Biosolids land application for beneficial reuse applies varying amounts of trace metals to soils. Measuring plant-available or total soil metals is typically performed to ensure environmental protection, but these techniques do not quantify which soil phases play important roles in terms of metal release or attenuation. This study assessed the distribution of Cd, Cr, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pb, and Zn asso...

The potential presence of steroid hormones in runoff from sites where biosolids have been used as agricultural fertilizers is an environmental concern. A study was conducted to assess the potential for runoff of seventeen different hormones and two sterols, including androgens, estrogens, and progestogens from agricultural test plots. The field containing the test plots had been applied with bi...

In response to the U.S. National Academies' call for a better assessment of chemical pollutants contained in the approximately 7 million dry tons of digested municipal sludge produced annually in the United States, the mean concentration of 72 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP) were determined in 110 biosolids samples collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in...

At water resource recovery facilities, nutrient removal is often required and energy recovery is an ever-increasing goal. Pyrolysis may be a sustainable process for handling wastewater biosolids because energy can be recovered in the py-gas and py-oil. Additionally, the biochar produced has value as a soil conditioner. The objective of this work was to determine if biochar could be used to adso...

Effects of applications of exceptional quality (low toxic minerals), high molybdenum (Mo)containing biosolids (sludge) to bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) pastures in successive years, or residual effects of applications the previous year, on minerals, crude protein (CP) and in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) status of forages in north Florida were studied in relation to beef cattle nut...

Five separate test sites were established in 1994 to evaluate the use of municipal sewage sludge as a soil amendment and conditioner (hereafter referred to as “biosolids”) on the Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation’s tailings impoundment near Magna, Utah. Each site was divided into 16 test plots to evaluate four replications of the four rates of biosolids addition and incorporation into the taili...

The objective of this study was to investigate leaching and transport of viruses, specifically those of an indigenous coliphage host specific to Escherichia coli ATTC 15597 (i.e., MS-2), from a biosolid-soil matrix. Serial extractions of 2% and 7% (solids) class B biosolid matrices were performed to determine the number of phage present in the biosolids and to evaluate their general leaching po...

Due to the complexity of risk assessments, models tend to be dense and difficult for users to follow and modify in order to meet their needs. A spreadsheet-based tool, named the Spreadsheet Microbial Assessment of Risk: Tool for Biosolids (SMART Biosolids), has been developed for quantitative microbial risk assessment of land-applied biosolids, which is intended to address these challenges. The...

biosolids must be stabilized in order to reduce odors, which have been noted as a major concernwith respect to alkaline stabilization. stabilization is designed to address potential putrefaction processes,odiferous releases and vector attraction concerns. also, most alkaline processes are open systems in whichtemperature and mixing are more difficult to control, and factors such as increased pr...

Introduction The increased attention being paid to microconstituents (traces of synthetic chemicals from consumer products and daily activities) in the environment has led to questions about the contribution from applications of biosolids to soils. Which microconstituents end up in biosolids and in soils? What are their fates? What are their impacts? Research to address these questions ramped u...