FOX Engineering

FOX Engineering is an engineering firm that works with local and regional governments and industrial clients on products related to "water, wastewater and stormwater management" in the Midwest United States.

FOX works with sewage sludge processors, referring to them as "biosolids" facilities, to implement and upgrade the "anaerobic digestion" of the sludge in order to generate energy.

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. 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.

Participant in the 2011 BioCycle 11th Annual Conference on "Renewable Energy from Organics Recycling"
FOX Engineering was a participant in 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.

Contact
414 South 17th Street Suite 107 Ames, Iowa 50010

Toll Free: (800) 433-3469 Phone: (515) 233-0000 Fax: (515) 233-0103 Contact Form: http://www.foxeng.com/contact Web: http://www.foxeng.com/

Other SourceWatch Resources

 * Toxic sludge
 * Toxic Sludge Portal
 * Sludge contaminants
 * Sewage sludge