Bio-solids concern some residents
By Staff
Jonathan Willis
Some residents from the west end of the county are concerned about certain things being used on neighboring farms.
Hoyt George, who lives in Pleasant Site, is worried that bio-solids, which are made from treated human waste and used as fertilizer, could be damaging to the environment.
Bio-solids are the nutrient-rich organic materials resulting from the treatment of domestic sewage at a wastewater treatment facility.
They have to be carefully monitored and must be used in accordance with regulatory requirements.
Bio-solids must be treated to make it safe for land application and tested to ensure its safety before it can be applied to the land.
The waste is treated in a process that removes the negative qualities that might be bad for the environment.
But George, and a group of his neighbors, are worried that run-off from the application of bio-solids could be damaging.
"They have already released information that there are all kinds of medicines in drinking water," he said. "People have been flushing pills and things down the toilet for years thinking that they are getting rid of it."
George believes those same products could be in bio-solids. He is worried that those chemicals could be washing into nearby creeks.
"If you put something on the ground and it rains it will seep into the soil, it's get into the ground water and goes right in to the stream," George said.
It's a stream that George pumps his water from.
"If the water has hormones and antibiotics, then I'm putting it into my vegetables."
Though Environmental Protection Agency standards are supposed to take the risks out of bio-solid usage, George says there other reasons it should be stopped, citing the ban put on by Limestone and Colbert County officials.
"It has an over-powering stench," he said. "If you run up on a dead dog or something it can make some people sick. That's what this is like."
George said he contacted the EPA about the issue and was told that there is no requirement to turn the fertilizer into the ground.
Synagro Technologies has a contract to dispose of human wastes from New York.
The company, which operates with approval from the EPA, treats sludge from wastewater plants in New York and ships it to Alabama by rail car. The sludge is treated at a plant in Leighton.
"Synagro says they are legal and I don't question that at all," he said. "But I do challenge the use of it."
George said that he would speak to the county commission at their work session on April 8.
"I am going to ask that it be stopped from being used here, like other counties have done," he said.
