No Bio Solids Delivery Today
Monday, December 12, 2011 @ 3:58 AM
Prince George, B.C. – There won’t be any attempt to deliver bio-solids to a farm property on Wright Creek Road today.
Instead, officials with the City of Prince George, the RCMP and the farmer who has the contract with the City, are expected to be exploring their options in the wake of a blockade of the bio solids delivery. Those options may well include an application for a court injunction to end the blockade.
The blockade on Wright creek Road appeared on Friday, the day the first load of bio-solids was to be delivered to a farm on that road. The RCMP attended the scene, spoke with the protestors, and then left. The Truck delivering the bio-solids turned around and headed back to Prince George. City of Prince George Superintendent of Operations, Bill Gaal says the City made the decision to withdraw from the scene to make sure the situation would not become further “enflamed.”
Gaal says the Ministry of Environment has reviewed and approved the application plan for the site, and neither the MoE nor the City’s consultants, “Sylvis” (which developed the plan) have any concerns about the property or the plan for the bio-solids “We have full confidence the application will not have any negative impact on the environment” says Gaal.
Those who set up the blockade have a petition with a thousand signatures, and are calling on the City and the Regional District to re-think this plan. They argue that there is a spring in the middle of the property in question, and they have concerns the water supply will be tainted with whatever might leach off the bio-solids.
Comments
Prince George residents are fully justified in setting up a blockade to stop processed sludge (biosolids) from being applied on nearby farmland. Decades of independent scientific research and field reports indicate that repeated biosolids application degrades soil,pollutes drinking water, can sicken nearby neighbors and kill live stock. A 2002 US National Academy of Sciences panel warned that the current US rules governing this practice are based on flawed risks assessment models, outdated science, or no science at all. Biosolids contains antibiotic-resistant pathogens and an array of industrial chemicals, many of which are hazardous and can be picked up by plants. This contaminated material does not belong on land that grows our food. Instead it should be used as a non-fossil fuel to create energy. For more science-based information visit
For more science-based information about the risks linked to spreading biosolids on farmland, visit [www.sludgefacts.org]
The potential risk for long term harm to humans, however remote, is reason enough to eliminate the practice of using the sludge for fertilizer. Just think for a minute about what some people pour down the drain; unused medications, antifreeze, used motor oil, paint and solvents. Add to that the antibiotics and other medications that pass through ones body, excreted as human waste. There is no way they can convince me that all of these contaminents plus heavy metals also in the waste stream are effectively eliminated in the sewage treatment process. If there is a safe way for the sludge to be burned, with emissions scrubbed, then why not do that?
Perhaps there is a process that would permit the use of dried sludge as fuel for the new ‘District Energy’ plant in PG.
metalman.
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