BKT

BKT was formed in 2010 by the merger of Boo-kang Tech (a Korean wastewater treatment corporation) and FIL-MAX (a wholly-owned membrane filtration subsidiary established in California in 2005) and is, in its own words, "an environmental company specialized in wastewater treatment & membrane filtration technology." Elsewhere, the company claims, "BKT has provided their technology to over 50 locations treating municipal wastewater."

A BKT description in an industry conference program reads, "BKT specializes in wastewater treatment for agricultural and industrial applications. Its advanced technologies include FMX, [which] . . . is used to treat digestate from anaerobic digesters . . . ."

Toxic Sludge Gasification Controversy
"[W]astewater treatment" refers to the separation of municipal sewage into treated effluent and toxic sludge. EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman has called anaerobic digestion, 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 BKT and others in the industry call "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.

Exhibitor at 2011 BioCycle 11th Annual Conference on "Renewable Energy from Organics Recycling"
BKT was an exhibitor at 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.

Other SourceWatch Resources

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