E.P.A. to Study Use of Waste From Sewage as Fertilizer

New York Times ^ | January 3, 2004 | JENNIFER 8. LEE

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

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[U S Army EOD]

This is been tried in the Augusta, GA area and the lawsuits are still pending.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

Milorganite has been in use for decades, especially on golf courses.

[goodnesswins]

In Tacoma we have TAGRO.....similar product sold to homeowners and others.

[rellimpank]

---it's about time--every large municipality should not only be recycling sewage-they should be re-using the water from it also--

[hoosierham]

I NEVER approved of the various schemes to feed animal proteins to ruminants,i.e. slaughterhouse waste to cows. Nor do I think using human waste on crops intended for human consumption very smart.

First make sure the waste isn't contaminated with heavy metals and industrial chemicals and then use it to fertilize clear cut forests,etc.

People complain enough about the natural odors when farmers spread cattle,horse, or pig manure on the fields but I can understand their fear if the farmer is spreading human waste. (Of course humans spend hundreds of millionsof dollars on fertilzer to grow grass in the city,hundreds of millions of dollars more to cut that grass, and still more hundreds of millions of dollars to bury that same grass in landfills.)

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[bigfootbob]

The EPA should call Weyerhauser Timber. They've been working with sludge and other waste by-products for decades. It can be used on ornamental stuff but, it isn't recommended for food crops.

Probably a good idea considering the latest e-coli outbreak from onions and lettuce.

As a soil amendment for the ornamental garden, it can't be beat.

[U S Army EOD]

This apparently caused some type of problem with cattle. I think the suit was thrown out if I remember right.

[truthandjustice1]

Boston sends its sludge from the waste treatment plant to a pelletizer facilty where, depending on the lead content, the pellets are sold for lawn fertilizer.

[Cicero]

I don't think the problem is with human waste, which is sterilized. It's with heavy metals, sulfides, and other chemicals.

Waste can probably be recycled. The problem is that, as this article suggest, there's no such thing as a non-politicized scientist or bureaucrat these days who can be trusted to do it properly. They are being paid big money for doing what they are doing, and they don't welcome any criticism.

[Libertina]

Ah... I see we are now taking our agricultural science from 3rd world communist China.

[ChefKeith]

But nobody grows food on a golf flog course. (sorry but flog interrupts My Auto Racing WAY too much and Y'all have Your own channel for it, so it does not need to be on 8 others at the same time)

[eno_]

Just about every ski area that makes snow uses "greywater" in snowmaking and to flush the toilets. I have no concerns over this practice.

[Revel]

These days the farmers are contaminating other peoples water supplies with this liquid waste from cattle and such. They use a small field as a waste dump....dumping on it 3 times a week at times and then it gets into the water. But the farmers are protected to do this. In fact it was the governments mandate as I understand it. Never had a problem with solid manure though. Also there are a couple of dozen days a year now where no one want to go outside because the oder is so bad. I am talking a whole towns worth of people that are effected.

[Thebaddog]

The City of Chicago used to give the same stuff away for free when I first moved here in the late seventies and has long ago discontinued it. It was probably for the same reasons discussed in this article.

I take this really to be an indictment of a government agency telling us to do something for our own good and now backtracking with no real consequence for their original malfeasance.

[Willie Green]

Just about every ski area that makes snow uses "greywater" in snowmaking and to flush the toilets. I have no concerns over this practice.

Dreamed I was an Eskimo
Frozen wind began to blow
Under my boots and around my toes
The frost that bit the ground below
It was a hundred degrees below zero...

And my mama cried
And my mama cried
Nanook, a-no-no
Nanook, a-no-no
Don't be a naughty Eskimo
Save your money, don't go to the show

Well I turned around and I said "Oh, oh" Oh
Well I turned around and I said "Oh, oh" Oh
Well I turned around and I said "Ho, Ho"
And the northern lights commenced to glow
And she said, with a tear in her eye
"Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow"
"Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow"

[rellimpank]

--I'm thinking in terms of say the Los Angeles and Las Vegas basins or better yet the San Diego-Sacramento megalopolis--the Colorado River is getting stretched too thin--