Bio Solids Blockade
Friday, December 9, 2011 @ 3:44 PM

Police talk with protestors on Wright Creek Road
Prince George, B.C. – Andy Angele and other Wright Creek area farmers say they will remain on the scene to prevent trucks from dumping bio solids onto land in the area.
His group blockaded the road into the Wright creek area as a city contractor attempted to deliver the Bio Solids to a field in the area at 1:30pm. today.
Angele says the sludge as he describes it, is being dumped near creeks and other waterways that lead into Wright Creek and from there into the Salmon River.
Angele says he has the support from most of the farmers and ranchers who live along Wright Creek Road.
A petition bearing 1000 signatures has been gathered by the group from the area residents and people inside the city of Prince George.

(at right, a sign carries the message loud and clear)
The City has an agreement with a farmer to spread the bio solids on the privately owned land as a form of fertilizer. A similar contract is in existence to spread bio-solids on a property south of the City on Patterson Road in Red Rock.
RCMP were on hand for a period of time today when the truck arrived at the intersection of highway 97 north and Wright Creek Rd. The police stayed in the area but then left the scene after the driver of the truck delivering the Bio solids was forced to turn around.
The City of Prince George has not yet responded to calls regarding the situation.
Below, protestors warm up by a portable fire pit.

Comments
Get back to work you slackers! I don’t need my tax dollars going into policing your subsidized farming asses!
(See-“Irony”)
Since when can neighbours dictate what you can legally do on your own property? With this much interest in it, you can bet the MOE has been alerted and is okay with the process. So these protestors don’t seem to have a legal leg to stand on as far as I can see or else something would have been done about it by now. Like the presence of poop on farmland is new issue. I think you people are SOL.
Ya, like I’d want heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals, fire retardants and other really wonderful things that get flushed down our toilets being dumped on land surrounding my home too!
I say they should go visit Sine Nomine he’ll take it!
They use this crap as fertilizer that grows the food their cattle EAT that then gets passed onto humans that EAT the cattle.
back to the old day’s, OUT HOUSES….You crapped in your own yard and dealt with it……..SHEEEEEEEEESH
This stuff is tested and needs a permit from MOE to be spread out there. MOE doesn,t allouw it to be spread on land if it has traces of anything harmfull in it. It would be dealt with differend
Don’t dump the sludge (which is full of all the stuff that Dragonmaster already mentioned) on farmland! Exercise some caution and take it to the Landfill which can use it to cover the garbage!
On farmland?! Eventually it will end up in food or in the river!
What are the auhorities thinking when they approve of such an idealess solution???
There are test results on this stuff out there, maybe it should be posted to clear up this story, wouldn,t take much.
Sine nomine is right; farmers should be able to do what they want on their lands. Like maybe growing a bunch of pot. That way they can be taking it out of organized crime & government hands and doing a lot of people good. Those cops standing around could then be doing some real good somewhere else.
A dump truck full of Enos fruit salts would unblock those bio solids. (With water, of course).
The City wants to get rid of these biosolids the cheapest way possible. They have been dumping it on different farms around the country for quite some time now.
I think we need to smarten up and find a better way to deal with this problem, and while we are at it, we can find a better way to deal with our garbage.
We should all be ashamed of ourselves when it comes to garbage disposal. The best we can do is dig a hole and bury it.
I say, less money spent on stupid projects and more money spent on such things as water, sewer, and garbage disposal. I would much sooner Pr Geo be recognized as a leader in sewer and garbage disposal, than a City that builds a 10 Storey Wood Building that serves no useful purpose.
How about a ten story wooden silo on George Street to store those nasty bio-solids?
Where is the new Mayor on this? How come so silent. Isn’t Sheri now on the regional district board. Maybe she should spread it on her lawn if she thinks it is so safe.
Most of the posters here amaze me.
Everybody sh*ts, and everybody’s sh*t ends up someplace.
The issue here is whether fully treated bio-solids (read fully treated human sh*t) should end up on a farmer’s field for the purposes of enriching their soil. Of course it should – putting sh*t on farmers’ fields has been the preferred method of fertilizing fields for the last 3000 years.
Get over yourselves – biosolids equals fertility equals crop production equals a chance of these farmers making a living.
Didn’t take the cops long to show up. Now if it was a native blockade would have to go through political channels before they can show up.
No “sh*t” seamutt!
3000 years ago your crap didn’t contain what it does today.
I gotcha ‘bio-solid’ right here!
If this stuff is just “good old fertilizer”, then my question is- how much per truck load is the farmer paying for it? I bet the farmer is the one receiving payment to dispose of this CRAP! If so, why does the city have to pay a farmer to take it, I say truck it to the Regional District Landfill.
Rocky. If it was only human waste no one would give a sh*t. The fact of the matter is there are all kinds of other chemicals in these biosolids that over time get into the food chain.
My understanding is that you cannot sell your product as **organic** if your land has been fertilized with these biosolids.
So as usual there is more to these issues than meets the eye.
My suggestion is that this product be shipped to old open pit mine sites and be buried. At least in these areas other farms, and creeks, rivers, would not be comprimised.
But of course the argument would be **It is too expensive**. It would be no more expensive than the way we waste our money on other projects., Ie; Airport Runway Expansion, Community Energy System, PAC, Boundry Road, Wood Innovation Building, etc; etc; etc;
According to the EPA, there are three ways this product is disposed of
1. spread on land as a fertilizer under some controlled conditions
2. dumped into a land fill under some controlled conditions
3. incinerated for energy, under some controlled conditions.
Again, we have a biot of a controversial issue and again, we have poor communication to the public, and again, whose responsibiliuty is it, the M of Environment or the City’s or both.
I suggest both have an interest in dealing with the public awareness campaign in a bit more of a proactive fashion.
Now, maybe there has been that effort made, and everyone here has missed that, including me.
what I am trying to figure out, if this is such a good fertilizing product why is the city not selling it? and/ or using it all over city lands. Why are they giving it away, with the tax payers footing the delivery bill. I have more questions I have not been able to find the answers on… Is it a thought that if they are putting it in Red rock and Salmon Valley where else will it end up?
I am convinced the city is paying the farmer a handsome sum to accept this chit on his/her farmland. Who would allow anyone to pollute his land for free and tick all the neighbours off while doing so?
Also, why is this chit being trucked all the way to Red Rock at great expense? One would think if the chit was as harmless as they are trying to convince us to believe that they would have easily found some farmer volunteers closer to town to gladly accept all the city can produce for free?
Farmers always need fertilizer, don’t they?
The cattle which will feed on the grass or the hay may not be a good choice for meat for human consumption – will the government keep track of where the meat ends up?
Next time Bell and all his hangers on go to China at yer expense, remind them to ask the Chinese how they deal with their “bio-solids”. They do have this stuff in China too, don’t they?
I do believe the chinese use their bio-solids as fertilizer and some of your food comes from China. Check the labels; ask questions.
To me it doesn’t matter what the Chinese do with their bio-solids-chit! We can deal with OUR stuff in a safe and responsible manner, or not. I avoid all imported foods from countries which are known to have few to none inspection standards.
PrinceGeorge, I hate to break it to you but you have no idea what you’re eating on a daily basis. In fact, I think most people would be really surprised to learn just how much human fecal coliform bacteria gets into their mouths everyday, no matter how pristine they think their food source or their preparation methods. It’s pretty funny how torqued up people get about their food and stupid buzz words like “organic.” It’s all nonsense, but you keep digging deep into your pockets if it makes you feel better. Our bodies are uniquely designed to deal with the threats that enter our bodies every time we breath or swallow something.
Thanks for breaking this to me, but I am already aware of all that and quite well informed! That’s why I always try to make the best choices possible. Unfortunately our bodies, as well designed they are, can take only so much. Take mercury in food, for instance. It accumulates in the body. And that is why pregnant women, for instance are advised to not eat tuna more than once a month, avoid swordfish altogether, don’t drink alcohol and so forth. Our bodies can deal with pollutants like lead, arsenic or asbestos or known carcinogens only up to a point, or not at all in some cases.
Then, the body starts to break down.
Why did a dozen people die in Ontario because the water was contaminated with coliform bacteria?
It’s certainly not all nonsense! How could it be? How many different herbicide and pesticide residues can one consume on a long term basis until the well being is affected?
Does anybody know? Health Canada doesn’t.
They took the lead out of gasoline and paints! Why bother if our uniquely designed bodies were able to deal with it?
Because they could not.
You must have noticed that I have posted here many times urging the city to use the PP (precautionary principle) and stop fluoridating our tap water with industrial sodium fluoride which is contaminated with lead, mercury, arsenic and a host of other deadly elements. It is, after all, a residue from scrubbers in the aluminum and fertilizer industry. How insane is it to spike our pristine aquifer water with it, water which would otherwise be very good!
It’s only when we are relatively young and healthy and unaware of what is going on inside our bodies that we bravely think and declare that we are invincible. Pollutants accumulate in organs like thyroids, livers, kidneys and bladder tissue. Once we start having chronic health problems we start to ask the questions: How did this happen, where did this come from, how can I get well again?
How about caution whenever possible, especially in this already polluted environment?
Don’t spread heavy metal and pharmaceutical sediments from settling ponds on land where food may come from eventually!
I use to dump everything down the drain. I am sure there are others that still do… it just disappears and no worry. This sludge is where it ends up. Now my home is on a septic system… I’m on sand so it works great… but still I have to watch what goes down the drain or I’ll kill the system. It gives one a perspective when you see what can not go into a septic system as opposed to a blind hole on the city sewer grid.
To then dump all that stuff on farmland and call it fertilizer seems rather scandalous to me. Neighbors dealing with the run off have a right to protect their property from this kind of wanton pollution IMO.
If the city wanted to burn the sludge they could easily mix it with the hog pile at Northwood, or ship it south to the Pinnacal Pellet plant South of Hixon. Otherwise a safe dump site seems like the only responsible thing to do.
It’s an easy way to get rid of it! Just give it a harmless sounding name (fertilizer) and dump it on the ground!
Presto! Out of sight, out of mind! Perfect!
They have been doing this with sodium fluoride for half a century in North America, Great Britain and Ireland (continental Europe banned it in the early 1970s). They didn’t know what to do with it because one can’t burn it (deadly fluorine gases are the result) or dump it on the ground or in a lake or river because it is one of the most corrosive chemicals in existence and it will kill fish like you wouldn’t believe. So, some bright guy had the idea to uggest to slowly bleed 40,000 tons annually into the water supply of cities and even get paid for it by calling it a harmless medication which is *necessary* for dental health.
People are actually buying into this and defending it!
Wonder with how much money he was rewarded for dreaming up this simple and effective scheme!
Actually, most of the stuff ends up in the environment anyways, through city effluent into lakes and rivers, through lawn watering in the ground water…there is no way it can be removed from the water once it has been added, except by distillation or reverse osmosis. Two very expensive processes for huge volumes of water.
“Hexafluorosilicic acid is also commonly used for water fluoridation in several countries including the United States, Great Britain, and Ireland. In the U.S., about 40,000 tons of fluorosilic acid is recovered from phosphoric acid plants, and then used primarily in water fluoridation, sometimes after being processed into sodium silicofluoride.”
so what’s worse — dry shit or fluoride? Can’t be a good thing if you have both.
All TRUTH passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
PrinceGeorge X2. Everything you said about crap and fluoride is 100% in my books.
We all produce it,but nobody wants it, so what to do with all this sh!t. Ideas anyone…
To begin with, how about the city sharing with the public actual lab test results done on the sludge?
Or is this classified secret information?
“All TRUTH passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
Is that what they say on the conspiracy theory websites?
Bio solids should be used as a renewable resource for generating electricity.
Using manure on agriculture has been around for a long time, unfortunately human manure is loaded with chemicals and toxins that are getting inside our babies before they take their first breath. That body burden predisposes them to cancers plus so much more.
Here is a link, scroll down to the picture of the fetus where you can link to a study on polluted newborns. The study was done on babies in the US and 100% of them were loaded with chemicals before their first breath. How does a baby that has never taken a breath have banned pesticides inside them? http://www.thermoguy.com
I want to congratulate the people stepping up to protest this, we are putting dangerous chemcials and other junk on our own food sources. It leaches into groundwater, is in the food and has no business being in our bodies. Drug addicts, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, industry all use toilets to discharge their water where it ends in the oceans. Did you know radio active sludge was refused entry from Canada into the US? Is that chemo manure and hospitals discharging into the main sewer systems?
The body burden is lectured in medical education for CE credits needed for licensing. Amazing to consult in medicine and be asked about the reproductive problems humans have. What happens when a species can’t reproduce anymore?
“All TRUTH passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
Is that what they say on the conspiracy theory websites?
Garterbelt; your tinfoil hat is too tight!
Putting these biosolids into abandoned open pit mining sites and burying them would be one way to get rid of them. Considering that Vancouver hauls garbage to Cache Creek and dumps it, and hauls woodchips back to Vancouver, one would think that we could haul biosolids to say Endako, Topley, or Kemess mine, and haul woodchips back to Prince George.
Another would be to burn them in the fancy co-generation system that the City is building and paying for at Lakeland Mills in exchange for heated water to heat their buildings. Mixing this stuff with the hog fuel that they are burning just might be the answer.
Considering that the City ;produces the biosolids and has an interest in the project at Lakeland Mills you would think that they would have given this some consideration. Wouldnt you?????
I suspect if we burned the bio solids, then we would start to complain about the shitty air in Pr George. Oh’ right, we already do that.
Johnnybelt:”Is that what they say on the conspiracy theory websites?”
How droll!
You see, just like I said: “First it is ridiculed!”
You, Johnnybelt, have just successfully negotiated the first lap!
So, I can take that as a yes?
Even if we had more than one planet to live on so we could afford to treat this one like a throw away spare after we have hopelessly polluted all the water, air and land on it – it’s stupid to ridicule such a serious matter as people’s concerns for our environment!
I know children who are smarter than that! You are an adult as far as age goes, one can assume. That’s about all.
I was more referring to your neverending effort to turn every thread into a debate about fluoride.
Problem is (as some of you have mentioned) it is not just sh*t as someone else mentioned. If it were, and people didn’t all take pharmaceuticals and eat foods laden with nanoparticles, pesticides, hormones, anti-fungals, etc. it would be safe. But we are talking about a mixture of everything that goes down the drains of homes (cleaning and personal care products), hospitals (Drugs and blood), hair salons (chemicals..), dentists (mercury and fluoride)…
The MOE does test for some things – the top 10 heavy metals, E.Coli and either salmonella and/or coliform. However there are thousands of contaminants NOT tested for, and even the heavy metals they do test for still exist. There are “safe” limits. How much mercury or lead is safe to have in your drinking water or food? Ask the MOE.
So yes there are always at least “trace” heavy metals in this material, on top of the flame retardants, radiation, thalates, nanomaterials, etc. that are not tested for. In addition there are many pathogens that are not tested for. Studies (Viau et al. see: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es200566f ) have shown viruses such as hepatitis and HIV survive sewage treatment and can exist in soil a long time. In addition very recent research has shown that bacteria can ‘hiberate’ and seem dead but come back to life in the soil environment. These include E. coli (the bacteria they test for) and many anti-biotic resistant strains (See: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336725/title/E._coli_evade_detection_by_going_dormant. The treatment process actually promotes bacteria to go into a state where they can not be detected.
Sludge spreading is common and becoming more common across Canada. It will likely lead to a public health crisis if it is not stopped. It is prmoted as “fertiliser” but only contains about 10% N and P by weight. That’s a lot of trucking for a product that only contains 10% of what you want!!!
There are other (more expensive) methods to deal with this stuff – make our governments pay for them!!!!!! The also produce energy without emissions, or can be bound in building products and asphalts as in Europe.
Sludge on farm fields gives of atmospheric aerosols that carry pathogens and even heavy metals (also sometimes emitted as vapour e.g. in the case of mercury). So of course neighbours don’t want it next door!!!!
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