Milorganite and other sewer products in organic gardening

[CaptainCompostAL]

It is inevitable that this subject would come up in an organic gardening
forum. The issue is a volatile one and always generates more heat than
light. In an attempt to keep the discussion all in one place and not let it
invade other related topics (sounds like bermuda), this separate thread has been started as a place to go to state your opinions and the facts as they are known.

There is one particular rumor that has been around for years that should be debunked now before it recurs and starts to generate its own little following. Several years ago, Milorganite had a problem with contamination. That has been cleared up. Every city that manufactures compost products from their sewage (biosolids) pretests the products for heavy metals and other contaminates. Those cities have sewage police that hand out heavy fines ($1,000 per day with no upper limit) for each infraction to offenders.

So the heavy metals contamination is down to non existant in these cities.
In Texas these cities include Houston, Austin, and San Antonio (that I know of). Testing is done weekly on the raw sewage and on the composting processes to ensure any contamination of the raw product is within certain limits.

It should also be noted that biocontamination of the finished products is
limited to zero parts per billion, none, nada, zip. There are no human
pathogens allowed in the product. So the possibility of getting sick from
professional humanure compost is zero. The thought of using it might make you sick, but not the product itself.


(P.S. David Hall (lawn forum moderator) and I agreed to post this thread for information discussion)

Happy Gardening everybody!

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

Thanks for putting this up, Captain. It might have become a discussion item in the lawns forum, but I think it is more appropriate here in compost.

This is a place to express your opinion about the use of human waste in the garden. Opinions are neither right nor wrong. Your opinion may be based on research or just on the eeeyew factor. It is also a place to reference any materials you know of that might help others form or change an opinion. I've seen discussions on this topic get extremely heated and others have gone on rather sedately. We'll see how this one goes.

I think it is unfortunate that the Milorganite brand had to be picked on in the subject, but that brand seems to be a lightning rod for people who want to talk about this interesting topic. So I suggested it to the Captain.

Just to get started, in my opinion, properly pretested, properly composted (or incinerated) human waste is okay to use for any application in the garden. Also in my opinion, incompletely composted human waste is not appropriate for any use anywhere except in a compost pile, and that is only if the product was pretested for heavy metal contamination.

Here is why I think that. The composting process is a microbial one. Microbes will eat the original raw materials. Other microbes will eat the waste and dead bodies of the first level of microbes. Other microbes will eat the waste and dead bodies of the second level of microbes. This process continues for 25,000 to 45,000 different species of microbes in the soil.

By the time compost is finished "cooking," the original raw materials (whether it be banana peels, cattle manure, or human waste) is completely gone. What is left is the waste and dead bodies of species number 25,000 at the bottom of the food chain (not exactly, but that's the gist of it). And species number 25,000 is always the same species no matter what the original raw materials were.

So to my way of thinking, as long as the original raw materials were relatively free from heavy metal contamination, anything else will be digested by the compost microbes.

Just my opinion.

[chuckfranke]

Well pardon the pun but Milorganite is very impressive s__t in my opinion - I started using it because it had more iron than ironite and like the super greening that gave me but I tossed an extra bag into my pile a couple days ago because it was too heavy on carbons and BOOM, instant heat....

If anyone knows of a documented problem with it I would love to know - i went organic when I sat down one day with all my yard goodies and decided my daughter didn't need to play in Arsenic and various carcinogens, nerve agents yada, yada etc.... it was my kid, rather than the environment in general, that made the decision but you know the second half of the story - my lawn, roses, flowers all got 100% better with far fewer disease/insect issues (God Bless Neem Oil)

[Enzyme11]

The article doesn't say specifically, but I assume this is directed more at the raw product than at the composted products such as Milorganite. I believe the EPA may have some self-interest in this issue--the current puppet regime at the EPA seems to generate raw sewage in high quantities.
+++++++

Whistleblower says EPA used unreliable data for sludge decision

Thursday, February 05, 2004
By Erica Werner, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A former government scientist accused the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday of knowingly using unreliable data when it denied a petition to halt the use of sewage sludge for fertilizer.

The microbiologist, David Lewis, testified at a House subcommittee hearing that the EPA used data about sludge quality at two Georgia dairy farms that had already been rejected by Georgia state officials as "completely unreliable, possibly even fraudulent."

He asked the House Resources Committee's subcommittee on energy and mineral resources to call on the EPA for an internal investigation of the moratorium and other matters.

Lewis, a former EPA employee who says he was fired in May after raising concerns about sludge standards, also said the panel should press the EPA for additional whistleblower protections.

"This whole process ... is nothing more than a scam," Lewis said in written testimony.

House Resources Committee spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said later that the committee's chairman, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., was open to Lewis' suggestions.

The EPA in December denied a petition from 73 labor, environment, and farm groups for an immediate moratorium on land-based uses for sewage sludge. Such a moratorium would affect more than 3 million tons of sludge used each year as fertilizer. In its decision, the EPA cited data showing levels of heavy metals in sludge at the dairy farms were within allowed limits.

In fact, Lewis said, studies by Georgia state agencies found the sludge was so corrosive that it dissolved fences and emitted toxic fumes that could sicken cows. Lewis said the faulty data was produced by local officials in Augusta, Georgia, several years ago and knowingly used by the EPA in December, in spite of an audit by Georgia officials that found it unreliable.

"Mr. Lewis is entitled to his opinion. We stand by our December 2003 decision," said EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman, noting the agency is in the process of revising its approach to sludge.

Lewis' departure from the EPA came after he worked 32 years there. It was protested by Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and James Inhofe of Oklahoma. But the EPA said then that Lewis had signed an agreement specifying he was to step down.

Lewis is now an adjunct professor at the University of Georgia. His testimony came at a hearing on peer-review and "sound science" standards for writing federal regulations.

[Phlaura]

So, Milogranite IS cool, learned something already! :lol:

[Tony M]

Here's my pinch with Milorganite, IT COMES FROM MILWAUKEE. Can't we use Texas sludge vs trucking that stuff down here on a big diesel truck?
Tony M

[Kittekiller]

Milorganite is indeed a great product however all that glitters isn't
gold. This and all products like it, are laced with anything that has
been flushed down a drain. Including more than roughly 60,000+
chemicals in use today, which could include, radionuclides from
hospitals, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, PAH's, dioxins, furans,
asbestos, used motor oil, and many heavy metals just to name a
few. Some of these chemicals are persistant bioaccumulative toxins that
build up in the human body. Many chemicals that remain after the water
has been removed from sewage sludge are carcinogenic, mutagenic and
teratogenic. Many of these chemicals become more dangerous after being
mixed with other chemicals. It has been said of dioxins, that there are no
safe level of exposure because these chemicals are extremely potent toxic
compounds. The federal government has chosen NOT to regulate dioxin in
sewage sludge, and most any other pollutant in sludge, turning a blind eye
to the potential problems that may surface as a result of the disposing
of "hazardous" material in this fashion. What I'm trying to get at is that
using sewage sludge as an addition to help compost breakdown simply
contaminates your compost. You might as well add regular agricultural
fertilizer to the mix instead of Milorganite since you'll have less chance of
getting the certain cocktail of poisonous chemicals in a batch of Milorganite
or a competing product.

[kljohnson77]

Although I would like to avoid dioxin, but too often 'science' has a political agenda to advance.

==========================

Viktory Over Alarmism

By Michael Fumento Published 12/16/2004

It's perhaps fitting that dioxin was used in the attempted political murder of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko. That's because dioxin is the most politicized chemical in history. It's notorious for its role at New York's Love Canal and Missouri's Times Beach, but primarily as an ingredient in the defoliant Agent Orange. Yet Yushchenko is alive because what's been called "the most deadly chemical known" is essentially a myth.

Dioxin is an unwanted by-product of incineration, uncontrolled burning and certain industrial processes such as bleaching. It was also formerly in trace amounts in herbicides and liquid soaps. We all carry dioxin in our fat and blood. But Dutch researchers said Yushchenko's exposure, probably from poisoned food, was about 6,000 times higher than average. So why, as the Munchkin coroner said of the Wicked Witch of the East, isn't Yushchenko "not only merely dead" but "really most sincerely dead"?

The "deadly dioxin" legend began with, of all things, guinea pigs. When fed to them in studies, they did fall over like furry tenpins. Yet hamsters could absorb 1,000 times as much dioxin before emitting their last squeals and other animals seemed impervious to the stuff.

Further, the animal deaths were from acute poisoning. Yet as a matter of convenience for activists, it not only became accepted that guinea pigs are the best animal model for humans but also that dioxin is a powerful carcinogen.

The original promoters of the humans-are-like-guinea-pigs legend were Vietnam activists. Agent Orange, which contained a trace of dioxin, effectively stripped away the jungle canopy that hid communist forces. So the enemy and its U.S. sympathizers claimed it was poisoning not just trees but humans. Pressured by these "humanitarians" the military quit spraying in 1971, giving back the enemy his sanctuary from which to kill our troops.

From there, the myth snowballed. After it was found in the goop on which homeowners in Love Canal, New York had built their houses, every illness in the area was blamed not just on the contamination generally but often specifically on dioxin. Likewise for when some yahoo knowingly sprayed dioxin-containing oil near Times Beach to keep down road dust and a flood then swept it into the town. Both areas were ordered evacuated.

But "Numerous studies found no excess illness in either area and today children again play in the dirt at Love Canal," notes Michael Gough, a biologist who was chairman of a federal advisory panel concerning Agent Orange from 1990 to 1995. Nevertheless, the cleanup of dioxin-contaminated areas continues to cost U.S. industry a fortune.

As to Vietnam vets, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that despite the earnest beliefs of many vets, "The blood [dioxin] levels of the Vietnam veterans were nearly identical to the levels found among the non-Vietnam veterans." Further, "levels were not related to the estimate of Agent Orange exposure based on either military records or self-reported exposure. Only those who did the actual spraying, members of Operation Ranch Hand, actually got significant doses.

Some did develop the same awful skin disease Yushchenko suffers, called chloracne. But that was only from direct contact with their skin, and they developed no other symptoms at the time. Since then the Air Force has continually monitored them, finding no unusual rates of any illness save for an alleged slight excess of diabetes. Yet a government study of American chemical workers with higher dioxin exposure found no excess diabetes. The Ranch Hands also have only half the normal rate of stomach cancers.

Chloracne was also the only serious symptom in the highest exposures of dioxin ever recorded, in which one young Austrian woman had about 16,000 times the normal body level, while another had 2,900 times the normal level. (Interestingly, the women were given the snack chip fat substitute olestra to help her excrete the dioxin faster. Not exactly a selling point for selling potato chips but . . .)

"We don't know of a single person who has ever died of acute dioxin poisoning," says Robert Golden, president of the Maryland-based consulting firm ToxLogic.

It's also terribly rude to say dioxin is not a human carcinogen. The International Agency for Research on Cancer insists it is, and the EPA desperately wants to call it one but its own review panels keep getting in the way.

Yet in addition to the Ranch Hands, we have cancer data from throughout the world concerning workers or townsfolk exposed to dioxin through accidental releases. No type of cancer shows up consistently. As a paper in last December's Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology concluded, "The long-term accumulation of negative, weak, and inconsistent findings suggests that [dioxin] eventually will be recognized as not carcinogenic for humans."

The massive dioxin disinformation campaign has caused tremendous harm. But for Yushchenko it was a godsend. He'll look terrible for some time; but he's alive. Had the would-be assassin instead used a few drops of old-fashioned strychnine or even a teaspoon of the vital nutrient iron, Yushchenko wouldn't be running for president; he'd be pushing up Ukrainian daisies. Fortunately, the culprit bought into the myth that began with a guinea pig.

Michael Fumento (Fumento[at]pobox.com) is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service, and author of Science Under Siege.

[therealdgh]

Hello all. I just joined the Ground Crew yesterday and decided to peruse the message board to see what I could find to help me and my yard.

I wanted to mention this here as I just read a really good book on this very subject called the Humanure Handbook. Very detailed book on the facts and fictions of composting human waste. The book cites past and present studies and gives more than enough information on how to do it right.

Anyway, one thing I got from the book is that the only chemical compounds that a correctly maintained compost pile can't break down are chlorine compounds. While I say that, the book also mentions that heavy metals, while being able to be broken down into their constituent molecules, will still remain in the pile awaiting to be sucked up by a plants roots. So, the only way I see to keep heavy metals down to a somewhat healthy level is to keep spreading a composted pile out into other active piles to lessen the concentrations of the molecules or to somehow have an extraction process after the pile is "done".

Dean

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

I get the impression some of y'all didn't read the first post on this message. There aren't any heavy metals in Milorganite or any of the other processed sewage products. Yes there are ways to keep the heavy metals out. The sewage people test for heavy metals continuously. Whenever they find any, they test upstream until they find the culprit and fine them $1,000 per day retroactively to the date they found the material. When you were expecting a $50 sewage bill and it comes in at $30,000, it tends to get your attention. And there are no chemicals in Milorganite because it is predigested anerobically and then incinerated at 1,000 degrees F for hours. Ceramics are prebaked at about that temp. Nothing living can survive those temps and darned few materials will sustain the temperatures without changing phase to a crystal structure. If you look at Miloragnite, it looks like a hardened ash. It is.

A similar product is available in Texas from the city of Houston. It's called Hou-Actinite. Price is competitive with Milorganite. They usually sell it by the truckload or railroad car load to producers or commercial users, but some of them rebag it in smaller quantities for consumers.