June 22, 2010

To The Editor, Raleigh News & Observer:

The recent article by Lynn Bonner, “Cities Stop Spreading Sludge at State’s Request” unfortunately missed the point of the press conference held last Monday by Senator Ellie Kinnaird and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.

One might think by reading the title of the article that the state is doing its job in protecting our health and drinking by preventing sludge spreading in critical watersheds. In reality the state is doing a poor job in ensuring that our public drinking water supplies are protected from pathogens, pharmaceuticals, and other contaminant found in sewage sludge that is not regulated by the state or federal government.

The NC State Division of Water Quality is in violation of the 1992 Water Supply Watershed Protection Act by allowing fields to remain on permits that receive sewage sludge from wastewater treatment plants that have been permitted in critical watershed areas. The state erroneously permitted these fields in critical water supply areas, and was alerted to their presence through research conducted by our organization.

However, instead of removing the fields from the permits the state simply sent a letter “encouraging” five municipalities to not use the fields. Due to a legislative bill passed last year permits for sludge spreading have been extended to 8 years thereby leaving our water supplies unprotected in the case that sludge is “accidently” applied. Some of these permits extend as far into the future as 2016.

Additionally, Wake and Caldwell counties were “grandfathered“ in under a loophole in the 1992 Act, and sludge spreading is actively taking place in critical watersheds in two counties by pharmaceutical manufacturer Mallinckrodt, Inc. in Raleigh, and Huffman Finishing Co., a hosiery manufacturer, in Granite Falls.

Pharmaceuticals from Mallinckrodt, Inc., in Wake County, are likely adding to a noxious brew of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals in surface water that supplies drinking water to downstream cities and towns in Johnston County, the Town of Smithfield, the City of Goldsboro, and the City of Kinston. Other potentially affected areas are water supply wells that provide drinking water to several area subdivisions.

Huffman Finishing Co.’s sludge fields are located in the Lake Rhodehiss Watershed that supplies water to several different public water supply systems, including the Towns of Hickory and Longview, Statesville, and continues to Lake Norman that supplies water to the City of Charlotte, and the Towns of Mooresville, Mount Holly, Gastonia and Bellmont.

Sludge from wastewater treatment plants is given to farmers in close to 70 counties in NC free of charge to use as a fertilizer on farmlands. Farmers are not being told that sludge contains a multitude of unregulated contaminants that are not regulated, tested or removed by the wastewater treatment process. Rule of thumb: the cleaner the effluent, the dirtier the sludge.

Emerging contaminants in sludge include pathogens; pharmaceuticals; hormones; steroids; endocrine disrupting chemicals that have been shown to destroy the reproductive systems of fish and other aquatic life; PCBs; pesticides; polymers; flame retardants (PBDEs); dioxins; nonylphenols, phthalates; heavy metals; radioactive substances; industrial solvents; and landfill leachate. Many of these chemicals destroy the reproductive systems of fish and other aquatic life. The long-term impacts of sewage sludge on public health and the environment are not fully known, but scientists have voiced extreme concern over the use of sludge as a fertilizer on farmlands and impacts to surface water.

Kudos to Senator Ellie Kinnaird for her commitment to public health and the environment by calling for a moratorium on sludge spreading in critical watersheds in NC. The practice of spreading sewage sludge in critical watersheds needs to be brought to a halt, and the NC Division of Water Quality needs to live up to its mission in protecting human health and the environment by removing sewage sludge from public drinking water supplies.


Sue Dayton
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
North Carolina Healthy Communities Program
PO BOX 44
Saxapahaw, NC 27340
(336) 525-2003
sdayton@swcp.com