Answers to Questions about Biosolids
What are biosolids?
Biosolids are nutrient-rich organic matter resulting from the treatment of wastewater. When treated and processed, this by-product can be recycled and applied like a fertilizer to improve and maintain productive soils and stimulate plant growth.
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Where are biosolids applied?
Farmers and gardeners have been recycling biosolids for ages. Biosolids help grow crops, fertilize gardends and parks and reclaim mining sites. Recycling of biosolids on land has increased over the past 20 years. Over 50 percent of all biosolids in the U.S. are managed through recycling. Land application of biosolids takes place in all 50 states.
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What are the benefits of land applying biosolids?
Land application of biosolids is beneficial to farmers, municipalities, and the community. Biosolids recycling and reuse add nutrients and positive soil characteristics to agricultural land, which increases crop proction. Recycling biosolids saves local and state governments significant amounts of money through lower management costs and keeping biosolids out of landfills and placing them where they can be beneficially used helps preserve valuable landfill space.
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Are biosolids safe?
Decades of studies have demonstrated that biosolids can be safely used on non-human consumed crops. The National Academy of Sciences has reviewed current practices, public health concerns and regulator standards, and has concluded that "the use of these materials in the production of crops for human consumption when practiced in accordance with existing federal guidelines and regulations, presents negligible risk to the consumer, to crop production and to the environment." In addition, an epidemiological study of the health of farm families using biosolids showed that the use of biosolids was safe.
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Where can i find out more about the regulations?
The biosolids rule is described in the EPA publication, A Plain English Guide to the EPA Part 503 Biosolids Rule. This guide states and interprets the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) Part 503 rule for the general reader. This guide is also available in hard copy. In addition to the Plain English Guide, EPA has prepare A Guide to the Biosolids Risk Assessments for the EPA Part 503 Rule which shows the many steps followed to develop the scientifically defensible, safe set of rules (also available from EPA in hard copy.
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Why do we have biosolids?
Thirty years ago, thousands of American cities dumped their raw sewage directly into the nation's rivers, lakes, and bays. Today's wastewater treatment technology separates the water from the solids during treatment, allowing discharged water to be safer and solids to be recycled back into the nutrient cycle.
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Why are biosolids recycled?
Recycling keeps this material out of rapidly disappearing landfills. Biosolids recycling is the best means of returning to the soil, nutrients and organic matter that were originally removed in agricultural products and consumed by the public. Land application of biosolids is recycling a resource, just like recycling newspapers or bottles. If the right safeguards are taken, biosolids recycling can be environmentally sound and even beneficial to certain soils.
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