THE CONTROVERSY OVER SPREADING SLUDGE ON FARMERS FIELDS
HE CONTROVERSY OVER SPREADING SLUDGE ON FARMERS FIELDS
September 16, 2002
CBC Radio Transcripts
JILL DEMPSEY: And now tonight's feature report. Across Canada, questions are growing about the practice of fertilizing farm land with sewage sludge. Provinces, waste companies and food farmers insist the spreading of treated human waste is well regulated and causes little risk to the environment or people's health. But environmentalists, some scientists, and people living in rural areas, say more research is needed to ensure people's health isn't being put at risk. In the meantime, they argue the practice should be stopped. Ontario, where the deadly tainted water tragedy in Walkerton is still fresh in people's minds, spreads
more sludge than any other province. And as Margo Kelly reports, it's in Ontario where the issue is sparking the most debate.
MARGO KELLY (Reporter): An hour's drive northwest of Toronto, Alvin Ward cuts hay on his farm in the Caledon Hills, an area dotted with expensive country homes and horse farms. He climbs down from his swather and explains why he wants to spread sewage sludge on his land.
ALVIN WARD (Farmer): Because it's free. I don't have hardly any livestock now to make barnyard manure, and I've got to buy dry fertilizer just to do the job, and it's expensive.
KELLY: Sewage sludge is processed human sewage with most of the water removed. Sludge is free because municipalities pay private companies to spread it on farmers' land. It's a practice that's been around for decades, but it's being used increasingly in Canada, the US and Europe as the alternatives, incinerating or dumping the sludge in landfills, become more costly and unpopular. Alvin Ward wants to use the sludge on 95 acres where he plans to grow barley, oats, wheat and potatoes. He's already experimented with sludge on fields about half that size.
WARD: It seems to work fine what I've used. It just greens things right up and produced like everything.
KELLY: He's convinced it's safe. His daughter Shawna adds that the rules for spreading sewage sludge are strict.
SHAWNA WARD (Farmer's Daughter): There's boundary from a well, a dug well, and there's boundaries from springs. There's a lot of restrictions.
KELLY: But the Ward's neighbour, David Hughes, doesn't think much of those restrictions, or the way sludge spreading is monitored or enforced in Ontario.
DAVID HUGHES (Farmer's Neighbour): It's the most lax house of cards I've ever encountered in my life.
KELLY: Hughes stands beside his trout pond and looks up the hill to the Ward's farm where the sludge may soon be spread if the province approves
the waste company's application. In rubber boots, he wades into springs he's terrified will become contaminated.
HUGHES: These cold springs in turn end up taking the Credit River which is, which has been cleaned up so incredibly from decades ago, and, you know, if we start putting unknown chemical products up gradient coming out the side of the springs, it's going to end up in the Credit River. It's only a matter of time.
KELLY: Hughes is also worried his well water could become contaminated and that heavy metals, chemicals and bacteria such as e-coli will enter the food chain and make people sick. He dismisses assurances from governments and the waste industry that it's safe.
HUGHES: I went on a sludge tour recently, organized by the industry, and
I
asked them, like, what do you test for. And they test for ammonium,
nitrates, phosphorous, a lot of metals, and volatile solids. But when I
asked them point blank, do you test for dioxins? No. Do you test for
PCB's?
No. Do you test for furons? No. Do you test for oil and gas? No. Do you
test
for paint thinners? No.
KELLY: Just west of Toronto, a tanker truck fills up with a load of
liquid
sewage sludge at a waste treatment plant in Halton region. Halton gets
rid
of almost all its sludge by spreading it on fields. A practice it
started
more than twenty years ago. Peter Mordon, who oversees bio-solid waste
for
the region, insists the process is safe, and that there is scientific
research to back that up. He says the waste is heated and distilled in
big
tanks for at least fifteen days.
PETER MORDON: Almost all the bacteria and the pathogens in the material
are
eliminated through this process. But some do survive. But that's why we
have
Ontario guidelines, and we have Ontario regulations that control.
They've
actually put up barriers so that the public is safe and the environment
is
safe.
KELLY: But Mordon confirms the provincial guidelines don't require that
sludge be tested for PCBs or other toxins, and mistakes do happen. For
example, earlier this month, the waste company Terretech was charged for
spreading sludge improperly in Cambridge, Ontario, allowing waste
contaminated with e- coli and streptococci to run in the direction of a
creek. That kind of hazard is fuelling opposition to the spreading
of sewage sludge. The Canadian Infectious Disease Society has called for
a
moratorium on the spreading of sludge until more research has been done.
Ottawa and three other municipalities in Ontario have done the same. And
in
the US, the National Academy of Sciences warned that not enough is known
about the risks of sludge to human health. Waste company executive Phil
Sidwa of Terretech insists there's no proof the practice has made people
ill. But Maureen Riley of the Sierra Club of Canada disagrees.
MAUREEN RILEY (Sierra Club of Canada): There are people begging for
health
assessments who live next to sludge spreading sites and are extremely
sick.
The complaints that are reported are rashes, respiratory difficulty,
diarrhea, dizziness, headaches, parasites, and other gastrointestinal
ailments.
KELLY: Governments are responding to the concerns. Ontario is conducting
hearings on a new Nutrient Management Act. And in five years, it will
ban
the spreading of untreated sewage from sceptic systems.
BC recently became the first jurisdiction in North America to require
that
sludge be pasteurized before it is spread in watershed areas. But back
on
his farm in Caldeon, Alvin Ward shakes his head and wonders what all the
fuss is about.
ALVIN WARD: I'm not doing anybody any harm. And the Walkerton thing was
a
tragedy, but it was, I feel, negligence there.
KELLY: Ward's daughter Shawna says in the end sewage sludge has to go
somewhere, and putting it to use on fields, in her opinion, is the best
option.
SHAWNA WARD: They've got to get rid of it regardless, whether it goes to
the
fields or whether it goes to landfill or wherever.
KELLY: But others argue it's safer to err on the side of caution, and as
resistance to sewage sludge grows, municipalities that have banked on
the
practice are finding themselves with more and more waste and fewer
places to
put it. Margo Kelly, CBC News, Caledon.
September 16, 2002
CBC Radio Transcripts
JILL DEMPSEY: And now tonight's feature report. Across Canada, questions are growing about the practice of fertilizing farm land with sewage sludge. Provinces, waste companies and food farmers insist the spreading of treated human waste is well regulated and causes little risk to the environment or people's health. But environmentalists, some scientists, and people living in rural areas, say more research is needed to ensure people's health isn't being put at risk. In the meantime, they argue the practice should be stopped. Ontario, where the deadly tainted water tragedy in Walkerton is still fresh in people's minds, spreads
more sludge than any other province. And as Margo Kelly reports, it's in Ontario where the issue is sparking the most debate.
MARGO KELLY (Reporter): An hour's drive northwest of Toronto, Alvin Ward cuts hay on his farm in the Caledon Hills, an area dotted with expensive country homes and horse farms. He climbs down from his swather and explains why he wants to spread sewage sludge on his land.
ALVIN WARD (Farmer): Because it's free. I don't have hardly any livestock now to make barnyard manure, and I've got to buy dry fertilizer just to do the job, and it's expensive.
KELLY: Sewage sludge is processed human sewage with most of the water removed. Sludge is free because municipalities pay private companies to spread it on farmers' land. It's a practice that's been around for decades, but it's being used increasingly in Canada, the US and Europe as the alternatives, incinerating or dumping the sludge in landfills, become more costly and unpopular. Alvin Ward wants to use the sludge on 95 acres where he plans to grow barley, oats, wheat and potatoes. He's already experimented with sludge on fields about half that size.
WARD: It seems to work fine what I've used. It just greens things right up and produced like everything.
KELLY: He's convinced it's safe. His daughter Shawna adds that the rules for spreading sewage sludge are strict.
SHAWNA WARD (Farmer's Daughter): There's boundary from a well, a dug well, and there's boundaries from springs. There's a lot of restrictions.
KELLY: But the Ward's neighbour, David Hughes, doesn't think much of those restrictions, or the way sludge spreading is monitored or enforced in Ontario.
DAVID HUGHES (Farmer's Neighbour): It's the most lax house of cards I've ever encountered in my life.
KELLY: Hughes stands beside his trout pond and looks up the hill to the Ward's farm where the sludge may soon be spread if the province approves
the waste company's application. In rubber boots, he wades into springs he's terrified will become contaminated.
HUGHES: These cold springs in turn end up taking the Credit River which is, which has been cleaned up so incredibly from decades ago, and, you know, if we start putting unknown chemical products up gradient coming out the side of the springs, it's going to end up in the Credit River. It's only a matter of time.
KELLY: Hughes is also worried his well water could become contaminated and that heavy metals, chemicals and bacteria such as e-coli will enter the food chain and make people sick. He dismisses assurances from governments and the waste industry that it's safe.
HUGHES: I went on a sludge tour recently, organized by the industry, and
I
asked them, like, what do you test for. And they test for ammonium,
nitrates, phosphorous, a lot of metals, and volatile solids. But when I
asked them point blank, do you test for dioxins? No. Do you test for
PCB's?
No. Do you test for furons? No. Do you test for oil and gas? No. Do you
test
for paint thinners? No.
KELLY: Just west of Toronto, a tanker truck fills up with a load of
liquid
sewage sludge at a waste treatment plant in Halton region. Halton gets
rid
of almost all its sludge by spreading it on fields. A practice it
started
more than twenty years ago. Peter Mordon, who oversees bio-solid waste
for
the region, insists the process is safe, and that there is scientific
research to back that up. He says the waste is heated and distilled in
big
tanks for at least fifteen days.
PETER MORDON: Almost all the bacteria and the pathogens in the material
are
eliminated through this process. But some do survive. But that's why we
have
Ontario guidelines, and we have Ontario regulations that control.
They've
actually put up barriers so that the public is safe and the environment
is
safe.
KELLY: But Mordon confirms the provincial guidelines don't require that
sludge be tested for PCBs or other toxins, and mistakes do happen. For
example, earlier this month, the waste company Terretech was charged for
spreading sludge improperly in Cambridge, Ontario, allowing waste
contaminated with e- coli and streptococci to run in the direction of a
creek. That kind of hazard is fuelling opposition to the spreading
of sewage sludge. The Canadian Infectious Disease Society has called for
a
moratorium on the spreading of sludge until more research has been done.
Ottawa and three other municipalities in Ontario have done the same. And
in
the US, the National Academy of Sciences warned that not enough is known
about the risks of sludge to human health. Waste company executive Phil
Sidwa of Terretech insists there's no proof the practice has made people
ill. But Maureen Riley of the Sierra Club of Canada disagrees.
MAUREEN RILEY (Sierra Club of Canada): There are people begging for
health
assessments who live next to sludge spreading sites and are extremely
sick.
The complaints that are reported are rashes, respiratory difficulty,
diarrhea, dizziness, headaches, parasites, and other gastrointestinal
ailments.
KELLY: Governments are responding to the concerns. Ontario is conducting
hearings on a new Nutrient Management Act. And in five years, it will
ban
the spreading of untreated sewage from sceptic systems.
BC recently became the first jurisdiction in North America to require
that
sludge be pasteurized before it is spread in watershed areas. But back
on
his farm in Caldeon, Alvin Ward shakes his head and wonders what all the
fuss is about.
ALVIN WARD: I'm not doing anybody any harm. And the Walkerton thing was
a
tragedy, but it was, I feel, negligence there.
KELLY: Ward's daughter Shawna says in the end sewage sludge has to go
somewhere, and putting it to use on fields, in her opinion, is the best
option.
SHAWNA WARD: They've got to get rid of it regardless, whether it goes to
the
fields or whether it goes to landfill or wherever.
KELLY: But others argue it's safer to err on the side of caution, and as
resistance to sewage sludge grows, municipalities that have banked on
the
practice are finding themselves with more and more waste and fewer
places to
put it. Margo Kelly, CBC News, Caledon.
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