WASHINGTON POST - LETTER TO EDITOR - DR. CAROLINE
SNYDER
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 11:08 AM
Subject: Your local wasteland
I read the Aug. 6 Metro article on the hazards of sludge spreading.
Along with sludge, the waste industry spreads a lot of myths. One is that
sludge is treated to remove toxic metals and other contaminants. Not so.
Sewage treatment plants are designed to remove contaminants from waste
water, not sludge. Toxic metals, dioxins and other wastewater contaminants
concentrate in the resultant sludge.
Every month, every industry in the country is allowed to discharge up to 33
pounds of hazardous waste into sewage-treatment plants without penalty or
reporting. According to the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release
Inventory, toxic discharges into the nation's treatment plants have increased
every year since 1996. Much of this material ends up in the sludge that is
spread on the nation's farms as "fertilizer."
Sewage-treatment plants were designed to clean up wastewater, not to produce
fertilizer. Because industry uses sewers to discharge much of its waste, and
because this waste concentrates in sludge, the Federal Clean Water Act
always defined sewage sludge as a pollutant.
CAROLINE SNYDER
North Sandwich, N.H.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
