Home and Garden Risks
What you need to know.
Expanded versions of each section are available for download below and are compiled for download in the Supporting Content section of the page.
The Basics – From the Flush to Your Family
- Sewage sludge is everything that goes down the drain of homes, businesses, industries and hospitals - toxic chemicals, pathogens, bacteria, pharmaceuticals and poisons.
- 8 million tons of America’s sewage sludge is land applied on farms, parks, playgrounds, golf courses and sold to home gardeners as a bagged “fertilizer.”
- Many pathogens do not require testing, including MRSA, AIDS and H1N1, and survive the treatment process. No pharmaceuticals or hormones require testing.
- No one is protecting America’s health and safety from the concerns of sewage sludge in our food, water and communities.
Bagged Fertilizer – Home Gardeners Beware
- Sewage sludge looks like any manure, fertilizer or pellets, but contains the hazardous waste that is washed down the drain.
- Toxins and heavy metals don’t disappear when exposed to sun or rain – they build in your soil or travel by wind and water run-off into your home and community.
- Heavy metals and toxic waste are absorbed from the soil into your vegetables, plants and livestock animals.
- If bagged fertilizer says compost, it is a "crap shoot" at best. No federal or state regulations require listing sludge or biosolids as a component in bagged compost.
- Food for human and animal consumption can be grown on land that has been treated with sewage sludge.
Home Ownership & Sludge In Your Community
- The American home owner and tax payer has no rights to stop a neighboring property owner from spreading sewage sludge.
- Sewage sludge can cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, induce breathing and asthma problems, create skin infections, muscle and joint pain, diarrhea and death.
- Home owners concerned about water contamination where sludge is spread must pay for water testing. Real estate property values are effected.
- Some states create stricter laws to guard the health and safety of their citizens, but many maintain the most minium regulations.
- By the EPA’s own admission, the regulations currently in place cannot guarentee the health and safety of citizens.
- We are part of a global food economy: who will grow America’s food once the land become too toxic to sustain our food and water?
Supporting Content
To view a file, click on the (pdf) link. To download the file, click on the disk icon on the toolbar on the top left of your screen or click on File and select Save As.
- Expanded Home & Garden Compilation (pdf)
- Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog summary of pollutants found in sludge by EPA (pdf)
- Full list of pollutants found in sludge by EPA (pdf)
- Water Environment Research Foundation’s study that found that fecal coliforms appear to reactivate after centrifuging of solids already put through anaerobic digesters to remove pathogens (pdf)
- Full WERF report (pdf)
- The Branford Expositor’s piece on a fight against sludge use being waged by organic farmers in Ontario (pdf)
- The Journal Register News Service story about a build-up of radioactive materials in the Schuylkill River linked to laundering uniforms of workers at the Limerick Generating station (pdf)
- The US-FA’s list of Sludge-Free Bagged Fertilizers (pdf)
- Material Safety Data Sheet for Milorganite 5/2/0 Organic Nitrogen Fertilizer made from Activated Sewage Sludge (pdf)
- Dr. Caroline Snyder’s letter published in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health regarding a sludge compost pilot project in Baltimore targeting children in low-income neighborhoods (pdf)
- Seattle’s Examiner.com’s article on concerns over sludge-based fertilizers used by organic gardeners in Seattle and even Michelle Obama’s White House Garden (pdf)
- Pennsylvania’s Seller’s Disclosure form requiring that property sellers indicate if sewage sludge has been spread either on their property or an adjacent property (pdf)
- The Independent’s Story about a community’s success at getting property taxes reduced after sewage sludge lowered property values in Northumberland County Ontario (pdf)
- The Community Press’ piece about one of the families at the center of the property value fight in Ontario who eventually abandoned their home (pdf)
The Basics – From the Flush to Your Family
What is sewage sludge and how does it affect your home and community? Are you using sewage sludge in your home garden? Is sludge used to “fertilize” your local parks, playgrounds and golf courses?
Sewage sludge is the concentration of everything that goes down the drain of homes, businesses, industries and hospitals after water is extracted at the wastewater treatment plant. Everything. After the water is extracted from the waste, the toxic chemicals, pathogens, bacteria, pharmaceuticals and poisons are concentrated into a solid or semi-solid form that is promoted as a “fertilizer option” called biosolids or sludge.
More than 8 million tons of America’s sewage sludge is land applied on farms and as a fertilizer on parks, playgrounds, golf courses and sold to home gardeners at municipalities, garden centers or as a bagged "fertilizer".
The minimal regulations set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for land application of sludge requires testing for only nine heavy metals out of the thousands of toxic chemicals, pathogens, bacteria, medications, pharmaceuticals and poisons found in our waste. Salmonella or E. coli are tested for as “indicator” pathogens, with the theory that if you stabilize either of these elements, you will have stabilized or controlled other pathogens. Many pathogens survive and are stronger than the “indicator” pathogens yet do not require testing, such as MRSA, AIDS and H1N1. Although found in wastewater and sewage sludge, no pharmaceuticals or hormones require testing. The EPA’s own testing has found over 145 known toxins in every sample of nationally tested sewage sludge.
The wastewater treatment industry, municipalities and the EPA, encourage public acceptance of this waste by using terms like “organic”, “beneficial”, “compost” or “nutrient rich.” But once the natural human feces and food waste is blended with the hazardous waste from our hospitals, industries and businesses, it cannot be cleaned and purified easily, if at all. Wastewater treatment plants were never intended to create fertilizer. In reality, no one is protecting America’s health and safety from the concerns of sewage sludge in our food, water and communities.
Bagged Fertilizer – Home Gardeners Beware
Sewage sludge looks innocent enough – just like any manure or fertilizer. And if it is turned into fertilizer pellets, the issue of the smell can be avoided. But the nose knows: the smell is just the indicator that something is not right. When sludge is given away or sold as “compost" - or turmed into neat little pellets - it still contains the hazardous waste that was washed down the drain. Remember, toxins and heavy metals don’t disappear because they are exposed to sun or rain – they build in your soil or travel by wind and water run-off into your home and community. The heavy metals and toxic waste also are absorbed in your vegetables, plants and livestock animals.
If the bag says topsoil, it is topsoil. If the bag says it is humus from a location, it is probably all humus. If the bag says compost and nothing else, it is a "crap shoot" at best. There are no federal or state regulations that require listing sludge as a component in bagged compost. Bagged fertilizer most often has the word compost somewhere on the label. There are no requirements by the EPA to list sewage sludge or biosolids as an ingredient in the material. If a bag lists the ingredient only as "compost" you can bet this is composted Class A sewage sludge. The big piles of compost you see in large nursery and garden centers will often contain sewage sludge--UNLESS the owner can give you the originating site of the compost and where it came from. Most garden centers and nursery owners have no idea what they are selling in bulk to landscape companies and homeowners. If a landfill is offering really cheap compost, it will probably have Class B sewage sludge mixed with green waste such as grass clippings, wood chips, leaves and sawdust. It is indeed turned and composted.
Independent tests show the extreme variations of heavy metals when comparing animal manure to bagged fertilizer. Food for human and animal consumption can be grown on land that has been treated with sewage sludge. When you consume foods grown in sludge, you consume whatever the plant takes up from the soil. When you consume animals that are fed crops grown in sewage sludge, elements like heavy metals collect in the animal’s meat, milk and fat. Luckily, the sludge industry has strong lobbying involved in determining our laws. Who’s protecting us?
Check our listing of bagged fertilizer companies that are sludge-based and some that are sludge-free. Keep asking questions. Tell us if you find more sludge-based and sludge-free bagged fertilizer companies. Protect your family, pets and home garden by using sludge-free fertilizer. Tell your local officials you do not want sludge/biosolids on your parks and playgrounds. Tell your state and federal elected officials to change the laws - sewage sludge doesn’t belong in our food, water and communities.
Home Ownership & Sludge In Your Community
Somehow, you - the American home owner and tax payer - have no rights to stop a neighboring property owner from spreading a waste product that can have a smell so foul as to cause headaches, nausea, vomiting plus induce breathing and asthma problems. Other health related problems associated with living near an area where sewage sludge is spread include skin infections, muscle and joint pain, diarrhea and death. Trucks and farm equipment transfering sludge on site or between sites often trail the oozing sewage onto public roadways and throughout communities. All health related risks and deaths are directly linked to living in the communities where the sludge is spread. The onerous task of protecting well water, aquafers and streams from toxins in sewage sludge run-off falls on the home owner or community. The home owner must pay for water testing and then prove the contamination source. Real estate property values are effected.
Each state has the right to create stricter laws about the land application of sludge. Many states do not bother with stricter regulations or feign safety concerns by requiring one or two extra tests. This can vary extremely, depending on the level of involvement the sewage industry has in influencing state laws and “scientific studies.” While some states create stricter laws to guard - but not fully protect - the health and safety of their citizens, other states import sewage sludge from neighbors. For instance, Pennsylvania imports sludge from New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware and Maryland – an excellent example of how a community and a farmer has no idea of what industrial, medical and hazardous waste is actually present in the sewage sludge being spread on the farmland. Sadly, the counties with the most land application are the counties that have farmland close to major urban centersThe goal is cheap disposal. The issue is not anti-farm – the issue is anti-pollution transfer.
The toxins found in sewage sludge are spread by wind or run-off into waterways that do not respect property boundries. The overwhelming smell affects the quality of life of the community at large. The obvious and immediate effect after sewge sludge is spread is the challenge of home ownership. The long term health related effects are more insidious, but no less relavant. Some states, like Pennsylvania, home owners are required to report sewage sludge use on a real estate “sellers disclosure sheet.” Unfortunately, notification of neighboring sewage sludge spreading does not empower a property owner the right to stop the spreading of sewage sludge. And yes, real estate sales have been lost due to the land application of sewage sludge, both because of the concern of short term smell and long term soil and water effects. Your financial investment of home ownership can be influenced by the uninformed decisions made by the farmer or the business decisions of a land owner in your community. Federal and state laws are absent in protecting you and your investment.
Illnesses in humans and family pets from sewage sludge exposure vary, but are persistant and are often dismissed by authorities as incidental. Reports of illness continue to be unmonitored and unrecorded by municipalities, states or national authorities, the issue casually drowning in the buracratic irresponsibility. Deaths associated with the land application of sludge have have occurred in states including Pennsylvania and New Hampshire (check The Victims website link for full national health reports). But no one who experiences health impacts or death considers their own plight “incendental.”
The most infamous case of farms using sludge to the point of toxicity, poisoning of crops, death of livestock and loss of the farms is near Augusta, Georgia. In both cases, McElmurray vs. USDA and Boyce vs. City of Augusta, the farmers were told the sludge applied to their fields was safe. Over the 10 to 20 years that it took for the levels of toxic hazardous waste to poison the farm beyond use, McElmurray and Boyce were constantly reassured that the sludge was not the cause of their farming woes.
By the EPA’s own admission, the regulations currently in place cannot guarentee the health and safety of citizens. This ironic act of short-sightedness only highlights that our food supply comes from all parts of America and the world: we are part of a global food economy. Who will grow America’s food once these land become too toxic to sustain our food and water? Where will our clean water come from and how do we protect the lands surrounding our homes and communities? Only regular complaints to your elected state and federal representative will change the fact that sewage sludge is used as a fertilizer option on large farms and in small family gardens throughout the nation. Is your family’s health and your financial home investment worth the letter or phone call? Make the difference for our future.