Bio-solids

Anyone using them on their farmland? I have been offered quite a bit more per acre to use my land for crops and applying bio-solids for fertilization. This is all regulated by the DEP. Any thoughts?

Daryl,

You'll get all of the do's and don't's from the DEP. My only observation is that it really stinks up the place for quite a bit of time, or at least that's what happened on my friend's dairy farm in Georgia. Also, he wasn't able to graze the land for a considerable amount of time after the application.

Good luck with your decision.

Tom in TN

All I know is,somebody stopped here wanting a place to put it when they cleaned the lagoon at the Community College. Said they were going to need to do it late summer,early fall. I told him we could probably do it in corn stubble after we filled silo. The guy never came back.

They've been using it around here for years. Little smell, and they lime for higher ph. Not much smell in the stuff they're using, and MDA says they have spread and incorporate within a short period.

If they're true biosolids from a sewage treatment plant, and have gone through the heat cycle they're supposed to, there will be very little smell- just kind of a vinegary odor. Friend spread it on wheat ground, and seemed to get a good boost in production. Still doing it, after 20 years or so, I think. And local guy gets paid to take it- farms several hundred acres now (cattle and hay), not sure if he makes much beyond what he's paid to take the biosolids.

Get everything in writing, including repairs to field entrances, or roads they might damage, when applying. We used to have Bio-gro apply to our farms, they changed their name to Syna-grow, or something like that, might have changed it again, who keeps up with this sh!t??? They get paid very well, by the local gov'ts, to truck out the sludge (let's be honest, that is what bio-solids are!) Now, with all this save the bay BS, you can't apply in Dec, Jan, or Feb, because the goobermint knows better than you, how to fertilize your crops.

Neighbor did it. For 2 years every day it got
humid it smelled like a sewage treatment plant for
miles.

They do it at the farm across the road from us. It smelled a bit the 1st day or so, then I didn't notice it. These guys injected it, and covered it up. The only place you could see anything was where they started a field, and where they ended.

Remember, it has been treated for pathogens, but there are a number of things that can survive treatment. Also, you have no idea of whatelse may be contained in any load that is spread. They only test for about 9 items, most of which are heavy metals. None of the organic chemicals are included at all. So, it is more money, but there is still some risk you take in what can happen to your land. Find out where the stuff is coming from. That could be important.

I work as a bio-solids applicator operator in Michigan, and have done this for almost 9 years now.

If you have any direct questions, you can feel free to e-mail them to me, my email should be open.

I won't BS you on the answers either! I had it done on my fields when I was farming, and my grandpa/uncle have used it for many years now..

my email is gydefamilyfarm (at) hotmail (dot) com

Seriously, you can contact me with specific questions.. I just opt not to say much in a public forum (you know, you hear about people losing jobs and whatnot due to things on the web, and honestly, I like and need my job)

Brad

It is used heavily in my area on pine timber stands, it is spread by airplane and blows all over peoples pastures and yards, been going on at least 15 years that I know of with no ill effects.

I did code enforcement for 15 years here.Fellow came to me complaining about his water stinking.It was bad smelled of cow crap.Gave him a water test kit and went looking for the source .Found a pile of cow manure about 400 feet away a bit up hill across the road.You could see run off building up behind the road,the area was full of gravel and had a lot of springs on it.The manure was piled on ledge a real bad thing to do because water tends to follow ledge.I went to the farm and explained the problem and they would have to move the pile.They were slow moving the pile and did poor job.There were medicine bottles, syringes with needle on them milker inflations and broken glass.I went back to the farm and told them to clean up everthing.2 weeks later nothing had been done.I called the State dept of Agricuture.Fellow came out and told them to clean up or lose milk license.This farm was shut down because of stream pollution.A women came out to see me ,she worked for the sludge co.They wanted to spread sludge on 2 large fields.I showed her the problem spot where the manure had polluted a well.She agreeded that no sludge should spread there.Toms well finally tested good but he had a new well drilled.My Uncles well got polluted by chicken manure that was piled 200 feet away.That was in the late 40s.Water tends to travel long distances in seams of sand and thru ledge.I have some papers on the danger of sewerage sludge. No one knows what is dumped into city sewers.Solvents and oils are dumped to avoid big fees.I would not use the crap on my land.Your choice.

Guy I know at the next town gets solid waste from sewage treatment plant and claims to have good luck with it. I have noticed a lot of plastic and other junk in his fields that people have flushed down the drain.