The polite term for human fertilizer being spread on some Jackson County farms is biosolids.
Though it still can smell putrid on a hot day, it is not raw sewage that was banned from farm fields here in 2001. Some neighbors of farms using processed human waste have voiced concerns recently to the Citizen Patriot and Jackson County Health Department.
Treated human sludge has been applied on 2,500 acres in the county, and another 1,000 acres are permitted to accept sludge, a state official said.
Farmers and those who guard the environment and public health say using treated sludge to grow crops is a sound and responsible practice that is monitored closely.
"It is very comparable to composted livestock manure, only better," Department of Environmental Quality biosolids coordinator Greg Merricle said. "We have three choices for disposal: bury it in landfills, incinerate it or use it for fertilizer."
Municipal waste-treatment plants separate liquids from solids. In Jackson County, treated water is discharged into the Grand River.
Leoni Township and Jackson sewage plants place solid waste in piles and let bacteria eat themselves to death, Merricle said.
The resulting product is not manure, but dead bacteria teeming with nutrients and organic nitrogen.
"About 98 to 99 percent of pathogens are removed, and the rest we rely on sunlight and air to kill in the fields," Merricle said.
The potential threat from pathogens was partly behind the Jackson County ordinance in 2001 that banned the use of raw sewage on farms. No actual health concern has been documented.
"It is treated waste, and they are allowed to apply it to their fields," Hall said of treated sludge from wastewater-treatment plants. "There are sample testing requirements, and it is heavily regulated by the Department of Environmental Quality."
Jackson County's waste ordinance calls for fines against waste haulers who clean septic tanks and spread the sewage on fields. Septage, as it is called, must go to a treatment plant if it is collected in Jackson County.
Only a few haulers have been cited. Violations can lead to losing their waste-hauling licenses.
About half of Michigan's wastewater plants recycle solid waste, which Merricle said is more expensive than burning or landfilling. It's the green thing to do.
Part of the expense is having it hauled away and applied to fields by private firms such as Texas-based Synagro.
Contractors collect the solids, test them and apply the fertilizer on fallow fields.
Farmers who recently harvested winter wheat have been fertilizing the fields with animal and human waste in recent weeks. The sludge must be worked into the soil when it is applied.
Mark Howe, whose family farms 3,500 acres in Hanover Township, said Synagro is spreading sludge from Detroit on 400 of their acres. When corn and soybean fields are harvested, sludge will be applied in those fields.
"We are willing to spread it on thousands of acres if it is available," he said.
He said his family father James, mother Susan and wife Dawn inform neighbors about the process but still hear wild rumors of raw sewage, used syringes and dangerous pathogens.
"What people don't realize is that their wastes from their septic tanks end up in someone's field," Mark Howe said. "I like to let everyone know that Disney World and other theme parks fertilize their landscape and flowers with human sludge, and those places are beautiful."
Synagro serves 600 water and wastewater plants in 30 states, including Michigan, and supplies processed human waste to several Jackson County farms. A company report claims it serves 70 percent of Michigan's treatment plants.
While processed sludge from the Jackson and Leoni Township wastewater-treatment plants is spread on farms mostly north of I-94 in Jackson County, Synagro applies sludge from Detroit's municipal treatment plant on farms in the Hanover area.
Merricle said Detroit sludge is actually a little cleaner than Jackson sludge because of more advanced treatment.
With commercial nitrogen soaring to more than $800 a ton this year, treated sludge is like gold to farmers. The sludge and its application are free to farmers. Howe said the general public hears about soaring grain prices but might not be aware that the prices for diesel fuel, fertilizer, land, seeds and chemicals have more than kept pace.
Besides the economic benefits to farmers, sludge fits the current green movement by improving the food supply and soil condition with a waste product the average citizen would just as soon ignore.
"Biosolids are the second-largest recycling program in the state, right behind scrap metal," Merricle said.
There are some controls on access to fields and the type of crops grown on fields where sludge is applied.
Merricle said farmers cannot grow root vegetables, such as potatoes, for 38 months. Produce that might touch the soil strawberries, green beans or tomatoes cannot be grown for 12 months.