The Florida Legislature has taken a step to address one of the state’s nastiest and fastest-growing environmental problems.
The problem is that this attempt to solve one problem may well create another.
As the legislative session wound down last week, lawmakers passed House Bill 1405, which addresses the disposal of “biosolids” — a bureaucratic, science-y sounding euphemism for “sewage sludge,” the nasty stuff left behind at the sewage treatment plant after the treated effluent is released.
Spurred by the legislation’s grant program, the already growing production of Class AA could expand significantly; and more — but who knows how much more? — sewage sludge-based fertilizer would end up on pastures, sod farms and lawns.
For the sake of Florida’s water, any increased use of Class AA biosolids must be monitored.
