SCS Engineers

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WARNING! Sewage sludge is toxic. Food should not be grown in "biosolids." Join the Food Rights Network.

SCS Engineers have, in their won words, "delivered economically and environmentally sound solutions for solid waste management and other environmental projects." SCS provides engineering, construction, and long-term operations and maintenance services to private and public sector clients through a network of 51 offices in 24 states and worldwide. SCS BT Squared is the upper Midwest practice group of SCS Engineers (SCS). [1]

Toxic Sludge Gasification Controversy

"Biosolids" is a euphemistic PR term for Toxic sludge. EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman has called gasification, or using sludge to generate methanol or energy, the "most environmentally sound approach, but also the most expensive," to sludge disposal. However, anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge, while it reduces the volume of the sludge and heats it to a temperature that kills many pathogens, still leaves behind what the industry calls "digestate" or, more specifically in this case, "biosolids." These "Class A Biosolids" (so-called because the Environmental Protection Agency has stricter limits on pathogens and "vector attraction" for Class A than for Class B Biosolids, i.e. they must not attract disease-carrying insects or rodents, etc.) still contain other sludge contaminants, including Dioxins and Furans, Flame Retardants, Metals, Organochlorine Pesticides, 1,2-Dibromo-3-Chloropropane (DBCP), Naphthalene, Triclosan, Nonylphenols, Phthalates, Nanosilver, and thousands more substances.

The EPA's 2009 Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey (TNSSS) concluded that all sewage sludge, Class A, Class B or otherwise, contains toxic and hazardous materials, including large numbers of endocrine disruptors. The TNSSS results are described in two EPA reports published in 2009. EPA found that dozens of hazardous materials, not regulated and not required to be tested for, have been documented in each and every one of the sludge samples EPA took around the USA.[2] And yet Class A "Biosolids" may be applied to cropland with no restrictions and sold or given away to gardeners as "organic fertilizers," and hundreds of municipalities and companies do so.

Exhibitor at 2011 BioCycle 11th Annual Conference on "Renewable Energy from Organics Recycling"

SCS Engineers was an exhibitor at the 2011 BioCycle 11th Annual Conference on "Renewable Energy from Organics Recycling." BioCycle Magazine is a publication serving the interests of the sewage sludge industry.[3]

Contact

900 Kilroy Airport Way
Suite 100
Long Beach, CA 90806-6816
Toll-free number: 800-326-9544
Email: service@scsengineers.com

Resources

Other SourceWatch Resources

References

  1. Renewable Energy Management, Tcmnet, accessed November 9, 2011
  2. Environmental Protection Agency, TNSSS: EPA-822-R-08-016 and EPA-822-R-08-018, January 2009
  3. BioCycle, Exhibitor Directory, publisher's website, accessed November 3, 2011
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