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Sewage sludge on wildfire areas? Not this time

February 11th, 2009, 3:07 pm · 2 Comments · posted by

A flurry of recent e-mails raised a question that troubled environmental activists: Would sewage sludge, processed into fertilizer, be placed on wildfire burn areas in northern Orange County to help stabilize slopes?

The short answer, it turns out, is ‘no.’ A check of public agencies that might consider spreading sludge on the burn area of the Freeway Complex fire, which charred 30,000 acres in November, showed that none was actively considering it. (Central Valley sludge spreading shown in this Register file photo.)

But the activists didn’t raise the question out of the blue. That same month, shortly after the fire, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control board approved an emergency measure allowing the sludge — called compost or “biosolids” once it is processed — to be spread.

“The interest was expressed by parties that generate compost,” said Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer at the agency. “I think they saw an opportunity to use the stuff in new and different ways that would be a useful outlet for them.”

Later, public agencies – including the city of Yorba Linda and California State Parks – decided against making any attempt to spread the compost after researching the matter.

Although 90 percent of Chino Hills State Park burned in the fire, there was no desire to spread the compost, which acts as fertilizer, on the charred native landscape because it could promote the growth of non-native plants, said Ken Kietzer, an environmental scientist for California State Parks.

Yorba Linda officials said they, too, saw no real opportunity to spread compost on land within their jurisdiction.

“In the city itself, no slopes are acceptable” even for a test plot for the material, said Mark Stowell, Yorba Linda’s public works director and city engineer.

The Orange County Sanitation District, which generates sewage sludge for composting, also chose not to take the regional water board up on its emergency approval.

Since regrowth has begun on burn areas, compost spreading is probably a dead issue for now. But it could come up for consideration again after future wildfires, Berchtold of the Santa Ana water board said.

None of the agencies that considered the compost were concerned about potential bacterial contamination.

Sewage is processed into fertilizer in part by placing it in piles that are baked by their own internal heat, killing any harmful microbes.

Activist Claire Schlotterbeck, of Hills for Everyone, said she was concerned that the biosolids might carry toxic heavy metals or even stray pharmaceuticals not eliminated during the processing that removes bacteria — and that her group will be watching to see if the idea returns after future wildfires.

“For me it was just astonishing the water quality control board issued the resolution that it did,” Schlotterbeck said. “I thought water quality was their mandate. Even though it was dried sludge, basically as soon as it rains, it gets wet, and then leaks down the watershed.”

But Greg Kester, with the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, said biosolids contain only low levels of heavy metals, and that questions about pharmaceuticals must be researched further.

“Presence alone doesn’t equate to a problem,” he said. “You have to show that either humans or wildlife are exposed to it, and that they have some adverse effect from it. A risk assessment really needs to be done to quantify any effects.”

 

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 2 Comments

  • Maureen Reilly says:
    February 13, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    Greg Kester of the California Association of Sanitation Associations (CASA) has been promoting the use of sewage sludge compost..and has proposed to put 2 years worth of California sewage sludge compost on the Freeway Complex Fire Burn area in Southern California. The Santa Ana Waterboard was recently prevailed upon to pass an ‘emergency’ measure allowing sewage sludge compost on the burned areas.

    The sludge industry is desperate for places to dump its sludge composts. Last year we heard about them dumping it at hugely high application rates on the children’s play yards of poor black families in Baltimore Maryland – without even informing the families that it was sewage sludge compost. Some of the sludge they brought out to the homes was higher in lead than the lead levels in the children’s play soil! Not one single yard was successfully ‘remediated’.

    Now they are pushing to put these contaminated materials on fire ravaged lands in California.
    Sewage sludge compost is high in heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals. Dried sludges have even been used as wildlife repellent.

    The Parks people will not allow it on parkland in California – since they state that fires are a natural part of the soil life cycle and must be permitted to recover naturally. They are right.

    The Santa Ana Water Quality Control Board should not have passed the ‘emergency measure’ in the first place. It appears to be an attempt to circumvent the requirement to do an Environmental Impact Report.

    Note that the sludge industry (Greg Kester and the gang) want to put it on fire ravaged land at an astonishing 270 cubic yards per acre…not the agronomic rate proposed in the Emergency Motion … which would be about 4 cubic yards per acre or less.

    Indeed, the Association of Sanitation Associations has already come up with a brochure to promote putting sludge biosolids on fire ravaged lands, and industry sludge compost promoters have been trying to get Sierra Club to drop their policies opposing the use of sewage sludge composts as fertilizer.

    Since there is so much sludge compost stockpiled around California – the industry will continue to push for use of sludge materials on highways and parks and your backyard…so keep an eye out.

  • Quit Fear Mongering says:
    February 16, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    Biosolids are fine… They are completely safe and are used in farms and crops throughout the state, nation and world. Composting biosolids is as old as farming itself and the scare tactics and fear mongering promulgated by Maureen and Claire do a disservice to true scientific analysis.

    Feel free to “keep an eye out” and you’ll see biosolid compost used throughout the state on freeway medians, slopes, gardens and farms.

    In fact, you can even buy it by the bag at Home Depot or Lowes.

    Biosolids are chock full of the minerals and nutrients plant life need after a fire. The pharmaceuticals Claire and Maureen use as a scare tactic are nearly non-existant after going through the heating and drying process.

    This is the same fear mongering you hear from the 1/10 of 1 percent of those who oppose everything everywhere all the time.

    Just because they’re loud, doesn’t mean they’re right.

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