Sludge

Inspecting Sludge

by Sheldon Rampton — April 4, 2002 - 8:05am

In Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, we wrote about efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency and sewage treatment plants to enhance the image of sewage sludge by renaming it as "biosolids" so that it can be "beneficially used" as fertilizer. Now the EPA's own Office of Inspector General (OIG) has officially released a report on EPA's sewage sludge rule.

Main Source: 
http://www.whistleblowers.org/PRoigsludgereport.htm

Toxic Sludge Is Not Good for You, It Could Even Kill You

by John Stauber — January 18, 2002 - 12:04pm

Synagro company has paid money in a wrongful death lawsuit, the first known payment to alleged victims of sewage sludge-induced sicknesses. However, important information in the case has not been made public, and the National Whistleblower Center has requested that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency obtain the settlement agreement.

Main Source: 
National Whistleblowers Center news release

Sludge Goes Cyber

by Sheldon Rampton — October 3, 2001 - 10:39am

In our book, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, we reported on a PR campaign by the U.S.

Main Source: 
http://biosolids.policy.net/welcome/

Toxic Waste as Fertilizer

by Sheldon Rampton — September 10, 2001 - 11:59am

Seattle Times reporter Duff Wilson was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his investigative series, Fear in the Fields--How Hazardous Wastes Become Fertilizer, which found that, across the United States, industrial wastes laden with heavy metals and other dangerous materials are being used in fertilizers and spread over farmland.

Main Source: 
http://www.fatefulharvest.com/

Another Blow to the Image of Sludge

by Sheldon Rampton — August 5, 2001 - 11:00pm

In Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, we reported on the Environmental Protection Agency's PR campaign to rename sewage sludge as "biosolids" and use it as fertilizer. Now the Washington Post is finally reporting that there might be some problems with the practice. This story mentions complaints from people such as James Lear of Virginia, who woke up one morning last fall covered head to foot with mysterious boils that his doctor said might be connected to airborne bacteria from the treated sewage used as fertilizer on a nearby pasture.

Main Source: 
Washington Post, August 6, 2001

Sierra Blanca Sludge Field to Shut Down

by Sheldon Rampton — June 18, 2001 - 11:00pm

In Toxic Sludge Is Good For You we described a PR campaign to rename sewage sludge as "biosolids" so that it could be used as fertilizer. We also detailed the implementation of this plan by New York City, which began shipping its sludge in 1992 to help "fertilize" Sierra Blanca, a tiny, impoverished town in Texas. Now New York has cancelled its sludge disposal contract, but will leave behind the world's largest sludge field.

Main Source: 
El Paso Times, June 19, 2001
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