sludge

David Lewis, a University of Georgia professor and former Environmental Protection Agency scientist, is suing officials at his university for publishing allegedly fraudulent research funded by the federal government. In court documents, Lewis claims that university researchers, who were paid more than $1.5 million in federal grants, intentionally distorted toxic substance amounts in the sludge from wastewater treatment plants in Augusta, Georgia, by collecting samples only during droughts, when levels would be "misleadingly low." Last month U.S. District Court judge Anthony Alaimo ruled that sludge treated in Augusta's facilities had metals concentrations thousands of times over allowed toxicity levels, noting that the University of Georgia's report on those facilities was "faulty and incomplete." Lewis has investigated the harmful side effects linked with the sludge since 1998 and argued in 2005 that his research led to his firing from the EPA. (We examined the sludge issue in our 1995 book, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You.)

Sludge keeps rearing its ugly head. Scientists used federal grant money to "spread fertilizer made from human and industrial wastes on yards in poor, black neighborhoods to test whether it might protect children from lead poisoning in the soil." The residents were not alerted to any harmful ingredients in the sludge, and were assured that it posed no health risks for their families. In exchange for participating in the 2005 study, nine families were given food coupons and a free lawn by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Freedom of Information Act requests by the Associated Press produced grant documents, but none showed any medical follow-up with the homeowners. The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducted similar research in East St. Louis, Illinois, another impoverished and predominantly African American community. "Thomas Burke, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says epidemiological studies have never been done to show whether spreading sludge on land is safe. 'There are potential pathogens and chemicals that are not in the realm of safe. What's needed are more studies on what's going on with the pathogens in sludge - are we actually removing them? The commitment to connecting the dots hasn't been there.'"

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we cover greenwashing the Olympics, when a Nobel prize doesn't count for much, and why human waste by any other name is still ... you know. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how many steps it takes to get from a corporate apologist to a perennial thorn in industry's side. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

The American Chemistry Council wants you to know that you're safer than you may think when toxic chemicals end up in your local groundwater and air. ACC has announced the hire of ex-Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson Lisa Harrison as its new vice president of communications. Says Ms. Harrison, in celebrating her new position: "I am excited at the challenge of educating and informing opinion leaders about the benefits of American chemistry in our every day lives, and the value that the industry and the ACC bring to Washington D.C." Among her Administration appearances: defending the EPA's "Clear Skies" program that exaggerated cuts in airborne sulfur dioxide emissions and defending toxic sludge. A few days before Harrison joined ACC, the organization released a new defense of the Bush Administration's proposed rollback of the Toxics Release Inventory. The Environmental Working Group has led a blistering critique of the proposed rollbacks.

An appeals court has overthrown a 1996 libel verdict won by a New York company that hauls sewage sludge against filmmaker Michael Moore's TV Nation television program and EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman.

On August 2, 1994, TV Nation aired a segment titled "Sludge Train," which followed a load of sludge from a sewage plant in New York as it was hauled by train to Sierra Blanca, Texas, where it was applied as fertilizer on ranchland owned by Merco Joint Venture, the company hired to dispose of the sludge.

The purpose of the program, according to a memo written by a TV Nation staffer, was to document "the socioeconomics of waste, about who gets--literally--shat upon." It featured footage of Sierra Blanca residents who complained about odors from the sludge operation, and interviewed EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman, who described the ranch as "an illegal haul and dump operation" and said "the people of Texas are being poisoned."

Merco retaliated with a libel lawsuit against Kaufman, TV Nation and its parent company, TriStar Television.

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

If the "Water Environment Federation" has its way, you'll be routinely eating fruits and vegetables fertilized with sewage sludge containing heavy metals, dangerous viruses, dioxins, PCBs, pesticides and hundreds of other toxic chemicals.

The WEF, whose pleasant-sounding name conceals its true identity as the main lobby association for U.S. sewage treatment plants, is working closely with the Environmental Protection Agency to persuade farmers and food processors that sewage sludge is a "beneficial fertilizer."

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

In traditional, agricultural societies, human waste was prized as a prime ingredient in what the Chinese called "night soil"--artfully composted, high-grade fertilizer. Things changed with the industrial revolution, which brought people together in cities where composting and recycling were no longer practical.

At first, open gutters were dug to carry sewage from city streets into nearby bodies of water. When populations were small and water supplies seemed unlimited, the wisdom of using fresh water as a vehicle and receptacle for human waste was not questioned. By the 1920s and 1930s, large cities were piping large quantities of untreated sewage into rivers and oceans, creating serious pollution problems. Septic systems in thousands of small and medium-sized communities were failing due to overloading. Thousands of industries were also producing chemical wastes and needed to dispose of them.

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

To educate the public at large about the benefits of sludge, the EPA turned to the "Water Environment Federation." Although its name evokes images of cascading mountain streams, the WEF is actually the sewage industry's main trade, lobby and public relations organization, with over 41,000 members and a multi-million-dollar budget that supports a 100-member staff. Founded in 1928 as the "Federation of Sewage Works Associations," the organization in 1950 recognized the growing significance of industrial waste in sludge by changing its name to the "Federation of Sewage and Industrial Wastes Associations." In 1960, it changed its name again to the cleaner-sounding "Water Pollution Control Federation."

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

The HarperCollins Dictionary of Environmental Science defines sludge as a "viscous, semisolid mixture of bacteria- and virus-laden organic matter, toxic metals, synthetic organic chemicals, and settled solids removed from domestic and industrial waste water at a sewage treatment plant."

Over 60,000 toxic substances and chemical compounds can be found in sewage sludge, and scientists are developing 700 to 1,000 new chemicals per year. Stephen Lester of the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes has compiled information from researchers at Cornell University and the American Society of Civil Engineers showing that sludge typically contains the following toxins:

by John C. Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

"There's no doubt that people have been harmed by sewage sludge, but I don't know of any cases where it's been proved beyond a doubt," says Stanford Tackett, a chemist and lead expert.

Tackett's seemingly contradictory statement captures the scientific loophole that PR practitioners use routinely to cover up health hazards. Scientific "proof" is something achieved under laboratory conditions with strict control of all variables. In the real world, those controlled laboratory conditions do not exist.