Subject: Toxics in Fertilizers: some information (fwd)

From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 15:55:06 WST

Reply-To: Conference "chrm.general" <[email-masked]>
From: [email-masked]

A friend of mine finds a variety of interesting stuff and forwards it from
time to time. I thought some members of this list might want to know about
some of the instances cited here. 

The title of the piece is "Truth is Stranger than Fiction." 

Barbara

>
>
>>___________________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>>Throughout the country, example after example of hazardous wastes being
>>turned into fertilizer:
>>
>> * Camas, Wash.: Mill's chimney ash plowed into soil * Charleston, S.C.:
>>Toxic fertilizer sent to farmers overseas * Deer Trail, Colo.:
>>Superfund-site wastes to be recycled? * Gore, Okla: Land is sprayed with
>>radioactive mix * Nortfolk, Neb.: Plant was built to recycle wastes *
>>Sacramento, Calif.: Two companies   under investigation * Soda Springs,
>>Idaho: Monsanto halts byproduct sales * St. Paul, Ore.: Waste brokers
>>look for new markets * Tifton, Ga.: Brew kills peanut crops aimed for
>>humans
>>
>>Tifton, Ga.: Brew kills peanut crops aimed for humans
>>
>>More than 1,000 acres of peanut crops were killed by Lime Plus, a toxic
>>brew of hazardous waste and limestone that had been sold - legally - to
>>unsuspecting farmers.
>>
>>It is the worst confirmed case in the United States of heavy metals in
>>fertilizer destroying crops aimed for human consumption.
>>
>>The farmers don't want to talk about it. But Jessica Davis, a soils
>>scientist who has studied the incident,  is more than happy to. She says
>>the fields of Georgia show why government officials need to tighten
>>waste-recycling rules and restrict the hidden toxic elements in
>>fertilizer.
>>
>>"Anything that's fed directly to humans or even to animals, I really
>>don't understand why this is permitted," Davis said.
>>
>>Five steel mills in the Southeast paid Sogreen Corp. an undisclosed
>>amount to take their gray, powdery dust from electric-arc furnaces. The
>>waste material was 10 percent zinc, a whopping 3.6 percent lead, and
>>highly alkaline.
>>
>>Sogreen mixed one part waste with three parts limestone and sold it as
>>Lime Plus with approval of the state of Georgia. Sogreen "made money
>>coming and going," said Davis, formerly with the University of Georgia,
>>now with Colorado State University.
>>
>>The peanut crops needed liming to raise the pH of the soil. They didn't
>>need zinc, but it was advertised as a micro-nutrient, or added benefit.
>>The farmers weren't told about the lead, cadmium or chromium.
>>
>>The practice of allowing steel-mill waste to be plowed into fields is
>>nationwide. Some soil experts say there is a safety net in biology: The
>>plants would die from too much zinc before they'd absorb dangerous
>>levels of lead.
>>
>>In Tifton, that was true. However, Davis said, peanuts are more
>>sensitive to zinc than are other crops.
>>
>>"Let's say you're planting a crop that's not sensitive to zinc and so it
>>doesn't die," Davis said. "Well, this material is high not only in zinc,
>>but it's got lead and cadmium and chromium - all kinds of fun stuff that
>>could be hazardous to humans.
>>
>>"Somebody uses this on their sweet corn and eats it. Nobody knows how
>>much lead they'll be eating."
>>
>>Davis worked with three farmers to detoxify their soil. Under a
>>onfidentiality agreement, she can't reveal who they are.
>>
>> "They're afraid if people know they had this problem on their land,
>>they won't be able to sell what they've grown there and they won't be
>>able to sell their land, either."
>>
>>For the same reason, the farmers wouldn't sue Sogreen.
>>
>>But the fertilizer manufacturer had other legal problems. Owner Herman
>>Parramore Jr. had a permit to store 500 cubic yards of the toxic waste.
>>He was stockpiling 75,000 cubic yards. And it wasn't covered up, as the
>>permit required.
>>
>>Parramore pleaded guilty to two felonies under environmental laws.
>>
>>The mountain of hazardous waste was near a school in a low-income
>>neighborhood. Residents said it dusted their homes whenever the wind
>>blew.
>>
>>The residents won a big lawsuit for damages, and the steel mills that
>>had supplied the dust are paying more than $10 million to clean it up.
>>But they're still selling Lime Plus.
>>
>>Gore, Okla: Land is sprayed with radioactive mix
>>A uranium-processing plant is disposing of low-level radioactive waste
>>by spraying it on 9,000 acres of company-owned grazing land.  Three and
>>a half years after the shutdown of the Sequoyah Fuels Uranium Processing
>>facility, workers are still sprinkling its waste, diluted by rain, from
>>a holding pond at the rate of 10 million gallons a year.   It is called
>>Raffinate and is registered as a fertilizer with the Oklahoma Department
>>of Agriculture.
>>
>>State and federal officials approved the fertilizer plan in 1986.
>>Raffinate, the main waste from a solvent used to extract uranium for
>>nuclear-plant fuel, is slightly radioactive and contains 18 heavy
>>metals.  "We were screaming our heads off when all this was happening,"
>>says Kathy Carter-White, an attorney representing residents of the area.
>>"But it was just like the powers-that-be were going forward. We just
>>felt violated by what happened because the land will never recover."
>>
>>John Ellis, Sequoyah Fuels president, said the company is piping the
>>material to 75 acres of bermuda grass where as many as 400 cattle
>>graze.   Some people blame the fertilizer for such mutations as a
>>nine-legged frog and a two-nosed cow. They also say it could be a factor
>>in some of the 124 cases of cancer and birth defects counted in families
>>living near the plant.
>>
>>There's no proof, though.  "It's hard to separate out what damage came
>>from the chimneys at Sequoyah Fuels and what was from the pallets on the
>>ground and the groundwater and the land disposal," said Carter-White.
>>"But the frog was found by a little boy at a country pond that was real
>>close to where this surface application was taking place. The boy shot
>>it and turned it over, and found it had legs sticking out all over its
>>sternum."
>>
>>Charleston, S.C.: Toxic fertilizer sent to farmers overseas
>>
>>Stoller Chemical of Charleston exported 3,000 tons of especially toxic
>>material to Bangladesh and Australia in 1992. The material was loaded
>>with cadmium and lead, far beyond even what is in the recycled-waste
>>fertilizers used on U.S. farms.   The company failed to notify the EPA
>>of the toxic shipment, as required by law, and was fined $1 million.
>>Stoller went bankrupt.
>>
>>"We just happened to catch it," said Ben Haygood, the former U.S.
>>attorney who prosecuted the case. If the fertilizer had been used
>>domestically, he said, the government might not have known about its
>>high toxicity.   Some of the fertilizer was spread on rice fields before
>>it was recalled from Bangladesh. Some of it also was used by market
>>gardeners and pasture owners in Australia.
>>
>>Nortfolk, Neb.: Plant was built to recycle wastes
>>
>>Frit Industries attached a fertilizer factory to the Nucor steel mill to
>>recycle the mill's hazardous waste for agriculture.  By operating on
>>site, Frit avoids any chance of spillage, and also avoids having to get
>>the federal permits required of other hazardous-waste recyclers.
>>
>>The chalky, black waste is collected from a pollution-control device in
>>the mill's chimney. Since it is rich in zinc, a nutrient for many
>>plants, the dust has been recycled onto farms for years. It's also laden
>>with lead and cadmium.
>>
>>The industry won an exemption from an environmental law passed by
>>Congress in 1976. The flue dust is a federal hazardous waste unless it
>>is processed into fertilizer.
>>
>>"We think it is an intelligent and safe and reasonable thing to do with
>>the material," said Carl Schauble, executive vice president of Frit,
>>based in Alabama. "I feel that the fertilizer industry has done a real
>>service being able to utilize some of these byproducts."
>>
>>Schauble said the lead doesn't have much effect on plants. Frit sells
>>its Nucor zinc product to nearby fertilizer dealers in the heart of corn
>>country and to custom blenders throughout the Midwest.  The arrangement
>>works for Nucor, the steel company, too.
>>
>>John Hatfield, an Idaho fertilizer manufacturer, says he was asked to
>>build the plant on the Nucor site before Frit stepped in.  "Nucor didn't
>>want to ship their lead zinc dust to Monterrey, Mexico, at $100 a ton,
>>and so they got Frit Industries to move in there," Hatfield says. "You
>>say how do I know that? Because they asked me to do it before Frit."
>>
>>St. Paul, Ore.: Waste brokers look for new markets
>>
>>Tom Wimmer is seeing more and more industrial waste from Washington
>>state being pushed on farmers
>>in Oregon, and liking it less and less.   Wimmer owns Marion Agriculture
>>Service, which supplies and advises farmers south of Portland.   He says
>>waste brokers from metal-, cement-, paper- and wood-products companies
>>are calling, hoping he'll find them farmers to take their dangerous
>>wastes as fertilizer.
>>
>>"There's a lot of it out there now," Wimmer says. "They've got to get
>>rid of it or put it in a landfill somewhere. That's what it boils down
>>to."    In many cases, companies offer to pay the farmer to take the
>>wastes. Sometimes, Wimmer believes, it's good business and good
>>recycling. Other times, it's neither.
>>
>>"We've even had a situation where the paper byproduct was not mixed in
>>the soil well enough and the paper product ended up with vegetables in a
>>cannery," he says.   "The farmers, they're getting something free - or
>>so they believe. But it does come at a cost. It just depends on who's
>>picking up the cost."
>>
>>Camas, Wash.: Mill's chimney ash plowed into soil
>>
>>Seven hundred tons of ash is collected each month from the chimney of a
>>giant pulp and paper mill on the Columbia River.   It is a highly
>>corrosive ash laced with heavy metals such as lead, chromium and zinc.
>>The ash is classified as dangerous waste by state authorities because 30
>>out of 30 rainbow trout died in a test using a 1 percent mixture of the
>>ash in water.
>>
>>But this is no ordinary dangerous waste. It's also a product called
>>NutriLime, registered for farm use in Washington and Oregon.   James
>>River Corp. workers take the ash from the pulp-mill chimney, add water
>>to hold down dust, pour it into trucks and haul it to six farms in Clark
>>and Skamania counties. There, it is spread out on 425 acres.  NutriLime
>>is plowed into soil growing oats, clover, grass and other crops for
>>livestock consumption.
>>
>>Farmers signed contracts to receive the lime at cut-rate prices and to
>>get their fields plowed. James River was happy to supply them: It was
>>less expensive than paying to dispose of the ash in a landfill.   And
>>company-paid scientists say it helps the crops by raising the pH of the
>>soil.
>>
>>The heavy metals in the ash varied widely over a series of tests. Lead
>>was just 4 parts per million in a sample of ash tested for state
>>regulators in 1991, but up to 562 parts per million in later tests.   At
>>that rate, Canada wouldn't have allowed it to be used as fertilizer.
>>
>>The United States, though, has no limit, just a state-by-state
>>discretion based on a general principle that fertilizers shouldn't hurt
>>plant or human health when properly used.  NutriLime was re-registered
>>as a farm product, not a dangerous waste, in 1993. The company paid a
>>$35 filing fee and sent results of what it said were random analyses on
>>18 samples. Only one of the 18 was tested for heavy metals.
>>
>>"The popularity of NutriLime is growing daily," wrote mill manager A.G.
>>Elsbree, "and we look forward to serving the agricultural community."
>>
>>Sacramento, Calif.: Two companies under investigation
>>
>>Two fertilizer companies are being investigated for illegal use of toxic
>>wastes in California, which has some of the nation's toughest
>>environmental laws.  One company was mixing zinc into a waste product so
>>it could be marketed as a zinc-based fertilizer instead of having to pay
>>for disposal, said Larry Matz, chief of compliance for the Department of
>>Toxic Substances Control. The waste had no fertilizing qualities of its
>>own, so could not be sold as fertilizer.  Leads from the California
>>investigations have sparked similar probes in Missouri, New York and
>>Texas.
>>
>>Deer Trail, Colo.: Superfund-site wastes to be recycled?
>>
>>Farmers here say they are unconvinced of the safety of a plan to send
>>liquid waste from a Superfund site through sewage treatment and apply it
>>on a 50,000-acre, government-owned wheat farm.
>>
>>Lowry Landfill is one of the worst Superfund sites in the country, with
>>a brew of industrial solvents, petroleum oils, pesticides and
>>radioactive material.   The EPA is considering the novel disposal plan
>>in a ruling that may set a precedent for new ways to clean up Superfund
>>sites.  A public comment period ended June 30.   One EPA official said
>>the agency will be sure the landfill water will be neither radioactive
>>nor hazardous.  Another questioned the idea.  The wheat field is owned
>>by Denver's Metro sewage agency, which would mix the waste with sewage
>>sludge.
>>
>>Soda Springs, Idaho: Monsanto halts byproduct sales
>>
>>The huge, black hill on Monsanto's property here grows taller every day
>>with the addition of big steaming vats of hot ash.   It's the same ash
>>Monsanto used to sell to a nearby factory as an ingredient in
>>fertilizer.
>>
>>No more.
>>
>>Monsanto is the first major company to stop selling its toxic byproduct
>>to fertilizer factories, even though there is no regulatory pressure to
>>stop.   Robert Geddes, the environmental specialist at Monsanto's Soda
>>Springs phosphorus plant and a Republican state senator, said the
>>company is concerned about safety and liability.
>>
>>Until 1994, Monsanto had been selling 6,000 tons a year of the ash. It
>>was a fine source of nutrients for plant growth. But it also contained
>>heavy metals, including significant levels of cadmium.  Since then,
>>Monsanto scientists in St. Louis have been studying the material to see
>>if it is safe. Company lawyers are studying the liability, and marketing
>>officials are trying to figure out what to do with it.  "Because we've
>>got everything in the world in it, there isn't any easy process," Geddes
>>said.
>>
>>Even though the government allows selling the ash for fertilizer, Geddes
>>said Monsanto still could be stuck with the bill for a mistake. He
>>remembered when Asarco had to pay to clean up sawmill yards in Tacoma
>>covered with arsenic-laced slag from a government-approved program.
>>"Sometimes we pay for mistakes the federal government even helps us
>>make," Geddes said.
>>
>>Monsanto sells one of its other byproducts to a nearby plant operated by
>>Kerr-McGee. Kerr-McGee extracts vanadium and is building a plant to
>>process the byproduct into - what else? - fertilizer.   "Kerr-McGee is a
>>pretty big company," Geddes said. "If they have a (liability) problem,
>>they'll probably face their problem without dragging Monsanto into it."
>>
>>In the end, Geddes said, such decisions are "all about money."   "It's
>>kind of a symbiotic relationship. Everybody's trying to work together to
>>get as much value out of this stuff as we can."
>>
>
>RADIANT WELLNESS
>Beata C. Lewis
>P.O. Box 1638
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>Independent Mannatech and TradeNet Distributor
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Barbara Ashley Phillips
Clear Creek Gardens & Game, Inc.
Rt. 1 Box 138
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Phone: (541) 742-6558   Fax: (541) 742-5175 Email  [email-masked]  
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