SURVIVING THE UNCERTAINTIES IN CALIFORNIA BIOSOLIDS LAND APPLICATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: EBMUD'S PERSPECTIVE

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 40 CFR 503 “Sewage Sludge Regulations” established national biosolids standards over six years ago. Since the introduction of the 503’s, biosolids land application has been on a steep rise throughout the United States. A recent national survey conducted by the Water Environment Federation concluded that more than 50% of biosolids produced in the U.S. are now land applied. That trend is mirrored in California, where rising landfill costs and a streamlined site approval process for land application (General Waste Discharge Requirements) resulted in increased use of land application as a biosolids management alternative. EBMUD, a combined wastewater/water public utility based in Oakland, California, generates 60,000 wet tons of biosolids annually, moving from composting and landfilling of biosolids to land application in 1995. With the increase of biosolids land application sites, however, there grew an everincreasing “NIMBY-type” opposition by the rural farm communities to biosolids land application in California. In the last four years, numerous California counties have adopted ordinances ranging from banning biosolids land application to restricting the application process and season. EBMUD has seen this shift result in an increase of land application costs from 16 through 1999 to a current price of 24/ton as we move into the 21st century.