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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs updated standards to
assess health risks of land-applying biosolids, according to the
National Research Council.

However, a new report by the council found that the Part 503 rule of
the Clean Water Act, which governs the land application of treated
sewage sludge, has not put the public at risk.

The council completed an 18-month review of the federal biosolids
program this month.

"There is no documented scientific evidence that the Part 503 rule has
failed to protect public health," concluded the committee that prepared
the report. "However, additional scientific work is needed to reduce
persistent uncertainty about the potential for adverse human health
effects from exposure to biosolids."

A committee member pointed out the positive news for those in the
biosolids business.

"The most important finding in the study is that land application has
been conducted very successfully over the past decade, and to this point
in time there is no adverse health effects from the land application of
biosolids," said Ian Pepper, who serves as the director of the
University of Arizona's National Science Foundation Water Quality
Center. "In the past several decades, there have been hundreds of
thousands of land applications of biosolids, and in all that time there
are very few complaints, and the complaints are all anecdotal."

The report states that the EPA does need to re-evaluate its risk
assessment for harmful chemicals in biosolids to keep up with advances
in risk assessment technology. It recommends that the EPA use improved
pathogen-detection technology to determine health risks for workers
applying biosolids as well as nearby residents. And it states that the
EPA needs to establish procedures to investigate illnesses allegedly
linked to exposure, as there is a lack of information on populations
exposed to biosolids.

"There is a serious lack of health-related information about
populations exposed to treated sewage sludge," said Thomas A. Burke, the
committee chairman and a professor of health policy and management at
the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. "To
ensure public health protection, EPA should investigate allegations of
adverse health effects and update the science behind its chemical and
pathogen standards."

The EPA also must rigorously enforce the land application process and
increase its efforts to ensure that companies meet regulatory
requirements. The committee recommended allocating more funds and staff
resources to the biosolids program.

Sixty percent of the 5.6 million tons of sewage sludge generated each
year are used for land application.

"Every scientific step that's taken along the way, with each new
report, it's becoming increasingly clear that this stuff is safe," said
Adam Krantz, a spokesman for the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage
Agencies.

In fact, the report puts the land application of Class B biosolids in
a good light, said Ross M. Patten, CEO of Synagro Technologies Inc., a
Houston wastewater residuals management company.

"We've been anxiously awaiting the report, and we think, from our
knowledge of the business, that it's positive for the residuals
management industry," Patten said. "We're quite pleased with the
results. Actually, we consider it sort of a triple-crown win."

Three conclusions from the report bode well for the industry, he said. The committee stated that the EPA standards protect public health; it
found no links between biosolids and adverse health effects; and it did
not recommend any restrictions on the land application of biosolids.

But opponents are calling for the immediate ban of the land
application of biosolids in light of the report. The huge data gaps in
the science behind the current rules show that biosolids may endanger
human health, said Charlotte Hartman, who serves as chairwoman of the
National Sludge Alliance.

"There is no doubt that people living next to sludge application sites
are getting sick," she said. "We get new reports of such illnesses
almost every week."

The EPA has never done a risk assessment of pathogens in biosolids.
The Clean Water Act defines sewage sludge as a pollutant, and it should
be treated as such, Hartman said.

Eight hundred Synagro employees deal with biosolids every day, Patten
said. Some 20,000 municipal employees work at wastewater treatment
plants. There is no documented history of health issues for any of the
workers.

"Basic science says the risk is very minimal," said Krantz of the
sewerage association. "We basically feel it is safe now in terms of how
it's being treated."

"The farmer would not be letting us put something on his land that was
going to harm him, his crops or the value of his property," Patten said.
"I, as a chief executive of a company that is involved in the
environmental business, would be negligent if I were to put my employees
in harm's way."

The EPA sponsored the study. The National Research Council is part of
the National Academy of Sciences, a private nonprofit institution that
provides science and technology advice under a congressional charter.
The report is available online at www.nap.edu.

Contact Waste News reporter Joe Truini at (330) 865-6166 or
jtruini@crain.com