Category:Sludge Contaminants

Sludge contaminants is a category listing chemicals that have been found in sewage sludge. These chemicals are important because the U.S. EPA (with help from the sewage industry) has rebranded sewage sludge as "biosolids" and promotes it as a safe fertilizer to grow food in for humans and livestock, and for other uses such as home gardening, golf courses, and even the White House lawn. There is little regulation on the contaminants found in sewage sludge that is permissible for land application, even where food is grown. That means that the contaminants listed here can be found (sometimes in unsafe levels) in sewage sludge used as fertilizer for food crops and it's perfectly legal. There is now a SourceWatch Portal on Toxic Sludge