EPA Says Sludge from Semisolid Waste is OK to Spread Around
I ran across this article on the AP. It makes me think worse than I already thought about the EPA. I sometimes get the feeling we are all guinea pigs to some extent. The subject is sludge, which as the article so succinctly states is “the leftover semisolid wastes filtered from water pollution at 16,500 treatment plants.” It goes on to say the federal policy for the past three decades has been that this sludge can be turned into something harmless, even if swallowed, (I may skip dinner tonight).
There is a 1978 memo where the EPA makes the argument that the sludge contains nutrients and organic matter ‘which have considerable benefit for land and crops.’ Does this not sound like the spreading of so-called nutrients from CAFO lagoons onto farm land irregardless of all the bacteria and low levels of toxic substances?
The particular sludge in the article wasn’t sprayed on farmland however. “Nine low-income families in Baltimore row houses agreed to let researchers till the sewage sludge into their yards and plant new grass. In exchange, they were given food coupons as well as the free lawns as part of a study published in 2005 and funded by the Housing and Urban Development Department. Nice, real nice.
Researchers believe that the sludge contains phosphate and iron that binds to lead and other hazardous metals in the soil so that it would pass right through a child if they ate any of it. This little experiment was done elsewhere also in a poor neighborhood, and without much fanfare. The problem is there has been no medical follow up. Isn’t that curious?
It looks like the EPA is looking to utilize semisolid waste in unlikely places. If the EPA was truly in earnest using this waste to protect the health and safety of children against lead, wouldn’t there, shouldn’t there be medical tests over a period of time afterward to see if it worked? The only way I can see that there are no follow up records of this experiment is that it’s not 100% but only a theory and the poor neighborhoods chosen were guinea pigs.
The frightening part is that this idea about sludge/pollution being a nutrient still reigns. So where else has sludge been spread or dumped masquerading as a nutrient? We better not have any more tainted vegetables turn up this year.
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/hea?guid=20080414/4802d6c0_3ca6_15526200804141768367295
June 9th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Is it sad that even in this day and age children are used as “lead detector’s”. Even when the problem has been identified, the action to correct it isn’t monitored. It’s no wonder we have generations of people walking around with a few less brain cells because they were damaged as children.
It’s the “shhh, pretend it’s not there and it will go away approach…”
June 10th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I agree. Not that long ago we didn’t know about the damaging effects of lead. My sister who is now 63 used to chew on window sills as a child. She got enough lead paint to cause convulsions. She’s been in a nursing home for the past 10 years. Lead poisoning is a strange thing. Symptoms as a child will go away. The real damage doesn’t show up until later, like in the 40’s. My sister got delusional by time she was in her late 40’s. That side of my family lives in N.Y. so I wasn’t much help. She lost her job, her pets, her apartment, all her personal items, and disappeared on us for a couple of years, until I got a call one day. She’s been in an institution ever since. I just talked to her today as a matter of fact.
My sister had a Master’s degree, and worked for social services for the state of N.Y. Besides becoming mentally incapacitated, she fell and hurt her neck, and was severely dehydrated. She can’t walk now.
Unfortunately, the way our laws are set up, family members or friends can’t do anything about a relative of legal age unless we go to court and gain legal guardianship. That requires proof that the family member is mentally incapable, and much depends on the whether that individual wants help. Most mentally incapacitated people do not. They think they are fine.