Questions about the safety of applying waste solids to farmland near schools reached the Burlington City Council this week, along with a request for the city to voluntarily stop shipping sludge to those fields.
The council didn't take action on the request to nix the land application of the solids -- often called sludge or biosolids -- within a 1.5 mile radius of Sylvan Elementary, B. Everett Jordan Elementary and Pleasant Grove Elementary. Instead, members listened to information from environmentalist Sue Dayton and to responses from city staff and a leader in the state's biosolids land application division.
During her presentation, Dayton -- a member of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League -- said children at three elementary schools are being exposed to bacteria, viruses, toxic metals and chemicals because of nearby waste spreading.
"There's no way to know what's in it. It changes with every tanker that goes out," Dayton told the council, after listing some of the possible contaminants in treated, land-applied waste. "Winds transfer particles during spreading for miles. Airborne bacteria are spread on buildings, trees, playgrounds and (other surfaces)."
The league disputes the state- and Environmental Protection Agency-sanctioned practice of spreading the waste solids on land, and has lobbied the state for changes to its permitting requirements for several years. Dayton and league members admit they don't have a preferred alternative to land application, but they at least want the EPA and state to test and control what's in the remnants of human waste that's applied to farmland.
Eric Davis, the city's water and sewer operations manager, says the city follows state guidelines when it spreads between 22 and 24 million gallons of sludge on about 1,000 acres each year. Burlington is permitted by the state to land-apply the waste solids and contracts with Synagro to transport and distribute the material to farms.
"Biosolids are the necessary result of every waste water treatment process. Land application is the only beneficial re-use of them. It's also the best economic process for Burlington," Davis said.
Jon Risgaard, the state's land application supervisor, attended Tuesday's meeting. He says Burlington is following the state's rules. He told the council he appreciates the league's work for "letting us know the concerns of the public."
"The state continues to look at studies and will modify the rules as needed," Risgaard said. "So far, there are not conclusive studies that would cause changes."
Due to budget constraints, the state mostly relies on universities to conduct those studies. After the meeting, Risgaard said land application deserves to be studied more because of advances in science and new chemicals possibly being introduced into waste water systems.
"I would encourage more studies," he said.
THE COUNCIL HAD little to say Tuesday after Davis and Risgaard established that city employees are complying with state regulations. Mayor pro tem David Huffman told Dayton her work would be more beneficial at the state level because Burlington follows those regulations to dispose of waste water by-products.
Mayor Ronnie Wall said Wednesday that he wants to hear more from the city's water employees and ensure they're following state rules. He couldn't say whether the council might make a decision to stop spreading in the 1.5-mile radius around the three schools.
"We're still in the process of reviewing all of the information. There's a lot of it," Wall said. "I also need to have more dialogue with other council members about it."
Dayton didn't leave the podium before accusing Synagro of misleading farmers about the safety and contents of waste solids. At least one employee of the Texasbased company, which contracts with municipalities nationwide to land-apply waste solids, was at Tuesday's meeting. That employee did not respond to the claims and left before she was able to be interviewed.
As discussion around land-application has increased, even the words used to discuss waste solids have become politicized.
Environmentalists refer to the product as "sludge." Private companies, the state and municipalities prefer the term "biosolids" to refer to treated waste solids. That term came about because the industry needed a term to distinguish between treated and untreated sludge and biosolids was agreed upon, Davis said.
Environmentalists contend "biosolids" is a euphemism meant to allay concern about the waste product's origins.
TUESDAY'S DISCUSSION was sparked by the Oct. 23 land application on fields near Sylvan Elementary.
Members of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League contacted Alamance-Burlington Schools that morning to request that the scheduled application be postponed until after children left school, even though the fields there were beyond the state-required, 400-yard distance from an occupied building.
School officials contacted City Manager Harold Owen, who then notified staff to cancel the spreading.
The message didn't get to Synagro employees before they'd begun applying about 12 loads of waste solids to the fields. The spreading was stopped by about 9:30 a.m. that morning, the city says.
The spreading was caught on video by environmental activist Mike Holland, who posted his footage on You-Tube, an Internet video site. That video has since been removed from YouTube.
