Oh Alice, Don't Let Them Do This To You

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Apr 12, 2010 at 21:34:15 PM PDT

But here's the full statement they made:

"I have to admit to some schadenfreude when the organic, 'environmentalist' crowd turns on itself," says Stier. "Ms. Waters was a hero of the sustainable food movement, but now they are turning on her because of very low levels of heavy metals in this compost, less even than you'd get from a vitamin supplement. The irony, of course, is that using biosolids is a wonderfully environmentalist thing to do, since it safely recycles waste materials; the 'environmentalists' are on the wrong side of this environmental issue."

They are congratulating Waters because using sewage sludge is a "wonderfully environmentalist" thing to do?? Alice, please, these people still think DDT should be legal. Don't let them count you as being on their side. It hurts me to see Alice Waters used like this.

(As for those heavy metals... they've done a nice job cherry-picking the ONE class of toxins in sewage sludge that is somewhat regulated. Sure, sludge might not have too much lead in it... but how about flame retardants, dioxins, pharmaceuticals, and phthalates?)

What San Francisco Found in Their Own Sludge

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Apr 08, 2010 at 15:38:46 PM PDT

San Francisco's own tests of its sludge looked for heavy metals, PCBs, dioxins, volatile and semivolatile organic compounds, and pesticides. They didn't look for pharmaceuticals, steroids, hormones, or anything living (bacteria, parasites, etc). And they found some concerning stuff. Details below.

Sludge Hits the Front Page of the SF Chronicle!

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Apr 07, 2010 at 14:08:29 PM PDT

The hullabaloo is over a program by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which once a month distributes biosolid compost to gardeners, school groups and homeowners for free. The commission claims the compost is heat-treated fertilizer that is as good as the stuff sold in gardening stores.

But the Organic Consumers Association insists that the sacks given out to San Franciscans contain a stew of excrement and toxic chemicals from the sewer.

Talk about some tricky wording. Yes, the sludge is as good as stuff sold in gardening stores. And as bad. That's because gardening stores ALSO sell sludge under misleading premises. Like Milorganite, made from Milwaukee's sewage sludge, which claims it is "For better results. Naturally." That marketing claim would only be true if you consider industrial waste to be "natural."

What surprises me most about this article is that the SFPUC is STILL claiming that its sludge is safe.

"We are giving away highly treated, heat-pasteurized biosolids," said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the Public Utilities Commission. "It has been tested for metals and pathogens and is basically sterile."

Sterile, maybe. But what about heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, flame retardants, and dioxins? Some of that stuff doesn't go away when you apply heat.

The article adds two new elements to the story. First, SFPUC is now conducting rigorous tests of its sludge. I've been asking them for a few days now to give me details on the testing they are doing but haven't heard anything back yet. Second, SFPUC is complaining that the Center for Food Safety did independent testing of the sludge but refuses to share the results. This is true. The Center for Food Safety did inexpensive testing that was not sensitive enough to find small concentrations of substances and STILL found some bad stuff in the sludge. They refused to hand over their results to SFPUC because they want SFPUC to do real, more comprehensive, testing instead of relying on what CFS found.

There's a bit of controversy about testing in general because there are literally THOUSANDS of hazardous contaminants that might be found in sludge, and you can easily test sludge for just a few of them, find nothing, and declare it clean. Also, some hazardous chemicals are harmful in tiny concentrations but tests may not be sensitive enough to find those chemicals in small enough concentrations. (This is, ironically, how many people who smoke pot pass drug tests in our country... you drink a lot of water the day of your test and even though your urine contains THC, it's at a low enough concentration that it won't be detected.) Another factor is how many sludge samples are tested. Sludge isn't necessarily uniform, so one batch of the goop may yield a harmful chemical that isn't present in another batch. The fewer samples you test, the less you may find.

I will follow up on this issue as it plays out.

Vietor Takes Legal Action Over Sludge Article

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Apr 06, 2010 at 20:10:51 PM PDT

I believe your post about Francesca suing the UK Guardian is factually inaccurate.  A legal statement asking for the correction of inaccurate information in a publication is not a lawsuit.  Since she is not in any way instituting a legal proceeding or filing a suit in court against the The Guardian she is not "suing" them.  I would appreciate it if you could make that correction.

I'm getting conflicting information about the nature of Vietor's legal complaint. I haven't seen the letter myself. So for the time being, the only info I've got is that she took some kind of formal legal action, whatever that was.

I'm rather surprised about the first legal action to come out of the San Francisco sewage sludge giveaway program. After the city gave away its hazardous sludge to gardeners, calling it "organic biosolids compost," you'd think that the city itself (or its Public Utilities Commission - SFPUC for short - might be the subject of a lawsuit). But instead it's the Vice President of the SFPUC, Francesca Vietor, who sent a legal statement to The Guardian (a UK newspaper) asking them to change their reporting of the story.

As you may know, I'm familiar with the story. Here's my own fact check of the supposedly libelous article (below).

Alice Waters, Sustainable Icon, Won't Say No to Sludge

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Mar 31, 2010 at 10:00:00 AM PDT

As Chez Panisse matured, becoming a touchstone of American cuisine, Waters found willing partners in her mission of promoting local, fresh, seasonal ingredients. She joined fine cooking with community activism, supporting local farmers, organic food, sustainable agriculture, and other causes. Cooking is, in her view, a product of agriculture as well as a part of culture. To help change the culinary culture, Waters created, in 1996, the Chez Panisse Foundation. Part of its mission is to help fund a program called the Edible Schoolyard, which involves schoolchildren in planting gardens and then harvesting, cooking, and enjoying what they've grown.

Given all of this - why on earth would Alice Waters refuse to denounce San Francisco's policy of giving away sewage sludge marked as "organic biosolids compost" to unsuspecting gardeners?

My Piece About Sludge at the White House

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Mar 30, 2010 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

Last year when this story initially came out, it was politicized. The story first came from Mother Jones, where it was reported by Josh Harkinson. Then it was picked up in an Andrew Kimbrell piece on Huffington Post that made a simple, unintentional mistake. He pinned the sludging of the White House on the Clintons. That made it look like it was just the Democrats doing the sludging - and now gardening in the previously sludged area. In fact, sludge applications at the White House began under Reagan.

Ultimately, the New York Times picked up the story, asking Irvin Williams, the lead gardener at the White House for nearly six decades, if sludge was applied. He said yes, once, in 1985. Harkinson (of Mother Jones) replied with evidence of sludge applications through at least the late 1990s. And a DC Water and Sewer Authority report [PDF] from July 2009 says (on p. 4) that sludge applications at the White House continued until 2004.

While writing this piece, I contacted the National Park Service myself. They didn't have any records of sludge application at the White House after 1987. However, the EPA requires no record-keeping when you apply sludge that meets their rather low bar to qualify as "Class A Biosolids," so if the National Park Service has no records of sludge applications, that doesn't necessarily mean that it didn't happen. Either way, it's a silly point to argue since they do have records of sludge applications at the White House in 1987, so there's no disagreement that sludge was applied at the White House.

Given the politicized history of this story and a three decade-long PR campaign to improve sewage sludge's image, I expect to be attacked for my reporting. About the dates of sludge applications at the White House, I chose to believe my source from the EPA who was helping me with the story, one that was supported by Josh Harkinson's reporting and other documents that can be easily found online like the one I've linked to. However, I wanted to lay out the facts here so that folks know that there were conflicting facts going into this story and that I am not doing sloppy reporting.

SF Sludgegate Interesting Development

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Mar 06, 2010 at 22:45:39 PM PST

Her bio from SFWater.org:

Francesca Vietor is Vice President of the Commission. She served as President of the City's Commission on the Environment from 1997 to 1999 and as Director of the Department of the Environment from 1999 to 2001. In 2003, she co-founded 1000 Flowers, a non-partisan non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to registering and mobilizing women to vote across the country. She has worked for many nonprofit organizations, including Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, Island Press, and CARE Madagascar.

She currently runs an environmental consulting firm, Ecoworks, with current contracts at Commonweal, an environmental health nonprofit in Marin County, and the Green Schools Initiative, a Berkeley-based NGO bringing environmental practices to schools in the state. She serves on several boards, including Friends of the San Francisco Public Library (spearheading the greening of the library initiative), the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, Slide Ranch, and Bioneers. She is also pursuing a Bachelor's in Fine Arts at the California College of the Arts while she raises her three-year-old daughter with her husband, writer Mark Hertsgaard.

From her background, she looks like a strong environmentalist and a friend of sustainable food. So what does she think about SFPUC's decision to give sewage sludge to unsuspecting gardeners under the guise of organic compost?

Sludge: The Whole Story

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 14:18:11 PM PST

I ask that everyone please read this since it has implications for our entire nation, not just San Francisco. One commenter asked if I was talking about raw sludge here and said that treated (composted) sludge is better. I would like to clarify that I am ONLY talking about treated sludge. The test results I posted earlier were tests of the "organic compost" handed out by San Francisco to gardeners. And I'm getting my info directly from an EPA expert.

BREAKING: What's in the Sewage Sludge?

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 07:08:19 AM PST

At the moment, an independent lab is testing the sludge and sending back its preliminary results. So far they are seeing PBDEs, nonylphenols, triclosan and some "new" non-PBDE flame retardants in the samples in "decent amounts." Triclosan is widely used in antibacterial soaps. PBDE is a flame retardant that may cause neurobehavioral problems.

I take no joy in reporting this, as it means that many SF residents are eating from gardens contaminated with this stuff (and a whole lot more). But this actually IS breaking news and I think I can correctly say that you heard it here first.  

A Little More on Sewage Sludge

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 00:23:03 AM PST

First, the EPA's own analysis of the contents of sewage sludge. It's a recent analysis of 84 sludge samples from around the U.S. They tested for 28 metals, 72 drugs, 25 steroids and hormones, 4 anions, six semivolatile organics and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and a number of flame retardants. The GOOD news is that very few samples contained any of the hormones or 29 of the pharmaceuticals. The BAD news? Pretty much everything else they found was bad news. Remember when you look at this that - out of the items tested for - the EPA only regulates 9 metals. They also regulate fecal coliforms. Oh, and then there's the number of chemicals (thousands of them) that might show up in the sludge and weren't included in this study.

Then there's this: Synagro Allgro "All purpose organic compost & natural fertilizer"
Synagro, which is owned by the very creepy and secretive Carlyle Group, handles San Francisco's sludge. Like the bogus compost given out by San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission, Allgro is a mix of sewage sludge and wood trimmings. Notice how Synagro calls it "organic" even though sewage sludge is specifically prohibited by the USDA's organic standards. I find it funny that they boast that it is "a blend is composted thoroughly to produce a high quality humus material free of pathogens and weed seeds." Weed seeds? Oh no. I don't think weed seeds are among the chemical soup that gets washed down the drain at oil refineries, hospitals, foundries, and other industrial sites, and blended into this stuff.

Last, for a full background on the sludge issue, I highly recommend reading this chapter (PDF) in the book Toxic Sludge is Good For You by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton. But I REALLY recommend reading the entire book (only this one chapter is about sludge, the book is an expose of the PR industry).

SF Sewage Sludge Given Away as "Organic Compost" Contained Dioxins

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Mar 03, 2010 at 23:46:13 PM PST

UPDATE: Here's the video.

Sewage Sludge Victims Will Return the Favor in Protest

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Mar 03, 2010 at 21:08:29 PM PST

A press release from Organic Consumers Association is below and I will follow up with an in-depth story on this (it's truly a national scandal that's absolutely enormous in scope) on Alternet.

"Free Compost" or Sewage Sludge?

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Dec 30, 2009 at 01:17:36 AM PST

Some offers are too good to be true. In late September, San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission once again offered "high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic" compost to any citizen who wanted it absolutely free. It's a popular program. Bay-area residents sprinkle about 80 tons a year of the fertilizer on their lawns and gardens--even schoolyards.

But Washington, D. C.-based Center for Food Safety (CFS) says that San Franciscans may be getting more than they bargain for when they load their trunks with white plastic bags at the city's "Compost Giveaway Events." What the Public Utilities Commission fails to disclose, the CFS says, is that the popular soil amendment is made out of sewage sludge composted with wood chips or paper by-products. According to a report released this year by the Environmental Protection Agency, sludge has been found to contain heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, PCBs, flame retardants, and endocrine disruptors--pretty much anything that humans living and working in a large metropolitan area flush down their toilets or pour down their drains. The CFS claims that San Francisco's compost contains "toxic chemicals and hazardous materials."

Sick, huh? I've seen sewage sludge in the news a lot lately. For example, in the article "North Carolina City Asked to Stop Sludge Spreading Near Schools."

During her presentation, Dayton -- a member of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League -- said children at three elementary schools are being exposed to bacteria, viruses, toxic metals and chemicals because of nearby waste spreading.

I get why they don't want this stuff on farmland near schools, but what confuses me is why they are OK with it being applied on farmland AT ALL.

Past White House Propaganda Compromises Safety of Current White House PR Effort

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Jun 19, 2009 at 12:03:38 PM PDT

How's this for some sick irony? The White House Garden tested high for lead and there's a good chance the reason is sewage sludge:

Grist published a series of articles recently on the dangers of using sewer sludge on agricultural lands. Sludge tends to be full of heavy metals like lead, along with an encyclopedia's worth of industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals. But back in the 1980s, the EPA was trying to convince everyone how wonderfully safe and useful all the leftover poo product was. So they spread some "clean" sludge on the White House South Lawn to prove it (and reportedly continued to do so for years).