Human Feces Used as Fertilizer Has Neighbors Fuming

Originally posted by angeldoll
It's not considered to be a good fertilizer for the same reason a dog's isn't. Cows, horses and chickens don't eat meat. Humans and dogs do. It ruins the manure, just making it nasty rather than helpful, or so I've always been told.

Free range chickens consume a lot of insects. They will eat scavenged meat, as in roadkill and offal.

I does make a difference in the taste.

I saw the topic and thought "that has been going on here in PA for years now" and sure enough, it is in PA. I've had fields around my area that had signs up for years now stating that they were using human fecal matter as fertilizer. I didn't know if it was a law to have the signs up or not, but regardless, I didn't really care.

I'd say this has been done for about 5-6 years now in central PA. Strange that these people only got wind of it now.

Originally posted by wutz4tom

Human Feces Used as Fertilizer Has Neighbors Fuming

www.nbcphiladelphia.com

Residents in a Lehigh County township are waging a battle against local farms that are using a fertilizer made from human feces.

Several Lynn Township, Pa. farmers use a bio-solid called “granulite” to fertilize their crops, according to township authorities. “Granulite” is sewage sludge turned into dried pellets, 30 percent of which is made of human waste.

Residents like Bill Schaffhouser fear the health effects when this chemically-treated sewage fertilizer seeps into the ground and water

(visit the link for the full news article)

Farmers that live outside Memphis, TN do that and i tell you it stinks to high heavens, it is one of the worst smells i have ever gotten a whiff of, you would think you walked into a sewer driving passed those farms.

I know for some reason I would rather step in dog crap, that human crap.

And where they process the sewage, with plants, when gets to end is just clean water.

With that mad cow stuff, I don't know we should use any animal waste, for food fertilizer, heat nothing will destroy that stuff. If cows graze where cows grazed that had mad cow, then they get it. I'm sure it's in the crap, cow poo.

reply to post by lonewolf19792000


I also have a great deal of knowledge on this subject.

The "chemical" used in sewage treatment plants is alum. It causes particulate to become heavy and sticky and causes the solids to sink to the bottom of the clarifyer where it can be captured and pumped out separate from the water, which is discharged to the environment.

Drying the sludge into pellets kills all bacteria so the pellets are sterile.

This is considered to be a more environmentally conscious means of recycling human sewage. In canada - it is classed as a product and sold to farmers. The pellets dissolve slowly and fertilize the field much more evenly. The liquid sludge (heavily contaminated with bacteria) sometimes runs off the land and contaminates waterways. Pellets do not.

The pellets however, have some drawbacks. The pellets are self-combusting and will smolder from the inside out if exposed to moisture (including humidity) - that is what causes the horrendous smell. Farmers would be doing themselves a favour if they applied the pellets before plowing.

The plants were the sewage is dried are prone to explosions because of this self-combusting property. In Ontario - every single pelletizing plant that was ever built exploded and to the best of my knowledge, sludge is no longer being pelletized in Ontario.

Tired of Control Freaks

This is ridiculous. If it's been proven to not turn our water into Mexico's water, who cares? Obviously there is some reason the farmers want to use it, perhaps it raises yield or is simply cheaper to purchase. Either way, leave them alone. Feces is better than the nasty # they use now.

reply to post by wutz4tom


I saw a special on TV about how human waste treated with heat was safe for use and solves many problems, it is only RAW sewage that is a problem. They already use many scary things for fertilizer, even pig poo would be a possible health risk with the similarities in disease to human but they use that.

Whos job is it to pick up the human waste? That would be one for worlds #tiest jobs, no pun intended.

My dad has a friend who grows grapes in PA. Some of the vines grew over the septic tank.
This is an old septic tank, the kind with a hole dug in the ground. Those grapes came out tasting extremely
pungent , and could not be used, So I would say, ya, it does make a difference.

Biosludge is not human waste, it is bacteria bodies that have digested human waste. It must be dried and steamed to kill pathogens before being used as a fertilizer. If put on wet, it will rot and stink. It should be tilled under after aplication. See "Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Reuse" by Metcalf and Eddy.
Before application, it should be tested for metals content. A fertilizer called Milorganite from the Milwaukee treatment plants contained high levels of Cadmium and was not recommended for foodcrop use.

I work at a WWTP. We are trying to aquire a pelletizer for our sludge. Sludge pellets are created by running the thickened sludge through a tumbling gas fired dryer. This process effectively disinfects the sludge (kills all pathogens). Currently, we are applying our wet sludge to fields which is far worse than pelletized sludge.l

here in Ireland it's perfectly normal for human feces to be used as fertilizer, very normal infact. its called spreading slurry. in most cases the house owner rings the farmer to come and empty the septic tank(where the waste goes to from the toilet), the farmer arrives in tractor and big slurry tank and empty's the house owners septic tank. the farmer then goes back to the farm and empty's the waste into a bigger tank, the farmer does this until his tank is full and ready for spreading as fertilizer.

its certainly not looked at as horrible and "something is going on here" it would be way better than the farmer using chemicals on the soil which is artificially made.

one of the best form of fertilizer is human waste and boasts the yield for the crop, its also organic

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I agree with you somewhat.
I don't admit possessing any biochemistry degree but; With all the chemicals and meats human species ingest, don't you think there must come a time where proteins and various waste pathogens just don't break down in a manner to ensure safe consumption ? Sorry for my way of writing it but I am francophone and do my best to be concise.
I still find it "controversial" and we won't know the effects of prolonged usage until too many will have been sickened.
We have so much vegetal waste to compost and recycle...no need to 'eat our own #'

reply to post by zeta2reticuli

I agree that there are other sources of fertilizer,
But that still does not help us with the growing population and poo abundance....

Milorganite has been around for years. Since the 1920's. It's made from sewage sludge and has been widely used. So his is hardly news. Just sayin'

reply to post by pteridine


who determined that there was a high level of Cadmium? is it gov. tested?

If you've eaten sugar over the past 5 years, you've eaten the end product of a plant fertilized in human waste. Some of the sugarcane fields back home in South Louisiana have been doing this for years. I wouldn't stress over it. The parish I used to work (Wastewater Tech, Class I) for consistently won awards for how clean the water is.

Originally posted by butcherguy
Some WWTF's use reed beds to consume the sludge. In that case, the sludge isn't dried and is pumped into lined concrete beds where reeds have been planted. The reeds have some effect on the heavy metals too, but I am not sure of the chemistry involved there....
I need to do some more reading myself.

Interesting. I think you are referring to phytoremediation. It's also a technique used at places like Chernobyl to "suck" the radioactivity out of the soil and into a plant. Harvest the plant and safely dispose of it, radiation levels are then reduced.

reply to post by wutz4tom


All in all I think the use of processed poo does more good than harm.That's if guidlines are followed and the process is monitored ...
But nobody I know wants to know that they are smelling people poo or having to worry about toxins being passed along through the process.

Originally posted by zeta2reticuli
reply to post by thisguyrighthere

 

I agree with you somewhat.
I don't admit possessing any biochemistry degree but; With all the chemicals and meats human species ingest, don't you think there must come a time where proteins and various waste pathogens just don't break down in a manner to ensure safe consumption ? Sorry for my way of writing it but I am francophone and do my best to be concise.
I still find it "controversial" and we won't know the effects of prolonged usage until too many will have been sickened.
We have so much vegetal waste to compost and recycle...no need to 'eat our own #'

edit on 29-12-2011 by zeta2reticuli because: added

The thing with this statement, though, is the use of human fecal matter as a fertilizer, even before the modern techniques of making it "safe" for use predates the modern forms and processes behind fertilization by a long shot. The trick in those situations where raw sewage is used, being one most farmers would surely be aware of.. You must leave the field fallow for up to several years before it's leeched enough that it's beneficial to the plants, otherwise it's just plainly too rich for the plants, resulting in death from over-fertilization or PH problems.
So my point is, human waste was used long before, and no one in the old days had any of these problems from the prolonged usage, the problems that started arising when chemically engineered pesticides and fertilizers were first brought into fruition.
Now the use of a natural byproduct is taboo, a modern way of thinking that requires an ignorance to history. At least in Western society.

They do this here in southern Virginia too. When I lived up the road a few miles when they sprayed this sludge on a neighbors pasture land. I had to laugh at the plastic bits and pieces scattered about. The smell was mild and faded in a few days so it didn't bother me however, they sprayed it on one field that had a creek running through it that had a fish kill shortly after it was sprayed. I don't know the cause of the fish die off in the small creek....

My concerns are not so much with the pathogens but the chemical and heavy metal residue .....