National study faults science behind sludge
rules
HARRISBURG, July 3, 2002 - State Rep. Camille “Bud” George, Democratic chairman of the
House
Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, today again
asked the state Department of Environmental
Protection to suspend Class B
sludge applications after a national, 18-month study determined that
federal
safety standards are outdated and inadequate.
“It’s time the DEP put
protection before corporate profits and convenience,” said Rep.
George, D-74 of
Clearfield County. “”Ignoring the latest study raises the
stakes that land application of sewage sludge is a
reckless gamble with
Pennsylvanians’ health and welfare.”
The study released
Tuesday by the National Academies, an umbrella group encompassing
the National
Academies of Sciences and Engineering, the Institute of
Medicine and the National Research Council, found:
A
serious lack of health-related information about people exposed to
treated sewage sludge.
The
Environmental Protection Agency used an unreliable 1988 survey to
identify hazardous chemicals in
sludge when it
set national standards.
Chemicals not
identified in the 1988 survey have since been found to be of
potential concern.
The EPA has
not been verifying if pathogens are dying off, whether the land is
being used for agriculture
or grazing, or
whether public access is adequately restricted.
Studies of workers exposed to raw sewage are not an adequate
substitute for studies of populations
exposed to
sludge.
“Twenty-three months ago
today, I called for the immediate suspension of all Class B sludge
applications in
Pennsylvania after the Centers for Disease Control
determined workers may be exposed to disease-causing
organisms while
handling Class B sludge,” Rep. George said. “This latest study
highlights the unstudied
hazards in sludge and makes it
imperative that the DEP suspend sludge applications while working
with the
sludge industry to make it safer.”
Rep. George noted that
many of the regulatory faults found in the National Academies’ study
have been
demonstrated in Pennsylvania. Sludge is suspected in the
death of an 11-year-old Clearfield County boy, who
died in 1994 a week
after playing in a mine site where Class B sludge was applied. The
site contained no
warnings of the sludge, despite federal regulations
requiring them, and the DEP apologized to the boy’s
mother after it had
wrongly maintained that her son died of a bee sting and that the
site had not been sludged.
“The DEP also was being
either dishonest or ignorant when it insisted that the pathogen that
killed the boy was
not found in sludge,” Rep. George
said. An industrial hygienist for the National Institute for
Occupational Safety
and Health refuted the DEP,
saying, “I don’t know why it [the pathogen] couldn’t be” found in
sludge.
The Academies’ study
(Page 135) noted that, new studies of the contaminant concentrations
in biosolids
should include evaluation of pollutants not included in
previous surveys. “Data gaps that result in the inability
to
assess
risks need to be identified so that research can be conducted to
fill those gaps,” it said.
“Most Pennsylvanians
should be aware by now that the DEP is in the business of promoting
sludge, not
warning the public of its dangers,” Rep. George said.
“However, this latest study raises the ante on DEP’s
gamble on the safety of
sludge. It is a gamble no Pennsylvanian should be subjected to until
we know
conclusively the dangers inherent in sludge.”
Rep. George said the
study gives new impetus to the scores of amendments and bills he has
filed over the last
20 years that would increase
inspections, treatment and local control over Class B sludge, which
is not treated
as extensively as Class A sludge. Scientists at the CDC have
recommended that all sludge be cleaned to
Class A standards because of the
risk that diseases could be transmitted through the Class B
sludge.
“While the DEP ignores
the mounting evidence and the public outcry against sludge, Senate
Bill 1413 would
harm hard-fought efforts by municipalities to restrict
sludge,” Rep. George said. “I can’t state the case
against
sludge any better than the EPA microbiologist who said, ‘The
worst thing about sludge is not what we know
about it, but what we don’t know
about it.’”
The Academies’ study,
“Biosolids Applied to Land: Advancing Standards and Practices,” is
available on the
Internet at
www.nap.edu.
