SF Gardeners to Dump Toxic Sludge on the Steps of City Hall toxic tanks

Community gardeners who were misled into accepting toxic sewage sludge from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) are giving the sludge back to the Mayor’s office.

Twice a year since 2007, the SFPUC has hosted “Compost Giveaway Events” in locations throughout the city. Although the city has marketed the material as “organic compost” or “organic fertilizer,” it turns out that it is really toxic sludge generated by San Francisco and seven other counties’ industrial, hospital, commercial and residential sewage.

In fact, the USDA explicitly prohibits food grown in sewage sludge, or in any “product” derived from sewage sludge, to be labeled organic. Sewage sludge is a noxious stew derived from all the industrial, hospital, commercial, residential and radioactive wastes and stormwater runoff that end up in municipal sewer systems.

Spearheaded by the Organic Consumers Association and joined by representatives of dozens of local environmental groups, citizens will dump the sludge on the steps of City Hall and hand deliver a letter calling for Mayor Newsom to

#1 end the give-aways and

#2 clean up the school yards and backyard gardens that have been contaminated with sewage sludge.

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) reports that “San Francisco has come up with an ingenious plot to trick city residents into taking their toxic sewage sludge back and disposing of it in their own gardens. San Francisco is having Synagro, the corporate giant of the toxic sludge industry, “compost’” some of the toxic sewage sludge. Then they give it away to San Francisco’s gardeners telling us it’s “high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic Biosolids Compost.”

March 2010