Biosolids are not safe

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To the Editor:
Ohio’s “biosolids” business model is absurd and dangerous. OEPA promotes the use of biosolids like they
are the marketing arm of the sewage industry when they are a regulatory agency put in place to protect
not only Ohio citizens but farmers as well. They are and have been failing.
Biosolids are made from industry, medical, stormdrain run off which included everything thrown on the
surface and Household sewage which includes feces, urine and every chemical use in homes.
In Ohio someone is making a great deal of money bringing in out of state sewage. Betsy VanWormer of the
OEPA states it comes from ALCOSAN, Pennsylvania, NEFCO, Massachusetts, Metro Biosolids, Illinois, Point
Pleasant & Camp Conley, West Virginia who both set a rock’s throw from the Dupont facility in
Parkersburg. They’re the makers of PFAS chemicals, plus South Dearborn & Rising Sun, Indiana,
and NEFCO Michigan. And don’t forget Ohio’s sewage.
Our government will not look at independent studies showing biosolids are dangerous. But they cannot
ignore the EPA’s Office of Inspector General’s report 14-P-0363 on industrial pretreatment and how it
has never worked — nor can it ever. Also worth a look is 19-P-0002; “EPA Unable to Assess the Impact of
Hundreds of Unregulated Pollutants in Land-Applied Biosolids on Human Health and the Environment”
On Oct. 21, the U.S. EPA responded to a farmer asking if biosolids are “safe.” Elizabeth Resek of the
U.S. EPA said, “Right now, the EPA cannot say that the pollutants found in biosolids will not cause
harmful effects to you, your crops or your livestock. We will know more when we assess these chemicals
(Biosolids Biennial Review Reporting Period 2016–2017) something we are actively working on. You’re
asking important questions. Your decision to use (or not use) biosolids will have to be based on how
comfortable you are with not knowing what harm the pollutants in the biosolids might cause.”
Ohio’s farms have become a target for every neighboring state and their contaminated sewage which is a
major cause of cancer, chronic diseases and birth defects when exposed.
Farmers are not told any of what I have written. They are told sewage biosolids are beneficial and “safe”
for the environment and it is free.
Biosolids are over burdened with phosphates the cause of Lake Erie’s algae.
Craig Monk
Waxahachie, Texas

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