"EPA Watchdog Questions Safety of Sewage Used as Fertilizer"

"The Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t know if the treated sewage sludge that farmers use as fertilizer is safe, according to a report from its internal watchdog.

The treated sewage known as biosolids is chock full of nutrients, which is what makes it so good at enriching soil. But it also can be chock full of pollutants, from heavy metals such as mercury and arsenic to pharmaceutical compounds, flame retardants and disease-carrying organisms.

And the EPA doesn’t know enough about hundreds of pollutants found in the material, the agency’s inspector general said in a report Thursday."

Jennifer A. Dlouhy reports for Bloomberg November 15 2018.