Sewage sludge is what remains after wastewater treatment plants have completed their treatment of wastewater. North America’s wastewater includes not only urine and feces that goes down toilets but the waste that goes down the drain from households, hospitals, garages and factories. When the discharge of sewage sludge into nearby bodies of water resulted in fish deaths, habitat destruction and citizen uproar, the treatment industry took a new tack. Toxic sludge was rebranded as “biosolids” and spread on agricultural lands. Initially, farmers took it as free fertilizer; soon they would have to be paid significant amounts of cash to do so.
Thanks to vigilant citizen groups we have growing body of knowledge about the effects of disposal of the products of North America’s wastewater treatment plants. The Sewage Sludge Action Network (SSAN) is a North Caroling group that has produced a superb 17 minute documentary on the issue.
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United Sludge-Free Alliance is a organization whose mission is “to provide information on the issue of sludge”; this includes a Tool Kit with ready-to-use handouts. Because there is no other group nationally tracking sludge issues this, this grassroots group started by Pennsylvania farmers is stepping up. Join them!
Sludge Watch Working Group Led by Canadian Maureen Reilly, issues Sludgewatch Digest with daily updates and succinct comments. A free subscription is highly recommended. Sludgewatch Archives go back to 2002.
Citizens for Sludge-Free Lands is a New Hampshire group that maintains sludgefact.org with the latest news and scientific studies.
“A Critical Review of the U.S. EPA’s Risk Assessment for the LandApplication of Sewage Sludge” . By Jennifer M. J. Matheny. New SolutionsVol 21 (1) 43-56, 2011
Toxic Sludge is Good for You! By John Stauber, Common Courage Press. The wastewater treatment industry’s rebranding of sewage sludge as “biosoilds” in the mid 1990s is documented in this study by PR Watch of the Center for Media and Democracy.
Food Rights Network, also a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, covers the issues and has a Portal on Toxic Sludge.
