Biosolids

[ddbackhoe]

Anyone here using biosolids on their fields? The treatment plant nearby is offering biosolids and a few guys are taking all they can get because its free. If by liquid it gets sprayed on and the field has to then be tilled or you can get dried solids to topically apply. We tried chicken litter one year and none of the horses would touch that hay. Sometimes cheap isnt best.

 

[Tx Jim]

My neighbors have had bio-solids applied. Some of it has a very bad odor & I heard it can contain heavy metals.

 

[RalphVa]

Think that's what Milorganite is: dried biosolids. Can contain heavy metals. Okay for pastures and lawns.

Ralph

 

[777777]

Couple of our neighbors have used it on their fields. Horrible smell for the spray and permeates everything around. Smell seems to spread forever. Even after is till in it stinks for days but not as bad as when fresh sprayed. Lots of reports around here about heavy metals in it but seen no scientific evidence.

Nowdays, I find that they will start spraying very late on a Friday afternoon and then till fields all night and the next 2 days. Presumption is that they are doing it that way as enviroment people are not around/open and by the time they get the complaints on Monday, evidence is tilled in and smell not so toxic.

Most people are used to manure and other farming smells but this stuff is brutal and causes complaints. Just cities trying to get rid of their dried up crap into the country.

Did this with street sweeper dust and eviroment people jumped all over them for toxicity in the dust and major pollutants. Now considered hazardous waste

 

[ddbackhoe]

Sorry, I entered it wrong. Im looking more for a will the horses eat it, if I apply? Milorganite is a slightly different kind of biosolids because it comes from the industrial wastewater stream, they process the bacteria from the treatment process into fertilizer.

From my understanding, the liquid sludge falls under class B standards because it still may contain bacteria that can cause disease (hence the till in and make it go away) Solids fall under class A because the disease causing bacteria have been killed off usually by drying and mixing in limestone.
Applying either one is a no-go for organic farming.
Biosolids | US EPA

 

[ddbackhoe]

Just cities trying to get rid of their dried up crap into the country.

Did this with street sweeper dust and eviroment people jumped all over them for toxicity in the dust and major pollutants. Now considered hazardous waste

Ah, thats kind of where my fears lie. Something that sounds too good to be true, Low cost/free fertilizer that later turns into some kind of nightmare. I want the family farm to be handed down a few more generations than it has been.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I live on the ORGANIC part of our farm. They spread all kinds of stuff. One year it was Chicken Poop, which the farmer claimed was EXTREMELY potent and costs him more money to truck in.

When they spread whatever they do, you always swear it's worse than anything they did before.

It wasn't legal, but you used to be able to have the honey wagon or stool bus, dump "your" septic contents on "your" property, but those days are probably long gone.

 

[mapper]

Problem with biosolids from a municipal source is it contains whatever has been put down the drain in that city. Most of us who live in rural areas are pretty cautious about what we put down the drain because we have septic systems that are expensive to fix if we mess it up. City dwellers - not so much!
There have been some major lawsuits around here brought by adjoining and downstream landowners to several companies that wanted to spread municipal biosolids on some timber holdings. So far the adjoining land owners have won.

 

[ddbackhoe]

I live on the ORGANIC part of our farm. They spread all kinds of stuff. One year it was Chicken Poop, which the farmer claimed was EXTREMELY potent and costs him more money to truck in.

When they spread whatever they do, you always swear it's worse than anything they did before.

It wasn't legal, but you used to be able to have the honey wagon or stool bus, dump "your" septic contents on "your" property, but those days are probably long gone.

Here, one of the agencies that regulates organic farming is the USDA. The way I understand it,
under their national organic program (NOP) class A and B sludge aren稚 allowed.
So, the next question would be, who checks on imported ag products? Probably no one except maybe the wholesale buyers.

 

[Jstpssng]

I worked for a landscaper years ago, we put in multiple lawns and raised bed gardens using processed septic sludge for soil. Supposedly it's OK yet not something I would have wanted on my little 1 acre house lot. Then again the Chinese have been using raw sewerage as compost for thousands of years.