Commissioners hear experts speak about biosolids

Wahkiakum County will have an ordinance regulating the application of biosolids--processed human waste--but how restrictive it will be remains to be seen.

County commissioners hosted an hour-long seminar on biosolids on Tuesday, hearing processors, regulators, scientists and consumers in an effort to learn more about the process.

Commissioners Blair Brady and Dan Cothren expressed reservations about the application of biosolids to farm land before the program started, and they had those reservations when the program was over.

Brady said he would ask Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow to continue drafting a proposed ordinance that would allow application in some areas but restrict them in others.

The concerns and uncertainties lay in the differences in classes of biosolids.

Speakers lauded Class A biosolids, which receive the most treatment, as a powerful fertilizer that has little impact or offensive odor. The speakers remarked that Class B biosolids are almost as heavily treated as Class A biosolids and have no adverse impacts if applied properly with setbacks from bodies of water and with time restrictions for contact with animals or harvesting of crops.

Duane Leaf, supervisor of the Three Rivers Waste Water Treatment plant serving Longview, Kelso and nearby systems, sad the process for making biosolids is heavily regulated. The result is product that has an earthy odor and is excellent fertilizer. Treatment involves application of industrial lime to the treated waste water; that kills the pathogens in a pasteurization process. The process is monitored continually, he said.

The biosolids are used as fertilizer on farms and tree farms.

Because of their treatment process, Class A biosolids may be applied without permit, Leaf said; Class B biosolids are applied through a site specific permitting process.

"By the time it reaches the countryside, I can't think of a safer product, A or B," he said.

Sally Brown, a University of Washington professor specializing in biosolids research, echoed Leaf's claims of safety and utility of the product.

The lime treatment process kills any harmful organisms, she said. The biosolids effectively bind metals that might be present, and in fact, biosolids have been used to clean hazardous waste sites such as a lead-zinc mine site.

Class A biosolids are treated with quicklime for 10 hours, she said, and Class B materials are treated for eight hours.

Class A biosolids should be 100 percent pure, and Class B would be 99 percent pure, said Daniel Thompson, state biosolids coordinator for the state Department of Ecology.

Patrick McKay Beach, a Puget Island farmer, said he has been applying biosolids on his farm and on the Stanley Farm, which he managed for a year, and had wonderful results. He displayed a plastic bag containing some of the material.

"It looks like dirt; it smells like fertilizer," he said.

Another visitor, Kate Kurtz, a Seattle woman who just earned a master's degree in forest management, said she started a community garden program in Seattle that uses composted biosolids for its fertilizer.

There was little discussion of the proposed Class B biosolids disposal site proposed for a Grays River farm that stirred up public comment and led the commissioners to propose an ordinance regulating biosolid application in the county.

The site and permit application are being reviewed by the DOE.

"I'm not going to go into that particular permit," Thompson said. "I was at the meeting in Grays River. We learned a lot at the public hearing; the application is being re-evaluated."

In the end, commissioners said they had no problem with the Class A biosolids; they were concerned by the less heavily treated Class B biosolids.

"Our major concern is Class B biosolids," Commission Chair Blair Brady said.

"I have a problem with Class B," said Cothren. "There are unknowns. We're part of the health department; we have to look out for the interests of our constituents. Through the years, something could surface."

"I'm for Class A," said Commissioner Lisa Marsyla. "Class B--I don't want a ban but there could be specific areas where they could be applied or prohibited."

"That's the guidance I'll give the prosecutor," Brady said.