dioxins and other hazardous wastes in fertilizers

["Susan K. Snow" <sksnow@1stnet.com>]

  The following was posted to the Health and Environment Resource Center 
  HEALTHE Digest - 5 Jul 1997 to 8 Jul 1997.  The Seattle Times version
  was carried in the state newspaper, Saturday's edition of The Advocate,
  for Louisiana.  --Susan Snow 
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  Report: Toxics Used in Fertilizers
  .c The Associated Press
  
  SEATTLE (AP) - Toxic heavy metals, chemicals and radioactive wastes are
  being recycled as fertilizer and spread over farmers' fields nationwide
  - and there is no federal law requiring that they be listed as
  ingredients, The Seattle Times reported.
  
  The issue came to light in the central Washington town of Quincy,
  population 4,000, when Mayor Patty Martin led an investigation by local
  farmers concerned about poor yields and sickly cattle.
  
  ``It's really unbelievable what's happening, but it's true,'' Martin
  told the newspaper, which published a series about the practice on
  Thursday and Friday.
  
  Until now, the state Department of Agriculture sampled fertilizers only
  to see if they contained advertised levels of beneficial substances.
  
  But the state is currently testing a cross-section of fertilizer
  products to see if they threaten crops, livestock or people, the Seattle
  Post-Intelligencer reported Friday.
  
  ``The key question is what toxics are, as it were, along for the ride in
  fertilizers,'' said Tom Fitzsimmons, director of the state Department of
  Ecology.
  
  Use of industrial waste as a fertilizer ingredient is a growing national
  phenomenon, The Times reported.
  
  In Gore, Okla., a uranium-processing plant gets rid of low-level
  radioactive waste by licensing it as a liquid fertilizer and spraying it
  over 9,000 acres of grazing land.
  
  At Camas, Wash., lead-laced waste from a pulp mill is hauled to farms
  and spread over crops destined for livestock feed.
  
  In Moxee City, Wash., dark powder from two Oregon steel mills is poured
  from rail cars into silos at Bay Zinc Co. under a federal hazardous
  waste storage permit. Then it is emptied from the silos for use as
  fertilizer. The newspaper called the powder a toxic byproduct of
  steel-making but did not identify it.
  
  ``When it goes into our silo, it's a hazardous waste,'' said Bay Zinc's
  president, Dick Camp. ``When it comes out of the silo, it's no longer
  regulated. The exact same material.''
  
  Federal and state governments encourage the recycling, which saves money
  for industry and conserves space in hazardous-waste landfills.
  
  The substances found in recycled fertilizers include cadmium, lead,
  arsenic, radioactive materials and dioxins, the Times reported. The
  wastes come from incineration of medical and municipal wastes, and from
  heavy industries including mining, smelting, cement kilns and wood
  products.
  
  Mixed and handled correctly, some industrial wastes can help crops grow,
  but beneficial materials such as nitrogen and magnesium often are
  accompanied by dangerous heavy metals such as cadmium and lead, the
  Times said.
  
  ``Nowhere in the country has a law that says if certain levels of heavy
  metals are exceeded, it can't be a fertilizer,'' said Ali Kashani, who
  directs fertilizer regulation in Washington state.
  
  Unlike many other industrialized nations, the United States does not
  regulate fertilizers. That makes it virtually impossible to figure out
  how much fertilizer contains recycled hazardous wastes. And laws in most
  states, including Washington, are far from stringent.
  
  Canada's limit for heavy metals such as lead and cadmium in fertilizer
  is 10 to 90 times lower than the U.S. limit for metals in sewage sludge,
  while the United States has no limit for metals in fertilizer, the
  newspaper said.
  
  ``This is a definite problem,'' said Richard Loeppert, a soil scientist
  at Texas A&M University and author of several published papers on toxic
  elements in fertilizers. ``The public needs to know.''
  
  AP-NY-07-06-97 1815EDT