This just came in the Nov. 10, 2011 issue of the JBG Organic Farm newsletter.

I’ll just reprint the relevant section.

BTW, “biosolids” is just a bullshit “pretty it up” term for treated sewage sludge.

From the Farmer’s Perspective:

I wish I could say that the title of this newsletter didn’t have a literal meaning, but, unfortunately, this time, it really does.  A few weeks ago when I was driving out to River Road, I saw trucks from the City of Austin’s Hornsby Bend waste treatment plant dumping truckloads of biosolids onto the farm next to JBG.   After talking with the landowner, I found out that Hornsby Bend gave him the biosolids for free and also delivered and spread that material.  From my observation, it appears that the City of Austin applied around 100 truckloads of biosolids to this farmland.  Seeing this really upset me because applying biosolids can make land unusable for food production for years.  Given the shrinking availability of farmland in the area and the region’s increasing population, the City and the County should not be endorsing a policy that harms what little farmland remains.

After witnessing this being dumped and spread, I called the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to find out about restrictions for organic farming on land to which biosolids have been applied.  Mary Ellen Holliman, Coordinator of Organics, and Richard De Los Santos, Coordinator for Horticulture, Produce and Forestry Marketing, told me that land to which biosolids have been applied cannot be certified organic for 3 years based on Federal law under the National Organic Program.  More importantly, they said that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the State of Texas have very stringent rules for producing crops for human consumption.  Biosolids are grouped into two classes based on hazard level, and depending on the classification, they thought it could be an up to 10 year wait before land applied with biosolids could be brought back into production for food crops.

I am also concerned that the City and County do not adequately enforce the required waiting period for growing food crops once biosolids have been applied.  It isn’t clear how food produced on land to which biosolids have been applied is kept out of the area food system.  In fact, there appears to be very little oversight, and as a farmer, I was even encouraged to use biosolids when I toured the facilities at Hornsby Bend.   At that time, I was offered biosolids for purchase for a fertilizer for my commercial vegetable farm.  I then did some research and found that I could not use this for food production under State and Federal law, and, therefore, did not purchase anything from the plant.  The staff at Hornsby Bend, however, did not tell me any of this despite knowing that I was a vegetable grower.  Instead, I had to do the research myself.

By allowing biosolids to be spread on area farms, the City and Travis County put valuable farmland out of commission for years and endanger the health of their citizens through lax oversight.  Instead, the City and County should adopt a policy that prohibits biosolids from being applied to farmland for food or hay crops.  Since witnessing the dumping of biosolids at the farm next to JBG, I have been trying to get the word out to other growers and the public about the current City and County policy.  I thank you for taking the time to read this, and I will keep you posted on any actions you can take in the future to help change this harmful practice.

It’s bothersome this stuff is being utilized as it is.

10 years is a mighty long time… that’s a lot of damage being done to the soil.

It’s more bothersome that, despite the use of sewage sludge being illegal for food production, the city agents offered it to him to use.

And the city is still doling it out.

Gee… and Austin touts itself as such a “green” city. Seems a little brown to me….