Topic: Humanure, yuck

[manicscousers]

There's a strange smell in the air, I've recently found that the farmer a mile away, behind the primary school, treats all his fields with this every year and plants spuds in it. We can't go outside to sit in the garden because of the smell, I feel sorry for the kiddies running around in the school grounds. Isn't there a regulation about proximity of this stuff to children?
I've read up a few articles that want it stopped due to problems with hormones and some other nasty stuff. It's like a sickly fog hanging over us 

[goodlife]

http://www.wte-ltd.co.uk/sewage_sludge_biosolids.html

[manicscousers]

That's the one but, is there a regulation now?

[grannyjanny]

Manic, someone on daughters site bought this a couple of years ago The smell & the flies were unbearable. He had it on his beds & in a pile ready to put on his other beds. Our daughter went there & had to go home. She rang to tell me & then it clicked what it was. He'd said he was getting some treated stuff. Daughter is lovingly known as Fluffy the Rotweiller so she got it sorted . UU were involved & he had to name names but only after he got it in writing he wouldn't be prosecuted, they were his 'mates'. His wife has MS can you imagine the health problems from food grown in that lot. He told daughter that the smell would soon go. It lingered for weeks after UU scraped it off his beds . I hope your aroma soon disappears.

[davyw1]

We have had to put up with it for years, so i know what you are going through

[Digeroo]

There seems to be a code of practice

DEFRA Code of Good Agricultural Practice, subsection 5.4

Seems to be a PDF unfortunatly cannot open it at the moment.

[Gordonmull]

Sorry to be contrary, but application of sewage sludge to agricultural land makes perfect ecological sense. While not completely closing the loop (we'd need to incorporate corpses into agricultural land too lol!) it does go some way to doing so.

The sludge has to go somewhere. Traditionally, it went to landfill, but with landfill tax at a ridiculous amount these days and the phasing out of organic material to landfill, it's not really an option any more. That is to say it still is an option, but it would be you, the water consumer that would pay for it. Eventually, though, that avenue will be legally closed. (It may have happened already, I'm a bit out of touch with landfill these days).

That leaves incineration, or application to agricultural land. Application to land is the least costly and most sustainable of these options. I know it sounds icky but sewage sludge is (in a very simplified way) just a big mass of bacteria that have consumed the sewage, it is not actual sewage. This explains the process in better detail for anyone interested: http://www.euwfd.com/html/sewage_treatment.html

There are laws that need to be adhered to, however. There is more info on legal side on the EA's website, here: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/sectors/130187.aspx. This is their remit as it is "waste" to land.

If it's that stinking then you might have some luck with the council if you report it as a statutory nuisance, but I wouldn't be too hopeful.

Note I have a rather large landfill and a massive petrochemical plant in my "back garden", so it's not like I don't know where you are coming from.

[manicscousers]

I'm not against the principle, apart from the hormone etc concerns. It's purely the stench and the proximity to the primary school, it's eased off now because of the heavy rain, maybe that's why they spread it when they did 

[ACE]

Think yourself lucky you don't live in North Korea. That is all they use, in its natural form.

[Gordonmull]

I doubt there'd be any issues with hormones since they are organic chemicals and will have almost certainly have been eaten by the bacteria in the sludge digestion stage. I can't say 100% certain but this stuff should be safe, given what it has been put through. Also, I think the authorities are leaning on the side of super safety because it could be very expensive if someone did get a disease or another health issue due to land application.

I really wouldn't worry for the kids, I can understand why you would, but what goes into the sewage plant is very different to what comes out. It is truly a remarkable process and utilises natural systems, even down to protozoa eating bacterial pathogens from the input. There is very little chemical treatment of sewage in the UK, we just help nature do it for us.

I hope I've maybe given you some reassurance in terms of health issues. Like I say, I can't be 100% certain and, like the regulators, I have to give myself some plausible deniability but I really don't think there's anything to worry about.

As for the stink? Can't help you there  It can't be worse than cow slurry, though, can it?

ACE - if they just did that here it would save mega £££'s. We could take over a whole new third world country with the savings. Maybe North Korea...?