Secret Ingredients

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http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1995Q3/ingredients.html

 

Secret Ingredients

 

 

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

 

The HarperCollins Dictionary of Environmental Science defines sludge as a

" viscous, semisolid mixture of bacteria- and virus-laden organic matter, toxic

metals, synthetic organic chemicals, and settled solids removed from domestic

and industrial waste water at a sewage treatment plant. "

 

Over 60,000 toxic substances and chemical compounds can be found in sewage

sludge, and scientists are developing 700 to 1,000 new chemicals per year.

Stephen Lester of the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes has compiled

information from researchers at Cornell University and the American Society of

Civil Engineers showing that sludge typically contains the following toxins:

 

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs);

Chlorinated pesticides--DDT, dieldrin, aldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor,

lindane, mirex, kepone, 2,4,5-T, 2,4-D;

Chlorinated compounds such as dioxins;

Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons;

Heavy metals--arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury;

Bacteria, viruses, protozoa, parasitic worms, fungi;

Miscellaneous--asbestos, petroleum products, industrial solvents.

 

In addition, a 1994 investigation by by the US General Accounting Office found

that " the full extent of the radioactive contamination of sewage sludge, ash and

related by-products nationwide is unknown. " Most of the radioactive material is

flushed down the drain by hospitals, businesses and decontamination laundries, a

practice which has contaminated at least nine sewage treatment plants in the

past decade.

 

In 1977, EPA Administrator Douglas Costle estimated that by 1990 treatment

plants would be generating 10 million tons of sludge per year, a thought that

" gives us all a massive environmental headache. " Today there are about 15,000

publicly-owned wastewater treatment works in the United States, discharging

approximately 26 billion gallons per day of treated wastewater into lakes,

streams and waterways. Before treatment, this wastewater contains over a million

pounds of hazardous components. Sewage plants use heat, chemicals and bacterial

treatments to detoxify 42 percent of these components through biodegradation.

Another 25 percent escapes into the atmosphere, and 19 percent is discharged

into lakes and streams. The remaining 14 percent--approximately 28 million

pounds per year--winds up in sewage sludge.

 

Once created, this sludge must be disposed of somehow. Available methods

include: incineration (which pollutes the air), dumping into landfills (which is

expensive, and often leaches contaminants into groundwater), and ocean dumping

(where it has created vast underwater dead seas). A fourth method

--gasification, using sludge to generate methanol or energy--is favored by EPA's

Hugh Kaufman as the " most environmentally sound approach, but also the most

expensive. " A fifth approach --using sludge as plant fertilizer--was considered

hazardous to health and the environment until the 1970s, but it has the

advantage of being inexpensive. As budget concerns mounted in the late 1970s,

the EPA began to pressure sewage plants to adopt the cheapest method

available--spreading sludge on farm fields.

 

© Center for Media & Democracy, 520 University Ave., Suite 310, Madison, WI

53703; phone (608) 260–9713; email editor

 

 

 

 

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