Friends of Rural New York

As usual, CAFO neighbors bear the burden for CAFO “cost-saving” pollution.

Mecklenburg residents, dairy farmers discuss use of fertilizer sludge
By Cara Hoffman
Special to The Ithaca Journal

Chemically treated human and municipal waste from the Syracuse metro
area containing unregulated heavy metals and PCBs is being spread on
fields in Schuyler County by Bergen Farms in a cost-saving move that
has
local residents alarmed and looking for information.

But the product — sold under the name Earth Blends or N-Viro Soil and

manufactured by Waste Stream Environmental, Inc., in Syracuse — may
be
as much of a mystery to the Bergens as it was to the crowd of concerned

citizens who packed the Mecklenburg Fire House on Wednesday night for
an
informational meeting that the Community Dispute Resolution Center
facilitated.

Sitting in folding chairs in the chilly fire hall, wearing coats and
caps, the group of more than 80 had concerns that ranged from odor,
quality of life issues and impact on real estate values, to potential
well, ground water and watershed contamination and long-term health
effects on human and animals including cancer.

According to marketing materials on the N-Viro Web site, Earth Blends,
which has a tagline of “mixtures of earthly good,” is used as a
“bio-organic and mineral fertilizer with agricultural liming and
nutrient values.”

Jim Bergen said his 2,200 head family-owned dairy operation is able to
buy the product for $7 a ton, and though it is only half as effective
as
lime for regulating the pH levels of crops, it beats the $35 a ton the
farm would pay for lime.

N-Viro goes through a number of treatment processes to neutralize E.
coli and other pathogens before it becomes the dry product that is
spread on crops. But pathogens are a small part of the equation as
Murray McBride, director of Cornell’s Waste Management Institute,
explained to residents.

Treating the sludge does not eliminate heavy metals, such as arsenic,
cadmium, lead, copper and mercury, or man-made chemicals such as PCBs,
fire retardants and dioxin, which build up in the soil over time and
bio-accumulate in crops and in the bodies of animals that eat those
crops.

McBride explained there are no EPA regulations regarding the use of
these industrial and chemical pollutants in land application. The EPA
did, however, make a statement in a 2000 report from its inspector
general’s office stating it “Cannot assure the public that current
land
application processes of sewage sludge are protective of human health
and the environment.”

The Bergens have been spreading N-Viro’s sludge product on their fields

in Odessa for 10 years. In October 2007 they purchased land in the Town

of Hector on the southwest corner of Perry City Road and the
intersections of routes 227 and 228. A month later they had spread 600
tons of the treated sludge on their fields.

Mark Ochs, CAFO planner for Bergen Farms, said that a great deal of
scrutiny goes into planning how the product is spread and that there is

a buffer of land that is not fertilized with the product between Bergen

Farm’s fields and other properties to prevent possible contamination
from runoff. “There is a lot of oversight for these plans,” Ochs
said.
“They are heavily science based.”

“The last thing we want to do is go around polluting someone’s water
source,” said Skip Bergen. But Bergen said he did not have all the
answers about what the product contains.

“The problem is the EPA says it’s OK to use this,” said Bergen’s
brother
Jim. “It shouldn’t be up to us if it has PCBs in it.” He said he
knew
the product contained some heavy metals but Wednesday’s meeting was the

first time he had ever heard the waste contained PCBs.

“We are not anti-farming,” said Mecklenburg resident Harley
Campbell.
“We are against poor farming practices and poor regulations.”
Campbell
said the farmers were led to believe what they were doing was all right

and it wasn’t. “We need to ask the Bergens as neighbors not to use
(N-Viro),” he said.

Skip Bergen nodded thoughtfully at the question. “If people were
really
upset about it, I think that’s something my brothers and I could sit
down and talk about.”

After the meeting Jim Bergen said discussing the use of the fertilizer
was a likely scenario. “There’s definitely concerns,” he said.

*Originally published January 25, 2008*