Berks Farmer Welcomes Biosolids Testing on His Farm

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

LENHARTSVILLE, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has a new tool designed to detect chemicals coming from recycled sewage sludge applied on fields.

But for a Berks County farmer, who had the dubious honor of welcoming DEP to his farm Monday, it raises the question about whether this is the beginning of more oversight over his use of biosolids.

Larry Kehl farms more than 500 acres just outside of Lenhartsville and has been using biosolids on his farm for the past 10 years.

He’s seen many advantages to using sludge, mainly in better yields and more drought resistant crops.

But using it has come with a price. Neighbors have complained about the odors coming from its application and whether it is causing health problems. Stacy Kreiderman, spokesperson with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, said several of Kehl’s neighbors have complained of possible respiratory problems in connection with Kehl’s use of biosolids.

“There’s hundreds of farms that apply biosolids and we get a handful of complaints from people,” Kreiderman said.

Enter DEP who, at the request of the department of health, decided to test Kehl’s farm for levels of chemicals in the air.

They used an infrared spectroscopy machine to test the air while a spreader applied biosolids to a little over 100 acres on the farm.

The machine works by sending out a beam to a mirror usually mounted across the field. In this case, the mirror was mounted to a row of trees. The computer measures the amount of chemicals in the air based on how fast the beam returns to the machine. In this case, ammonia was the most prevalent compound. Even without the machine, the smell of it in the air was a tip-off.

More tests are scheduled to be done through next week.

There have been three other similar tests done in the state, according to Laurie Lebo, a DEP spokesperson. All three were done on farms using biosolids and in all three cases, the results came back as “inconclusive.”

DEP allows the use of biosolids in the state, so long as it is tested and meets the state’s minimum chemical requirements.

Still, the use of biosolids is controversial.

Ben Parker, projects director with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, said the organization has assisted more than 70 Pennsylvania communities in adopting ordinances that prohibit “corporate sludge dumping” on fields or at the very least, require more testing of sludge before it is applied.

The municipality most recently affected was Carbon County’s Packer Township, which banned the practice last month.

“It’s a natural human reaction to believe that we don’t want to live with waste in our community,” Parker said. “What’s actually needed is the community to make decisions themselves to decide whether or not to allow it in their community.

“It’s easy to sympathize with the farmer’s plight. They’re trying to find ways to cut costs,” Parker said. “This isn’t really the way to do it.”

Kehl, who said he hasn’t used fertilizer in over a year, fears tests like this will eventually lead to tougher oversight over biosolid use and how much he’s able to use on his farm.

“I’ve been using it for all these years and never heard of anything bad happening,” Kehl said.

Mark Reider, technical services director with Synagro Technologies, Inc., a Houston, Texas-based residuals management company that Kehl has contracted to spread biosolids on his fields, has even bigger concerns.

“At the end of the day, are they trying to end land application?” Reider said. “It’s as safe as any land application on fields. There is no more heavily regulated field application than this.”