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Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)
(c) Copyright 2002, Contra Costa Times. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, July 3, 2002
EPA criticized for sludge control
By John Heilprin
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The government is using outdated science in assessing the health
risks of more than 3 million tons of sewage sludge used as fertilizer
each year, a panel of scientists said Tuesday.
When the Environmental Protection Agency set standards in 1993 on the
use of "biosolids" for treating soil, it used an unreliable 1988 survey
to identify hazardous chemicals in sewage sludge from wastewater
treatment plants, said the National Research Council panel.
Since then, the panel said, the technology for detecting pathogens
and the methods for assessing health risks posed by exposure to
chemicals in the sludge have developed significantly.
"There is a serious lack of health-related information about
populations exposed to treated sewage sludge," said the panel's
chairman, Thomas A. Burke, a health policy and management professor at
Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health in
Baltimore.
The panel's 270-page report, which had been requested by EPA, found
no documented scientific evidence of the EPA's standards failing to
protect public health.
But it said the agency needs to do more scientific work so it can
"reduce persistent uncertainty" about the risks to people from exposure
to chemicals and disease-causing pathogens in sludge used as fertilizer.
The EPA hasn't done a substantial reassessment to determine if its
standards are supported by current scientific data and risk assessment
methods, the panel said, noting that it had made a similar
recommendation in 1996.
The agency also was faulted for continuing to rely heavily on a 1990
survey that contained sampling "inconsistencies" and used reporting
methods that "undermined the reliability of the data" instead of
conducting new scientific studies.
EPA officials had no immediate comment. Adam Krantz, a spokesman for
the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, a trade group, said
"each step has indicated a lack of health risk" as the EPA studies and
regulates sewage sludge.
"Everyone wants to make this into some gigantic crisis situation when
there's not a sufficient degree of specific evidence" that sewage sludge
poses a danger, Krantz said. "A crisis simply doesn't exist."
After sewage sludge is treated to limit concentrations of some
chemicals and reduce pathogens, it is commonly known as biosolids, which
can be applied as fertilizer to farms, forests, parks, golf courses,
lawns and home gardens.
About 5.6 million tons of sewage sludge are used or disposed of each
year in the United States, and 60 percent of it is used as fertilizer.
The rest is buried in landfills or incinerated. Dumping sewage into the
ocean was banned in 1992.
In February, a report by the EPA's inspector general found the
government has done too little research to ensure humans are safe from
the viruses, bacteria and toxins in the sludge.
Mike Cook, who was then the EPA's director of wastewater and
management, said at the time that the agency had significantly cut money
and staff for sludge oversight to deal with other clean-water issues.
Cook, who has since transferred to another EPA office, said the
agency was setting up a program to review compliance of sludge makers
and users and to review concerns in local communities, ranging from
odors to illnesses.