Richard Honour

Richard Honour

May 10, 2015

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Lumpology: What’s In A Sludge Lump?

In the case of Land-Disposed Sewage Sludge analysis, you don't have to evaluate an entire 10 ton load in the forest or on the farm to get the picture; sometimes just taking a good look at the lumps of sewage sludge left on the forest floor will tell the repugnant tale.

Take the case in point about What's In It? The larger things and pieces are revealed often to the naked eye, say, the hairs, fibers, plastic thingies, bone fragments, metal bits, biological materials, and the like. Although it is alleged that "just a fine dusting of biosolids is applied to the surface of the forest," its more like a massive dumping of wads, chunks and lumps of poorly treated sewage sludge that meets the forest ecosystem head-on; thus, the art-form of Lumpology.

Note the attached images from the Snoqualmie Forest of eastern King County, WA, taken recently: Does this look like 'treated' or otherwise well-processed raw sewage, with a mind to providing a healthy 'soil amendment,' 'soil conditioner' or 'fertilizer?'

Not! This is open dumping of toxic sewage sludge as solid waste of about 75% moisture content, no matter the moniker ascribed thereto by any local, state or federal agency, or by the massive industry formed around the commercial boom that feeds-off the lowest-cost and most convenient land-disposal of this toxic waste.

Consider the source, or so they say: Think about the hospitals, clinics, dental offices, morgues, animal care facilities, incarceration centers, food processing facilities, industrial operations, airports, septage facilities, universities, honey bucket management sites, doggie parks, animal agricultural operations, sports facilities, and the like, that contribute to the endless raw sewage procession that flows to any Wastewater Treatment Plant (WTP) or Publicly-Owned Treatment Works (POTW), much less that which is generated from our own homes, businesses and industry.

What's in it? What's in those lumps that persist in the forests for years, slowly releasing their toxic content.

What if someone actually tested those lumpy devils for toxins, toxicants and infectious agents, he asked rhetorically? But, who may be he, for no one asks!

Even the early Romans refused to live in their own fecal wastes; they got rid of it; sent it off; washed it away; did not bring it back into the homes, gardens, farms and rangelands of their living environment. What's wrong with us, that we do that now?

The Diamond in the Rough may be the microbes that have devised ways to protect themselves from this toxic assault, and later, hopefully, us. We're lookin' at 'um.

What's in a Lump on the forest floor?

Even an old lump of sewage sludge is dangerous, i.e., toxic and infectious

Some lumps standout as icons as to what will not grow, for is it too toxic? Still?

Some reject all living things around them, even after 11 months in the forest.

Some are endless sludge puddles with no signs of life; but, what does lurk in there?

What does lurk in there are the Physical (or Manufactured) Inerts, but are they "Inert?" As plastics, for example, decompose in the presence of microbes, oxygen and UV, the resulting decomposition products are often even more toxic than the parent materials. Some even have their own Caution signs.

And some are imported.

And so many are brought to us in or on our foods,

while they decompose, yielding new toxics.

Our favorite lumps support the scant species that can tolerate sludge toxins.

Some species flourish in sludge up to their hips, while most life forms die or are inhibited. Do mushrooms have hips?

And then there is the question: i) What was screened out of the sewage before the resulting sludge was delivered to forest or farm, which then begs the related question; ii) What was washed out of that stuff that did go to the forest in the sludge and its proverbial lumps?

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About This Project

The Precautionary Group

We've discovered a few new mushrooms thriving in this harsh environment of land-disposed sewage sludge in Snoqualmie, Washington. We're testing these mushrooms for new antimicrobial properties. Microbes that survive exposure to toxic sewage sludge engage adaptive mechanisms that transform toxins into secondary metabolites.

Blast off!

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