American Farm Land: the new landfill for Humanure, Biosolids, Human Sludge, and Toxic Waste

I wrote about Humanure in my blog post last spring, when farmers all over Oklahoma were being suckered into saving a few thousand dollars on fertilizer by agreeing to have "free" toxic human sludge disposed of on their land. Some of these farms are located over an aquifer so close to the surface that when you ask the farmers how far you have to dig to reach water, they say "Oh, about one shovel full and the hole fills up with water." I was sorely tempted to toilet paper their McMansions. But grown ups don't toilet paper their neighbors....they blog.

Six months later, I had convinced myself they had all learned from that noxious experiment and surely they wouldn't let the city sewage plant dump that crap (literally) on their fields again. 

I hate to admit this...but I was wrong. I was too cowardly to go have that friendly chat with my neighbors. Around here we mind our own business and we all do as we see fit with our land.

And now it's back.

It's easy enough to see who signed up for free sludge in Oklahoma. Just follow your nose. At first, you'll think there must be a rotting carcass somewhere near, but the strangely metallic, bloody, chemical laden odor and instant headache is beyond the scope of rotting flesh. Yes, rotting human tissue is definitely a part of this equation...the "fetal cells" (aborted babies) and "waste" flushed down the drains after chemical abortions all go to the same sewage plant that churns them into fertilizer to feed your grass fed beef and farmers market tomatoes. But Washington is way ahead of us on utilizing human flesh as fertilizer.... “The state of Washington is the first in the union to start “composting” dead human bodies as crop “fertilizer,” bringing to real life the fictitious scenario depicted in the famous dystopian film Soylent Green. According to reports, Washington’s Senate and House of Representatives approved with strong bipartisan majorities Bill 5001, entitled, “Concerning human remains,” which was signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee, legalizing the “natural organic reduction” of human remains. Bill 5001 will take effect on May 1, 2020, allowing for human corpses to undergo a process known as “liquid cremation,” whereby alkaline hydrolysis is used to turn rotting (human) flesh and bones into an “organic fertilizer” sludge.” You can read the rest here. Of course, Washington probably won't be dealing with the human sludge themselves...the high population density states are already contracting out their sewage to the rest of us. Just ask the citizens of Ohio and Missouri how they feel about signing away their states for truckloads of..."gold" from their wealthy neighboring states.

No sense of smell? Lucky you. Just follow the tire tracks of sludge lingering on the roads after the trucks have dumped their load of human waste and toxic chemicals. They'll lead you straight to the farms that got suckered into this new deal. And honestly, the farmers probably have no idea what's at stake here. After all, everybody's doing it. Surely it's safe or they wouldn't be giving it to us for....free. Delivering it by the truck load, for free...practically paying farms to take this sewage sludge off their hands.

Just ask the mother who lost her little boy to a staph infection after he rode his bicycle through sewage sludge how safe sewage sludge really is. You might say "Well, her son must have been immune compromised or he wouldn't have died of a staph infection from riding his bike through sewage sludge." Perhaps. Or perhaps he had an autoimmune disease...like my little girl. Or perhaps he was perfectly healthy, and these things happen...collateral damage. One boy's life in exchange for a convenient sludge solution.

"On Oct. 12, 1994, Tony rode his dirt bike across hills coated in a sludge of treated sewage, the soup of waste and nutrients that the state lets strip miners use to coax life back into used-up mines.

In two days, he had a sore throat and headache. Six days later, he was in a hospital emergency room, his fever climbing, doctors calling a helicopter to fly him 110 miles through the night to Pittsburgh.

"Before the helicopter came, he was actually excited about the ride. He said, 'I'll get to tell the kids at school about this,' " said Tony's mother, Brenda Robertson. "Those were our last goodbyes, at Clearfield Hospital."

Tony died at 7:54 the next morning in Allegheny General Hospital.

Doctors determined he was killed by a blood infection, the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus." You can read the rest of the sad story here.

In Europe, they actually warn their citizens of the dangers. If they had posted signs like these, that little boy might not have taken the shortcut through the sludge that cost him his life. Or, he might have ignored the warning sign.

Little boys tend to do that sort of thing.

Out for a Sunday drive in the country, America?

Cycling through rural Oklahoma?

Watch out for the sludge tracks on the roads. You may be tempted to wash your tires before you head back home, but I wouldn't bother...you'll be having it for dinner anyway. That human chemical slurry more than likely grew your farm fresh salad. Oh, you don't eat salad? How about some "grass fed" beef (raised on grass fertilized with sewage sludge.) Prefer a glass of milk laced with PFAS? How about a slice of plasticized cake with that?

Ask the citizens of Lapeer, Michigan how that free sludge worked out for them.

"For more than 20 years, the eastern Michigan town of Lapeer sent leftover sludge from its sewage treatment plant to area farms, supplying them with high-quality,(LOL) free fertilizer while avoiding the expense of disposal elsewhere. "

I smell a dead rat...oh snap, it's just Humanure.

"But state inspectors ordered a halt to the practice in 2017 after learning the material was laced with one of the potentially harmful chemicals known collectively as PFAS, which are turning up in drinking water and some foods across the U.S...."

But the damage had already been done. There's a reason PFAS are called "forever chemicals." These carcinogenic chemicals don't degrade in...well, forever.

“I feel bad for them,” said Michael Wurts, superintendent of the waste treatment plant, who ruefully recalls promoting sludge as an agricultural soil additive to growers in the community. “The city didn’t do anything malicious. We had no clue this was going on.”

Awww, he feels bad. But, he didn't know! He didn't know he was doling out toxic chemical waste by the tonnage. Plausible deniability. Ignorance is bliss, ya'all.

"Lapeer isn’t alone...About half of the 7 million tons generated annually in the U.S. is applied to farm fields and other lands, the Environmental Protection Agency says. While the sludge offers farmers a cheap source of fertilizer, there long have been concerns about contaminants in the material — and attention of late has turned to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The city of Marinette, Wisconsin, has stopped distributing sewage waste, also called “biosolids,” to farms after getting high PFAS readings."

This incredible city actually stopped the use of toxic biosolids and payed to properly dispose of it's waste in order to protect it's citizens! Well done, Marinette!

"In Maine, a dairy farm was forced to shut down after sludge spread on the land was linked to high levels of PFAS in the milk."

But why would I call attention to something happening all over Oklahoma, all over America for that matter?

Because the health consequences for our children and grandchildren are completely unknown...because this hasn't been researched. They really don't know what might happen. And I'm not ok with that. 

I guarantee you that the big dairy that produces your cow milk didn't care that the cheap hay they fed their cows was fertilized with sewage sludge. In fact, I would be willing to bet they fertilized their pastures with the stuff, put the cows out to graze, and then probably claim it's "organic" and charged you double for it.

Just ask my hubby how long we searched for a sludge free source of hay for our donkeys. It's not easy to find, or cheap, but we did it. Does it cost us more? Yes, but we refuse to feed our milking animals hay that has been fertilized with Sewage Sludge and PFAS. Poor Mr. Stone didn't know better, and now his family dairy is ruined, and probably his life.

“It’s been devastating. We kind of get treated like we are criminals,” said Stoneridge Farm’s Fred Stone, whose blood has also tested high for PFAS from what he believes was drinking contaminated water and milk over the years."

The nasty thing about PFAS (beyond causing cancer and all that jazz) is that they're stubborn suckers. They stick around...foreverrrrrr. They're partial to the soil, and the human body. They're like Cousin Eddie...they come with that load of human sludge, and once they show up, they never leave.

via GIPHY

Just ask your doc to run a PFAS panel next time you get your check up. What? That's not an option for your the blood work? It should be. Right after iron levels, check your carcinogenic chemicals.

"The concern is that certain PFAS chemicals, which studies have associated with increased risk of cancer and damage to organs such as the liver and thyroid, could be absorbed by crops grown in soils treated with polluted sludge and wind up in foods. The Food and Drug Administration this year reported finding substantial levels of the chemicals in random samples of grocery store meats, dairy products, seafood and even off-the-shelf chocolate cake, although the study did not mention any connection to sewage waste."

Order the vanilla for your next birthday party. Those chocolate chunks may not be what they seem...

“The FDA continues to work with other federal agencies to identify sources and reduce or eliminate pathways for dietary PFAS exposure including through use of biosolids,” spokeswoman Lindsay Haake said. The extent of any threat to the food supply is unknown because so little testing has been done, scientists say. “We don’t have a lot of data but the data we have suggests it’s a problem,” Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said at a recent conference in Boston. “We are finding that there are elevated levels of different PFAS in biosolids. We clearly need more research in this area.”

But, until they have that research, they'll continue happily spreading sludge, and feeding it to our babies, and padding the pockets of the folks who will say "I feel bad for them, but we didn't know."

"Studies have documented PFAS absorption by some crops — lettuce, tomatoes and radishes among them — from soils fertilized with sewage byproducts. And the EPA’s inspector general reported last year that the agency was falling short in tracking hundreds of pollutants in sludge, including PFAS. Yet despite growing evidence that at least some sludge is contaminated, the federal government hasn’t limited PFAS in fertilizer or developed a standard for determining safe levels. That leaves fertilizer companies and farmers wondering what to do and fearful of consumer backlash."

Wondering what to do???  I'm no scientist, but it's pretty clear what we should NOT be doing here. How about we NOT allow the spread of toxic sludge on our farmland...our water supply...our food source? How about them PFApples? How about taking a cue from Germany and Switzerland and Australia and other countries that value their people's health and their land more than their pocket books? They've developed thermal incinerators, to burn their waste safely and harness the energy in the process.

"Richard Esser, the manager of the largest wastewater treatment facility in Bonn, explains that the technology in Germany is some of the most advanced in the world. People travel to the Bonn site from Russia, China and other countries to learn about German innovations in water processing.

"Many visitors come from different countries to observe what we're doing here and find it to be a cutting-edge facility," Esser said here.

Who's up for a trip to Germany? If we take the lead, our great state of Oklahoma could lead the poo-volution. Change the trajectory of our nation. Save our children from mutant antibiotic resistant bacteria in their chocolate birthday cake. 

Or, we can continue to allow toxic human and industrial sludge to contaminate farms and ranches across Oklahoma while our legislators look the other way.

“If you want to destroy agriculture in Michigan (insert Oklahoma / Kansas / the entire mid-stinking-west, breadbasket of America here), start talking about, ‘Hey, it could be contaminated with PFAS,” said Laura Campbell, agricultural ecology manager for the Michigan Farm Bureau. “People will see that and say, ‘Oh, we can’t trust them, we’ll buy from elsewhere,’ even though the problem is no worse in Michigan than it is anywhere else.”

Studies going back almost two decades found PFAS in sludge, primarily from industrial wastewater that flows to municipal treatment facilities. Residential sewage is another source — from carpets, clothes and other household items containing PFAS. The grease- and water-resistant compounds, known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t degrade naturally and are believed capable of lingering indefinitely in the environment, also are found in firefighting foam used at military bases and airports.

Evidence of a link between PFAS-laced sludge and food emerged in 2008, when the EPA found elevated levels of several compounds in sludge that a Decatur, Alabama utility had spread on 5,000 acres of farmland. They were detected in nearby waters and vegetation from the fields. The chemicals were traced to several companies that manufactured and used PFAS.

“I’m very concerned about replicating that in other states,” EPA’s Andrew Lindstrom, whose lab ran tests there, said at the Boston conference. Milk from one dairy contained 270 parts per trillion of PFAS —almost four times the agency’s nonbinding health risk level of 70 ppt for PFOA and PFOS, the two best-known chemicals in the class.

 Read the full article here... https://www.wiproud.com/news/national/concerns-rise-over-tainted-sewage-sludge-spread-on-croplands/

Oh, but that's just one article. It must be baised, right? You can still claim ignorance when your children ask you why you didn't step up and stop the madness. You should probably stop reading now, keep that ignorant bliss mantle of deniability in place. Reading further might put your excuses at risk of sounding less like ignorance, and more like lies. And children are the best little lie detectors.

Prefer to get your news from a documentary rather than a long winded blog?

This is happening in Texas now, where ranchers are now ruined, their cattle and horses dying, the fish in their ponds dying, all because their neighbor used toxic sludge to fertilize his land.

"The EPA identified 352 pollutants in biosolids but cannot yet consider these pollutants for further regulation due to either a lack of data or risk assessment tools. Pollutants found in biosolids can include pharmaceuticals, steroids and flame retardants."  From the EPA report on their website here

Some citizens have had enough...Robertson County residents filed a lawsuit against the Humanure company that is distributing "Tycowa’s “Music City Gold” is an alternative fertilizer made from biosolids also known as treated human waste. They have a contract with Metro Nashville to haul, store and apply thousands of tons of waste, which has now ended up in Robertson County."  

They refer to the human waste from Nashville as "Gold", sadly ironic and appropriate...for those involved in the lucrative slewage business, the stakes are in the millions. (Go here to read the full article.) But surely they wouldn't be allowing this to be dumped on our farmland if it was harmful to our health? Surely not! Perhaps they didn't know about this study, published back in 2002...

"Researchers Link Increased Risk Of Illness To Sewage Sludge Used As Fertilizer: Burning eyes, burning lungs, skin rashes and other symptoms of illness have been found in a study of residents living near land fertilized with Class B biosolids, a byproduct of the human waste treatment process.

"Researchers found that affected residents lived within approximately one kilometer (0.6 miles) of land application sites and generally complained of irritation after exposure to winds blowing from treated fields. A prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus infections...was found in the skin and respiratory tracts of some individuals. Approximately 25 percent of the individuals surveyed were infected, and two died.  The 54 individuals surveyed lived near 10 land application sites in Alabama, California, Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania and Texas. S. aureus is commonly found in the lower human colon and tends to invade irritated or inflamed tissue."

Wait...hold on....2 out of the 54 people in this survey DIED??? I'm not statistician, but those aren't good odds. Why isn't making headline news? As a mother of a child with an autoimmune disease from a crazy strain of strep that somehow caused her immune system to attack her BRAIN...I'm done being the quiet, compliant citizen. It's on. Gloves off. Momma bear is out of hibernation. Anyone with me? Momma bears are hard to ignore when they show up in numbers...bears tend to get noticed. Ready to join that group yet? Oklahomans against Sewage Sludge.

"The EPA did not consider S. aureus to be a significant public health risk even though it is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections and is commonly found in sewage," said Lewis. "When approving sludge for use as a fertilizer, EPA looked at chemical and pathogen risks separately without considering that certain chemicals could increase the risk of infection." 

Tell that to the mother of the little boy who died of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureaus) infection after riding his bike through sewage sludge. 

 Ya'all. This makes me want to cry. Or fight. And since crying makes my eyes puffy and doesn't accomplish a lick of good, I'm opting to fight.

The fight for our land, and our children, isn't over yet.

And for those who think that human poop is no different than cow manure...I’m going to call you on that with some straight up Bible truth. When God was asking his prophet to do the most disgusting thing to illustrate to His people what was about to go down...He asked him to cook with human excrement...but then gave him a pass and let him use cow poop instead. These laws were there to protect God’s people from doing something dumb that could cost them their health, their lives, and their future.

““Next I want you to take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, dried millet and spelt, and mix them in a bowl to make a flat bread. This is your food ration for the 390 days you lie on your side. Measure out about half a pound for each day and eat it on schedule. Also measure out your daily ration of about a pint of water and drink it on schedule. Eat the bread as you would a muffin. Bake the muffins out in the open where everyone can see you, using dried human dung for fuel.”

GOD said, “This is what the people of Israel are going to do: Among the pagan nations where I will drive them, they will eat foods that are strictly taboo to a holy people.” I said, “ GOD, my Master! Never! I’ve never contaminated myself with food like that. Since my youth I’ve never eaten anything forbidden by law, nothing found dead or violated by wild animals. I’ve never taken a single bite of forbidden food.” “All right,” he said. “I’ll let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human dung.””

‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭4:9-15‬ ‭MSG‬‬
https://www.bible.com/97/ezk.4.9-15.msg

PS. Interestingly, there are often multiple children in one family with PANDAS disease, caused by strep attacking the brain. This is a disease that supposedly only affects 1 in 200 children. If that's the case, what are the odds of 2 and 3 kids getting it in one family? Could it be the link is the chocolate cake laced with antibiotic resistant bacteria? Just wondering. 

 Warning No Trespassing Photo from the article: "Application of sewage sludge to farmland can damage environment and human health