paper mill sludge

[JFK52]

I had my land in Southern Portage county certified for Synagro to dump paper mill sludge on it 27 years ago. Paperwork, DNR permits, and any neighbors within 500 feet of my fields signed waivers were required before any applicaton of sludge could be done. (It stinks to high heaven.) The product comes from the mill in Wisconsin Rapids. Over the past 27 years I have had the paper mill sludge applied to my fields several times. Mostly in the spring on fields that I had left fallow that year.
I got the call on Monday and Synagro has been out on my land for the past four days spreading paper mill sludge on about 27 acres of my fields. So I can thank the late wet spring for delaying planting otherwise I would have all these fields planted already. A 12 acre rented alfalfa field was lost to winter kill. It is being planted for one year in RR soy beans before the farmer puts it back into alfalfa. That was a big loss as it provides a steady food source for the deer all the way into September or longer.
The paper mill sludge is free fertilizer. The last application I can remember was about 5 years ago. There is a formula that involves what was grown on the fields and nitrogen credits as to how much can be applied. I make no pretense of understanding this formula. I am just glad to get this amendment to my soils and at the right price!

 

[Wild Thing]

Interesting. I just saw a news segment last week where people in the Manistique, Michigan area suspect their ground water is being contaminated by the paper mill sludge from Verso Paper Co being applied to nearby ag fields. They call it "Verso Water". Of course, Verso denies that there is anything from their sludge responsible for contaminating ground water. The investigation continues....

I don't have any dog in the fight either way - just reporting what I saw on the news.

 

[JFK52]

I just had the well water on my land tested for free as part of a study done in Portage county. I also had it tested 27 years ago when I first put in the 156 foot deep 6 inch rotary drilled well. There is nothing in either well water test results that indicates any amount of contamination due to the application of paper mill sludge on my land.
This is the first I have heard about Manistique, Michigan and I will certainly follow the story as it has connections to my land.
I have several large irrigated potato fields within a few miles of my land. These huge irrigation pivots run constantly in the summer and in my opinion have sucked down the level of several local lakes over the past 40 years that I have been in the area. I am more concerned about all the chemicals that are applied to potatoes when the vines are killed yearly than I am in having paper mill sludge dumped on my 25% of land every 4-5 years.

 

[Wild Thing]

There are a lot of farmers around the Quinnesec mill (near Iron Mountain) that utilize sludge as well and I have never heard of any issues there either. I was actually surprised when I saw this on the news the other day. I'm sure it will be thoroughly investigated.