Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] using municipal sewer sludge

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: bmn@iglou.com
  • To: roxann <roxann@ancientearthwisdom.com>, permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] using municipal sewer sludge
  • Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 17:30:43 -0400

roxann wrote:

have there been any studies done on pharmaceutical
traces/accumulation in the sludge? A frightening amount of drugs are
eliminated from a city population's body each day into the sewer... I
know the prozac is now beginning to show up in Texas's water supply,
but I've never heard anything about how much of it or other drugs
might also be in sewer sludge. Treatment plants are not set up to
deal with this type of contamination.

That is correct...they are not...and I don't think you'll see that any time soon. Unfortunately, with more pressure to "treat" sewage and sell the remaining sludge cake (processed into pellets or not), you're seeing a lot more in print about how safe it is for application--afterall...it's been "tested". True enough, they run some chems...however, federal standards do not address a myriad of chemical consituents...and testing for even a few is VERY cost prohibitive. Federal standards don't even address endochrine disruptors well, let alone have municipalities test for them. To a permaculturist, sewage is simple human waste and maybe a little water. Sewage in the standard sense is a toxic brew and should be treated as such until such time as there are valid alternatives to current practices. Sadly, my former agency plans to sell its pellets to the public soon, and has been testing it in some areas for a few years.








Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page