I have read several blogs where people are reporting rashes and illness from contact with the wet
Class A sewage sludge biosolids "Dillo Dirt" in Zilker Park. I would be interested in knowing if others suffered any adverse health effects, skin lesions, infections, etc. Please contact me. Many gardeners and other victims have been sickened by use of or contact with Class A sludge biosolids "fertilizer".
http://www.sludgevictims.com/Class-A-sludge.html

US EPA SAYS: Regrowth of Salmonella sp. in composted biosolids is a concern, although research shows that salmonellae reach a quick peak during regrowth, then die off. Composting is not a sterilization process and a properly composted product maintains an active population of beneficial
microorganisms that compete against the pathogenic members. Under some conditions,
explosive regrowth of pathogenic microorganisms is possible. http://www.epa.gov/owmitnet/mtb/combioman.pdf

Class A (Dillo Dirt) sewage sludge "biosolids" is a good source of drugs, pharmaceuticals, steroids, endocrine disrupters and toxic industrial chemicals. EPA's toxics release inventory and other documents reveal that each year billions of pounds of hazardous pollutants are released into public sewers, where the wastewater treatment process reconcentrates them in the sewage sludge "biosolids".

http://www.sludgevictims.com/toxic_in_sludge.html

EPA and University of Wisconsin research has found that sewage sludge may also contain infectious human and animal prions which are NOT inactivated by sludge treatment processes.
Prions can cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathies such as Alzheimer's, Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, Mad Cow Disease, Chronic Wasting Disease, Scrapie, etc.
http://www.sludgevictims.com/pathogens/prion.html

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Sewage sludge fertilizer should not be used in dairy pastures, public parks, ballfields, playgrounds, and home flower and vegetable gardens. Peer reviewed scientific research has found that plants, including vegetables and fodder, can take up sludge pollutants. Pathways of risk include runoff to surface waters, bioaerosols from dried sludge dust, children eat dirt (and sludge), family pets can track the sludge into homes on their feet and fur and topdressed sludge on grazing lands is eaten by livestock and returned to the human food chain in their meat and milk.

Helane Shields, Alton, NH 03809 Sludge researcher since 1996 http://www.sludgevictims.com
hshields@worldpath.net

A local high school removed their veggie garden's soil that had been treated with similar treated sewage because of high heavy metal levels that were discovered upon a soil test.

That's me! Just kidding. I was wearing rain boots on muddy Sunday, and I was careful to keep my hands out of the "splash zone" when walking around.

That makes me want to throw up.... and after reading the other comments, it sounds entirely unsafe. A farmer that lives across from my parents used some sewer sludge to "fertilize" his field a few years back and smelled so horrible they had to close up the windows and turn on the AC as to not feel sick from it.

Obviously, none of you read the linked article from the EPA. In the first paragraph: "Biosolids compost is safe to use
and generally has a high degree of acceptability by
the public."

Given that every one of the other links is to a site that obviously isn't a disinterested party, well...

Get a grip, folks. Human beings have been using their own waste and the waste of other animals as fertilizer for eons.

Tiamat, I think the difference between just animal waste, and sewage sludge, is that in the latter, additional stuff such as pharma/chemical residues and runoff from streets, roofs, etc., get washed down the drains. Sewage is more than just what you flush down your toilet.

It's also worth mentioning that humans put crap into their bodies that animals wouldn't even think of. Consider the many many many types of prescription drugs we see ads for on TV, that are no doubt going into people's bodies..and in turn, eventually partially into their toilets. Do we really want to grow stuff with leftover remnants of viagra and anti-depressants?

Wait...don't answer that. Haha.

The sludge compost might meet the requirement of less than 1,000 thermotolerant E. coli bacteria per gram, until it got wet at which point all viable but nonculturable bacteria tend to rejuvenate. Look at two studies

Repopulation in Composted Sludges

The repopulation potential and recovery of Salmonella sp. and their close relatives Arizona spp. and Citrobacter spp. in sewage sludge which had been composted was examined. Salmonellae growth in previously composted sludge was found to occur in the mesophilic temperature range (20 to 40 deg C), require a moisture content of -20%, and require a carbon/nitrogen ratio in excess of 15:1.

These results also indicated that some enteric bacteria, upon desiccation, became dormant and in this state were highly resistant to both heat and radiation.

Optimal recoveries in the low bacteria sample occurred at the 21% moisture level at 28 to 36 deg C after a 5-day incubation. The population increased more than four orders of magnitude under these conditions. The indigenous salmonellae initiating this growth had survived in a desiccated state for over 1 year prior to providing the proper moisture-temperature combination for the repopulation to occur. --- as long as a demonstrated potential exists for repopulation of salmonellae in a commercial soil amendment product produced from composted sludge, a potential health hazard exists for the user.
APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, Mar. 1981, p. 597-602
http://thewatchers.us/EPA/2/1981-salmonella-regrowth-compost.pdf

Evaluation of the Health Risks Associated with the Treatment and Disposal of Municipal Wastewater and Sludge (1981) Compost worker - ear infection - Despite treatment, there was erosion of 70% of the right tympanic membrane. One compost worker's x-ray exhibited an abnormality compatible with an occupationally-relate disorder.

Heat Dried Milorganite study 36. For both the annual and perennial fields the incidence of liver degeneration in the meadow vole did not differ between the fertilized and sludge treated plots but was lower in the control plots. 37. Meadow voles from the sludge-treated annual field showed a more severe liver degeneration than those from the sludge-treated perennial fields.

http://thewatchers.us/EPA/4/1981-health-risk-rvaluation.pdf

http://thewatchers.us/index/early-studies.html