In a landmark ruling, the City of Los Angeles will be able to continue utilizing biosolids as a fertilizer and soil amendment on Kern County Farms.
Application of biosolids on Kern County farmland was banned in 2006, when a Kern County voter initiative was passed. LA owns a 4,700 acre farm in Kern County where they use the treated waste as a soil amendment.
The two-week trial ended in favor of the city of Los Angeles, as Judge Lloyd Hicks overturned the 2006 Measure E initiative. In a 48-page opinion, Hicks wrote that Measure E “is invalid and void for all purposes, for the dual reasons that it exceeds Kern’s police power authority and is preempted by state law.”
In its statement of decision, the court ruled that “the overwhelming weight of the evidence is that there is no basis in fact for any determination that land application of biosolids poses any risk to Kern County residents, let alone a real and substantial risk that would be alleviated by banning such land application…. Los Angeles has met its burden of producing evidence to the effect that there is no basis in fact for Measure E’s public welfare claims….There is no evidence of risk to human health.”
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) expects the ruling will set a legal precedent for utilities nationwide, helping to protect the land application of biosolids as a means of wastewater management.
The land application of biosolids has become a highly-debated topic, as wastewater management facilities are faced with increasing regulations and fewer options for managing the waste of a growing population; several cities and municipalities have made headlines as of late, in their quest for improved management of biosolids.
Nick Reckinger, Bioresource Process Sales Engineer at FEECO, states, “Municipalities are running into issues; regulation around land application is tightening, and approaches that dispose of biosolids are starting to be discouraged in favor of more sustainable alternatives. They need a way to manage their biosolids that makes economic sense for them, and that takes advantage of the valuable nutrient content and organic matter that biosolids hold, without posing any sort of risk to the public.”
Currently, municipalities are commonly faced with the choice of landfilling their biosolids, a costly and wasteful endeavor, incinerating it, which poses similar challenges, or land applying it.
Some municipalities have been choosing the land application approach for decades, but are being restricted in their land application as regulation tightens. The EPA’s Part 503 regulations set out strict standards for the land application of biosolids.
According to the EPA, Class A biosolids contain no detectable levels of pathogens, have a low level metal content, and have met vector attraction reduction requirements. This allows Class A biosolids to be land applied with fewer regulations, as they are considered safe for both people and the environment.
Conversely, while Class B biosolids are treated, this classification allows the material to still contain detectable levels of pathogens, putting various limitations on their land application.
The EPA also recognizes a number of benefits that make the use of properly managed biosolids preferrable to the use of traditional fertilizers:
- As a renewable resource, biosolids do not deplete non-renewable resources.
- The nutrients found in biosolids offer less solubility than those in chemical fertilizers, resulting in more slow release of the nutrients.
- The application of biosolids is typically more regulated than the application of chemical fertilizers or manure; setbacks from water resources must be maintained, proper soil conservation and erosion control methods must be practiced, proper nutrient management followed, as well as the necessary record keeping and reporting.
- Biosolids are rich in organic matter, which improves a variety of soil properties, including texture, fertility, and water holding ability, even reducing the need for pesticides.
For municipalities currently land applying Class B biosolids, processing to a Class A biosolid would allow them to land apply with far fewer restrictions, alleviating the pressure they currently often face. The use of biosolids for land application can serve as a supplemental nutrient source, allowing the city to reduce the purchase of nutrients in the form of additional fertilizers.
Further processing to a Class A granular biosolid product via granulation systems such as those offered by FEECO offers additional benefits; granular biosolids can help to reduce waste management costs because they are less costly to transport. Similarly, a granular product can even be sold as a premium, high value product.
Perhaps the most well-known example of biosolids reuse is the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), which has been transforming their wastewater treatment sludge into a Class A biosolid known as Milorganite, since 1926.
The Safety of Biosolids
While safety has long been a public concern surrounding the use of biosolids, studies have concluded there is no cause for concern.
The National Research Council concluded in their 1996 study, Use of Reclaimed Water and Sewage Sludge in Food Crop Production, that the land application of biosolids “when practiced in accordance with existing federal guidelines and regulations, presents negligible risk to the consumer, to crop production, and to the environment. Current technology to remove pollutants from wastewater, coupled with existing regulations and guidelines governing the use of reclaimed wastewater and sludge in crop production, are adequate to protect human health and the environment.”¹
The Water Environment Federation (WEF) notes that in a 2002 report reviewing the science and methods behind Part 503, the NRC indicated that more research is needed around the topic, but did not request any specific changes to the legislation.
Conclusion
As biosolids continue to be the center of debate, rulings like that of LA v. Kern County will likely serve as an example for the industry going forward.
FEECO has long been involved in the transformation of organic wastes such as biosolids and manures into value-added fertilizer and soil amendment products. The FEECO granulation approach yields a premium, saleable product; the dry granules produced are significantly reduced in odor, are storable and easy to apply and transport, and exceed the EPA’s 503 qualifications for a Class A Biosolid (when heavy metal content does not exceed allowable thresholds in the raw material).
For more information on the granulation of biosolids, contact us today!