Sowing the Seeds of Self-Reliance for Forty Years
America’s Farmlands Are
New Hazardous Waste Dumps
26 July 97
by Geri Guidetti
All contents copyright © 1997, Geri Guidetti. All rights reserved.
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I get a lot of mail and email in a week. People see things happening in fields and farms near their homes, and they want to share it, especially when they see something that concerns them. Many letters contain newspaper clippings of local stories that never quite make it to national coverage. The day before yesterday I opened my mail to find a special report from The Seattle Times entitled, Fear in the Fields. It was aptly titled, and after reading it, I would add "anger" to the emotions it evokes. I tossed my original Update and decided it was more important that I share this information with you immediately.
According to the lengthy investigation and report printed as a series in The Seattle Times on July 3, 4 and 13, massive amounts of this country’s hazardous industrial wastes—including such toxic heavy metals as lead, cadmium, arsenic and even radioactive substances—are being incorporated into fertilizers that are unwittingly being applied to agricultural lands all over the United States. All of this is being done, according to the series, with the approval and even the blessings of the EPA. How could this BE?
Rail cars arrive at Bay Zinc Co. in Moxee City, Washington carrying toxic waste from two Oregon steel mills. Bay Zinc has a federal permit to store hazardous wastes in two silos attached to the company. The toxic waste goes into the top of each silo and is then taken out of the bottom as raw material for fertilizer. According to the Times piece, Bay Zinc’s President, Dick Camp, said, "When it goes into our silo, it’s a hazardous waste. When it comes out of the silo, it’s no longer regulated. The exact same material. Don’t ask me why. That’s the wisdom of the EPA."
The Seattle Times investigated. What they report can only be described as a nightmare:
Industrial waste laden with toxic heavy metals including lead, cadmium and arsenic is being recycled as fertilizer ingredients in the United States.
It is being spread on crop fields—legally.
Gore, Oklahoma:
A uranium processing plant is spraying 9000 acres of grazing land with 10 million gallons per year of its low-level radioactive waste by licensing it as liquid fertilizer. State and federal officials approved the "fertilizer" in 1986. The material is being piped to 75 acres of Bermuda grass pasture where up to 400 cattle graze. A two-nosed cow, a nine-legged frog and 124 cases of cancer and birth defects in families living near the plant have occurred. There is no proof it is related to the fertilizer program.
Tifton County, Georgia:
Five southeastern steel mills paid Sogreen Corp. to take their waste, a dust consisting of 10 percent zinc, 3.6 percent lead , cadmium and chromium. Sogreen dubbed its product, a mixture of one part waste plus three parts lime, "Lime Plus." Zinc was listed as a micro-nutrient. There was no mention of lead, cadmium and chromium as ingredients. Over 1000 acres of peanut crops grown for human consumption were killed by the mixture. Farmers who used it are trying to detoxify their soils. They don’t want their names or farms identified.
Deer Trail, Colorado farmers have doubts about Denver’s plan to cycle liquid waste from the Lowry Landfill, one of the worst Superfund sites in the country, through its sewage treatment facility, combine it with sewage sludge and apply it to a 50,000 acre wheat farm owned by the government. The Times states:
"The EPA is considering the novel disposal plan in a ruling that may set a precedent for new ways to clean up Superfund sites. A public comment period ended June 30."
Stoller Chemical of Charleston sent 3000 tons of cadmium and lead-loaded waste for fertilizer to Bangladesh and Australia in 1992. They did not notify the EPA of especially toxic shipment, and a U. S. attorney noted that "We just happened to catch it." They were fined $1 million. The fertilizer, in the meantime, had been spread on rice fields in Bangladesh before it was recalled. In Australia it had been used on pastures and by market gardeners.
Two California fertilizer companies are being investigated for mixing zinc into a hazardous waste product to sell as a "zinc-based fertilizer." Similar investigations are ongoing in Missouri, New York and Texas.
By attaching a fertilizer factory to the Nucor steel mill in Nebraska, Alabama-based Frit Industries avoided having to get a federal permit to use some of its toxic byproducts. The black waste comes from a pollution-control device in the steel mill’s chimney. It is rich in zinc, a plant nutrient. It is also rich in lead and cadmium. The dust is a federal hazardous waste unless it is turned into fertilizer. The Frit fertilizer product is sold to fertilizer dealers in the heart of U.S. corn country and "to custom blenders throughout the Midwest," according to the Times.
An Idaho organic fertilizer manufacturer, John Hatfield, is quoted:
"Nucor didn’t want to ship their lead zinc dust to Monterrey, Mexico at $100 a ton, and so they got Frit Industries to move in there. You say, how do I know that? Because they asked me to do it before Frit." Hatfield declined.
In Camas, Washington, a highly corrosive, state-classified, dangerous waste is collected from the chimney of a paper mill on the Columbia River. Seven hundred tons of the stuff is collected a month. Workers add water to it, put it into trucks and bring it to six farms where it is spread on 425 acres of farmland. It is then called "NutriLime", a farm product registered for use in Washington and Oregon. It’s turned into soils growing oats, grass, clover and other pasture for livestock. In samples of the ash tested by state regulators in 1991, 4 parts per million of lead were found. Later tests showed 562 parts per million. According to the Times, mill manager A.G. Elsbree said, "The popularity of NutriLime is growing daily, and we look forward to serving the agricultural community."
A trucker picks up toxic ash from a plant in California and has to hang a hazardous waste sign on his truck. When he crosses the border into Nevada, Oregon or Washington, he can take the sign off. The hazardous waste is now a fertilizer component.
Okay, I could cite examples forever, but let’s look at the bigger picture, instead. The Seattle Times investigation found that industrial wastes laden with dangerous heavy metals and other materials are being spread over farmlands as fertilizer across the nation. There is a lack of federal regulation and labeling requirements, so farmers know what plant nutrients are in the fertilizer but nothing about the toxic compounds. Canada and European countries refuse to buy toxic industrial byproducts that are routinely spread on American farms. Canada’s limits on lead and cadmium in fertilizers is 10 to 90 times lower than our limit for metals in sewage sludge. The U.S. has no limit for metals in fertilizer, according to the Times.
Mere trace amounts of lead cause developmental defects in children. Lead in paint is regulated. Lead in gasoline is regulated. Lead in food cans is regulated. Lead in fertilizer is not regulated and is never disclosed on fertilizer labels even when it is found to be as high as 3 percent of the product. When farmers and orchardists and market gardeners spread these fertilizers according to the manufacturer’s directions on the bag, they are unwittingly spreading toxic lead and other unknown hazards as well.
Bill Liebhardt is Chairman of the Sustainable Agriculture Department of the University of California-Davis once worked for fertilizer companies. He is quoted:
"When I heard of people mixing this toxic waste in fertilizer, I was astounded. And it seems to be a legal practice. I’d never heard of something like that—getting cadmium or lead when you think you’re only getting zinc. Even if it’s legal, to me it’s just morally and ethically bankrupt that you would take this toxic material and mix it into something that is beneficial and then sell that to unsuspecting people. To me it is just outrageous."
Worse, a physician with the National Lead Information Center said she had no idea that lead was being recycled into fertilizer. She said she was under the impression that lead was no longer allowed in fertilizer. As far as safety of lead is concerned, she said, "There is no safe level."
Why does it go on? Just because no one is watching? More than that: It’s very profitable. According to soils scientists, industries are calling all the time to find out how they can recycle their hazardous wastes into fertilizer. In at least 26 states, according to the series, programs exist to try to match hazardous waste generators with "recyclers." Rufus Chaney of U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Research Service said, "It is irresponsible to create unnecessary limits that cost a hell of a lot of money." He explained , "Recycle and reuse, that’s our national strategy. It costs so much more to put it in a landfill. And if the recycling program avoids any chance of risk, then it’s a responsible program."
Avoids any chance of risk? Responsible program? There is little science to support that. The simple fact is, we just don’t KNOW what the risks are. We don’t measure or regulate any of the toxic materials in these fertilizers. Manufacturers only have to list the plant nutrient values—you know, N-P-K. And heavy metals don’t go away. They accumulate, blow into the wind, run off into surface water and can end up in reservoirs and wells. If you don’t know what’s in each bag of chemicals, how do you KNOW there is no chance of risk? Of course there’s risk. There IS no safe level for lead. There is much data accumulating on the dangers of cadmium. We already know arsenic is no good for us. And these are only a few of the hazards in these toxic mixes.
Then there’s the really BIG question: Are our foods laced with heavy metals taken up with soil nutrients from these toxic fertilizers? Will they be as this practice spreads? The uptake of metals by plants tends to be different for different crops. For example, the accumulation of aluminum in trees in dying forests exposed to acid rain, has been implicated in their deaths. Then there were those peanuts in Georgia. There was sickly wheat and corn in fertilized farms in Washington State. There were dead cows. Then there were the high levels of aluminum, antimony, lead, arsenic and cadmium found in the hair of children who live on a Washington farm fertilized by these "products." No risk.
Yesterday, I had written that the winter wheat harvest was going well. Though much less was planted this year, 72% had been harvested by July 20th. Corn in the Corn Belt is behind average in maturity for this time of the year, stressed by both a cool spring and then by prolonged hot and dry conditions. Soybean condition declined due to the same hot, dry conditions that afflicted corn fields. Spring wheat condition is a mixed bag and needs to be watched carefully. Here in Maryland, seven consecutive weeks without significant rain has left most agricultural land natural disaster areas. Farmers in this state have lost over half the corn crop, most of the soybeans and an estimated 90% of vegetable crops. The Ark Institute’s corn is about three feet high and in tassel. A sad sight, indeed.
Yet, all of this pales in importance this week as we consider a more insidious threat to our food safety and supply. How much toxic waste in our soils will finally amount to too much? Is there some unseen threshold we’ll reach before we begin to see serious, irreversible problems? Will cause and effect be clear or will clusters of new syndromes, diseases, defects and disorders occur for which there are no clear etiologies, no known cures? One has only to look at the Gulf War Disease debacle to answer that one. And, who do we hold responsible?
I suggest WE are responsible for what happens to our farm lands, to our foods. Once again, willingly transferring ALL responsibility for the production and delivery of your food and water to an increasingly small handful of growers, businesses and agencies takes YOU out of the loop. It’s a system begging for abuses. If this makes any sense to you, learn more; write for The Seattle Times Special Report: Fear in the Fields Reprint, Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111-0070 They ask for $1 to cover postage and handling. It is also on the WWW: http://www.seattletimes.com
In the meantime, learn to grow your own food now. Learn to make organic fertilizers from your own clean yard and garden debris. Finding clean land may become increasingly difficult in the near future; create your own where you are or where you are going. Create good soil: black gold. It really is more valuable than that yellow stuff....Geri Guidetti, The Ark Institute
Food and Grain Supply Updates may be reprinted without permission IF no revisions are made and copyright and signature files remain intact.
All contents copyright © 1997, Geri Guidetti. All rights reserved.
Revised: 26 July 97
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