From  Sam Hadeed, shadeed@wef.org. Kent County, DE Successfully Maintains NBP EMS Certification. The Kent County Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility in Milford, DE successfully maintained its NBP EMS verification on November 21, 2009 from the audit firm KEMA-Strategic Registrations, Inc. The interim audit process is required for the NBP EMS certification and allows agencies to achieve Platinum Level status in the program. Kent County has been certified since December 2005 and achieved platinum level status since 2006. Kent County, DE 2009 Interim Audit Report

SUMMARY OF AUDIT RESULTS

EMS Strengths

During this audit KEMA noted the following strengths in the Kent County biosolids management system.

• Kent County is an excellent example for sustainability efforts at wastewater treatment plants (e.g. reduced energy use, reduced manmade chemicals).
• Several programs are being planned that will contribute significantly to improved EHS performance at KCRWTF.
• The internal audit performed in 2009 was concise, effective and provided useful findings.

Outcomes

The Kent County biosolids program is improving through the use of their management system. The following outcomes within the past two years were confirmed.

Regulatory Compliance

• Plans in place to reduce electric energy use via installation of photovoltaic panels, solar dryers. Expected result is 33% 50% energy self sufficiency needs, reduce natural gas and resulting NOX by 25%

Environmental Performance

• Sanitary sewer overflows reduced from 4 major spills in 2008 to 2 in 2009, resulting in 50% less untreated sewage entering local streams.
• Addition of 3rd filter press resulting in dryer cake (from 17% to 21%), corresponding reduction in use of natural gas.

Quality Practices

• Several programs introduced to improve employee health and safety, including Hazwoper training, respiratory protection testing and inspection, hepatitis B injections. OSHA IR reduced from 6 in 2008 to 5 in 2009.
• Advanced technology for weirs being installed to reduce potential for algae and improve clarifier settling efficiency.
• Plan to install floating weirs on plant outfall to enable equalization during rainfall events and increase storage.

Interested party Relations

• Elevated water storage tank being installed to reduce pumping needs, improve fire suppression capability & reliability.

From Lynchburg, VA News & Advance, 12-14-09. VA DEQ Proposes New Sludge Rules. For the first time since the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) took over managing biosolids in 2008, the agency is proposing significant new rules that were approved for public comment Monday by the State Water Control Board.The proposed regulations are the result of months of work by the agency and its advisers. Their crafting was marred by controversy after three citizen representatives to the technical advisory committee, including Rustburg's Jo Overbey, quit in March because they felt their concerns and opinions were overshadowed by industry proponents and representatives, Overbey said.

Mondayys action by the water board, which oversees water quality rules, comes as biosolids applications that have drawn significant public reaction are under review in Campbell and Amherst counties.In Campbell County, Nutri-Blend Inc. applied for a permit to spread the treated sewage sludge on more than 3,000 acres in the southern half of the county. A public hearing for that permit was authorized earlier this month and is expected to take place within the next two months.

In Amherst County, Synagro Central LLC wants to spread biosolids on about 130 acres of farmland in northern Amherst County, including near the Blue Ridge Railway Trail. Biosolids is the name for solid remains from the wastewater treatment process. Once suspended solids, including human waste and paper, have been separated, itts treated through different processes to kill 95 percent of pathogens. Itts then provided free to farmers as a slow-releasing fertilizer. The material is tested for a short list of specific chemicals, namely heavy metals that are easily detectable.

Regulatory oversight was transferred to DEQ in 2008 after criticism that the state health department was not administering the program properly. An expert panel formed by a General Assembly bill convened for 18 months and issued a report early this year, saying it found no evidence or literature linking the materialls use with illness. Much of the proposed regulations address code inconsistencies. One provision would cause about 100 existing permits that VDH continued indefinitely before DEQ took over to expire on Dec. 31, 2012, said Neil Zahradka, biosolids program manager.

Other changes include: neighbors can request larger buffers, up to 400 yards; signs must be posted on all right-of-ways five days before and after sludge is spread; new biosolids sources must be tested for polychlorinated byphenols (PCBs) before they are approved; proposed VDH regulations on field storage would be enacted.

State Water Control Board Chairman Shelton Miles, of Campbell County, expressed concerns that proposed sign requirements might not go far enough. If itts important that the general public not traverse those fields 30 days after an application, then probably it is important to put signage up,, for a longer period of time than just the five days after sludge is applied, he said. The way life works in rural Virginia, I have 300 acres that I manage that are scattered over five miles. If I were ever to receive biosolids and then come to Richmond for a day like this, in December, while hunting season is going on at home, I cannt even watch all of it..

From Laconia, NH Citizen, 12-15-09. Belmont, NH Board Hears Pros and Cons of Sludge. Belmont, NH Planning Board members heard from those who supported and those opposed the use of biosolids during a public hearing concerning proposed amendments to the zoning ordinance. Several residents came out Monday evening to speak out during the public hearing, with about half in favor and the other half wary of using the substance. Before the hearing began, Conservation Commission Chairman Ken Knowlton gave a brief presentation on biosolids, explaining what they are, what they are used for and other information from his research.

By state definition, biosolids are "any sludge derived from a sewage wastewater treatment facility that meets the standards for beneficial reuse specified by the department. "'Sludge,' in this definition, is referred to as the "solid remaining after liquid removed from sewage at waste water treatment plants," which includes, but isn't limited to the toxic slurry of industrial, hospital and residential waste. There are many different components that make up biosolids, ranging from human waste, land runoff and poisons to detergents, pharmaceuticals and other potentially harmful materials if exposed to in great quantity. Biosolids are classified into two groups: Class A, which has no detectable pathogens, and Class B, which has a reduced level of pathogens.

The Planning Board's proposal is to prohibit the use of Class B biosolids and permit the use of Class A in the rural zone on areas that are a minimum of five acres pending a conditional use permit issued by the board. Some residents are pushing for both to be banned, while others would like less restrictive limitations. According to Knowlton, the Conservation Commission was informed about the proposed amendment regarding biosolids about a month ago. After researching biosolids, the Commission has suggested to the Planning Board to restrict the use of all biosolids as there could potentially be health concerns associated with using them. "Because of our decision, some might consider it to be anti-farm or anti-agriculture," Knowlton said. "The Conservation Commission is in no way anti-agriculture."

Knowlton said the commission has a responsibility to speak up and advise the town and after research, they have recommended the prohibition of both Class A and B biosolids. During his presentation, Knowlton said the long-term effects are unknown at this point since its research of sludge is still new.  According to the commission's research, some short-term effects included respiratory problems, chronic disease, food poisoning, infections and death among humans and animals. "Class B should definitely be prohibited," Knowlton said. "The most effective solution is not in terms of money, but in terms of the health and well-being of our residents, pets and agricultural resources. This is to prevent the possible future problems relative to biosolids and sewer sludge being dumped both Class A and B."

Several towns in the Lakes Region have banned the use of biosolids outright, including Alton, Barnstead and Tilton. Other towns such as Ashland, Center Harbor and Gilmanton have adopted state regulations which are not as restrictive. Town Planner Candace Daigle made note that in the history of the town only two applications have ever been submitted to the town for a special exception to use biosolids.

Knowlton read a statement from the Environmental Protection Agency's Land Application of Biosolids report from 2002 which said the "EPA cannot assure the public that current land application practices are protective of human health and the environment." He ended by saying that he hopes to be able to continue to educate everyone in the community about the potential risk when using biosolids on agricultural lands.Some residents agreed with the Conservation Commission about banning all biosolids from Belmont after seeing the presentation, while others have done research already. "I have 14.5 acres and personally researching this myself, I don't think I would ever put it on," Belmont resident Scott Firth said.

Other members from the audience expressed that if they knew that farmers were using biosolids to fertilize crops, they would not purchase them in fear of the health effects. Belmont resident and Zoning Board alternative Ed Hawkins was pleased to see that the new proposed amendment to the ordinance on biosolids was more restrictive. Carl Bartlett from Resource Management Inc. of Ashland, a company specializing in soil recycling solutions, said that Class A biosolids are safer than any conventional manure that farmers use.

Belmont resident Tom Clairmont has used biosolids on his property and agreed with Bartlett that they are safer to use and sometimes earlier to find then poultry manure. Chairman of the Planning Board Peter Harris mentioned at the end of the discussion that a petition was being formed to accept the state and federal regulations of the proper usage of biosolids, which would allow both Class A and B biosolids to be used.
The Planning Board plans on holding another public hearing before the proposed amendments are placed on the town warrant to be voted on in March.

From Time Magazine, 12-4-09. Humanure: Goodbye, Toilets. Hello, Extreme Composting. For more than a decade, 57-year-old roofer and writer Joseph Jenkins has been advocating that we flush our toilets down the drain and put a bucket in the bathroom instead. When a bucket in one of his five bathrooms is full, he empties it in the compost pile in his backyard in rural Pennsylvania. Eventually he takes the resulting soil and spreads it over his vegetable garden as fertilizer."It's an alternative sanitation system," says Jenkins, "where there is no waste." His 255-page Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure is in its third edition and has been translated into five languages, but it has only recently begun to catch on. His message? Human manure, when properly managed, is odorless. His audience? Ecologically committed city dwellers who are looking to do more for the earth than just sort their trash or ride a bike to work. (See reusable toilet wipes as one of the top 10 odd environmental ideas.)

"It's one of those life-changing books," says Erik Knutzen, 44, an eco-blogger in Los Angeles. "You read it, and the lightbulb just goes on." Now he eschews his porcelain potty for a big bucket with a toilet seat. He "flushes" by tossing in a scoop of sawdust, which not only neutralizes smells but also helps speed the breakdown of material for compost. Like many back-to-basics sophisticates, he believes Jenkins' humanure system is more sanitary and more rational than the conventional alternative. "Human waste is a perfectly good source of an important resource, nitrogen," Knutzen observes. "Water is a valuable resource too. Why mix the two and turn all of it into a problem?"

Wastewater treatment is much more energy-intensive than composting, which needs little more than time (about a year) for complete decomposition and pathogen elimination. In Austin, Texas, a sustainably minded nonprofit called the Rhizome Collective succeeded this year in getting the city to approve what may be the first legal composting toilet in the U.S. "The hypocrisy is amazing," says Lauren Ross, 54, a civil engineer involved in Rhizome's four-year battle to get a permit. "The city will buy you a low-flow toilet, but they'll fight you all the way if you want to build one that uses no water at all."

It's an idea that you, dear reader, might be asked to take seriously. Not long ago, Nance Klehm, 44, a self-described radical ecologist in Chicago, invited her neighbors to stop using their toilets and start saving their poop. More than half of them 22 of the 35 households accepted her proposal. In three months she picked up 1,500 gal. (5,700 L) of excrement, which she'll give back to participants this spring after she and Mother Nature have transformed it into a rich bag of fertilizer. "I've sent a sample in for a coliform test," Klehm says. "There is zero detectable fecal bacteria." (Read a brief history of toilets.)

At one point, Klehm invited her "nutrient loopers" to a potluck and was surprised to see who had agreed to participate. "It was the white collar people, not the ragtag anarchists. Mostly, they were delighted that they got this wacky proposal," she says. "They didn't know how to connect with the earth, but they could s___ in a bucket."

Meanwhile, over in California, the Marin Composting Portable Odorless Outhouse Project, a.k.a. MCPOOP, is doing Klehm one better. The goal of MCPOOP (which is pronounced the Irish way as opposed to the rap-star way) is to get the government into the night-soil business and put humanure toilets in county parks and town squares. The group is less than a month old but already has the support of the local environmental establishment and Marin County supervisor Steve Kinsey. "The whole thing is like a good acid flashback," says Kinsey. "We approved several experimental permits like this in the '70s." He estimates that a small-scale municipal demonstration project could be under way in less than a year. (Read "Is It Time to Kill Off the Flush Toilet?")

MCPOOP was founded by a couple in their 50s. "We're on a mission to reepotty train America!" says John Wick, a rancher in the western part of the county. "We're going to start by replacing those nasty blue loos," says his wife Peggy Rathmann, referring to two chemical toilets on their town's main square. If that goes over well, they'll replace the chemical toilets around Tomales Bay that kayakers often use. And then, who knows? Wick and Rathmann don't see why every home in Marin County shouldn't be humanure equipped.

To Joe (Mr. Humanure) Jenkins, nothing could be better news. "On a small scale, my system works like a dream," he says. "But in order to do more research and development, I need to collect humanure on a larger scale."
MCPOOP and other projects are eager to help on the supply side. "We're going to have plenty," predicts Rathmann. "Tons of tourists come to West Marin, and they all leave us their poop!"

From  Canmore, Canada Leader, 12-9-09. Waste Used to Green in Canmore, Canada. Two byproducts of life in the valley might soon be brought together in what the Reeve of the MD of Bighorn called the best win-win situation he's seen in his last five years as a councillor. As the MD of Bighorn grows, it's looking for a cost effective solution to the issue of the increased waste that comes with the sewers that support an increased population. And as Graymont continues to streamline its operations it's looking to get more from what it already has. Sewer sludge and the byproduct of the lime manufacturing process, lime kiln dust (LKD) has now been used to grow plants native to the Bow Valley and could have a use as part of the ongoing mine reclamation programs in the area.

"It's a very simple technology, it's proven and it's cost effective," Michael Tate, technical manager of research and development for Graymont, told the Bighorn Corridor Environment Committee (BCEC) in Exshaw Wednesday (Dec. 2). At Graymont, he said the labels have started to change and though LKD is still sent to area landfills, it is no longer thought of as a byproduct, but rather is now referred to as a product. "We've got these two separate piles, we're putting them together and we're putting green on the sides of mountains."

A Dec. 17 meeting with the province will tell the two partners how far their work on the issue has come in combining the byproducts of a sanitation process and a pollution control process. Unlike the currently used lagoons, wastewater treatment plants need to have their sludge dealt with on a daily basis. And while there's believed to be another 12 years left in the lagoons servicing Exshaw planned development in the MD sees the hamlets there in the not-too-distant future switching from a lagoon sewage structure, to mechanical wastewater treatment plants. The MD now envisions a wastewater treatment plant in Dead Man's Flats in the next five to 10 years, Hugh Pettigrew, director of operations for the MD of Bighorn, said. Dead Man's Flats was also the site of the pilot project which recently culminated in the University of Alberta study.

And the reaction that occurs when raw biosolids are combined with the Graymont plant's LKD kills the pathogens and neutralizes the heavy metals found in the sewer sludge. "It's not a lot in the end result different from composting," Pettigrew said. The big difference though, in the end might be the price. The cost of composting process, such as the one in Banff, is Pettigrew said, a good process, but he said an in-vessel composting facility could cost Bighorn somewhere in the $4- to $8-million range. While this process, producing stabilized biosolids with LKD, would cost only 25 per cent to 50 per cent for the same.

Reeve Dene Cooper called the process extremely cost efficient he said the process being tested in the MD produces at a much lower cost a high quality quarry reclamation product. He said Bighorn has been working on this since 2004, but has been working on it "hard" for the last two-and-a-half years. "The problem with human waste is it's very difficult to sell," Cooper said. "You need an end use and the way to plan this with precision is to go to the end use and back it to the technology and try to get economic efficiency."

And the results from the tests appear to be good. The stabilized biosolids produced at the Dead Man's Flats pilot site were successful in growing two native grasses (wheatgrass, and fescue) and forb ( a broad-leaved herb) and though the biosolids alone did not retain water well enough for good growth, when mixed with top soil growth was good and it is hoped results can be improved upon with a different mixture of LKD.

Through his presentation, Tate told, the BCEC group that the two rotary kilns at the Graymont plant in Exshaw produce about 7,000 tonnes of dry LKD each year and that with perhaps a future one-third to two-thirds mix of LKD to sewer sludge, the potential for the MD and Graymont to produce enough stabilized sludge for their mine reclamation concerns may not be there, it would still go far. In the area Graymont alone requires about 50,000 tonnes of soil for their mine reclamation needs, Tate said. But also that Graymont believes that there are other possible applications, perhaps even biofuel, for the type of stabilized sludge they are to be creating. "There's a lot of avenues you could go if you ran out of reclamation sites," Tate said.

But Pettigrew pointed out the unlikelihood of that happening in the foreseeable future; he said that there would be enough mines in need of reclamation in the area for at least 99 years. As the mine reclamation sites are on Crown land the process does need provincial approval. And the MD and Graymont expect a government decision on whether the stabilized biosolids they can produce are viable for mine reclamation to take time, Pettigrew said. "We're going there (the Dec. 17 meeting) with the information and with the hope that we'll get formal permission but we don't expect to come out of there with a piece of paper."They may just guide us as to what else they need for us to get there."

The Canadian Council of the Ministry of the Environment (CCME) has processing criteria for compost but not stabilized biosolids. Two types of composts are defined by this standard (Class A and Class B). And though the pathogens in the pilot project's stabilized sludge were eliminated, as were most of the heavy metals, there has though been a higher than Class A standard presence of selenium in their product. The higher levels could result from a variety of factors, including even, Pettigrew said, the possibility that where the CCNE developed its guidelines there is not the same natural presence of selenium in the environment. The selenium contents now are, he pointed out, well below the requirements for the proposed biosolids to receive a Class B ranking.

From Twin Falls, ID Times-News, 12-11-09. Energy Funds to Pay for Southern Idaho Gas Generator, Hailey Energy Study. A landfill and an area city are among the beneficiaries of $1.5 million in federal stimulus grants awarded this week by the Idaho Office of Energy Resources. The grant proposals, requested in August, were funded through an OER effort to develop Renewable Energy Enterprise Zones that encourage collaboration between local authorities and private developers. The agency was only able to fund 12 of 26 grant requests; the requests totaled $5.5 million.In south-central Idaho, the largest sum $154,000 is going to the operators of the Milner Butte Landfill, where methane emissions should fuel a power generator in the near future.

Terry Schultz, executive director of Southern Idaho Solid Waste, said the grant request made through Twin Falls County will pay to install three to five vertical gas wells, increasing the amount of methane gas that can be drawn out of the landfill. The vertical wells are more efficient, he said, but the part of the landfill holding them has to be closed. Otherwise youure just clanking into them all the time and tearing them apart,, he said.

Twin Falls County owns about 43 percent of the multicounty waste cooperative, and Schultz said hees grateful to county Research and Development Director Mark Brunelle for securing the grant.The extra gas will make it easier for the landfill to market its carbon credits nationally destroying as much as 32,500 tons of carbon every year if things go well, Schultz said. And he estimates the generator, which will be in the range of 1.6 to 3 megawatts, could produce as much as 5 million kilowatts of energy a year and raise as much as $405,000 for the waste cooperative with the extra fuel. Itts kind of astounding that you can generate those kinds of revenues from a form of air pollution,, Schultz said.

Farther north, the city of Hailey received $30,000 to study creating a resource recovery center that would turn sewage-plant sludge, restaurant grease and other biosolids waste into energy. The $60,000 research including $20,000 worth of matching billable city-employee time will focus on the technological and economic potential for heating nearby buildings. Possible study sites include one near Wood River High School, the College of Southern Idahoos Blaine County Campus and the Blaine County Aquatic Center.

The city is partnering with Ketchum company Whole Water Systems for the work, something City Administrator Heather Dawson said shees excited to take advantage of. The study results could help blunt rising waste treatment costs the city faces in the future, she said. Itts really nice to be able to have that level of expertise right here in our valley, and be able to apply those funds to that expertise,, she said.

From Reading, PA Eagle, 12-16-09. Exeter Township, PA Plant Superintendent to Testify on Uses for Dried Sludge. The superintendent of the Exeter Township, PA sewage treatment plant is expected to testify today before a state House committee about the municipal facility to dry sewage sludge. Paul A. Herb is one of five people called to speak before the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee in Harrisburg. The committee is holding the hearing to learn of alternative uses to the application of sewage sludge, also known as biosolids, on farm fields or disposal in landfills, said state Rep. David R. Kessler, an Oley Township Democrat and committee member.

Two years ago Kessler and Rep. Dante Santoni Jr., a Reading Democrat, secured a $1 million grant for Exeter to install a regional biosolids-drying facility. Once completed, the plant will provide pellets of the material to use in producing cement.Nearly 30 municipalities from a three-county region have said they would like to send biosolids to Exeter's drier once it's completed next year, Kessler said.Kessler said he believes regulations on the use of biosolids on farmland must be updated but that lawmakers first must learn of the alternative uses for dried biosolids material. The hearing is intended to explain those nonfarm uses.

From Sam Hadeed, shadeed@wef.org. This Week in Washington from WEF. This Week in Washington (TWIW) is a free weekly e-newsletter of the Water Environment Federation's Government Affairs Department that is published on Fridays.It provides updates on the latest legislative and regulatory developments affecting the water and wastewater communities.View the on-line edition.You can also bookmark this link for future reference.To receive via email, send your request to the Editor - Sam Hadeed at shadeed@wef.org.