Water Environment Federation

From Disinfopedia

The Water Environment Federation (WEF) is the main national trade, lobby and PR association for U.S. sewage treatment plants. It has been aggressively involved in promoting the so-called "beneficial use" of sewage sludge for fertilizer. To avoid the negative connotations associated with the word "sludge," WEF invented the euphemism "biosolids."

WEF gave PR agent Steve Frank of Metro Wastewater Reclamation District (Denver, Colorado) an award for his PR work which included a campaign designed to malign and attack one of the sewage agency's own board members, Adrienne Anderson, a University of Colorado Environmental Ethics teacher, appointed to represent workers' safety and health concerns. Anderson had turned federal whistleblower, revealing the agency's secret deal to accept wastes from a Superfund Site--the infamous Lowry Landfill southeast of Denver--as acceptable ingredients for its biosolids product meant to be spread on farmland, parks and public recreation areas in Colorado. Among the permitted ingredients allowed to be part of Metro Wastewater's "MetroGro" fertilizer is plutonium, a radioactive chemical element. Federal Judge David W. Dinardi ruled that Metro Wastewater's campaign against Anderson was illegal and ordered punitive damages for actions that "shock the conscience." Among the actions for which the agency was found guilty were lies under oath about the WEF award to Metro Wastewater for its smear campaign against Anderson.