Sludge News
The "land application" of sewage sludge has been promoted by EPA since 1993 as the preferred method of sludge disposal. Millions of tons of hazardous sewage sludge have subsequently been spread on farmland, school yards, and parks in the United States, and many people living near sludged agricultural sites and many farm animals fed on sludged silage and hay have been made very sick. Many of these people have attempted to stop this practice. Now, they are getting some help. Here's the latest in the national campaign to stop the disposal of toxic sludge on land.
On February 25, 2008, Judge Anthony Alaimo of the 11th Circuit Court ruled that the sludge applications on a farm in Georgia were responsible for killing hundreds of diary cattle and contaminating the milk supplies in several states.
On September 23, 2009, the Center for Food Safety petitioned the City of San Francisco to stop its toxic sludge giveaway program.
In January 2010, the Organic Consumers Association launched a grassroots campaign to get the City of San Francisco to stop its sludge-derived "compost" giveaway program, a program that puts toxic sludge on city gardens, school yards, and backyards.
On March 3, 2010, San Francisco's Channel 5 television's investigative reporter, Anna Werner, uncovered the truth about the City's toxic sludge give away program.
The San Francisco sludge story continues to simmer. Writer, chef, and local food advocate Alice Waters is now involved, and not in a way in which you might predict. John Stauber, journalist and advisor to the Food Rights Network, calls the drama Chez Sludge.
Changing federal policy can end the systematic contamination of our food supply and the degradation of our health from sewage sludge. What to do with it? Keep it off our food, gardens, yards, parks, and fields: keep sewage sludge out of life cycles.
You can find more information about sewage sludge and what sludge victims are saying, at Sludge News. Read on.