A Legislative Study Commission has recommended relaxing some of the State's restrictions on spreading bio-solids, also known as sludge.
The SB-87 Commission says years of testing have found the recycled waste poses little or no threat to human health.
But critics provide their own research showing that sludge damages farmland and is indeed a health risk.
The debate may soon end up before lawmakers.
New Hampshire Public Radio's David Darman reports.
In New Hampshire, quite a bit of sludge starts out as wastewater.
SX --inflow
Every day, about 5 million gallons of wastewater flows into the Winnipesaukee River Basin Treatment Plant in Franklin.
When it enters the plant, the water gets filtered through big screens.
Ken Noyes is the chief operator.
SX entryflow
kenatprimary1 ---then it comes into the aerated grit chamber and what we do is we slow down the waste water at this point to drop out any inorganic sand or anything of that matter, but its flowing fast enough to keep the inorganics suspended to continue down through the process.
The water next heads to one of two large, round pits known as clarifiers.
They each hold 775 thousand gallons of wastwater, and have a floor that slants toward the middle.
sx clarifiersx
Noyes says the slow moving action of a rake yields 65 percent of the semi solid waste that becomes sludge.
and you can see the rake arm. you can see it goes all the way across. and its constantly moving, it takes about 30 to 40 minutes to make it all the way around. and you can see the flights, the paddles down there. and it brings all those solids to the center. and down in the center there's a sump pump hole, and we pump them over the digester area, the solids handling area.
The whole wastewater plant smells like sewage.
But the two detention pits for settling sludge smell worse than the rest of the plant.
That's partly because bacteria are eating some of the waste as it dries in the open air.
But this sludge still contains a high level of pathogens, bacteria that cause disease.
sx---digestersx
So technicians send it to the digester, an airless, covered pit that is heated to 95 degrees.
Dick Flanders is the director of the Winnepesaukee River Basin Plant.
210 our process to reduce pathogens is based on anerobic digestion, which is a process which is recognized by epa, that acheives the federal as well as state requirement by raising the sludge material to a certain temperature for a certain length of time, which basically is a very negative or difficult environment for pathogens to survive in.
The Franklin Treatment Plant makes what's called Class B biosolids.
Class B contains more pathogens than Class A.
State law restricts spreading this class B biosolid any closer than 250 feet from a designated river.
Those rivers are the Connecticut, Merrimack, Saco and Pemigewasset.
Tunneycliff Farm in Bristol is not near one of these rivers, but is about a mile from Newfound Lake.
SX tractorsx
Two workers recently spread a mixture of biosolids and wood ash on a ten acre field there.
They work for a company that handles biosolids.
The material they worked with had a distinct odor.
But it reeked of ammonia, not sewage.
Shelagh Connelly heads White Mountain Resource Management.
so you can see he's bringing the tractor around and what he'll do is make a pass up the field and spread out the side and cast a nice, even layer of material. sometimes its confusing to people when you say 'land spread'. they think spread out thick like peanut butter, but its not. you'll see once we walk over its a very light application, and that's all it takes to meet the crop needs.
The owners of Tunneycliff say they don't worry about any risks from spreading the sludge.
This delivery is Class A.
Lisa Rixen says she has confidence that what is being applied is safe.
i just believe in the testing system. they test it. they bake it. and the pathogens are baked out. and again, i think we often underestimate mother nature. she has an incredible way of taking care of us....
Rixen intends to have horses graze in the field.
But she wouldn't plant a vegetable garden there.
its just a little too close for me to be eating it i think. like if i were going to raise my garden here. i don't even think its recommended, so i haven't gone any further with the investigation.
But a recent report from the SB87 Commission recommends that people use Class A in their gardens.
If the Legislature adopts the recommendations, gardeners in New Hampshire could spread Class A as close as 35 feet to a river.
But critics charge biosolids contain potentially harmful levels of unhealthy material.
They're not just worried about disease bearing pathogens.
Their list includes mercury, lead, arsenic and chemicals such as dioxyns.
State Environmental officials say they perform tests to make sure these materials don't reach harmful levels in Class A or B biosolids.
But a member of New Hampshire's Sierra Club says she is not convinced these tests catch all the harmful elements.
Caroline Snyder of Sandwich says that's why she opposes easing the rules for home use.
1650 we should not allow class a on home vegetable gardens. because (sigh) this material ...will be picked up some of these metals will be picked up by food crops.
The commission would also change state law regarding how treated waste can be applied.
Under current law, biosolids applied to a field have to be mixed into the soil.
But the commission recommends allowing Class A material to lie where it falls.
Critics also oppose that proposed change.
Ellen Harrison directs the Waste Management Institute at Cornell University.
And she's written on biosolids for the National Academy of Sciences.
She says biosolids on farmlands or in gardens emit endotoxins, which are the leftover bodies of dead microbes.
Harrison charges federal environmental officials with ignoring the evidence that these endotoxins cause cases of respiratory illnesses, or worse.
206 i have compiled a database of those, ... and i have become convinced based on the number of these reported, the similarity of symptoms and the plausibility that people would be getting sick from it that there are places and cases where people are getting sick, and maybe dying. there may be a couple of deaths.
State officials dispute that there is any link between biosolids and serious health problems.
They say thorough processing of waste and regular testing of biosolids have not revealed harmful levels of any metals or evidence of serious disease.
Pat Hannon is the program manager for residual managements at the state's Department of Environmental Services.
She says critics are drawing the wrong conclusion about biosolids when they blame them for making people sick.
957 we don't have any reason to believe at this point in time undergoing all this scrutiny that this material is is harmful as they make it out to be, that this material has, as all materials do if misused has some risk attached to it but you could say that for manure, you could say that for chemical fertilizer. you could say that for almost any substance that a consumer uses.
The state commission recommending changes had no power to implement their proposals.
But their recommendations are sure to make their way onto a bill for the Legislature's next session.
Once that bill gets a hearing, arguments over biosolids are sure to follow.
