Hamilton's East End Already Rejected Pellet Plant
The Hamilton Spectator
Forum politics, Monday, August 12, 2002, p. A09
East end already rejected pellet plant
Lynda Lukasik
The Hamilton Spectator
Managing our sewage sludge -- if it were only that simple and sweet smelling ...
Like most urban communities in Ontario, Hamilton continues to struggle with how best to manage sewage sludge. Over the years, the city has burned it, landfilled it and is now providing sludge to farmers to spread on agricultural fields. Last week, on this very page, an opinion article that read more like an advertisement aimed to
convince readers that the answer to our sludge woes is simple and straightforward -- transform the sludge into dry fertilizer pellets.
The pitch was upbeat and made the process sound so promising. How could anyone argue about an environmentally friendly solution to a rather messy problem?
Of course, readers must bear in mind that the author was upfront about being the vice-president of business development for American Water Services -- the company that wants to open a sewage sludge pellet plant in east Hamilton.
But solutions to problems like sludge are never this easy. In this instance, history must teach us something. Talk of a sludge pelletization plant is déjà vu for me and others in east Hamilton.
The leased location for the proposed pelletizing plant is a facility formerly operated by a company called Hamilton Bio-Conversion.
I got to know this operation very well in the late 1990s when it was inflicting horrible odour problems on east Hamilton neighbourhoods, including my own. At that time, the facility was running a fermentation process that transformed food waste into animal feed. The stench that wafted over into my neighbourhood has been described as smelling like warm barf.
Through city, Ministry of Environment and community pressure, Hamilton Bio-Conversion upgraded its odour control systems to state-of-the-art.
The severe odour in my neighbourhood disappeared. For business and industry located much closer to the plant, odour problems shifted from severe (there were reports of the odour making employees of Samuel Steel physically ill in the parking lot after work) to nuisance level, but they didn't disappear altogether.
We all thought the problem had been solved to a livable degree until the company came back with plans to add a second line for processing sewage sludge into pellets.
But information provided by the company revealed the odour from sewage sludge processing would be 10 times worse than the odour from food waste processing.
How could even a state-of-the-art system handle this kind of increase in stink? A concerted effort from the city of Hamilton, concerned citizens and area businesses and industries led to Hamilton Bio-Conversion's decision to drop its plans to establish a sludge pellet line.
Given the plant's proximity to other businesses and residential neighbourhoods, the expected odour from sludge processing made this an inappropriate activity for the area.
Just imagine my reaction to American Water Service's upbeat plug for a sewage sludge pelletizing line in this same facility! East Hamilton has considered this option and determined it is not an appropriate use for this area.
We are already heavily affected by other facilities in this end of the city. This one would only add to the existing odour burden.
But odour is not the only concern I have about sewage sludge, whether in pellet or ready to spread on the farm field form.
The reality is that current Hamilton sewage sludge is of questionable quality.
Hamilton is an industrial city with a penchant for discharging industrial waste and landfill leachate into its sewage treatment plant. It is a known fact that sewage sludge in any community contains problematic levels of a variety of heavy metals including lead, cadmium, arsenic and zinc. Heavy metal content has led to provincial government guidelines that dictate how much sludge can be spread on a given agricultural field and how often. Sludge also accumulates various organic chemical contaminants -- some that are known cancer-causing substances -- for which no guidelines exist.
So where does this leave Hamilton in its struggle to manage sludge? First, we need to realize that regardless of the "good news" story by a proponent of sludge pelletization, there are no easy solutions.
Any sludge processing initiative needs to be suitably located to minimize the impact on surrounding residents and businesses.
At a more fundamental level, effort needs to be directed at making our sludge safer to begin with. Many of the contaminants that go into the Woodward Avenue plant don't break down and, therefore, must go somewhere. Sludge serves as the final destination for a substantial amount of this nasty stuff, including heavy metals and organic chemical contaminants.
We must demand that the city review its present practices where landfill leachate and industrial discharges to the sewage treatment plant are concerned.
A safe sludge product will remain elusive until this happens.
Lynda Lukasik is an East Hamilton resident, an environmental activist, and founder of the Environment Hamilton citizens' organization. She is a freelance writer, and her views are her own. E-mail: lynda.lukasik at sympatico.ca
Forum politics, Monday, August 12, 2002, p. A09
East end already rejected pellet plant
Lynda Lukasik
The Hamilton Spectator
Managing our sewage sludge -- if it were only that simple and sweet smelling ...
Like most urban communities in Ontario, Hamilton continues to struggle with how best to manage sewage sludge. Over the years, the city has burned it, landfilled it and is now providing sludge to farmers to spread on agricultural fields. Last week, on this very page, an opinion article that read more like an advertisement aimed to
convince readers that the answer to our sludge woes is simple and straightforward -- transform the sludge into dry fertilizer pellets.
The pitch was upbeat and made the process sound so promising. How could anyone argue about an environmentally friendly solution to a rather messy problem?
Of course, readers must bear in mind that the author was upfront about being the vice-president of business development for American Water Services -- the company that wants to open a sewage sludge pellet plant in east Hamilton.
But solutions to problems like sludge are never this easy. In this instance, history must teach us something. Talk of a sludge pelletization plant is déjà vu for me and others in east Hamilton.
The leased location for the proposed pelletizing plant is a facility formerly operated by a company called Hamilton Bio-Conversion.
I got to know this operation very well in the late 1990s when it was inflicting horrible odour problems on east Hamilton neighbourhoods, including my own. At that time, the facility was running a fermentation process that transformed food waste into animal feed. The stench that wafted over into my neighbourhood has been described as smelling like warm barf.
Through city, Ministry of Environment and community pressure, Hamilton Bio-Conversion upgraded its odour control systems to state-of-the-art.
The severe odour in my neighbourhood disappeared. For business and industry located much closer to the plant, odour problems shifted from severe (there were reports of the odour making employees of Samuel Steel physically ill in the parking lot after work) to nuisance level, but they didn't disappear altogether.
We all thought the problem had been solved to a livable degree until the company came back with plans to add a second line for processing sewage sludge into pellets.
But information provided by the company revealed the odour from sewage sludge processing would be 10 times worse than the odour from food waste processing.
How could even a state-of-the-art system handle this kind of increase in stink? A concerted effort from the city of Hamilton, concerned citizens and area businesses and industries led to Hamilton Bio-Conversion's decision to drop its plans to establish a sludge pellet line.
Given the plant's proximity to other businesses and residential neighbourhoods, the expected odour from sludge processing made this an inappropriate activity for the area.
Just imagine my reaction to American Water Service's upbeat plug for a sewage sludge pelletizing line in this same facility! East Hamilton has considered this option and determined it is not an appropriate use for this area.
We are already heavily affected by other facilities in this end of the city. This one would only add to the existing odour burden.
But odour is not the only concern I have about sewage sludge, whether in pellet or ready to spread on the farm field form.
The reality is that current Hamilton sewage sludge is of questionable quality.
Hamilton is an industrial city with a penchant for discharging industrial waste and landfill leachate into its sewage treatment plant. It is a known fact that sewage sludge in any community contains problematic levels of a variety of heavy metals including lead, cadmium, arsenic and zinc. Heavy metal content has led to provincial government guidelines that dictate how much sludge can be spread on a given agricultural field and how often. Sludge also accumulates various organic chemical contaminants -- some that are known cancer-causing substances -- for which no guidelines exist.
So where does this leave Hamilton in its struggle to manage sludge? First, we need to realize that regardless of the "good news" story by a proponent of sludge pelletization, there are no easy solutions.
Any sludge processing initiative needs to be suitably located to minimize the impact on surrounding residents and businesses.
At a more fundamental level, effort needs to be directed at making our sludge safer to begin with. Many of the contaminants that go into the Woodward Avenue plant don't break down and, therefore, must go somewhere. Sludge serves as the final destination for a substantial amount of this nasty stuff, including heavy metals and organic chemical contaminants.
We must demand that the city review its present practices where landfill leachate and industrial discharges to the sewage treatment plant are concerned.
A safe sludge product will remain elusive until this happens.
Lynda Lukasik is an East Hamilton resident, an environmental activist, and founder of the Environment Hamilton citizens' organization. She is a freelance writer, and her views are her own. E-mail: lynda.lukasik at sympatico.ca
posted by Sludge at 5:13 AM
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