land application of sewage sludge biosolids

Earlier this year, the US EPA made news when it released a list of unregulated, untested, unmonitored toxic metals and industrial chemicals, drugs and pharma it found in sewage sludge "biosolids".

http://www.beyondpesticides.org:80/dailynewsblog/?p=1196

"New Report Finds High Concentrations of Toxic Contaminants in Sewage Sludge(Beyond Pesticides, January 28, 2009)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) national sewage sludge survey identifies high concentrations of toxic contaminants with heavy metals, steroids and pharmaceuticals, including the antibacterials, triclocarban and triclosan. Despite the prevalence of these toxic chemicals in the environment and their potential adverse impacts to human health and the environment, EPA maintains that it is not appropriate to speculate on the significance of the results at this time."

Included on EPA's list are toxic metals, hazardous industrial chemicals, flame retardants, PAHs, PBDEs, antibiotics, disinfectants, antimicrobials, steroids, endocrine disrupting chemicals and other anthropogenic drugs found in sludge biosolids which can be taken up by plants and cause great harm to human and animal health, agricultural soil, wildlife and contamination of surface and groundwater.
HERE is EPA's list http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/biosolids/tnsss-tech.pdf
HERE is web site listing sludge victims state by state: http://www.sludgevictims.com

Many of us who have been calling for an end to the land application of toxic/pathogenic sewage sludge "biosolids", support clean, non-polluting thermal and other technologies that convert sludge from a contaminated waste to a renewable resource. Europe is way ahead of the US in using biogas and other methods to generate heat, power, and electricity from wastewater sludge, thereby protecting farm land from degradation and reducing both greenhouse gases and their dependence on costly imported foreign oil and gas.

Helane Shields, PO Box 1133, Alton, NH 03809 Sludge researcher since 1996 hshields@worldpath.net