Biosolid Battle

Wheatfield is standing up against a wrong headed decision by NY over the use of biolsolid waste as a fertilizer.

Biosolid waste is the result anaerobically treated human waste. The result is two environmentally destructive products – methane gas which is burned to produce electricity and a semi-solid waste that the producers want to sell as fertilizer for crop fields. (I accidentally typed “crap fields” there. All things being considered, knowing how farmers fertilize their fields, it's closer to the truth.)

Wheatfield resident Monica Diegler has it correct when she states that farmers have a “right to farm, not a right to pollute.”

Biosolid waste is an environmental pollutant. They have been tested by several researchers and have been found to be loaded with heavy metals (a known cancer causing agent) and medical waste. (Know all those drugs that doctors pump into us in the form of injections and pills? Or bodies don't just absorb them. They expel as much as 90% of it through urination and defecation. Do you really want someone else's erectile dysfunction drug? Or birth control pill? Or pain killers? )

Remember: Whatever we put on the ground goes into our food.

I want organically grown safe food.

Those in Wheatfield that are fighting against the use of biolsolid waste are on the right side of history and we need to support them with everything that we have: From helping to pay for the legal team that is fighting against the court's decision, to providing pro-bono legal support, to picketing the meetings and the farm that wants to use biosolid waste as fertilizer. (The name of the farm is in the Buffalo News. Let them take the heat for publishing it.)

As eco-socialists we demand and end to the use of biosolid waste as fertilizer and the expanded use of organically produced fertilizer instead. (Think compost from fruits and vegetables. It's safer to make and use and is much friendlier to the environment and nature. As well as people.)

Just Ban Biosolids

The more I read about biosolids, aka “sewer sludge,” the more disgusted I get.

And for those that are unaware, biosolids are sewer sludge. It's sewage from waste treatment plants that is treated and turned into methane. After the processing for methane, they have this sludge left over that they (the capitalists that are trying to make money any way they can without regards to consequences) have to dispose of. So they market it as fertilizer for fields that farmers own.

And I am plowing through the articles that have been posted as comments (thank you to the postees. I always like learning more about topics that interest me. Anything to increase information and education.) and I get more and more turned off and disgusted by the sewer sludge.

“An open letter ...” talks about all the chemical and biological contaminants that are in the sludge that the capitalists don't want tested. Nothing like a little heavy metal with your dinner. And pharmaceuticals, flame retardant (in case the chili or chicken wings are too hot?) That and the PCBs, which have been for as long as I can remember, dioxin “cogeners (that sounds safe. Dioxin reminds me of Love Canal. Not anyplace I want to take a boat cruise.) That and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers. From my high school chemistry class, that just doesn't even sounds safe. And what we spray on the land goes into our food. None of that sounds tasty.

Speaking of that, animals that eat food that is grown in this sewer sludge has a negative effert on animal fertility (Eating meat grazed…) . Fewer healthy eggs in the females. Fewer healthy eggs equals fewer animals. And more problems and costs for farmers which they pass onto us. So in the long run no one is really saving any money.

And the phthalates, which we know causes early puberty in females and other hormonal problems.

And PCBs act as an endocrine disruptor, impairs fertility, and raises the risk for cancers and other immune system disorders. These add up to more hidden and long term costs. Not paid by the manufacturer though. We pay those out of pocket.

And the more I read the more disgusted I get.

And then there is the runoff problem. We have a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is going to get as large as the state of Connecticut. And it's called dead because there is nothing living in it. The water is just that toxic. No one is allowed to sail in it and sea life just stays away. The cause? Runoff from farms – agricultural waste. I'm sure there is industrial waste in it too.

We also have the toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie on the western side that is progressively moving eastward. The cause? Agricultural runoff. And the lawmakers re beating their heads into a wall to try and find a way to contain it.

And how many times have I heard on the news that beaches in Erie and Niagara or Orleans Counties are closed after a rainstorm because of high bacterial counts from sewer over runs? Too many. And they (the capitalists) want to take the sewage and spray it on our croplands.

Not to mention that methane is a greenhouse gas that is (at least) four times as dangerous to the atmosphere as regular carbon dioxide. And when burned to produce electricity it also contributes to global warming. (There's really no winning with methane no matter what you do with it.)

So yes, as an eco-socialist I stand in solidarity and in a united front with organizations, farmers, and communities that are fighting against the use of sewer sludge as fertilizer.

We must work together to ban the use of sewer sludge and have the companies that manufacture it pay for the environmental clean up of land and water systems contaminated by it.

And if the company happens to go bankrupt, just send the bill to everyone that worked in management and put it against their credit rating.

And pro-rate it. The more they made, the more they pay.

Ban the biosolids.

Say NO to sewer sludge.

It's just sick.

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.