EDITORIAL – Bold action is required to find the answer to biosolids issue
Biochar, created by gasifying old tires, biosolids and wood chips. (Image, City of Lebanon, Tennessee.
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
IF YOU’RE GOING TO STAGE a protest at a government office, do it when the politicians are there. You won’t find many City councillors at Kamloops City Hall on a Saturday.
Still, the rally on the weekend in protest against the City’s contract to spread biosolids on land in Turtle Valley sent a message that the disposal of sewage sludge remains an unresolved issue.
The science on the application of biosolids to agricultural land is incomplete. On the one hand, it’s acknowledged to be effective in rehabilitating depleted soil, and has been used on reclamation of mining sites, for example.
But, on the other, there’s much study to be done on the possible leaching of contaminants. While some of the rhetoric is likely alarmist, there are legitimate concerns about potential health impacts.
Although the City formed a Biosolids Management Stakeholders Committee a year ago, little is ever heard from it. Thus far, the City has put its eggs in the basket of composting and land application.
The City-hosted committee’s objectives were to “gather background information about the production and management” of biosolids and to find a long-term solution.
The Province, too, has wrestled with how to satisfy public concerns about the sludge. So far, the most definitive statement from any of them is that “there’s no easy solution.” It’s clear, however, that land application is not going to be a long-term answer as far as many people are concerned.
Alternative solutions are out there. Gasification is successfully used elsewhere to create electric energy from biosolids.
The objection to gasification plants is always that they’re costly. But until government is willing to reject the ordinary and find its spine, talk of a long-term solution is going to stay just talk.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
What the City could have done long ago is to setup a test plot facility over at Cinnamon Ridge (possibly in conjunction with TRU) to test various combinations of biosolids mixed with their good quality plant compost. The monitored, successfull mixes could’ve then be used to topdress some of the floral displays throughout the City to further confirm their viability as growing medium. And then perhaps, the biosolids would’ve gain a bit more of a “floral” reception.
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I do not understand the need for disposal of biosilids on domestic agricultural land.I do understand the growing need to dispose of it. The protesters (and generally I am one of them ) tell me that biosolids are toxic but fail to give imperical proof based on verifyable science. The product stinks. So does cattle and horse and pig manuer but these are rutinely (?) spread on Ag land. The city must take more time to reduce any pathogens and reducee the amount of toxics chemicals and metles in the product and make it a class one product.
Bio solids have been used around the world for thousands of years with little regard to the toxicity. (which usually doesn’t reach harmfull leveals ) The so called “night soil ” is untreated humanwaste and has been applied to ag soil forever.
Humanity produces stagering quantities of waste (even the folks of Turttle valley. What do you do with yours ???? As the population of Earth continues to outpace the Rabbits then so to will our production of waste products.
It seems to me that the locations for disposal have been the main problem .It is done to areas like Dallas ,Barnhartvale ,and Turttle valley and thousands of other sites around Turttle island. It it spread in these places because it is cheaper to do so than put it on clearcut forestry blocks.The forest land that has been destroyed by clearcutting has undergone a double whammy as far as nutrients are concerned . The application of biosolids on these areas would solve (at least to some considerable extent ) the problems around disposal of biosolids.
IT MUST GO SOMEWHERE.Where do you suggest ? Why do ag people still spread critter crap on their fields ? It stinks too and has many of the same pathogens and drug residues in it. It’s a communal problem and the community must step up and try to help solve the problem.All of us must recognise the problem and instead of continually bitching become part of the solution.
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If biosolids are deemed to be safe, then why is the City not using the material in parks and playgrounds to enhance the growth of grass?
Also, an outlet, such as at Cinnamon Ridge, could be available for biosolids to be sold to the general public for use in flower beds, gardens and on lawns.
We could also see it be sold in prepackaged amounts at our favourite retailers that deal with lawn & garden products.
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The lack of transparency around this whole “stinky” deal REAKS at the expense of of the Turtle Valley watershed and all life in it!
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Until the Kamloops Sewage Treatment facility was upgraded a number of years ago, all biosolids went to Cinnomon Ridge to be mixed with mulch and other organics and sold as topsoil and used by the city. It is likely that the majority of flower beds and gardens in the city already have biosolids incorporated in them as is the same with many municipalities across North America.
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I don’t believe that information is correct at all. The biosolids used to go down the river before the upgrade at the sewage lagoons.
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At issue here is the massive amount of biosolid materials being dumped on agriculture land without appropriate consultation with neighbours and without comprehensive testing on resulting contamination of the soil for all eternity. Three feet of biosolid materials on a hillside above a lake, and creek, a watersource that would be unprotected from leaching and runoffs. This watersource has the potential to migrate into the little shuswap lake contaminating salmon habitat and ultimately making it’s way downstream from there. This is nothing more than a massive dump. I believe it is 770 Arrow truckloads. Kamloops residents need to be made aware of what their local politicians have authorized. I Rather than criticizing the day of the protest, you should be supporting it. Would you want three feet of toxic sludge dumped all over your neighbourhood producing horrendous smell and affecting your drinking water? Support the residents of Turtle Valley! This is unacceptable.
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The problem is many regular folks work during the week and cannot easily travel, hence the Saturday protest. What is truly truly truly disappointing is the way City council (past and present) and senior staff handled this issue. There is no way regular folks should need to show up for these types of protests!
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Previous comment on people having to work during the week is a great comment. Regular hard working parents paying hard earned taxes to have to take weekends off and organize and confront the threat to their way of life and health shouldn’t be their main concern. I’m not sure how city councillors can sleep knowing that this decision destroys others lives. If you had to wake up and smell and taste this stench every day and worry about your children’s health you would be out there protesting too. Out of sight out of mind.
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