Biosolids Battle

The NYS Department of Agriculture has a problem with Wheatfield.

They don't like the ban on biosolids that the town has imposed.

So the Department struck it down because they claim the law unreasonably restricts farmers in their use of “legal” fertilizers.

Note the word in quotes: legal.

Legal does not mean safe.

A refresher: biosolids are created by using human created sewage and anaerobic digesters. The digesters are used to create methane (a highly dangerous greenhouse gas) and leaves the biosolids as a byproduct.

Well, the companies that create this waste want to do something with it, so they claim that human waste is no different than animal waste when it comes to using it as fertilizer.

Except for the fact that the human waste is loaded with all sorts of drugs and chemicals that cows, pigs, chickens, and other farm animals don't ingest.

I worked on a farm in high school. We never gave cows birth control pills, erectile dysfunction drugs, anti-depressants, aspirin, acetaminophen, or any other pain medication. Or any of a host of medications that humans take.

And yet the waste is supposed to be equivalent and OK to use.

To that I (and the people of Wheatfield) say “Bull$#!+.”

The farm that wants to use the waste sounds like a CAFO: a contained animal feeding operation. For those not in the know, this is a factory farm where the animals spend their entire day in a stall and are fed very expensive to grow GMO corn, alfalfa, and of course the ever being cut grass and hay.

Simply put, this a group of farmers that bought into the capitalist lie about how to run their farms (against the laws of common sense) and are now seriously in debt and have to do something to pay off all the money they owe. So they want to use cheap crap as fertilizer without regard for the consequences to their herd or their customers.

I could go off more on CAFOs but there are plenty of good films and organizations that do a much better job than I do.

This law is an environmental law and not a law on farming, as the Department of Agriculture weakly notes. As this crap is spread onto the fields, can the farmers guarantee that the biolsolids will not wash onto other farmers' land or onto adjacent properties? Can the farmers guarantee that the biosolids will not wash into local streams and wind up in Lake Ontario?

The answer to this is “No.”

So therefore, because the manufacturing firm can not guarantee that their product, the biosolds, can not be contained to the property that it is being used on, it should not be used at all.

I know farmers that do not spread manure around the streams on or near their property because they do not want the waste to wash into them. (Know that algae bloom in Lake Erie? Farm run off is the #1 contributor to it.)

Responsible farms know to do this and know to use only what is safe.

The firms that manufacture biosolids do not like their product to be tested because they are afraid that it will be deemed unsafe.

Well, maybe it is and we, the people that have to live with the consequences of their decisions, don't want unsafe products or practices around our homes.

If they want to prove it safe: The owners of the firms can use it on their properties first and only eat foods grown on (or in) it.

Somehow I doubt they will go for that.

And neither should we.

Cleaning an Erie Lake

Lake Erie has a phosphorous problem that is contaminating th water and creating dead zones.

Last summer we were all made aware of the algae blooms in the western part of the lake that rendered Toledo's water undrinkable. When it was cleaned up, city officials drank it to prove that it was OK to drink.

I will refrain from jokes about Cleveland's burning river. Look it up on YouTube.

These toxic blooms are cause by agricultural and urban runoff and waste water overflows from municipalities not being able to handle storm flooding.

And this problem extends to both Canada and the US. A toxic bloom was found as close a Presque Isle Bay in Pennsylvania.

The algae itself is highly toxic and when it dies it creates the infamous “oxygen dead zone” that we all know of (or should know of) from the Gulf of Mexico. These dead zones kill off all aquatic life and ruin fishing and any sort of recreational use of that area of water.

The goal is to reduce the phosphorous content by 40% to start and then increase it.

But this is going to create some problems – especially for farmers. Especially the factory farms that have those wretched smelling manure pools from the cooped up cattle. Chicken and hog farms can be included in this. In order for them to cut down on the amount of animal waste, which is a large cause of the phosphorous runoff, they would have to downsize their farms and that would threaten their profits.

For the municipalities it means improving their storm systems and sewage treatment plants. That's going to cost money. Money that they don't have because of tax cuts that Republicans (and fearful Democrats) have pushed through.

Now they are paying for those cuts with deadly consequences.

To solve this problem, we must insist on:

1. A reduction of factory farms and the excessive use of animal waste and chemical fertilizers. Runoff from these are direct and immediate causes of the algae blooms. This change can be made easily by converting from the large factory farms back to the smaller farms run by families. (Remember how Americans railed against Stalinist collectivization? Look at a factory farm and tell me it isn't the same thing. I guess it depends on who is collectivizing and making the money. Then again, collectivization was bad in the Soviet Union and bad here too.)

2. Improvements to be made to municipal waste treatment systems and storm drainage systems. This can be paid for with tax increases on the wealthy (either pay for the repairs or the over-priced bottled water) and by eliminating military aid to foreign nations. (Seriously – Saudi Arabia does not need us giving them money to buy US made weapons systems. Let them spend their oil money on it.)

If these changes are not made, and soon, Lake Erie's name will be well deserved.