Toledo officials argue over how to handle sewage sludge

Bay View Park sewage treatment plant. THE BLADE Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Sewage sludge -- the smelly, pathogen-containing solid left behind in the wastewater treatment process -- has become a hot topic for debate at Toledo City Council this week as representatives argue over whether it's safe to put the muck in a disposal facility jutting into Maumee Bay.

About half of Toledo's sludge already goes to the facility, known as Facility 3. The large, diked-in area was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1970s as a place to house contaminated sediments dredged from the Maumee River and Maumee Bay shipping channels.

Under the current arrangement, a company called S&L Fertilizer takes the sludge to Facility 3 and mixes it with the dredging. After leaving the mixture for a year to kill off pathogens, S&L gives it back to the city to use as landfill cover.

Another company, Toledo-based N-Viro International Corporation, processes the rest of the sludge at the city's wastewater treatment plant, turning the muck into a type of soil for use on agricultural sites.

Now, the Bell Administration wants to allow S&L to take all of the city's sludge -- about 50,000 tons a year -- to Facility 3. The move has angered N-Viro executives, who have processed the sludge for years, and also alarmed some city councilmen, who say more research needs to be done to ensure contaminants from the sludge aren't leaking into the bay.

"This is the most important decision this council has ever had to make," councilman D. Michael Collins warned his colleagues at a meeting yesterday. "The unintended consequences may well have far-reaching effects."

Mr. Collins pointed to 2010 satellite data from a Bowling Green-based company Blue Water Satellite, Inc., which appears to show concentrations of E. coli and phosphorus around Facility 3. In a letter addressed to a Blue Water distributor, Natural Resources Management, LLC., the company's Chief Technical Officer, Robert Vincent, concluded that Facility 3 was likely a source of the phosphorus in the bay, and possibly the E. coli.

Phosphorus is a by-product of sewage and also agricultural runoff that contributes to the formation of blue-green algae, a toxic bloom that has plagued Lake Erie for more than a decade and continues to get worse. E. coli is a bacterium that can cause diarrhea and other more serious health problems in humans.

Jim Harpen, Blue Water's manager of business development said yesterday, however, that the company's E. coli data is not conclusive, and based on an experimental technique. He said the phosphorus findings are correct, although there are many other sites in the area, such as the wastewater treatment plant itself, that are also leaking phosphorus. He said the company no longer has the 2010 images, and could not provide information on the phosphorus concentration levels around Facility 3.

Toledo's public utilities director Dave Welch said the city has tested the water around Facility 3 for E. coli and phosphorus on several occasions to see if contaminants are leaking. The levels of each were found to be minuscule, far below the maximum amount permitted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and tests conducted on Aug. 25 concluded there was no evidence of leaching from the dike walls of the facility into the bay.

Ohio EPA has also inspected the facility and found no evidence of leaching, according to information provided by spokesman Dina Pierce.

Corps of Engineers representative Jan Miller, based in Cincinnati, said Facility 3 is constructed so that water in the facility gradually seeps through a series of cells and the contaminants naturally stick to the rocks and sediments inside. If any did leach through they would likely be dead by the time they reached the water, Mr. Miller indicated.

The Corps does not test the water around the facility.

City utilities director, Mr. Welch, insisted that concerns pathogens could leak from the sludge into the bay are unfounded.

Some councilmen agreed.

Joe McNamara accused Mr. Collins of touting "junk science" and said the contamination fears are merely a tactic of rival company N-Viro to discredit S&L and hold on to its contract with the city. Toledo paid N-Viro $824,000 last year to process half of the sludge. S&L was paid $454,000. Under the new contract, the city would pay S&L $760,000 annually.

N-Viro's vice president of business development, Robert Bohmer, and board member Tom Kovacik spoke out against S&L before council this week, accusing the company of contaminating the bay. S&L's head, Terry Perry, in turn defended his company's practices and record.

Councilman Mike Craig expressed frustration over the city's failure to award the contract sooner.

"I can't believe I'm sitting here listening to this a year and a half after we should have voted on this contract," Mr. Craig said.

But councilman Rob Ludeman agreed with Mr. Collins that further testing should be done first. Mr. Collins has asked that the Ohio State University's Stone Lab Research Center be called in to do an analysis.

Council will discuss the issue further, and possibly vote on the contract during its Oct. 4 meeting.

Contact Claudia Boyd-Barrett cbarrett@theblade.com or 419-724-6272.