The sewage sludge compost spread in a Baltimore City neighborhood, drawing calls for a federal investigation, poses no danger to residents, Johns Hopkins officials say.
Members of Congress, along with the city and state chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have called for federal investigations and congressional hearings into sludge spreading around nine homes by Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of an study on ways to reduce high lead levels in soil.
But, Hopkins officials pointed out Saturday, the sludge compost used around nine poor, black families? homes had been treated to eliminate pathogens and mixed with sawdust. The hybrid, known as a Class A compost or Eckology/Orgro High Organic Compost, is commonly sold at hardware stores.
“This exact same product is used at Redskins Stadium and Camden Yards, the president?s lawn at the White House, the grounds of the Naval Observatory where the vice president resides, as well as the lawns and gardens of private residences,” according to a statement from Hopkins and Kennedy Krieger Institute, which helped select families for the study.
By contrast, Class B sludge can cause illness, experts have claimed, due to pathogens remaining after it?s treated with heat and lime.
The Baltimore families were picked because the lead levels in the soil around their homes were notoriously high, said Gary Goldstein, Krieger?s president.
The study, released in 2005 and funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, reduced lead levels and helped grass grow so children could not put the soil and lead in their mouths.
“The idea was to go out in the neighborhood with neighborhood leaders and reduce [lead] exposure,” Goldstein said. “Why did we go into that neighborhood? Because that?s where the lead was.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings, however, remained worried after speaking with Krieger officials because they did not follow up with the families in the study to see if the compost had sickened them.
But Goldstein said officials did not follow up with the families because the sludge compost was so safe, there was no need.
The families signed a consent form to participate in the study that explained that “sterilized sewage sludge mixed and composted with wood chips and sawdust” would be spread, according to officials.
“If there is credible evidence that the compost in question poses a health problem, that certainly is worthy of study by experts in the field of biosolids,” according to a statement from Hopkins and Krieger officials.
“This study was not designed to conduct assessments of any risk of using the compost as this commonly used product is approved for commercial and home use.”
