Unite • Be HeardAboutBlog
If you’re looking for common sense, don’t waste time looking in the 503 Rule. There’s just none to be found.
How nuts is it that toxins like mercury, dioxin, arsenic, lead and fuels—which were all detected in our sludge testing—can’t be dumped in the landfill because they are classified as “hazardous waste that can harm the environment”, but sewage sludge (“biosolids”)—that contains all of these pollutants—is classified as “fertilizer” and is dumped on farmland near homes and schools and on top of critical groundwater supplies (oh ya, and your food can be grown in it, and oh ya, it can be dumped in the landfill too). That math doesn’t jive.
And does it make sense to you that sludge can’t be dumped on rain-soaked farmland for fear of leaching and run-off in stormwater, but it can be dumped by the truck load just before a torrential downpour? I’ve seen it happen. Nuts? Yep. Common sense? Zip.
I could go on and on with examples like this that illustrate the madness of the 503 Rule. And rest assured, over the course of this blog, I will. It is so high time for change. Let’s do this thing! Join us!
Mom on a Mission503,
-Paula
