The process used is identical to the process used for manure based compost, but because it is human sewage, they have to follow federal guidelines for testing for pathogens and composting temperatures. The safe limit for pathogens is zero point zero zero. None are allowed. If any are found, the entire batch must be recycled back to the very start of the composting process. From what I understand they never find any pathogens in any of the testing. The temperature requirement is that the pile must maintain a temperature higher than 120 degrees F for the first 15 days. Normal pile temps run 140. This effectively cooks any of the low temperature pathogens and renders them harmless.

Just because this is done and the product is sold, that does not mean you have to like it or use it. I'm just explaining what it is.

Now I only bought one bag so it is conceivable that I got the one bag that was 'spoiled', but I doubt it.

Lloyd

Something that pt03 said reminds me of something else. Compost should be evaluated with your nose. If it does not smell very fresh, like excellent soil, then it is not finished composting. Unfortunately composted sewage smells exactly like composted leaves or composted animal dung so you can't tell exactly what you are getting simply by smelling it, but you can tell if the composting process is finished.

Having said that, if you buy a bag of Scott's or Kellogg's and it smells sour, moldy, rank, dank, manuery, acrid, or anything else that is not exceptionally fresh, simply open up the bag and let it air out for a day or two. If it still smells bad, then something is wrong. Let it continue composting for a week or two until it smells fresh.

Class A biosolids... is sewage sludge that meets minimum standards for retail sale.

I second what Dchall said, any bag of stuff that has gone anaerobic will smell like sewage - whether its there or not.

IN fact a properly run aerobic WWTP won't smell like sewage either.

This does not quite make sense to me. It's not made from sewage but it has sewage in it?

Beyond the pathogen factor, there is an entire federal Biosolids Rule which among other things has limits for pollutants such as pesticides and heavy metals, which are typically present in municipal wastewater. Just FYI.

And most commercial fertilizer products available for home use also have labels that spell out very clearly what the source of the nutrients are. Especially those that labeled as "organic".

There are several local commercial producers of composted biosolids in my area. These products are very popular, are considered organic/environmentally friendly, are of Class A quality (highest compost rating) and are well below the EPA safety guidelines for heavy metals.

Just because a product contains composted biosolids does not mean the product is unsafe, risky to use or not an appropriate soil amendment.

"Milorganite is not composted sewage, but it is made from dehydrated sewage sludge. They make a big deal out of it. "

Houston uses the same process to produce Hou-actinite. Every now and then you see locally bagged, organic fertilizers fortified with the odd sounding Hou-actinite but with no other explanation. It is definitely a sewage product.

Metals are the main reason I do not use Milorganite or products with Hou-actinite. For roughly the same price per 1,000 square feet, I can get puh-lenty of organic fertilizers that have no metals in them.

I think one could consider the aerobic conditions in the activated sludge stage of the treatment plant to be akin to composting. It's just done in a liquid state instead of a pile.

The Soil Amendment for Compost Spec.
from EPA
lists
the pH from 5.0 to 8.5
and
arsenic as less than 41 ppm (Testing Method 4.11A)
among the several dozen critera

And I have seen at least a couple of other sets of specs. for compost.

looks interesting.

Says there are twelve US states with minimum standards for compost quality, separate from EPA.

The European specs are much more strict than the US

Where was this confirmed? Kellogg used to list sewage on the label. Nitrohumous was almost all sewage. Their products still look the same and smell the same. Now they list compost as an ingredient. Want to bet that the compost is composted sewage? Is it just coincidence that their plant is right next to a huge sewage treatment plant? Why would they site a huge organic operation in the middle of a city with no major source of organics other than sludge?

The Joint Water Pollution Control Plant (JWPCP) is located at 24501 S. Figueroa Street, Carson, California. The plant occupies approximately 420 acres to the east of the Harbor (110) Freeway. Approximately 200 of the 420 acres are used as buffer areas between the operational areas and surrounding residential neighbors. Buffer areas include the Wilmington Boys and Girls Club, a 17-acre fresh water marsh area, the Home Depot commercial complex, Kellogg Supply Inc., Color Spot nursery operations, and others

It sounds like you put it too deeply in the backfill, used it too high at a rate, over watered, or you have poor drainage. Possibly a combination of two or more of those factors. That can happen with any organic amendment.

No bets -- the compost in the Kellogg soils and composts is composted wood products. How do I know that? It's on the label and I've toured two of their composting and product packaging operations. Plus I know one of their local sales reps rather well and have a high regard for their integrity.

I don't see any integrity issues. They don't claim it does not include sludge anywhere I can find. If it doesn't they should make that claim because siting a plant at a sludge factory certainly makes one suspect that it does. Sludge can be a good amendment as long as they test it.

If I were in Kellogg's marketing and I had a plant at a sludge factory and if there were no sludge in my product I would make that claim on the package as it would probably help sales.

If you drive by the treatment plant it smells just like a lot of Kelloggs products to me.

Zeuspaul

-- If these are listed in order of amount, as on food labels, then I would guess that worm castings and bat guano are used/listed more for advertising effect than actual amount in the product.

I note that this material - comprised of several "composted" ingredients - bears no resemblence to compost from my haphazard, cold compost pile .... which looks and smells good enough to eat ... so how these materials are composted and for how many nano-seconds, is open to conjecture.

They have more than one plant. Most likely a plant situated near a water treatment facilty in a large city would make use of different organic material than a plant situated in a forest setting.

In the seventies I used Kellogg Nitrohumus on my tomatoes and they grew rather nicely. My best recollection is that sludge was listed as the primary ingredient. Last time I checked compost was listed and sludge was not but it looks and smells the same.

Zeuspaul

Cities with large sewage plants were happy too, selling their sludge to innocent customers unaware of its secret ingredients.Los Angeles sells Nitrohumus, Milwaukee sells Milorganite, New York has Granulite, and Chicago sells Nu-Earth.

http://ag.arizona.edu/region9wq/pdf/AWRA_0709EvensenArticle.pdf

According to Kelloggs Nitrohumus is a primary ingredient in many of their products.

H. Clay 'Jr.' had a keen ability to seek out what the customer needed most. Because of his attention to the customer, Kellogg diversified the product offering, adding various organic ingredients to Nitrohumus® to create planting mixes ideal for California soils. Gromulch®, Amend®, Topper® are widely recognized as the highest quality name brand blends for planting mixes and top dressing.

http://www.kingkellogg.com/new/heritage.php

"The Kellogg Supply Company, Inc., (Kellogg) which operates
a plant adjacent to the composting field, manufactures a variety of lawn and garden soil conditioner and fertilizer products from the Districts' compost, which are bagged
and sold through retail outlets in California and adjacent states"

I suspect it is still being done today.

Lloyd

"Company Profile

California sewage sludge used as base for various organic mixes including Planter Mix, Top Dressing & Bedding Plant Mix."

Lloyd

The remainder has been sitting on a corner of the lawn for about 8 months now. No weeds are growing in it. Nothing is growing in it, There are no earthworms in it. Are we kidding ourselves or what?

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gromulch

This site lists branded products containing sewage sludge.

http://www.sludgenews.org/about/sludgenews.aspx?id=5

Again, I have no idea how accurate this is. Just thought I'd post what I found.

I am now watering my soil and wait for maybe 2 weeks until the smell goes away (more compost process). I was planning on growing some root veggie (garlic, yam, potato) but now I will wait for 6 mos to 1 year so that those human waste can be wash off.

I know we are all freak out about biosoilds in our food crops, but I do have to say we can go to the big name supermarket now and buy apples and veggie and they might come from farm using biosoilds. I know in Tacoma, farms use biosoilds and it is on Tacoma water website.

Can anyone give me some input about my 6 cu. ft of biosoilds soil and about my garden bed. I mean, if I wash it down and let it compost a little more, it should not be that harmful? Thank you very much. Ellie

As EPA points out in its 2002 Biosolids fact sheet, "Composting is not a sterilization process and a properly composted product maintains an active population of beneficial microorganisms that compete against the pathogenic members. Under some conditions, explosive
regrowth of pathogenic microorganisms is possible.

Both Milwaukee (heat dried) and Kellogg (composted) started selling sewage sludge as a commercial soil amendment about 1925 before tests were developed for most disease causing organisms or metals. Therefore, neither was concerned about the toxic chemicals and heavy metals that cause disease and cancer.

While leafy vegetables will suck up the metals out of your garden, the main immediate concern is heat resistant disease causing organisms -- bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. EPA and USDA have documented that bacteria will survive on plants for long past harvesting time and in soils for well over a year.

The only requirement for Compost is that fecal coliform must be below 1,000 CFU. What no one will tell you is that fecal coliform are the heat resistant forms of Enterobacteriacea (E.coli, Kelbsiella, Salmonella, shigella, etc. The second thing they will not tell you is that that 1,000 CFU means the laboratory technician actually counted that many bacterial colonies 24 to 48 hours after the high temperature test began. He then assumed that each colony most probable represented one bacteria at the start of the test.

The trick is that the high heat of the test causes some bacteria to go dormant temporarily and others (some superbugs) to form highly resistant endospores. Of course,
bacteria in the compost product have been growing at normal temperature and forming colonies at a much higher rate.

Sludge in compost is not on the label due to potential liability, since EPA acknowledge in the sludge regulation that chemicals, metals and disease causing organisms (pollutants) could cause death, disease, cancer, etc., through direct contact or through the air, water or foodchain (40 CFR 503.9).

Here's the response: "The MSDS listed on our website is the complete MSDS sheet. There is no sludge/biosolids in Gardener's Potting Soil. There�s not even any animal manure in that product, so there is no reason for you to be smelling anything remotely "sludge-like.""

I'm still suspicious and would like to hear some up to date comments on this subject, and especially Gardeners Potting Soil (sold at Lowe's)

Before I did this, I spoke with the person in charge and she assured me it was real high class, higher standards, composted biosolids. She emailed me a list of the tests done and they looked impressive. It went through many stages of treatment, and then was mixed with 30% shredded pine from wood pallets. The client base (the human crappers, etc...) was not large, small cities at the West end of the San Fernando Valley. It wasn't an industrial area, mostly residential and small businesses. And she said that in their 7 year existence, no worker had gotten sick from working there.

But when you get there and sign in, they give you a face mask to wear. And there is an unnatural smell in the air, even though the end product is in a large building separate from the other treatment buildings(but not far apart), connected by a high enclosed conveyor belt system. The smell stayed with the compost/biosolids, even after you'd kept it in your yard for weeks.

There was so much of it, it was free and easy to get. I came back several times for more. But the smell always made me queasy about it. I started reading more about biosolids and quickly decided there were too many possibilities for chemicals that weren't being tested for. I believe I read somewhere that the original Federal standards tested for 200 chemical substances, and 10 or so years ago this requirement was cut to 10 or 20 substances.
I stopped using this compost and still have a pile of it in my yard.

The point of mentioning all this, is that when I bought the Gardener's Choice potting soil (mentioned in my message above), I immediately smelled a similar un-natural smell. It's kind of a strong sticky lingering scent that doesn't dissipate when the bag is left open. It's not what you would call an good earthy smell. And I've had occasional bags of potting soil that were moist inside, but never had a bad smell from them.

I've returned the unopened bag of Gardener's Choice, and I'm back with the potting soil I started out with, Supersoil. It has the best reputation of any, and a normal smell. I'm not saving $2 a bag any more, but at least I'm comfortable with the smell.