COUNTYWIDE : Program Recycles Sludge as Fertilizer

A fertilizer truck delivering piles of recycled sewage to homeowners?

That may sound far-fetched to some people, but not to Bill Becker, general manager of the Southeast Regional Reclamation Authority.

Becker is considering what could happen as a result of a pilot program now being conducted by the 12 member districts of the reclamation authority and the Aliso Water Management Agency. The program involves testing a mixture of sewer sludge and sawdust in experimental compost piles at Rancho Mission Viejo. The process could eventually allow Orange County sanitation agencies to enter the fertilizer market.

“Our trucks could follow the trash trucks and fill the empty trash cans part way with fertilizer that homeowners could use,” Becker said. “That way we could recycle the material to residents in their empty trash cans instead of taking it to a landfill.”

Sewer sludge is composed of the raw solids left after sewage is treated. Each person produces about a pound of sludge a day, Becker said.

For the composting, two parts of sawdust are mixed with one part sludge and heated in the sun to produce a useful fertilizer that is relatively odorless, he said.

Most county reclamation facilities now either dump sewer sludge into landfills or pay to have it trucked to sites as far away as Utah to be used in fertilizers, Becker said.

Becker said the Orange County program is modeled after one in Los Angeles County, where sanitation districts use a 20-acre compost site in Carson and work with a contractor, Kellogg’s Nitrohumus Co., to distribute the material.

A site of about 3 acres in Chiquita Canyon is being used for the Orange County pilot program, and the Chino-Corona Nursery will test-market the material, Becker said.