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Significant organic pollutants in sewage sludges destined for land application
Presenter:Robert Hale
R.C. Hale, M.J. La Guardia, E.P. Harvey, T.M. Mainor, E.O. Bush, E.M. Jacobs & S. Ciparis.*
Keywords: biosolids, sewage sludge, POPs, PBDEs, brominated flame retardants
Application of sewage sludge onto agricultural, public and reclaimed lands is increasingly being employed as a means of disposal, and now encompasses about 60% of sludge generated annually in the U.S. “Sound science” has been purported to prove the practice's safety. Land application does recycle coincident nutrients and organic carbon. However, concerns exist that it may reintroduce to the environment chemicals and pathogenic organisms concentrated in sludge (aka biosolids) during wastewater treatment. The 1993 US EPA risk assessment concluded that land application does not pose a significant risk to human health or the environment when the CFR Part 503 rule is followed. Organic pollutants, except for chlorinated dioxins, were exempted from 503 as: 1) significant concentrations/frequencies of detection of these were not reported in EPA's 1988 National Sewage Sludge Survey (NSSS); 2) toxicologically-important persistent organic pollutants (POPs, such as PCBs and DDT) had been banned and thus were assumed to be decreasing in sludges; and 3) industrial pretreatment regulations supposedly had reduced inputs of toxic chemicals into sewage treatment plants. The 2002 National Academy of Science review delineated several shortcomings in this risk assessment. Recent research also suggests that the above 3 assumptions are questionable. For example, high concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants are present in U.S. biosolids. PBDEs are environmentally persistent, bioaccumulative chemicals and are increasing in human breast milk. PBDEs are structurally similar to polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), which gained notoriety after their accidental introduction into Michigan livestock feed in the 1970's. This resulted in exposure of Michigan residents to PBBs and the eventual destruction of vast numbers of animals.
*Dept. of Environmental & Aquatic Animal Health, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William & Mary, Gloucester Point, VA 23062
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