A Nasty $200M Surprise
Fred touts the sludge compost, Milorganite as "the best deer repelling fertilizer on the market." I have heard the same statement from Al Rubin, EPA's former sludge czar, who usually does not support his views with any published peer reviewed data. We have found no scientific evidence of this claim. In fact, sludge spread in forests initially attracts deer to nitrogen rich vegetation. Ingesting this vegetation can be risky for ruminants, especially if the sludge contained molybdenum.
Last summer the Milwaukee wastewater treatment plant that makes Milorganite experienced a nasty 200 million dollar surprise. Workers at the plant discovered some smelly, tar-like oily substance in sewage pipes they were cleaning. The substance contained very high levels of of cancer-causing PCBs. The contaminated sludge had already been spread on thirty playgrounds and parks, turning these areas into super fund sites. PCB levels in the spread sludge were so high, that most of the material had to be scraped off the sites and trucked out of state to a specially designated toxic waste landfill. At the tune of $200 million dollars. Not to count the loss in producing and marketing Milorgonite. The incident was not made public until after a month of its discovery. Officials claim that no PCB ended up in Milorgonite. But who knows. One wonders what would have happened if the workers had not reported finding that oily, smelly substance.
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