The Oglethorpe Echo
Chairman Jay Paul said there have been minimal complaints about sludge since the Oglethorpe County Board of Commissioners passed a soil amendment ordinance last year.
“The sludge issue has been, relatively speaking, very quiet in the county,” he said. “I’ll take that as a good sign because it shows that we’re going to do everything we can on the local level to address this issue.”
The ordinance calls for soil amendment applications to be no closer than 100 feet to property lines. It gives the county power to investigate application sites and report any issues to the Department of Agriculture or Environmental Protection Division.
It also allows the county to investigate application sites to ensure they are adhering to the ordinance and report any issues to the Department of Agriculture or Environmental Protection Division.
While soil amendments are subject to limited regulations by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, application proximity to property lines is not included. Because of this, counties without local legislation have continued to struggle with sludge.
Complaints often center around the foul smell and unwanted pests. Also, there are concerns about possible harmful contaminants found in soil amendments made from industrial byproducts and biosolids.
Previous reporting by The Oglethorpe Echo found sludge can contain any mixture of up to 550 different ingredients. The Georgia Department of Agriculture tests for only nitrogen, phosphorus and heavy metals.
While no long-term research has been done, the Ecology Center of Michigan and the Sierra Club published a report in 2021 in which nine home fertilizers made from sewage waste were tested for toxic PFAS chemicals.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are synthetic chemicals that “pose a threat to food crops and waterways.”
The report found these chemicals in every product, including one from Madison, Georgia. An acceptable limit of PFOS, a subset of PFAS, in biosolids is 5.2, but the report found Madison’s Pro Care All Natural Fertilizer had a level of 14.9.
PFOS is considered a global pollutant by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
All of the products tested are available for purchase at local retailers.
Property owners who complain of nearby sludge dumping, on the other hand, often don’t have the luxury of knowing what particular product is being applied to the land or its origin.
“Other counties may not be faring as well as we are, and I have empathy for them,” Paul said. “My guess is other counties that may be receiving more of this may not have any (legislation) on the local level.”