Is sewage fertilizer safe? Explore This Story Feces, urine,
vomit, blood. Synthetic hormones, heart pills, antibiotics,
illicit drugs, Viagra. Bacteria, viruses, E. coli, parasites.
Household cleaners, shampoo, solvents, pesticides and traces of
arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead, dioxins and flame retardants.
Each day, this chemical cocktail is piped from our homes,
businesses and industries to sewage plants across the province.
The water is filtered and reclaimed. The solid waste that
remains is turned into biosolids, more commonly called sludge.
For more than 30 years, Ontario's sludge has been trucked out to
farmland for use as fertilizer. Then in 1996, the province,
which monitors sludge dispersal, increased promotion of the
nutrient-rich goo to farmers as a beneficial alternative to
chemical fertilizers. Officials insist sludge is tested and safe
and that there are no documented cases of adverse health effects
when requirements are followed. But some rural residents who
live near properties where sludge ha