Back to Nature with Biosolids

One effect of the Covid-19 pandemic is families heading “back to nature” in Philadelphia’s parkland, a pattern which I believe has been seen across the globe. Nature can ground us in our ancestral roots, as affirmed in the podcast of this past week’s On Being, an interview by Krista Tippett with environmental journalist Michael McCarthy: Nature, Joy, and Human Becoming .  McCarthy says we ought to “stop relying on the immobilizing language of statistics and take up our joy in nature as our defense of it.”  Human beings have lived as part of nature for 50,000 generations, but only 5 most recent generations have had humans disconnected from nature by urbanism.  Do we really need science to tell us that we need nature?

Cities and industrial agriculture have disconnected human beings from the very “facts of life” that make biosolids seem “natural.” I propose that we embrace “back to nature” as our theme for engaging the public, as we call for people to acknowledge the basic fact that their own “output” is “input” for others in the great circle of life.

Public engagement is an initiative of the Water Environment Federation as it create a “biosolids communications toolkit.” The toolkit project is an outgrowth of the Biosolids National Convening in 2019. The project is being fleshed out by the firm Raftelis, with involvement of the Residuals and Biosolids Committee.  The toolkit will offer templates for pamphlets, social media, bill stuffers, and flyers that can be used to convey biosolids information.

WEF has solid groundwork for this toolkit.  This was set by the 2016 Biosolids Messaging Book, and by two research reports of the Water Environment Research Foundation (available through IWA Publishing): Public Perception of Biosolids Recycling: Developing Public Participation and Earning Trust and A Strategic Risk Communications Process for Outreach and Dialogue on Biosolids Land Application. For communications training we can also take in a great webinar (Sharing the Biosolids Story with the Public) and check out this WEF conference presentations (e.g., Developing a Biosolids Strategy with the Community – A Modified Approach to Long-term Biosolids Planning at the Region of Waterloo).

To understand messages, we can go to the historic record of media coverage. 

Could “nature” be the principal theme for this toolkit?  Geologist David Montgomery makes the case  in his book Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life. He devotes Chapter 12 – Closing the Loop to the topic of returning human waste to soil, and we have Dr. Sally Brown and Tacoma to thank for Montgomery’s support.  He provides to biosolids recycling the context of history.  He shows that 150 years ago, the book The Natural Laws of Husbandry, by German chemist Justus von Liebig, had called for the  return of human and animal waste to restore fertility as the “experience of a thousand years.”  An influential book in soil science by Franklin H. King’, the 1911 book Farmers of Forty Centuries, shared the same message.  Both are available as reprints on Amazon for the wisdom they still offer us today.

“Back to Nature” is not just a call from the past.  It is an important “meme” for today’s world. This past week I came across two such relevant phrases: “Vulnerably reconnect with nature” was underscored by filmmaker John Chester, and “Nature-based technology” was advised by Dutch environmental professor Cees Buisman.

“Vulnerably reconnect with nature” is John Chester’s final message to listeners of his 2.3 hour long interview on the Rich Roll Podcast (Episode 373). I had interrupted my listening of this interview to watch Chester’s 90 minute, indie film documentary The Biggest Little Farm (2018). It is a wonderful movie about two city folks creating a “regenerative farm.” For me, the message was hard work, aligned with sound science, is transformational. The magic in the movie is the storytelling around nature’s response to science-based biodiversity and sustainable soil principles.

What is more, storytelling around soil health abounds.  Check out Sustainable (2017), Urban Farmers (2017), Living Soil: A Documentary for All of Us (2018), Regeneration: The Beginning (2019), Soil Solution (2019), Kiss the Ground Film (coming 2020). If you enjoy books, perhaps you gravitate to “Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture.”  But if you enjoy a more academic approach to the topic of soil health, you can go back and view the recent annual conference of the Soil Health Institute “Soil Health: The Foundation for Regenerative Agriculture,” held virtually July 30 and 31. Clearly, humanity hungers for soil health.

“Nature-based technology” is a key approach to “Conscious Innovation Strategy” offered by esteemed Dutch environmental sciences professor Cees Buisman in his extended essay “Humanity is not a Plague.” For Dr. Buisman, consciousness is a redirection of human values toward a global sharing of Earth’s resources, away from self-centeredness and individual greed and toward collective well-being and sustainability. From his viewpoint, municipal systems are a manifestation of a collective commitment to environmental stewardship, of which we should be proud advocates and spokespeople. Humanity hungers for collective actions for sustainability.

These “messages” on nature offer direction to those of us in biosolids.  Our wastewater treatment system is a nature-based technology producing biosolids, a material that encourages us to reconnect with nature in its land application. Yes, we can point to thousands of science journal articles and conference papers detailing the sharp edge of science and engineering, but it is the simple effectiveness of biosolids in nature that provides the compelling case.

Over the past three years, MABA has “clipped” from Google Alerts about 330 biosolids news items. Of all news clips, about a quarter were positive stories about benefits of public agencies producing and using biosolids. The themes of these media articles can be captured in this overview: “Biosolids recycling is a sustainable practice that returns nutrients to the farms, improves plant growth, restores degraded landscapes and reduces waste. Recycling helps the farmer, keeps costs down for the public agency and can provide citizens free soil products.” The central media message of biosolids jibes very well with the “Back to Nature.” But 70 articles over 5 years is not an impressive oeuvre for a nation with thousands of public facilities.

Restoring soils using organic amendments, in urban soils and in overused farmlands, is the starting point for the story of biosolids and soil health. This may seem self-evident, but apparently scientists know this message needs to be regularly revisited. The authors  of Soil Degradation: Will Humankind Ever Learn? express the urgent sentiment: “Two common factors—soil erosion and depletion of soil organic matter (SOM)—emerge as consistent indicators of how “the thin layer covering the planet that stands between us and starvation” is being degraded. Soil degradation is not a new problem but failing to acknowledge, mitigate, and remediate the multiple factors leading to it is no longer a viable option for humankind.” Carbon amendments are necessary for soil health: “Improvements in soil health, along with increase in availability of water and nutrients, increases soil's resilience against extreme climate events (e.g., drought, heat wave) and imparts disease‐suppressive attributes (see Soil health and carbon management .)

Biosolids is a worthy organic amendment for establishing soil health. Several scientists have tracked biosolids for decades.  Sally Brown, University of Washington, has been a consistent research voice for biosolids as an ingredient for healthy soils, is a lead author in Municipal biosolids — A resource for sustainable communities: “Research has shown their value for key components of urban greening including tree, turf, ornamental and vegetable growing, green stormwater infrastructure, and reduction in contaminant availability.” To the benefits of soil health, Dr. Brown adds carbon sequestration benefits, also a part of the “story.” In the paper Building Carbon Credits With Biosolids Recycling, Dr. Brown concludes, “the potential to sequester C, both in the soils and in plant biomass, is clear. If biosolids application for restoration increased soil C content by 2 percent, the credit would be 40 Mg C ha-1.”   Nicholas Basta, at The Ohio State University, is another strong voice: Application of organic amendments to restore degraded soil: effects on soil microbial properties: “In general, all organic amendments increased enzyme activities in 2009 with BioS [biosolids] treatments having the highest activity.” Greg Evanylo at Virginia Tech has dozens of biosolids journal articles, including this very recent one by his graduate students: Biosolids amendments improve an anthropogenically disturbed urban turfgrass system.

Although benefits of building soil health with biosolids have been clearly shown by these scientists, and although these benefits seem from our vantage point to far outweigh potential risks, we cannot afford to ignore risks seen by other scientists.  Microplastics, antibiotic resistant genes, “ecotoxic contaminants” and pathogens have been labeled as concerns. If we ignore these concerns, we imperil our ability to tell compellingly our story of biosolids and soil health. We need more investment in science.  Examples of  recent science journal articles for which we need answers are: Microplastics and pollutants in biosolids have contaminated agricultural soils: An analytical study and a proposal to cease the use of biosolids in farmlands and utilise them in sustainable bricks, Toxic potential of sewage sludge: Histopathological effects on soil and aquatic bioindicators, and How Valuable Are Organic Amendments as Tools for the Phytomanagement of Degraded Soils? The Knowns, Known Unknowns, and Unknowns.  .

Yet, we have had history and science on our side. Thirty years have passed since the first draft of Part 503 regulations, when a scientific community became engaged in assisting with use of sound science in regulating biosolids use. Since that time, over 200,000 peer reviewed biosolids research papers have been published globally.  When the Office of Inspector General released a two years ago a misguided critique of the status of biosolids research, the W4170 Research Committee again stepped up with its scientific case for recycling biosolids in “Response to the USEPA OIG Report No. 19-P-000.”

While scientists can support us with the facts of biosolids, we must become the storytellers. Michael McCarthy in the On Being podcast urged us to not substitute facts for the story. His book The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy has behind it a serious concern for the well-being of the global environment. But, even so, the NY Times Book Review can say of it, “Rather than the dire, dry statistical projections often heralded to make the case for conservation, he turns boldly to joy — to imagination and emotion.” And, we ought to be able to get children involved, as the Vox media's "first-ever week of video programming for kids" is doing with the The secret history of dirt, explained to kids, in which the story line is "dirt helped build civilization, only to get stabbed in the back by us."

In this same way, nature has the possibility of being the platform on which we tell the story of biosolids and its role in building soil health. We in the business of developing a communications toolkit ought to get Back to Nature with Biosolids. 

Spotlight August 2020 - Biosolids Agency Producers

This month’s SPOTLIGHT is on public agencies that have built and maintained their own biosolids utilization program, in which the lead public employee arranges biosolids deliveries directly with the users. The programs are imaginative, flexible, and responsive to the “customer,” providing a tangible connection between town and farm. While no cost comparisons have been made, a reasonable inference is that these programs are cost-effective. Here are the public employees who make this happen.

Dan Reed -

Dan Reed, Site Manager at Landis Sewerage Authority ([email protected]).  The Landis Sewerage Authority (LSA), a uniquely “zero-discharge” WRRF in Vineland, New Jersey, developed in 1987 its publicly owned, 387-acre Agricultural Facility for biosolids recycling, and Dan Reed has been for the entire time. Dan studied chemistry at Stockton University in the mid-’80s, and while working as a student under Mike Wardell (formerly a biosolids consultant to LSA and for a time MABA’s executive director) was present for the birth of the LSA farm.  Dan typically manages a single-year rotation each of corn and small grains, followed by a 3- to 5- year sequence of cool and warm-season grasses. Dan also operates an Agroforestry Facility, with 108 acres of pine trees interspersed with strips of sorghum-sudan and teff, and a 26-acre Atlantic City Electric easement planted to small grain and teff – all biosolids fertilized. Within the pine grove, a Bobwhite Quail Habitat has been installed in collaboration with public and private organizations, to which biosolids will be applied in the future.  Dan enjoys saltwater fishing and golfing, and he has two adult children: his son is an engineering student at Arizona State University and his daughter is a registered nurse coordinating services to the disabled. 

Jeff Heimbaugh -

Jeff Heimbaugh, Biosolids / Pretreatment Program Supervisor at Carlisle Borough Sewer System Authority - [email protected]. Jeff Heimbaugh has been the Biosolids Supervisor at the Carlisle Region Water Pollution Control Facility for the Borough of Carlisle, PA since 1999.  He writes: “I started at the Borough as a laboratory technician in 1991 before moving to my current position.  Little did I know that my background as a dairy farmer’s son would be such a blessing in my municipal government's professional career.  Over the past 21 years, I’ve worked with many farmers to help supplement their fertilizer needs with our Class B lime-stabilized biosolids.  Working with a staff of three full-time biosolids operators, Carlisle Region WPCF produces and land applies approximately 7,000,000 gallons of liquid biosolids and 700 tons of dewatered biosolids a year.  Our staff is responsible for hauling and applying all biosolids produced at our plant.  It can be quite challenging to meet the requests for biosolids applications from ten farmers before the spring planting each year.  Our biosolids program has 28 farms, with 2,730 acres approved by PA DEP for biosolids applications.  It has been gratifying to see the benefits of increased crop production in fields receiving our biosolids and knowing we have helped many farmers reduce their fertilizer costs each year.” Jeff explains that he spends the little spare time he has coaching high school football, running, biking, assisting his elementary art-teaching wife, and supplying Penn State funds for his two sons’ continuing education.

Jay Snyder - 

Jay Snyder, Environmental Resource Manager at Borough of Ephrata - [email protected]. Jay Snyder has that balance of commitments to environmental stewardship, community, and collaboration that make a biosolids program work. Jay studied in the late 1970s under esteemed Penn State professor Charles Cole, gaining skills in principles of stewardship with a Water Resources Engineering Technology bachelor’s degree which he applied to the new and upgraded WRRFs in Ephrata Borough. Farmers in the community surrounding the borough became familiar with biosolids through the local high school’s Young Farmers Program. As a stable of good customers was built, the Annual Thank You Dinner honored the collaboration of borough and farmers, which on occasion attracted news media. Farmers were a partner in the complete sense, participating in the application, proactively dealing with concerns such as wet soils, designing equipment improvements, spreading the good word to neighbors, spacing out applications to deal with phosphorus, and providing feedback on the benefits of organic matter and nutrients on crop yields. Ephrata is a forward-looking community and has its eyes on a thermal technology for one of its plants that will produce biochar. Jay is particularly proud of having passed on to the next generation his passion for clean water and productive soil: “As my son Justin, an organic farmer for 20 over years says ‘Dad, healthier soil means healthier plants producing healthier nutrient-dense foods.’” 

Philip Grayson -  

Philip Grayson, Chief Operator, Wastewater at Village of Endicott (NY)  -[email protected].  Philip Grayson writes: “Seldom mentioned in a classroom about environmental science is that almost every community has a facility that every day protects public health and the environment, and is recycling water and potentially biosolids. When I began working at the Village of Endicott’s Water Pollution Control Plant as a Sanitary Laboratory Technician in 2001, I quickly saw that our facility, and all the other facilities across the world, did just that.”  The Endicott facility, which serves 50,000 people, is designed for 10 MGD and has anaerobic digesters, producing 100 dry metric tons annually. It began operations in 1966, but it was not until 1985 that the Village began composting biosolids with a Taulman-Weiss in-vessel system.  For the next 20 years, the Village used that system to create a Class A Biosolids Compost, and, when operational challenges arose, the Village added on the windrow method to ensure complete stabilization. The Village is now looking to replace the windrow method with a Gryphon biosolids dryer designed to achieve a Class A Biosolid Product, which would reduce costs and continue to produce a recyclable biosolids. Grayson concludes: “The Village’s commitment to biosolids recycling and all of the employees who have worked to ensure that we produce a safe and beneficial material for reuse is something that I am proud to say I have been and will continue to be a part of.” 

Shawn O'Toole -

Shawn O’Toole, Land Application Supervisor,  Kent County Regional Wastewater Facility - [email protected].  Shawn has been at it a long time. Thirty-seven years ago when Shawn joined the Kent County Department of Public Utilities, he took on the “land option,” and became the employee in charge of the spreading of biosolids. In a program with some 100 farmers, Shawn worked with the farmers throughout the year on corn, soybean, hay, pastures, and winter wheat, doing what he could to meter out the facilities 3,000 dry tons to satisfy his customers.  Back in the day, that was liquid biosolids dredged from sludge lagoons, which involved small loads and time-consuming liquid injection.  Today, the product is partially dried and lime-amended, creating a Class A EQ product of about 50 percent moisture content that can be moved in the agency’s truck and applied with its spreader.  Kent County has plans for upgrading solids handling to increase dryness to 90 percent, which will eliminate the lime, and Shawn expects it to be in a granular form. But he rather doubts he will be the one working out the issues with handling and dust control. “After 33 years of working two jobs, I am ready to retire,” he says. As one of the MABA region’s longest-standing land appliers, Kent County and all of the MABA region owe Shawn a hearty “Thank you.”