Wastewater comes from home kitchens, bathrooms, and laundries, as well as from process and wash-water from industries and businesses. In this region, it is treated in septic systems or at wastewater treatment facilities.

Here is a WATER FACT SHEET

Biosolids are the mostly organic solids resulting from the treatment of wastewater. They are rich in nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus and contain other supplementary nutrients such as potassium, sulfur, magnesium, calcium, copper, and zinc. What is more, the constituent elements in biosolids reflects elements and compounds that are present in food and other consumable or wearable products we use in daily living.  Here is a basic set of Questions and Answer (BASIC Q & A SHEET) that may help to direct you to bottom-line facts.

Those of your neighbors employed in wastewater treatment and biosolids re-use are environmentalists and public servants.  Our national organization, the Water Environment Federation (WEF), with some 30,000 members across the country, are committed to public and environmental safety. This is WEF's BIOSOLIDS FACT SHEET.

Federal regulation that sets minimum standards for biosolids production and use were first promulgated in 1993, but the science that is the foundation of these regulations has continued. Environmental scientists from around the country have been engaged in this work and continue to find the regulations protective, and, what is more, is an environmentally sustainable practice.  One SUSTAINABLE LAND APPLICATION: AN OVERVIEW was prepared by a group of agricultural scientists drawn from around the country, and a second, SUSTAINABILITY OF LAND APPLICATION OF CLASS B BIOSOLIDS, is by a team at the University of Arizona.