Summerville, Ga., sludge use meeting today

Arkansas-Kentucky Live Blog

IF YOU GOWhat: Public meeting on applying sewage sludge to 300 acres of pasture on West Cove RoadWhere: Cedar Grove Community Center, 5395 W. Cove Road, Chickamauga, GA 30707When: 6 p.m. today

photo Sewage sludge site

Summerville, Ga., is looking for greener pastures - for its sewage sludge.

At a public meeting tonight, city officials will discuss putting treated sewage sludge on about 350 acres of pasture on West Cove Road.

"It's not to grow crops on," Summerville Waste Water Treatment Plant Superintendent Chris Tuggle said. "It's basically just for hay."

Tuggle wants neighbors to know the treated sludge isn't smelly -- especially compared with commonly used chicken manure.

"If it's any odor at all, it's a little bit of a musty smell," he said. "It's nothing like chicken litter."

For the past 17 years, Tuggle said, Summerville has let farmers take its sewage sludge and use it to fertilize their pastures.

For most of that time, Bill Smith used the sludge on about 400 acres he farmed on Lookout Mountain, Tuggle said. Since Smith retired, Tuggle said, Mike Dawson has been hauling the sludge to fertilize pasture on Gore Sublinga Road.

However, once a pasture has reached its sludge-carrying capacity, the city needs to find a new location.

"We can only apply so much," Tuggle said.

That's why Summerville has been working to get approval from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to apply sludge to pasture on both sides of West Cove Road near Hog Jowl Road. The Cross family wants to apply sludge to 160 acres they own at 7941 W. Cove Road and on 187 nearby acres owned by Marjorie H. Merritt.

"We've been working on this a couple years, just to get this far," Tuggle said. "It's quite a lengthy process just to get approved, because the regulations are so strict from the EPD."

Tonight's meeting is one of the steps in the approval process, he said.

"The meeting basically is just to inform the public and answer any questions," Tuggle said.

Sewage sludge is applied on pastures around Georgia, said Bert Langley, district manager for the Mountain District of the EPD.

"It's a common practice," Langley said. "It's a pretty good source of nitrogen and other nutrients. It saves on fertilizer costs."

He said sewage sludge is basically pathogen-free.

"There's some potential for viruses," Langley said. "In general, as soon as you spread it out, the UV rays from the sun pretty much knock [pathogens] out."

"The biggest concern with sewage sludge in land application is metals," he said. "Sewage sludge can contain heavy metals, usually in really low concentrations."

Tuggle said the city sends sludge samples for a barrage of laboratory tests, including those for heavy metals.

The state agency has many requirements for sludge application, Tuggle said, including that it be kept a certain distance from streams and wells.

After it's applied, he said, "cattle can't be on it for 30 days."

Summerville will put its sewage sludge-hauling contract out to bid. It now pays Dawson about $80,000 a year to haul it and apply it, Tuggle said, but hopes to reduce that expense to $60,000. Paying a cattle rancher to haul off the sludge costs the city about a third what it would to dump it in a landfill, he said.

"They're glad to have it," Tuggle said.

Upcoming Events