Land application of sludge leads to a fight in northeastern Iowa
October 6, 2009

KCRG-TV featured a story the other day about a couple from Holy Cross who claim that a neighbor's land-applied sludge is making them sick. While it's possible that exposure to untreated sludge can be quite hazardous to human health, the sludge that is being applied to crop lands in this case comes from the Cedar Rapids Water Pollution Control Plant. The plant puts it sludge through an anaerobic digestion process. When sludge is passed through anaerobic digestion, it is passed through a very carefully-regulated process to ensure the destruction of pathogens. Land application of sludge is a "green" process, in that it recycles organic nutrients back into the soil, where it fertilizes crops organically. Moreover, in Cedar Rapids's case, anaerobic digestion and land application of sludge are exceptionally important right now, since land application is currently much more economical than sending the sludge to nearby landfills -- because the region's landfills have been filling up with all of the flood debris from last summer's disaster.

We can help you with anaerobic digestion projects as well as aerobic digestion. Please feel free to contact us with your questions.

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last revised October 2009