Sewage sludge: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) euphemistically calls it “biosolids.” But what is it really? And why should you care?

As an article from In These Times explains, sewage sludge is:

. . . whatever goes into the sewer system and emerges as solids from municipal wastewater treatment plants. Sludge can be (its exact composition varies and is not knowable) any of the 80,000 synthetic chemicals used by industry; new chemicals created from combining two or more of those 80,000; bacteria and viruses; hospital waste; runoff from roads; pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter drugs; detergents and chemicals that are put down drains in residences; and, of course, urine and feces flushed down toilets. 

This toxic stew is sold to farmers who use it to fertilize food crops—a fact most consumers don’t know, because food producers and retailers aren’t required to tell you.

TAKE ACTION: Ask your Member of Congress to cosponsor the Sewage Sludge in Food Production Consumer Notification Act

Toxic oil drilling wastewater from companies like Chevron is being used to grow some food in California - food that is sold in grocery stores across the country!

The wastewater contains chemicals used in fossil fuel extraction, including some that are linked to cancer and reproductive harm, such as ethylbenzene and toluene.

This practice threatens the safety of our children and the adults who eat this food, the farm workers who irrigate and pick the crops, and the environment.

Popular food companies that market their brands as “healthy” are involved in this practice, including The Wonderful Company, known for brands such as POM Wonderful, Wonderful Pistachios, and Halos mandarins, and Grimmway Farms, a major U.S. carrot producer, including “Bunny-Luv” Carrots”

Tell these companies: I won’t buy your products until you and California Governor Jerry Brown put an end to this dangerous practice.

SNOQUALMIE, Wash.—Out in the Snoqualmie forests of eastern King County, on the west side of the Cascades, the ground is black and mucky. It's an unnatural scene with a toilet-bowl stench.

And it comes from tons upon tons— about 120,000 tons a year—of sewage sludge that King County, home of Seattle and more than 2 million people, disposes of annually in these forests and on farms and rangelands of central and eastern Washington.

This sludge, known euphemistically as "biosolids," consists of semi-liquid waste obtained from the processing of municipal sewage. The goal of this process is to obtain clean water to release into the environment, and thus, the cleaner the water, the more toxins and contaminants are retained in the sludge. This sludge used to be dumped into the ocean, but because of its toxicity this process is banned. Instead we now spread it in our forests and on our agricultural lands.

The spreading of this sludge carries considerable risk and should be stopped. As scientists, we are increasingly concerned with this reckless practice.

One of the biggest anaerobic digesters in the region is scheduled to be built on Long Island, the state announced today.

The digester, essentially a giant set of eight tanks hooked up by pipes to a 90,000 square foot warehouse, will be capable of converting roughly 160,000 tons of organic waste into natural gas, diverting the waste material from landfills.

“This first-of-its kind project for Long Island and the greater New York metropolitan area will build upon this administration’s commitment to expand the state’s use of renewable energy and reduce our carbon footprint," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.