[USCC] What to do with sludge

[Maureen Reilly]

The technical term for the residuals from sewage treatment plants is 'sewage 
sludge'.
The terminology in the US regulations that describe and direct the 
permitting requirements
for these residuals is 'sewage sludge'.

Since the public relations word 'biosolids' appears nowhere in the Part 503 
regulations
on sewage sludge, I think it makes sense to use the 'sewage sludge' 
terminology in the US context.

The term 'biosolids' is used by some to denote sludge that is treated to 
land application
standards, some say it means any kind of wastewater residual including 
papermill sludge, and some
refer to any biomass including manure as 'biosolids'.  So the term 
'biosolids' has no national or
international definitional integrity.

If you want to call your sewage sludge by the term 'biosolids' or 'petunias' 
or any other pet name, well,
I guess that is your affair.  The term 'biosolids' as most of the readers 
here are aware, is the winning
name in a PR contest to make 'sewage sludge' sound nicer.  See Toxic Sludge 
is Good for You.
Chapter 4: The Sludge Hits the Fan.  http://www.ejnet.org/sludge/sludge.html

If you want to be part of that public relations campaign : use the term 
'biosolids'
If you want to use terms with national regulatory and definitional 
integrity: use the term 'sewage sludge'

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Severtson, Peter" <PSER461 at ECY.WA.GOV>
To: "US Composting Council Compost Discussion List" <compost at composter.com>
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: [USCC] What to do with sludge


> U.S. COMPOSTING COUNCIL 15th ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND TRADESHOW
> Wyndham Orlando Resort | Orlando, FL | January 21-24, 2007
> The National forum for those involved in the development and expansion of 
> the composting and organics recycling industry
> CONFERENCE PROGRAM, REGISTRATION FORMS, WORKSHOP AGENDAS,
> EXHIBITOR INFORMATION AND SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE AT THE 
> USCC WEBSITE: www.compostingcouncil.org OR CALL THE USCC AT 631-737-4931
>
>
> Stu,
>
> I am an employee with the Washington State of Ecology and work with
> waste water treatment facilities.  The agency has permitting
> responsibility for the effluent, and, separately, with biosolids.  One
> of my responsibilities is to deal with the land application of
> biosolids.  We consider the stabilized solids that settle out of a waste
> water treatment plant to be biosolids as opposed to sewage sludge.
> Sludge would be untreated waste solids.  We view these differently
> because the wwtp solids are not fecal material.  Notwithstanding some of
> the alarmist claims written on this list serve, biosolids largely
> consist of stabilized organic material from the microbial bug bodies
> that process the raw sewage and settle out.
>
> The reason I am writing you is because of a plant inspection I conducted
> a couple weeks ago at the Yakima Training Center; an Army training
> facility in Yakima County, Washington State.  This facility is an old
> design, a novel design that I thought was really effective and I had
> never seen before.  It confirmed again my view that as a modern society
> we often throw out old ideas when more "modern" stuff becomes available
> and often, very effective, low energy, low material consumption methods,
> are lost to history.
>
> The system to which I refer is what's generally known as a trickling
> filter.  This idea is still utilized for small community plants in
> various areas of the state.  Applicable for the 500-1000 population you
> are interested in, it would just need to be sized appropriately.  The
> basic principle is that the raw sewage comes into a holding tank of some
> sort, sometimes it's mixed or aerated to some extent, and then trickled
> over coarse gravel.  This gravel is usually about 2-4 cm round river
> rock that's all the same size so the pore spaces are large and
> consistent.  A biological community builds up on the surface of the
> rocks and breaks down the sewage. The sewage is recycled over the rocks
> a few times to meet some design holding period.  The thing about this
> little facility was that it worked largely on gravity and a siphon.
> This is quite different than many modern plants that are quite energy
> consumptive.  I don't know the precise design, but essentially the
> sewage flowed from a primary into a small intermediate tank and then was
> siphoned into one of two rotating arms (metal pipes with holes on the
> bottom-side that are mounted on a center pivot) that "trickled' the
> sewage over the river rocks. The arms turn simply due to the force of
> water flowing out through them under gravity. There is a need for a
> small pump to recycle the material for better treatment, but the novel
> thing was that the power could go off and the plant would still
> function.  Sewage would drain into the intermediate tank, siphon off
> into the rotating arms, break the siphon, refill the intermediate tank,
> siphon again, and so on. It seemed like a system could be set up with
> solar panels to provide power to the pump to periodically recycle the
> sewage into the primary tank.  I'm sure there would be limitations on
> pump size, time, and panel area, but for small facilities in countries
> where no treatment is currently occurring, this seems like it could be
> an excellent solution.
>
> When I saw this, I immediately thought of how practical this could be
> for remote communities where power is an issue.  The effluent from this
> plant is very clean according to our Water Resources folks who permit
> it.  So the system works well.  I asked the guys at the plant to show me
> the schematic because I wanted to see exactly how it was set up.  They
> looked around in a pile of old plans, but couldn't lay their hands on
> it. The thing was built in 1950 or so. I'm sure I could get a copy
> somehow.  Let me know if you're interested.
>
> Maybe someone else on the list serve has the specific information on the
> design of such a plant.
>
> Peter Severtson
> Biosolids/Composting/Soils
> Department of Ecology
> 15 West Yakima Avenue
> Yakima, WA  98902
> pser461 at ecy.wa.gov
> (509) 575-2605
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: compost-bounces at composter.com
> [mailto:compost-bounces at composter.com] On Behalf Of stuti sharma
> Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 1:02 AM
> To: US Composting Council Compost Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [USCC] What to do with sludge
>
> U.S. COMPOSTING COUNCIL 15th ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND TRADESHOW Wyndham
> Orlando Resort | Orlando, FL | January 21-24, 2007 The National forum
> for those involved in the development and expansion of the composting
> and organics recycling industry CONFERENCE PROGRAM, REGISTRATION FORMS,
> WORKSHOP AGENDAS, EXHIBITOR INFORMATION AND SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
> ARE AVAILABLE AT THE USCC WEBSITE: www.compostingcouncil.org OR CALL THE
> USCC AT 631-737-4931
>
>
> Hi everyone
>
> Im working with an Indian environmental NGO and we are currently in the
> process of accumulating data and creating nation wide networks on sewage
> sludge management. It is currently not a very widespread practice in
> India.
> We are hoping to prevent waste dumping into oceans and water bodies that
> leads to contamination. Any help from anyone regarding information or
> contacts or initial documentaion regarding sewage management would be
> greatly appreciated. Also any information on wheather small scale
> treatment of sewage is possible for a community of 500 to 1000
> households.
>
> Thanks
> Stu
>
>
> On 6/20/06, C. Snyder <cgsnyder at post.harvard.edu> wrote:
>>
>> U.S. COMPOSTING COUNCIL 15th ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND TRADESHOW Wyndham
>> Orlando Resort | Orlando, FL | January 21-24, 2007 The National forum
>> for those involved in the development and expansion of the composting
>> and organics recycling industry CONFERENCE PROGRAM, REGISTRATION
>> FORMS, WORKSHOP AGENDAS, EXHIBITOR INFORMATION AND SPONSORSHIP
>> OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE AT THE USCC WEBSITE:
>> www.compostingcouncil.org OR CALL THE USCC AT 631-737-4931
>>
>>
>> This is to reply to Mike Morin's message about dumping sludge into the
>
>> ocean.  There are much better 21st century solutions to dispose of
>> contaminated waste products, such as municipal sewage sludge,
>> beneficially, other than spreading it on healthy farmland or turning
>> it into "compost."
>>
>> Ultra-high thermal chemical decomposition of sludge is truly
>> beneficial without all the risks and uncertainties of land
> application.
>> This new  technology produces clean renewable energy;  unlike
>> incineration, it meets the strictest air emission standards anywhere;
>> and it  leaves a ceramic like material that can be used for
> construction.
>>
>> These state-of-the-art gasification plants solve several  problems:
>> they process  hard-to-handle contaminated waste; they produce clean
>> and renewable energy; and they protect public health and the
> environment.
>>
>> Caroline Snyder
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>> (c) Copyright 2006 United States  - All rights reserved Opinions
>> expressed are represent only the poster and are not necessarily the
>> opinion or policy of any organization.
>>
>> Non-members of USCC are encouraged to join the Council through our
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> _______________________________________________
> Compost maillist  -  Compost at composter.com
>
>
> Ongoing Sponsors of the USCC Discussion list are:
>
> Food Industry Environmental Network (FIEN), a regulatory and policy
> e-mail alert service for environmental, food and agricultural industry
> professionals.
> Contact Jack Cooper 301/384-8287 JLC at fien.com --- www.fien.com
>
> Renewable Carbon Management, LLC with the containerized, in-vessel
> NaturTech Composting System www.composter.com rcm at composter.com
>
> (c) Copyright 2006 United States  - All rights reserved Opinions
> expressed are represent only the poster and are not necessarily the
> opinion or policy of any organization.
>
> Non-members of USCC are encouraged to join the Council through our
> website at: http://www.compostingcouncil.org/membership.cfm     For
> discussion list policies and information regarding subscribing,
> unsubscribing, digest or other options, go
> to:http://mailman.cloudnet.com/mailman/listinfo/compost
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> For additional help in unsubscribing or to report bugs and problems,
> send a message to the List Manager, Jim McNelly, at
> compost-owner at composter.com
> _______________________________________________
> Compost maillist  -  Compost at composter.com
>
>
> Ongoing Sponsors of the USCC Discussion list are:
>
> Food Industry Environmental Network (FIEN), a regulatory and policy e-mail 
> alert service for environmental, food and agricultural industry 
> professionals.
> Contact Jack Cooper 301/384-8287 JLC at fien.com --- www.fien.com
>
> Renewable Carbon Management, LLC with the containerized, in-vessel 
> NaturTech Composting System www.composter.com rcm at composter.com
>
> (c) Copyright 2006 United States  - All rights reserved
> Opinions expressed are represent only the poster and are not necessarily 
> the opinion or policy of any organization.
>
> Non-members of USCC are encouraged to join the Council through our website 
> at: http://www.compostingcouncil.org/membership.cfm     For discussion 
> list policies and information regarding subscribing, unsubscribing, digest 
> or other options, go 
> to:http://mailman.cloudnet.com/mailman/listinfo/compost
>
> For additional help in unsubscribing or to report bugs and problems, send 
> a message to the List Manager, Jim McNelly, at compost-owner at composter.com