It's Still Poop

...and all that denotes, despite the modern approach of calling it by its plural noun "biosolids", decidedly gentler on the imagination, if not the nostrils.
Its apparent benefits are now often used in the same sentence as the word "natural".
That couldn't be further from the truth.

It's still poop.
Human poop.
And a whack of other bad stuff.
Very bad stuff.

First the newspaper story.
Followed by the bad news...very bad news.

Today's "Biosolids help with landfill closure" story in the Morning Star explains the Regional District of North Okanagan plan to close a landfill in Vernon.  (Reference links added by blog author).

"The Regional District of North Okanagan will be using Metro Vancouver biosolids as part of an innovative process for closing the Pottery Road Landfill.  The use of biosolids and yard waste compost will add important plant nutrients and organic matter to quickly establish grass over the site.

Additionally, these materials contain natural soil microorganisms that convert methane gas from landfills into carbon dioxide thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 21 times.

Metro Vancouver and the RDNO have partnered for this project because it offers unique opportunities for both regions to participate in a landfill capping (closure) process using conventional waste products as resources to sustainably manage the final closure of the site.  This partnership also allows the RDNO to control project costs.

Fabricating the topsoil instead of purchasing it ready-made saves the project more than $400,000 and allows the RDNO to use locally made yard waste compost and local mineral soils in the fabrication of the topsoil.  

These biosolids, approved for landfill closure use, meet the strict requirements of the Organic Matter Recycling Regulation which was developed jointly by the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Health.

The resulting topsoil will be thoroughly sampled before it is applied to the landfill and will achieve the standard for Urban Parkland Use.  This nutrient rich material will be mixed with RDNO yard waste compost and local mineral soils to generate approximately 12,000 cubic metres of topsoil, which will then be hauled to the Pottery Road Landfill.  The biosolids mixed with the compost and mineral soil will provide the nutrients that are needed for grass growth in the spring of 2015.

The Ministry of Environment has been working with the project team to ensure odour is mitigated and the biosolids are managed in accordance with appropriate regulations.  For further information, contact the RDNO at 250.550.3700 or by email at engineering@rdno.ca."

That all sounds very, well, flowery, doesn't it?
Just smoke 'n mirrors, folks, from bureaucrats.

Now for the bad news, the very bad news (and an earlier blog story about biosolids in the Valley).

"Anytime a public agency or any other entity proposes

spreading human waste, bacteria, viruses and other toxic contaminants

over the landscape, regardless of the purpose,

eyebrows are going to go up."

J.Preston Smith, Sound Consumer, March 2012

We humans flush all manner of unwanted and dangerous items down toilets besides deceased goldfish and turtles:  expired pharmaceuticals such as hormones and antibiotics, paint and its petroleum-based thinners, pesticides, industrial effluent (heavy metals), stormwater (containing road-oil and brake "dust"), disinfectants, anti-foaming agents and flame retardants, synthetic fragrances, detergents (Environmental Science & Technology, Feb. 20, 2008).  The list isn't complete because it omits human pathogens and E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Norwalk viruses (and potentially others), etc.
See also the Centre for Disease Control Fact Sheet on Biosolids (study 1996 to 2008).

"...earthworms in soil plots amended with biosolids had bioaccumulated

multiple human-manufactured compounds"

Looking at U.S. regulatory policy, it's immediately found lacking.
Probably because "A minimum of 30 and a maximum of 45 [wastewater contaminants] were detected in any one biosolid," the scientists noted in a 2006 study by Eastern Washington University.

"...the data used (in part) to develop EPA's biosolids guidelines were

"unreliable, incomplete and in some cases, fudged ..."

U.S. federal court Judge A. Alamo

As recently as 2008, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado State University found that earthworms in soil plots amended with biosolids had bioaccumulated multiple human-manufactured compounds...a "politically correct" way of saying earthworms were loaded with contaminants that they did not themselves produce, and could not--and did not--expel in their normal processes. See the link for Wiki definition.

In February that same year, U.S. federal judge Anthony Alamo concluded the data used (in part) to develop EPA's biosolids guidelines were "unreliable, incomplete and in some cases, fudged ..."

The court case was based on a lawsuit:  Several farmers alleged that biosolids shipped from a nearby wastewater plant had contaminated their jointly owned farm, killing several hundred cattle and forcing closure of the farm.  Andy McElmurray and other farmers ultimately settled out of U.S. District Court for $1.3 million after arguing that high levels of chromium and molybdenum in biosolids were responsible for the cattle deaths, and for the loss of their livelihood.

In 2009, EPA's Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey Report found 28 metals in every biosolids sample from 74 randomly selected water treatment plants in 35 states. The samples, collected in 2006 and 2007, also contained 72 pharmaceuticals, 25 steroids and hormones, flame retardants, and a variety of "semi-volatile organics and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons."

EPA's regulations do make an attempt to minimize human contact with biosolids, by regulating how much time has to pass before crops in contact with biosolids can be consumed. The time lag is meant to allow a natural die-off of whatever pathogens remain in Class B biosolids. The regulations, however, don't set limits on any manufactured organic compounds in biosolids.

To learn more, read the story by pcc natural markets, from which above excerpts were copied.

The scariest sentence in that entire article is this:

"Eventually we will run out of resources and disposal space,

 so we must redefine our definition of what is disposable ..." 

Washington State Dept. of Ecology

That may be called manipulating and "suiting" rules to new conditions, inherently wrong in even a lay person's definition.

Other references:

  Georgia study, Public Health Assessment, Centre for Disease Control

 Hazard Alerts, see Page 3 Biosolids, Centre for Disease Control

 Fecal Coliform Count, see page 12, lower right of page, Centre for Disease Control, on the "amplification of microorganisms" from letting sludge pile sit for several days.

Table B-1 pg. 2. Major Pathogens Potentially Present in Municipal Wastewater and Manure, CDC.

The Pottery Road Landfill closure will lead to it becoming a park.

...a park where children will play on the grass.

"The back yard is the only place I want to be," says Kia, "and that's where children should play."

I don't even want to research biosolid regulations for British Columbia.
Guessing that it may have been written by the same bureaucrats as the "innovative process for closing the Pottery Road Landfill".