San Francisco's Toxic Sludge - It's Good for You! [1]
Submitted by John Stauber [2] on
Fifteen years ago, CMD's book Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! [3] first exposed the hidden government and industry PR [4] campaign greenwashing [5] toxic sewage sludge [6] as "biosolids [7]," an invented PR euphemism used to cynically re-brand toxic waste as "fertilizer" [8] given free to farmers. Today, unfortunately, the biosolids scam is bigger than ever. The Organic Consumers Association [9] (OCA) reports [10] that the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission [11] "has come up with an ingenious plot to trick city residents into taking their toxic sewage sludge back and disposing of it in their own gardens. San Francisco is having Synagro, the corporate giant of the toxic sludge industry [12], 'compost' some of the toxic sewage sludge. Then they give it away to San Francisco's gardeners telling us it's 'high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic Biosolids Compost.' " OCA has launched a grassroots campaign [13] calling on San Francisco's mayor to stop the practice, noting "municipal sewage sludge [6] routinely contains thousands of dangerous pathogens, toxic heavy metals, flame retardants, endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, pharmaceutical drugs and other hazardous chemicals coming from residential drains, storm water runoff, hospitals, and industrial plants."