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Use of Human Sewage on Local Fields
About 4 years ago we had the 1st local use of this effluent, there were two mega heaps, one that was just off the A20 towards the old "Three Musketeers" site, another at Top Hill Farm. I can see this one from my bedroom window. I remember the complaints back then, in particular about the heap nearest to Lenham. That heap was supplied by Thames water, the Top Hillers had Southern Water sewage, perhaps locally produced ? The lower heap from Thames Water - apparently due to a more international diet of the donors - was accepted as being the smellier and eventually covered by plastic sheeting! Our Top Hill heap wasn't. This form of fertilizer is now so popular that in some parts of the country there is a shortage!
So, living next to ground zero, certainly closer than anybody in Lenham does, perhaps I should be ahead of the queue in complaining? Quite the opposite, I think it is a great idea and a long time coming, and provides an opportunity to effectively recycle what would otherwise need to be consigned to landfill, incinerated, or expensively re-engineered into 'pellets'.
Perhaps people need to realise that when they move from the towns, they are not moving to an idylic chocolate box countryside that smells of roses and daffodils, they have swapped the urban environment to what should be more practically called a rural factory! Without this factory and many others throughout the world, we starve!
More than that the world is changing, we live in an increasingly crowded, energy and resource short environment which we need to look after ahead of our personal preferences. This recycling of human sewage is totally sustainable. It avoids the costly manufacture of artificial fertilisers, costly both in terms of resources, Co2 and money. It also has the highly beneficial effect of returning micronutrients to the soil, vital in this area of the country where there is a deficit in iodine and other trace elements both as a result of geology and intensive farming.
Returning to the smell, okay its not pleasent, is it unhealthy, I doubt it? But if we go down that route, consider the number of homes who have these awful smell dispensers that squirt out cheap chemical so called perfumes. Now there's a bad smell, and nobody will convince me it is anything but unhealthy! Also on the subject of smells, Peter mentions traditional farmyard smells, I would guess that most people will have never come across real old fashioned farmyard smells, would they really prefer pig or chicken manure, the term "out of the frying pan into the fire' comes to mind!
Overall, I really can't see that much of a problem. The recent deliveries of sewage have been nowhere near as smelly as those of 4 years ago, perhaps an extended period of composting must have helped, maybe a bit more composting might do the job, though I guess there will always be a bit of a smell.
Where I would suggest the farming community could help is in providing information for those of us who live in the food factory. In this case, what degree of composting and how, is it aerobic or anaerobic? Along with statements as to health risk and ideally publicising the results of the routine testing that Thames Water must surely do. Perhaps that could be made available next to the information about the insecticides and herbicides that are also used locally but don't actually smell.
As to the matter of social responsibility, I'm afraid that in a global sense, this use of minimally processed human sewage is by far the more responsible way forward!
Also see:
More farmers switching to sewage
UK Supermarkets mull use of human sewage on food crops
Raising a Stink - Radio4 Investigation
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