Biosolids

[smithkl42]

Obviously you went around a locked gate with signs saying no trespassing and biosolids are being utilized. With doe, health district and owners phone numbers and owners disposal permit numbers on the sign you went past. 

Nah, this was public land, and if there were "biosolids being sprayed" signs, I didn't see them. On the other hand, I entered the clearcut through a shortcut, and if I'd gone the extra mile or two out of my way to stay on the roads, they might have been there.

[smithkl42]

BTW, this study here, in a very different context, found no difference between white-tailed deer use of grasslands treated with biosolids vs those without.

https://bioone.org/journals/rangeland-ecology-and-management/volume-64/issue-2/REM-D-09-00125.1/Wildlife-Responses-to-Long-Term-Application-of-Biosolids-to-Grasslands/10.2111/REM-D-09-00125.1.short

Of course, that's grasslands rather than reprod, and white-tailed deer rather than blacktail. But worth noting.

[Angry Perch]

Obviously you went around a locked gate with signs saying no trespassing and biosolids are being utilized. With doe, health district and owners phone numbers and owners disposal permit numbers on the sign you went past. 

Nope. LOOP sprays up in Campbell Snoqualmie all the time. The areas are posted, but access is not restricted. The only warning is not to forage for mushrooms or edible plants for a year (I think it's a year). It has that familiar manure smell, but knowing it's human manure makes it seem nastier. Those areas definitely green up fast.

[BeWitty]

Biosolids have gone through the treatment plant and have been digested. Most Biosolids leaving a west side treatment plant are hauled over the mountains and applied on a BUF (beneficial use facility). A lot of times these facilities are wheat fields. It’s perfect fertilizer as it’s rich in nitrogen and phosphorus and you don’t need to water because it’s usually about 80% water already. Many of these land app sites are in Douglas and Mason county and regulated by the EPA. If you want really green grass and plants that grow very fast, use biosolids!

There are two common types of biosolids, Class A and Class B. Very different treatment and usability.

[Katmai Guy]

Obviously you went around a locked gate with signs saying no trespassing and biosolids are being utilized. With doe, health district and owners phone numbers and owners disposal permit numbers on the sign you went past. 

Nope. LOOP sprays up in Campbell Snoqualmie all the time. The areas are posted, but access is not restricted. The only warning is not to forage for mushrooms or edible plants for a year (I think it's a year). It has that familiar manure smell, but knowing it's human manure makes it seem nastier. Those areas definitely green up fast.

Two Years!

[Angry Perch]

Obviously you went around a locked gate with signs saying no trespassing and biosolids are being utilized. With doe, health district and owners phone numbers and owners disposal permit numbers on the sign you went past. 

Nope. LOOP sprays up in Campbell Snoqualmie all the time. The areas are posted, but access is not restricted. The only warning is not to forage for mushrooms or edible plants for a year (I think it's a year). It has that familiar manure smell, but knowing it's human manure makes it seem nastier. Those areas definitely green up fast.

Two Years!

Yet they use it on crops, which I don't get. 

[throwingsticks]

There is not a health risk with biosolids, I wouldn't stress

According to the link Bob33 tossed up, that isn't fully settled.

from Q9 of the EPA link,
As reported in the 2002 National Research Council of the National Academies report, Biosolids Applied to Land: Advancing Standards and Practices, the Council concluded that, “There is no documented scientific evidence that the Part 503 rule has failed to protect public health. However, additional scientific work is needed to reduce persistent uncertainty about the potential for adverse human health effects from exposure to biosolids.”

driving to your hunting location and walking around in the woods are thousands of times more dangerous. With that said, you might have an issue if you try eating pounds of biosolids, mostly low IQ, but that would be a pre-existing condition....

[Romulus1297]

How does a Loop Poop truck with a Poop Pup trailer spray biosolid on a wheat field? They don’t it’s dry. It’s a pretty poopy dry load they haul 7 days a week to the wheat fields that is then evenly spread over the field and then incorporated or disked in before planting. It’s not sprayed on apples. The wa doe is in charge of biosolids.

[JimmyHoffa]

Biosolids have gone through the treatment plant and have been digested. Most Biosolids leaving a west side treatment plant are hauled over the mountains and applied on a BUF (beneficial use facility). A lot of times these facilities are wheat fields. It’s perfect fertilizer as it’s rich in nitrogen and phosphorus and you don’t need to water because it’s usually about 80% water already. Many of these land app sites are in Douglas and Mason county and regulated by the EPA. If you want really green grass and plants that grow very fast, use biosolids!

There are two common types of biosolids, Class A and Class B. Very different treatment and usability.

Do drugs (prescription and illegal) get digested or filtered? 

[fishnfur]

... and what about viruses?

[BeWitty]

Wastewater is very diluted when it gets to the treatment plant ( 97-98%) already. I believe a large percentage of drugs in ones system comes out in urine therefore stays In the ‘liquid’ stream of the treatment plant. That flow ultimately gets disinfected and goes to its receiving waters. The solids/sludge that gets digested stays in a digester for a minimum of 15 days at 98 degrees to meet the Class B permit.

So to answer your question, drugs aren’t specifically treated or filtered but I’m not sure how detectable it’s be leaving the plant.

[BeWitty]

... and what about viruses?

The digestion process and the methane and acid fermenters should take care of the viruses if they haven’t already been treated.....I believe.

[howlow]

I see places I hunt that they put biosolids on fields that eventually are harvested for human consumption is this kinda like mad cow for humans?

[KFhunter]

Are there prions in bio solids?

[KFhunter]

https://www.nebiosolids.org/prions-tses-alzheimers-and-biosolids/


keep in mind this is coming from a biosolids company..

The science is far from definitive, and, while there is some evidence of possible transmissivity or replication of various neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s, it is currently considered to be a rare possibility.  The Nature article notes that scientists studying these various twisted proteins “warn that it is too early to draw conclusions about the clinical significance of discovering different strains of Alzheimer’s plaques. Some are wary of linking neurodegenerative and prion diseases, especially when prion biology is still so poorly understood. And considering prion and non-prion diseases together ‘could give the misleading impression that you could catch Alzheimer’s from visiting your grandmother’, says Virginia Lee, who works on neurodegenerative diseases at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. ‘There is absolutely no evidence that’s possible, and it would be a dangerous thing to imply.’”

Finally, when confronted with claims of human health impacts from biosolids, it is important to consider the simple epidemiological concept of fate and exposure.  People only get sick from something if exposed to a toxic or infective dose.  It is implausible that biosolids-borne prions, many of which are inactivated in anaerobic digestion (see Miles et al., 2011, available from the NEBRA office), that are applied to soils where microbes break them down over time, contribute to the millions of cases of prion diseases or Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases. 

The fact is, very very few people are exposed to biosolids.