The terrorist attacks of 9/11 reminded Americans of the importance of defending the homeland. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the EPA.

Despite trillions of dollars spent on homeland security and defense over the past two decades, most Americans and others around the world are consuming PFAS-contaminated water and/or food, using contaminated products or breathing contaminated air. At least 45 percent of America’s tap water is estimated to have one or more types of the chemicals known as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or PFAS, according to a 2023 study by the U.S. Geological Survey.

There are more than 12,000 types of PFAS, not all of which can be detected with current tests; the USGS study tested for the presence of 32 types. PFAS is just the tip of a very large and very toxic iceberg. Unstoppable neurotoxins might pose an even more formidable threat.

Mismanagement Has Weaponized Sewage Sludge

Wastewater is the largest waste stream in the world and possibly the most toxic waste stream in the world. It is largely unregulated. Wastewater treatment facilities in the United States alone process approximately 34 billion gallons of wastewater every day. There was a time when human sewage was a fairly benign substance that cities and towns could disperse naturally without threatening an entire nation.

Today’s wastewater stream includes everything dumped down the drains and toilets at homes and offices, factories, hospitals, health clinics, slaughterhouses, mortuaries, auto repair shops and much more. It isn’t fertilizer.

We’re all part of the sewage problem, but misinformation, disinformation, incomplete science and more have compounded the problem. It has caused an environmental catastrophe and a public health disaster that is still unfolding.

Wastewater treatment plants are barely able to separate the liquids from the solids in this high-volume, toxic soup. Neutralizing and removing all neurotoxins, forever chemicals and radionuclides, for example, is impossible. Safe handling and disposal of this deadly waste stream is imperative, but the reality is much different. After superficial treatment, the water and the solids are pumped right back into the homeland for reuse.

Just a few years ago, sewage sludge killed underwater ecosystems, when dumped at sea. Today, it is hyped as fertilizer for farms, ranches, golf courses, parks, ballparks, school grounds, cemeteries, forests and beyond. Like magic, sewage sludge became biosolids and wastewater is now drinking water. Thanks to the EPA, the waste stream is the new gold rush.

In October 1972, Congress enacted the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act (MPRSA), a.k.a. the Ocean Dumping Act, to regulate the dumping of all materials that adversely affect human health, welfare or amenities, or the marine environment. It took the Ocean Dumping Ban Act of 1988 (an amendment to the MPRSA) to prohibit the dumping of municipal sewage sludge, industrial waste and medical waste into the ocean.

Bans were motivated by the discovery of contaminated wastes from sewage-derived microorganisms at public beaches, toxic metals in shellfish beds, and parasites in fish. Sewage sludge can contain heavy metals like cadmium and copper, which sewage treatment plants can’t filter out. Ocean dumping can destroy marine habitats and ecosystems. 

Unfortunately, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been pushing a different story for the past 30 years. In response to the ban on dumping sewage sludge at sea, the EPA expedited a flawed, if not fraudulent, risk assessment and concluded that the toxic waste that destroyed marine ecosystems was actually beneficial to open land, including farmland, ranches, forests, parks, golf courses, school grounds, ballparks and city parks.

“Biosolids is a glorified term for sewage sludge,” said Gary Chandler, CEO of Crossbow Communications. The EPA estimates that more than 2.4 million tons of sewage sludge are applied to land annually as fertilizer on farms, pastures, parks, home gardens, and other lands.”

Biosolids are made from both municipal and industrial waste, and although they are treated to remove some pathogens and some other materials, PFAS are not removed during treatment and EPA does not currently limit the amount of PFAS they can contain.

It calls biosolids a cheap fertilizer (they pay farmers to take this toxic waste off their hands). Now, many farms and ranches are paying the ultimate price for this cheap fertilizer.

Read The Full Story About Biosolids and The Public Health Disaster

Gary Chandler is the CEO of Crossbow Communications — an award-winning public affairs and government affairs firm. We specialize in public health and environmental issues. We serve the world.

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Neurodegenerative disease is rapidly becoming the leading cause of death worldwide. Misinformation and mismanagement from industry and government are fueling a public health disaster around the world.

Science is being ignored. Research is being blocked. Unfortunately, infectious waste and lies also are being spread like fertilizer. Food, water and other pathways are hopelessly contaminated with neurotoxins thanks to negligence and corruption at all levels in most countries.

Alzheimer’s disease alone is taking the lives of 50-100 million people around the world now. The epidemic is more severe in some countries than others. As millions die, even more will be diagnosed. Millions more are suffering in silence with a misdiagnosis or no diagnosis. No one really knows the scope of the epidemic. Unfortunately, one of the common threads is the mishandling of infectious waste.

A variety of factors can trigger neurodegenerative disease, including genetics, head trauma and neurotoxins. Misinformation and mismanagement are fanning the flames.

Despite millions of deaths, experts suggest that the prevalence of the disease will quadruple by 2050, if not sooner. Unfortunately, there is a growing stack of evidence that Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other brain diseases are transmissible. They also are being misdiagnosed and undiagnosed at an alarming rate. Deadly, self-replicating proteins appear to be one of the common threads.

Did you know that spouses of those with Alzheimer’s disease are 600 percent more likely to contract the disease than non-caregivers?

Did you know that Alzheimer’s disease is commonly misdiagnosed? About 20 percent of Alzheimer’s diagnoses are actually a more severe and more aggressive form of neurodegenerative disease known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is highly contagious and always fatal.

The Prion Pathogen

Prions (PREE-ons) are at the heart of many forms of neurodegenerative disease. Prion science could change the way we perceive the world and our place in it. Prions are a deadly and unstoppable form of protein that migrates, mutates, multiplies and kills with unparalleled efficiency. Prions cause fatal neurodegenerative disease in humans and other mammals by converting the cellular version of prion protein into a toxic form that erodes the brain and body. Prion disease often is described as a wasting disease that causes a loss of body mass and brain mass. Despite public misinformation, there is no barrier to prion disease and prions discharged from humans are the most deadly forms because humans are at the top of the food chain and we consume prions from the entire food pyramid.

Dr. Stanley Prusiner, an American neuroscientist from the University of California at San Francisco, earned a Nobel Prize in 1997 for discovering and characterizing prions and prion disease. President Obama awarded Prusiner the National Medal of Science in 2010 to recognize the importance of his research.

Prion disease also is known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). The operative word is “transmissible.” Prusiner claims that all forms of TSE are caused by infectious prions.

Prions are such a formidable threat that the U.S. government enacted the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, which included a provision to halt research on prions in all but two laboratories. The U.S. government classified prions as select agents that pose an extreme risk to food, water and health systems.

Unfortunately, the Center For Disease Control quietly took prions off the list about two years ago because the classification threatened to criminalize some multi-billion dollar industries and many industry practices.

TSE is a spectrum disease that varies in severity and symptoms. It depends on which region of the brain is impacted first and by what prion mutation. Few cases are identical in terms of symptoms and diagnoses. When the presenting symptom is memory loss, the diagnoses flow along the following chart.

In humans, the prion spectrum includes Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and an extremely aggressive version known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease(CJD) The difference between these diseases is very slight and often indistinguishable to neurologists. CJD is clearly a prion disease. According to neuroscientists Dr. Laura Manuelidis, at least 25 percent of Alzheimer’s diagnoses are actually CJD, which is further up the prion spectrum. CJD, without dispute, is extremely infectious to caregivers and loved ones, but it has not been declared a reportable disease across the U.S. and many other nations.

Millions of cases of deadly CJD are being misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease. Millions of patients and caregivers are being misinformed, misguided and exposed to an aggressive prion disease. Millions of people with prion disease have exposed us all to their infectious waste thanks to misinformation, mismanagement and negligence.

Meanwhile, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is likely a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy—prion disease. In most of these cases, the trauma was the change agent that causes prions to misfold and become toxic. Once the neurodegeneration of CTE begins, are these victims shedding infectious prions? Hopefully, prion researchers will fill in this very important blank. Again, families and caregivers need to know if they are dealing with a TSE.

A variety of factors can trigger neurodegenerative disease, including genetics, head trauma and neurotoxins. Sewage is by far the most significant prion pathway to you and your family, but it’s not the only pathway.

Pathway Mismanagement

Sewage mismanagement has killed millions of people around the world over the centuries. Sewage is so lethal it has been used as a weapon of war and a weapon of class warfare. It’s going on today in the U.S. and beyond. It is state-sponsored bioterrorism. It isn’t Russia, North Korea or Iran. It’s a case of domestic betrayal.

Although there is plenty of blame to go around for the mismanagement of prion pathways, the U.S. EPA is one of the most negligent policymakers in the world. Thanks to its fraudulent risk assessments regarding the dumping of sewage on open land, the practice has been embraced around the world.

Unfortunately, Prusiner’s science is being ignored and we all are facing a public health disaster because of the negligence and reckless disregard for public health. Infectious victims are contaminating the world around them and reckless policies are spreading their infectious waste far and wide.

Victims should be quarantined because prions are in the urine, feces, blood, saliva, mucus, skin and cell tissue of all victims–all human byproducts that are washed, dumped, or flushed down sinks and toilets. One can assume that the waste is extra infectious when it comes from funeral homes, nursing homes, hospitals, dental offices, veterinarians, slaughterhouses and some laboratories.

Wastewater treatment plants are collecting points for prions from infected humans. The sewage treatment process can’t stop prions from migrating, mutating and multiplying before being discharged into the environment where they can kill again. Wastewater treatment plants are spreading infectious waste far and wide because they are incapable of stopping prions. As such, all by-products and discharges from wastewater treatment plants are infectious waste, which are contributing to the global epidemic of neurodegenerative disease among humans, wildlife and livestock. As more people fall sick, the deadlier the waste stream becomes.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed that prions are in sewage and that there has been no way to detect them or stop them. As such, the EPA has never issued guidance on prion management within wastewater treatment plants. Unfortunately, the EPA’s risk assessment on sewage sludge and biosolids were prepared before the world of science knew about prions. The agency continues to cling to its antiquated sludge rule crafted back in the dark ages. It does, however, consider prions a “emerging contaminant of concern.” Meanwhile, its outdated risk assessments are promoting a public health disaster. The neurotoxins found in sewage, including heavy metals, also are contributing to the global spike in autism, which follows the same timing and trajectory as the spike in neurodegenerative diseases.

“Since it’s unlikely that the sewage treatment process can effectively stop prions, adopting measures to prevent the entry of prions into the sewer system is advisable,” said the Toronto Department of Health, November 2004.

Once unleashed on the environment, prions remain infectious. They migrate, mutate and multiply as they infect crops, water supplies, wildlife, livestock, sea mammals and humans. According to prion researcher Joel Pedersen at the University of Wisconsin, prions in soil become up to 680 times more infectious. From there, they migrate, mutate and multiply. It’s a real world version of Pandora’s Lunchbox.

“Our results suggest that if prions enter municipal wastewater treatment systems, most of the agent would bond to sewage sludge, survive anaerobic digestion, and be present in treated biosolids,” Pedersen said. “Land application of biosolids containing prions represents a route for their unintentional introduction into the environment. Our results emphasize the importance of keeping prions out of municipal wastewater treatment systems.”

Pedersen also found that sewage treatment does not inactivate prions. Therefore, prions are lethal, mutating, migrating and multiplying everywhere sewage is dumped.

Prions could end up in sewage treatment plants via slaughterhouses, hospitals, dental offices and mortuaries just to name a few of the pathways. The disposal of sludge represents the greatest risk of spreading prion contamination in the environment. Plus, we know that pathogens, pharmaceutical residue and chemical pollutants found in sewage sludge are taken up by plants and vegetables.”

One in seven Americans drink from private wells, which are being polluted by contaminants from manure and fertilizer, including highly toxic and infectious biosolids.

The U.S. EPA Admits Negligence

The risk assessments prepared by the U.S. EPA for wastewater treatment and sewage sludge are flawed and current practices of recycling this infectious waste are fueling a public health disaster.

Many risks are not addressed, including prions and radioactive waste. They don’t mention prions or radiation because there is no answer. Most nations are making the same mistake. We’re dumping killer proteins on crops, parks, golf courses, gardens, ski areas, school grounds and beyond. Wind, rain and irrigation spread these contaminants and many more throughout our communities and watersheds.

In November 2018, the EPA admitted holes in its risk assessments. Failure to account for known risks is negligent. Crops for humans and livestock grown in sewage sludge absorb prions and become infectious. We’re all vulnerable to neurotoxins and right now due to widespread denial and mismanagement. It’s time to stop the land application of sewage sludge (LASS) in all nations. Safer alternatives exist.

After lying about the practice of turning sewage into fertilizer for more than 40 years, the U.S. EPA admitted in November that it couldn’t stand behind its risk assessments, which were clearly fraudulent all along. Sadly, the collateral damage speaks volumes about the EPA’s decades of lies. Even the most recent admission falls extremely short of the full problem. A proper conscience would call for an immediate suspension and an immediate diversion of all sewage sludge to lined landfills.

The report’s title almost says it all, “The EPA Unable To Assess The Impact Of Hundreds Of Unregulated Pollutants In Land-Applied Biosolids On Human Health And The Environment.” The EPA’s Office Of Inspector General published report No. 19-P-0002 on November 15, 2018.

“The EPA’s controls over the land application of sewage sludge (biosolids) were incomplete or had weaknesses and may not fully protect human health and the environment. The EPA consistently monitored biosolids for nine regulated pollutants. However, it lacked the data or risk assessment tools needed to make a determination on the safety of 352 pollutants found in biosolids. The EPA identified these pollutants in a variety of studies from 1989 through 2015. Our analysis determined that the 352 pollutants include 61 designated as acutely hazardous, hazardous or priority pollutants in other programs,” the report says. “The Clean Water Act requires the EPA to review biosolids regulations at least every two years to identify additional toxic pollutants and promulgate regulations for such pollutants. Existing controls based on the Clean Water Act and the EPA’s Biosolids Rule include testing for nine pollutants (all heavy metals), researching for additional pollutants that may need regulation, reducing pathogens and the attractiveness of biosolids to potential disease-carrying organisms, and conducting compliance monitoring activities. The EPA’s risk communication regarding biosolids should also be transparent.”

Gary Chandler is the CEO of Crossbow Communications. He is the author of several books about health and environmental issues from around the world.

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By Jim Bynum

Editor’s Note:  This article was researched and written by Jim Bynum, a devoted patriot determined to protect our air, water and food supplies from reckless waste disposal policies. This alarming report was published in 1992. The EPA, in its infinite wisdom, relied on fraudulent science, collusion and corruption to create so-called beneficial uses of sewage. In 2018, it admitted that the risk assessments regarding the land application of sewage sludge (LASS) are incomplete, which means that the practice is illegal.

As Bynum noted, farmers and other stakeholders are being victimized by the U.S. government and industry. Nothing has changed regarding the EPA’s regulation of highly toxic biosolids. Most lands treated with sewage sludge instantly exceed the criteria for land condemned under Superfund law. However, the toxic soup of known and unknown elements called biosolids are exempt from meaningful regulations. Such reckless dumping is contributing to death and disease among people, wildlife and livestock.

In 1992, the biosolids industry warned wastewater treatment authorities and sewage sludge producers regarding the complaints lodged in the Zander Action Summary.

The warning explained that Zander had identified 18 medical experts (including physicians, immunologists, toxicologists, and nutritionists), nine veterinarians, two property valuation/devaluation experts, three soil/hydraulic/geologic experts and one testing lab who would testify about the dangers of sewage sludge use to humans and animals.

They warned that there would be extra-regional impact and “This action must not be settled. The public persona of biosolids is precarious, at best, and each member of WEF and AMSA can be assured that Zander appears dedicated to capitalizing on every available opportunity to publicize her scare story … and remember, with respect to land application, the farming community comprises less than two percent of the population, so she need only reach a narrow population to cripple land application. It is essential that her soapbox be removed and her credibility challenged before our regional problem has any more effect nationally or internationally on land application of biosolids.”

Bode also warned that there would be extra-regional impact and “This action must not be settled.” Bode further warns that, “The public persona of biosolids is precarious, at best, and each member of WEF and AMSA can be assured that Zander appears dedicated to capitalizing on every available opportunity to publicize her scare story … and remember, with respect to land application, the farming community comprises less than 2 percent of the population, so she need only reach a narrow population to cripple land application. It is essential that her soapbox be removed and her credibility challenged before our regional problem has any more effect nationally or internationally on land application of biosolids.”

The EPA claims that a farmer can not be held liable for any damages to human health or the environment caused by the use of biosolids/sewage sludge on food crop production land as a fertilizer, even, if the farm becomes a Superfund site!

Furthermore, according to the EPA, neither the producer of the sewage sludge or the spreader of the sewage sludge will have any liability for any health or environmental damages, when sewage sludge is used as a fertilizer.

However, while there may be no liability, other than the loss of a farm, the farmer is not protected, because he/she is required to read the EPA regulation which warns; the EPA Administrator has information available which proves that if any of the organic or inorganic or pathogen pollutants in beneficial use biosolids/sludge enters your body either directly by ingestion or inhalation or indirectly through the food chain, can or will, cause your death, or cancer, or disease, or other serious health effects in you and/or your unborn children (40 CFR 503.9(t), FR. 58, 32, p. 9389).

In effect, according to the EPA, the sewage sludge use and disposal regulation 40 CFR 503, puts the health of the farmer, the food consuming public and the farmer’s neighbor at risk as well as the environment. Essentially, according to the EPA, there is no liability or risk to the sludge producer or spreader of the sewage sludge. But what about the neighbor?

Death does not frighten Linda Zander, but she does get angry at the Federal and State Agencies who are causing her sickness by allowing the uncontrolled dumping of sewage sludge near her farm. The toxic pollutants from the sewage sludge have contaminated the air and water on her farm. Zander has had to watch her family and friends become sick, and some have already died, as well as her livestock. She has had to watch as her livelihood was destroyed and the farm was taken away. The worst part was finding her name on an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) list, as a part of a 1.2 million dollar EPA/Water Environment Federation (WEF) public relations campaign to debunk sewage sludge “horror” stories.

The EPA can not afford to investigate any health damage claims caused by the use of sewage sludge because of the liability involved. Which is why it has created the public relations program to debunk any such claims as noted above, such as the Zander case and others.

In fact, Number 2 on the EPA’s list of 19 “horror stories” to debunk is, “Linda Zander case – Sick & dead cattle -worker health -Farm Bureau and Dairy Today stories.”

Rather than investigate the Zanders problems, the EPA/WEF has created a scientific fact sheet, marshaled the state agencies, and scientists to discredit them. (Report to the National Sludge Roundtable (RNSR), July 1996, Laredo Safety Institute, Laredo, TX.)

In reality, before the toxic waste dumping started, the Zanders, who had operated the dairy farm for 20 years, had a comfortable life with no major problems they could anticipate. They looked forward to a comfortable and relatively healthy old age. Within a year after the Western Services Waste Management began spreading sludge adjacent to their farm, Linda and Raymond Zander reported changes occurring in normally healthy dairy cows. Some of their herd developed arthritis and a number of their calves were born with tendon abnormalities. Milk production dropped by 17 percent. Then the cattle started dying.

Furthermore, the Zander’s health problems fit the EPA’s profile of toxic sewage sludge exposure. While Linda experienced mycoplasma pneumonia, chemical induced brain damage, thyroid problems and immune system damage, Raymond suffers from hypothyroid, lupus and nickel toxicity. In addition to their other medical problems, the Zanders are facing financial problems. They were forced to declare bankruptcy, when the bank, who is financing the sludge producers’ defense of their legal suit, foreclosed on their property.

When Zander started looking for answers, she found that the Whatcom County Health Department, the very agency that should have helped her, had approved the sludge dumping. When she could not get the Whatcom County Health Department or the Washington State Ecology Department or the EPA to stop the dumping, she went to Court for an order to stop the dumping. The Court Order to stop it was not effective, because it was then dumped at night.

There is additional documentation which confirms the EPA, WEF, Washington State Ecology Department and King County Department of Metropolitan Services (Metro) are conspiring to destroy the credibility of the Zander family claim. Peter Machno of the King County Metro is the WEF expert delegated (according to the EPA memo dated 12-94) to explain away this case. On February 22, 1993, two Washington State Ecology representatives – Al Hanson, Kyle Dorsey and five King County Metro representatives – Mark Lucas, Carol Ready, Steve Gilbert, Dan Sturgill and Salley Tenney of the Metro Legal Services as well as Mel Kemper of the City of Tacoma, Hal Thurston an Attorney, and four individuals actually associated with the Zander lawsuit, met in a closed meeting to discuss the Zander Case. According to Keith A. Bode’s, Zander Action Summary, the legal cost will exceed $500,000.

One of the articles written about Zander was “Sludge under suspicion,” by Ed Haag, published in the Farm Journal, in March, 1992. According to a letter dated, May 17, 1996, from PIMA GRO SYSTEMS, INC. to the Planning Director of Imperial County, Ca., Pima Gro Systems Director of Technical Services assures Imperial County that, “the Farm Journal article was retracted by the magazine itself due to the amount of misinformation it included.” Furthermore, “The Farm Journal article…… was thoroughly rebutted by Dr. Terry Logan, a respected soil scientist from the University of Ohio and a member of the peer review committee that developed the 503 regulation. This rebuttal article is attached.”

The rebuttal article, dated April 27, 1992, is impressive. Dr. Logan has been, “active in sludge research and consulting for 15 years.” Not only that but he, “co- chaired the W-170 Regional Research Committee of USDA-CSRS that has coordinated research on sewage sludge in the U.S. for the same period of time.” However, according to Logan, he sympathized “with the Zanders who were taking advantage of an opportunity to reduce their input cost and to assist in recycling of our waste. It was also logical for them to suspect that sludge was the cause of the observed livestock disorders. No data is given, for example, of the metal analysis of the sludge applied to the Zander land, or analysis of soil or forage from sludge amended pastures.”

It is apparent, Dr. Logan never even read the article he was rebutting. No sludge has ever been applied directly to the Zander land. Furthermore, in spite of Pima Gro Systems assuring the Imperial County Planning Director that the Farm Journal article had been retracted because of Dr. Logan’s rebuttal article, as of July, 11, 1996, Karen Frieberg, Managing Editor of Farm Journal, states that the Farm Journal has not retracted the article.

The EPA/WEF public relations campaign to debunk the sewage sludge “horror stories” by Zander, and others farmers like her, is based on the EPA’s 18 year old policy of promoting the use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer on lawns, gardens and food crop production land. EPA backed up it’s 18 year old sewage sludge policy with a sludge use and disposal regulation in 1993, 40 CFR 503. Under the EPA regulation, sewage sludge that is too contaminated with certain toxic pollutants to be disposed of safely in a landfill is promoted as a safe fertilizer. Yet, the EPA’s strongest defense against these “horror stories” by Zander and other farmers like her, is it’s claim to a lack of scientific data concerning the human health and environmental damages which can be caused by the toxic pollutants in sewage sludge.

Furthermore, part of the EPA/WEF defense against the damages which can be cause by the uncontrolled use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer, is an EPA funded 1996 National Research Council (NRC) report; Use of Reclaimed Water and Sludge in Food Crop Production. The NRC Report concluded, that based on the EPA’s lack of scientific studies and data indicating potential harmful effects, and if all the other regulations and laws concerning the safety of food worked properly, sludge was probable safe for use on food crop production land.

However, “The [NRC] Committee based its review on existing published literature [furnished by EPA] and discussions with experts in the field.”, such as Dr. Logan. (NRC Report, p. viii).

In effect, according to the NRC Report, since there were no published scientific studies in the literature to support the “horror stories” of Zander and other farmers like her, it concluded the toxic contaminated sewage sludge could not be harmful as a fertilizer on lawns, gardens and food crop production land.

While the NRC Report did not note the EPA’s acknowledgment that exposure to the toxic pollutants in sewage sludge could cause dramatic and serious health effects through the food chain, the Report did note that EPA only addressed 10 toxic heavy metals, out of 126 toxic priority pollutants known to cause serious health effects.

Furthermore, the NRC report failed to note that one of the Studies it claimed to have reviewed, documented Salmonella infection of cattle grazing on pastures fertilized with toxic sewage sludge and a cycle of infection from humans to sludge to animals to humans.

Not only that, but the disease organisms (found in beneficial use sewage sludge), which cause many public health effects; Salmonella, E. coli, Hepatitis A, Cyclosporia and others, according to the National Center for Disease Control, cause approximately 50 million cases of food poisoning and 9,000 deaths annually.

More Sewage Sludge “Science”

Studies have documented Salmonella infection of cattle grazing on pastures fertilized with toxic sewage sludge and a cycle of infection from humans to sludge to animals to humans. (Taylor and Burrows. 1971, WHO. 1981, Dorn, 1985)

Studies have also documented the acute toxicity of organic pollutants in sewage sludge (which the EPA does not address in the beneficial use regulation) and that the pollutants in sludge may not leave any indication in the body as to the actual cause of death. (Babish. 1981, 1985).

Beneficial use of sewage sludge, according to two EPA funded “scientific studies” is based on the fact that “Suitable landfill sites are, however, being exhausted. Thus sludge is now being applied to farmland by many municipalities.” (Dorn, 1985). and “The limited capacity of sanitary landfills is quickly exhausted, and communities are not providing for new landfills.” (National Research Council (NCR), 1996). Sludge disposed of in a sanitary landfill will not harm anyone, nor will it contaminate the food or water supply. (Federal Register (FR.) 58, 32, p. 9375). Ocean dumping of New York City sewage sludge was stopped by Congress because it destroyed the ocean environment where it was dumped. At the time, only 20% of New York City sludge was acceptable as EPA approved fertilizer under the proposed sewage sludge regulation. (Schultz, 1989).

EPA now brags that 67% of New York City sludge is processed by the New York Organic Fertilizer Company for use on citrus orchards in Florida, wheat farms in Colorado and cotton and grain farms in Arizona. Twenty-seven percent of New York City sludge is used on Merco Joint Venture’s 128,000 acre cattle ranch in west Texas.

If sludge dumpers do not claim the right to use sewage sludge as a fertilizer for wild grass, lawns, gardens or food crops, the sewage sludge must be disposed of in a safe highly regulated landfill under Part 503. FR. 58, 32, p. 9330. Sewage sludge classified as a high quality fertilizer is too contaminated with toxic pollutants to be disposed of in a part 503 landfill, primarily because of the Chromium content. FR. 58, 32, pp. 9362, 9396 – Parts 503.13 & 503.23. EPA has proposed a solution to the inconsistencies in its regulation. According to the EPA, the solution is to simply remove Chromium from the regulation and no one will notice that it only addresses 9 of the 126 priority toxic pollutants which can kill you or that its high quality sewage sludge fertilizer can not be disposed of in a part 503 landfill. Biocycle, Dec. 1996.

EPA did not address 116 of the 126 priority toxic pollutants in sludge that it knows will cause death, cancer, and other acute illness, because Congress wanted it to regulate a greater number of toxic substances. (FR. 58. 32, pp. 9327, 9389 – Public Facts # 100, # 101). EPA has acknowledged 25 groups of death and disease causing agents and 21 cancer causing agents in sewage sludge.

“EPA concluded that adequate protection of public health and the environment did not require the adoption of standards designed to protect human health or the environment under exposure conditions that are unlikely and where effects were not significant or widespread.”

EPA estimated its beneficial use of sludge as a fertilizer was responsible for about 500 health effects annually. EPA’s Sludge Regulation claims to give itself, the states, cities and sludge dumpers immunity from all damage and health claims caused by the use of sewage sludge and claims to void the Congressional mandated environmental laws (even if a Superfund site is created) as long as the sludge is called a fertilizer.

Under the law, States and cities are required to comply with Federal environmental laws which are very clear: sewage sludge from a wastewater treatment plant is always a solid waste that must be disposed of in a legal landfill where it can harm no one. (Public Laws 98-616, 99-339, 99-499)

Yet, the States no longer accept any responsibility for your protection. As an example, in a letter to Kansas City, Missouri, the Department of Natural Resources attempted to wash its hands of the problem, “These (wastewater treatment plant) inspections did not address compliance with EPA sludge regulations under 40 CFR 503. These regulations are self- implementing and directly enforceable without being included in your state operating permit.” (Dettman, June 23, 1994).

The State of Washington Courts have found that the State has no responsibility to protect the lives and health of individuals under the public duty doctrine or the law. (Zander Case, 1995). EPA is spending 1.2 million dollars to debunk the horror stories (death and diseases) associated with sludge used as a fertilizer and promote the use of sewage sludge on watersheds? (Walker, 1994). 

The question is, how long will Congress and the American public allow the unwarranted deaths and disease to continue?

Gary Chandler is the CEO of Crossbow Communications — an award-winning public affairs and government affairs firm. We specialize in public health and environmental issues. We serve the world.

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