Sludge Spread on Farm Fields May Be Health Risk

Sludge spread on farm fields may be health risk: physician
Eric McGuinness, Environment Reporter
The Hamilton Spectator

A Hamilton physician who heads the Canadian Infectious Diseases Society says Hamilton, Halton, Niagara, Toronto and other urban centres should stop
spreading thousands of tonnes of treated human waste on farm fields until the practice is proven safe.

Dr. Coleman Rotstein, an infection specialist with Hamilton Health Sciences and an associate professor of medicine at McMaster University, says: "In light of the Walkerton water tragedy, we have to take all sorts of precautions. We have to be absolutely sure it's safe." Rotstein says the society wants a moratorium on land application of sewage sludge (also called biosolids -- a position bolstered by a new United States National Research Council study which concludes that country's sludge-disposal regulations are based on outdated science.

The U.S. report says, "To assure the public and to protect public health, there is a critical need to update the scientific basis of the rule." Rotstein says the situation in Canada is the same, except Ontario doesn't even have regulations, just guidelines. "I don't think we should do this until we know it is perfectly safe. There should be a moratorium on spreading liquid or semi-solid sludge within 10 kilometres of any populated area."

The concern is that sludge contains toxic chemicals, viruses, bacteria and other disease-causing agents to which people and animals may be exposed. There's fear that harmful substances may be taken up by crops and livestock or be washed into wells, ponds and streams. Ottawa city council recently acted on the association's advice and voted to suspend spreading sludge on area farms, even though landfilling it will cost an estimated $1.5 million a year. Councillor Wendy Stewart was quoted by the Ottawa Sun as saying, "I think we've got to come up with a better solution for the biosolids than using our agricultural community as a toxic waste dump."

Environment Ministry spokesman John Steele says provincial biosolids policies are under review and staff are looking at the U.S. study.

The biggest sludge spreader in Ontario is Hamilton-based Terratec Environmental, a subsidiary of American Water Services, charged last year with applying Toronto sludge too close to homes in the Dufferin County hamlet of Cedarville.

Cedarville resident Glenn Norman, spokesman for Voters Against Sludge, is also calling for a province-wide moratorium and reminding Premier Ernie Eves of a statement videotaped last fall in which the then-candidate for leader said, "Well, I don't believe we should be spreading anything which hasn't been scientifically proven to have no harmful effects at all."

Terratec vice-president Phil Sidhwa dismissed the idea of a moratorium, saying, "The work we do is based on years and years of research and experience."

The U.S. council didn't comment on whether sludge spreading should continue -- it said that wasn't part of its mandate. It did call for a nationwide survey to determine what is now in sludge, studies to prove the regulations really protect against the potential risk, studies "needed to reduce persistent uncertainty about the potential for adverse human health effects," and much tougher enforcement of existing rules.

Hamilton Councillor Dave Mitchell, a farmer who represents an area with many farms, says enforcement is his biggest concern. "Guidelines would be fine if everybody abided by them, but if they're violated, there are no teeth except to slap someone's hand."

Ana Litner, from the Sierra Legal Defence Fund in Toronto, says the Ontario agriculture ministry's new Nutrient Management Act might eventually control sludge use, but there's no indication when regulations will be drafted.

National Research Council (U.S.) Report on Biosolids Applied to Land www.nap.edu/catalog/10426.html?onpi_newsdoc070202 You can contact Eric
McGuinness at emcguinness at hamiltonspectator.com or at 905-526-4650.