfill usage by 95% using direct application and composting.

    The following is from our treatment plant web site...

     

     

    Biosolids Beneficial Reuse Program
    Committed to responsible, economical reuse

    Laguna Composting Facility

    Before the Biosolids Beneficial Reuse Program was introduced at the Laguna Treatment Plant in 1985, all the solids that passed through the plant went to the Sonoma County landfill. By 1997, only a third of the biosolid material was sent to landfill; the remaining two-thirds were used in land application as fertilizer or turned into marketable compost. Currently, with stepped up land application and composting programs, only five percent of the biosolids reach the landfill.

    In land application (or land spread), a total of 11,000 wet tons of highly treated biosolids are trucked to local farms each year where it is used as fertilizer or soil amendment on fodder crops (i.e., animal feed and fiber crops). Land application is the most economical use of biosolids. It increases crop yields for the farmers, reduces disposal costs for the City, and conserves landfill space. However, public perception and changing government regulations could prevent land spread in the future, or make it prohibitively expensive.

    The compost product has many valuable local uses

    Turning biosolids into compost is a more involved and expensive process than land application, but the end product is marketable and its use is approved by the EPA for gardening as well as landscape application in places such as parks, schools, and golf courses. As part of the composting process, yard or green waste collected curbside by area refuse companies is used as a bulking agent. About one part biosolids is blended with four parts green waste. Treatment and processing takes about two weeks, and then the product is cured for at least another 30 days. The Laguna Composting Facility produces approximately 12,000 cubic yards of compost each year, most of which is sold on the bulk market.

    A byproduct of treating and processing biosolids is methane gas. At the Laguna Treatment Plant, this gas is used to generate about thirty percent of the energy needed to run the plant.

    In 2005, a new storage facility was added, which allows what is produced in winter to be stored until spring and summer, when there is greater demand for land application and compost materials. In 2006, a new type of belt press was approved and installed for the processing facility. The belt press removes water from the solid waste, while also transporting the biosolids from one step in the process to another. The equipment is more efficient in that it allows the sludge to be pumped rather than conveyed.

    Watch the Biosolids Reuse Video

    Biosolids Beneficial Reuse Program
    Committed to responsible, economical reuse

    Laguna Composting Facility

    Before the Biosolids Beneficial Reuse Program was introduced at the Laguna Treatment Plant in 1985, all the solids that passed through the plant went to the Sonoma County landfill. By 1997, only a third of the biosolid material was sent to landfill; the remaining two-thirds were used in land application as fertilizer or turned into marketable compost. Currently, with stepped up land application and composting programs, only five percent of the biosolids reach the landfill.

    In land application (or land spread), a total of 11,000 wet tons of highly treated biosolids are trucked to local farms each year where it is used as fertilizer or soil amendment on fodder crops (i.e., animal feed and fiber crops). Land application is the most economical use of biosolids. It increases crop yields for the farmers, reduces disposal costs for the City, and conserves landfill space. However, public perception and changing government regulations could prevent land spread in the future, or make it prohibitively expensive.

    The compost product has many valuable local uses

    Turning biosolids into compost is a more involved and expensive process than land application, but the end product is marketable and its use is approved by the EPA for gardening as well as landscape application in places such as parks, schools, and golf courses. As part of the composting process, yard or green waste collected curbside by area refuse companies is used as a bulking agent. About one part biosolids is blended with four parts green waste. Treatment and processing takes about two weeks, and then the product is cured for at least another 30 days. The Laguna Composting Facility produces approximately 12,000 cubic yards of compost each year, most of which is sold on the bulk market.

    A byproduct of treating and processing biosolids is methane gas. At the Laguna Treatment Plant, this gas is used to generate about thirty percent of the energy needed to run the plant.

    In 2005, a new storage facility was added, which allows what is produced in winter to be stored until spring and summer, when there is greater demand for land application and compost materials. In 2006, a new type of belt press was approved and installed for the processing facility. The belt press removes water from the solid waste, while also transporting the biosolids from one step in the process to another. The equipment is more efficient in that it allows the sludge to be pumped rather than conveyed.

    Watch the Biosolids Reuse Video

  3. Dear Tia A, There are several Studies conducted on using the Domestic Sludge as Soil Conditioner or by adding some NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium) to give it complete Fertilizer Qualities. Many part of the world it is being used after some basic treatments: A few excerpts are for your consideration as follows; A Joint Study/Research Conducted by: Nuclear Institute of Agriculture (NIA), Tandojam, Sindh, Pakistan National Centre of Excellence, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Sindh Pakistan, Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan. "The high nutrients and organic matter contents of sewage sludge make it an excellent fertilizer to enhance soil fertility and crop production. However, presence of metals is a major problem for such a utilization of sludge. It may be concluded that application of sewage sludge was good for improving crop yield but it was also a source of metals. Therefore monitoring of metals, in soils as well as in plant parts, should always be carried out in case of continuous use of sewage sludge." [Reference: Pak. J. Bot., 39(7): 2511-2517, 2007.] ========================== By USEPA, please read Fertilizers Made From Domestic Septage and Sewage Sludge (Biosolids) on the following link: http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/tfer.html Another Detailed Link http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/30004O9U.TXT?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=1995+Thru+1999&Docs=&Query=&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=1&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&IntQFieldOp=0&ExtQFieldOp=0&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A%5Czyfiles%5CIndex%20Data%5C95thru99%5CTxt%5C00000003%5C30004O9U.txt&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h%7C-&MaximumDocuments=1&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r75g8/r75g8/x150y150g16/i425&Display=p%7Cf&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=1&SeekPage=x&ZyPURL And Another Link http://www.fao.org/docrep/T0551E/t0551e08.htm I hope this details are sufficient for your satisfaction. Thank you, Best regards, Engr. Mansoor Ahmed - PhD. Scholar Environmental Engineering M. Engg., M.Sc., B. Engg., Post Graduate Certified PMP, Advanced PMP Chief Executive - Associate Professor ABAMET Environmental Technologies Pakistan - AETP Global Environmental Engineering Technologies - GEET Karachi, Pakistan Tel : +92 21 3705 9951 Cell: +92 333 2444781 Skype: dr.mansoorahmed Email mansoorahmed70@gmail.com; mansoorahmed@abamet.com.pk ; mansoorahmed@geet.com.pk

  4. Thanks Gary and Felcia. The sludge which is spread on our land is from municipal sludge treatment plant.

  5. yes,it is harmful

     

    Sewage is the mix of water and whatever wastes from domestic and industrial life are flushed into the sewer. To retrieve the precious water, the sewage is then “treated,” that is, “cleaned,” in what are called “treatment plants.”  The ideal of the treatment plant is to take out of the sewer water all the “wastes” that sewering put into it.  The water is “cleaned” in the degree to which the pollutants which had turned the water into sewage are removed by treatment-primary, secondary, or tertiary-and concentrated in the sludge. Please note that, though the aim of sewage treatment is to produce clean water, it is never to produce “clean” sludge.  Indeed, the “dirtier” the sludge-the more complete its concentration of the noxious wastes-the more the treatment has done its job. Sewage sludge contains everything the sewage treatment plant was able to remove from the sewage - plus every new chemical and pathogen formed in the mad synergy of this chemical soup, including virulent, antibiotic-resistant bacteria created through horizontal gene transfer.

  6. The risk is enormous. Prion disease is always deadly. There is no cure. There is no way to neutralize deadly prions in sewage. Prions migrate, mutate and multiply. People with Creutzfeldt Jakobs disease, Alzheimers and other prion diseases are infected with deadly prions. They proceed to contaminate their environment with their bodily fluids (urine, feces, saliva, blood, etc). If just one person with prion disease has used your sewage system, the system is permanently contaminated. Everything discharged from that plant is contaminated. Watersheds that receive the biosolids are contaminated. Every time that it rains on the biosolds, water runoff can spread prions to groundwater. Rain and irrigation can spread prions via surface water runoff--into creeks, ponds, streams, lakes, rivers and oceans. Cattle and other animals that graze on land with biosolids will uptake soil as they graze, which exposes them to prion disease (better known as Mad Cow disease). Therefore, biosolids threaten food and water supplies. See my posts on prion diseases at www.GaryChandler.com (go into the archives and find "Pandora's Lunchbox" for citations and further detail. Contact me and I will add perspective.