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They decided to sell it! Yes, in the American tradition, they had a lemon and decided to make...Milorganite! Today, local gardeners buy it to use as fertilizer. If they read the label (*** See below), they know that it is not a good idea to use it on food crops and the user should avoid skin contact due to the heavy metal content. Because Milwaukee had the idea first, other communities must find other means of getting rid of their waste. In Alachua County we deliver it to farmers and spray it on large tracts of land every day. Seven days a week, a fleet of trucks rolls out of the water treatment facilities. loaded with wet sludge which is given free to farmers who sign up to have it sprayed on their land until they reach the maximum amount permitted by law. A one hundred acre field can get as much as 5 million gallons over time. The grass grows quickly and cattle graze on it. No human dwelling is to be built, nor most human food crops grown, on treated land for a year after the spraying has stopped. There have been as many as 47 such sites receiving daily sludge in Alachua County with many more farmers on the list to join the program. And it has been going on for years. Treatment Human waste is put in huge vats into which good bacteria are placed. The good guys eat the bad guys and the resulting product is rid of many of the germs that live in the digestive tract of a human being. But heavy metals from industrial sites and storm water are still in the sludge. Much of the water is removed and injected into deep wells, ready to bubble up later. Other communities "downflow" from us are going to have to deal with it. But, of course, we are receiving blessings from communities "upflow" from us. The more waste water removed, the more concentrated the sludge. It will leach into the soil and, eventually, into the Floridan aquifer, the source of our drinking water. Because of the growth in housing and industrial uses, there is a greater volume of waste laced with more heavy metals. Humans are at the top of the food chain. If we eat meat, cheese or drink milk, we are receiving more concentrated levels of metals than ever before. Because everybody flushes, it seems the only way to control the problem is to consider carefully before issuing permits to industries and even to increases in housing. It's not nice to over-burden Mother Nature. Read the history of Milorganite Another point of view on Milorganite ***Note the above article was written sometime in the mid-1990's. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has informed me that EPA regulations have been changed and the label no longer warns against using it on food crops. The evaluated heavy metal content meets EPA standards. Ellie Schwab, Oct, 15, 2003. |