By COOKSON BEECHER, Capital Press Staff Writer, 7/11/97
EPHRATA, Wash. - When Tom Witte scooped up about two pounds of residue from the bottom of an empty Cenex liquid fertilizer tank on his farm and sent it to a lab for testing, he had no idea the results would be so alarming. Nor did he suspect he would be sparking a change in the way fertilizers will be tested in this state due to the health risks lurking in fertilizers made with recycled waste products.
Back then in 1995, when the test results arrived from Brookside Farms Laboratory in Ohio, the Quincy Valley farmer discovered that in addition to the nitrogen-sulfur mix he had purchased for his crops in 1991, the tank also contained unlabeled toxic chemicals and heavy metals - arsenic, beryllium, lead, titanium, chromium, copper and mercury.
"I knew something was wrong," Witte said, referring to a series of puzzling setbacks he had suffered in 1991. Crop losses on his farm were extensive that year - a reduction in yield of about 70 percent. His spring wheat came in at only 30 bushels per acre instead of the expected 80; field corn only 1 1/2 tons per acre instead of 4 or 5 tons; and silage corn only 10 to 12 tons per acre instead of 25 to 30 tons.
In addition, six of his cows died. The three that were tested had cancer. In searching for reasons for these setbacks, Witte blamed himself. A second-generation hay and crop farmer, he had recently begun dairying and gone from farming 200 acres to farming 600. He wondered if perhaps he had spread himself too thin.
The thought that the fertilizer he was using might be suspect never crossed his mind.
"For most farmers," he said, "it's absolutely unthinkable that fertilizer would be a problem."
But since then, Witte; his sister Nancy; several other farmers in the Quincy Valley; and Quincy Mayor Patty Martin have worked doggedly to reveal what few farmers and fewer citizens know: that "tag-along" heavy metals, toxic chemicals and radioactive wastes are being recycled into some of the fertilizers farmers are spreading across their fields.
"It didn't take too long for us to find out that this thing was really, really big," said Witte, referring to the extensive research conducted by the group. "We knew this was going to cause consternation across the country. It's been hidden for 25 to 30 years. But once the public wakes up, it's going to demand changes."
Following this tack, Witte sent a letter last spring to then-Gov. Mike Lowry and warned him that despite all the laws, departments, regulators, and investigators working to keep food safe for consumers, there is one critical gap in this loop that remains open to abuse.
"The most disturbing thing we found out," he said in the letter, "and the one thing you need to be made aware of is this: The state has no mechanism set up to prevent toxic heavy metals contamination of fertilizer. . . .
People in the industry think that the best way to dispose of waste is to sell it for fertilizer and let unsuspecting farmers spread it on their land."
The often-maligned group's persistence in getting its message out is gaining steam and getting results. Just last week, the Seattle Times ran extensive front-page stories about the dangers associated with using fertilizers made from recycled waste and pointed out farming areas across the nation that have already experienced health problems and crop losses due to this practice.
Here in Washington state, the Agriculture and Ecology departments have joined forces to tackle the challenge of ensuring that when waste is recycled and used in fertilizers, it's done safely.
Tom Fitzsimmons, director of Ecology, told a Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter that in the future, tests done on fertilizers will include not only tests on nitrogen levels but also tests for heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, chromium and others.
"I do think we'll see a change in policy," said Megan White, program manager for Ecology's Hazardous Waste and Toxic Reduction Program. "Right now, there's no comprehensive program to evaluate what's going into fertilizer.
While White emphasized that human health is the overriding issue here especially since crops can take up these dangerous chemicals and heavy metals, she also pointed out that fertilizer made with recycled waste makes up a very small part - less than 5 percent - of the fertilizer used here in Washington state.
Ali Kashani, who heads the department's fertilizer regulation program, said concerns expressed by the Quincy-area farmers led the department to test 19 samples of custom-mixed fertilizers still on hand. Some showed no signs of toxics, while other showed some. But none of the levels were alarming, he said.
The department has also done 35 additional tests on commercial fertilizers available at dealerships, and again, none of those have revealed anything alarming, he said.
Nevertheless, a group made up of staff members from the departments of Ecology, Agriculture and Health and from Washington State University will be evaluating the results of these tests and plans to release a report by this fall as part of the goal to develop new fertilizer testing policies.
But Laurie Valeriano of the Washington Toxics Coalition, a non-profit group that advocates safe alternatives to chemicals, warns that the public needs to be involved in developing new policies.
"There's a black hole in the loop that allows industry to get rid of waste," she said. "Farmers have been the innocent victims of this. We need to create a tracking system and testing for what these products are and what's happening when they're put on farmland. We need to delve into this further before we can create standards."
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Helpful hint to farmers
Tom Witte advises farmers to pull a sample from the fertilizer they've purchased and to keep it on hand in case crop losses or livestock problems develop. If that occurs, they should send the sample to a lab for analysis. "The problem with contaminated fertilizer," he said, "is that you don't know anything about it until it's too late. And bad fertilizer can reduce yields on your land for two or three years." There is good fertilizer out there, he said, pointing out that most of the problem comes from recycled nitrogen - nitric acid, ammonium nitrate and sulfuric acid, for example. "That's when you get dangerous levels of tag-along toxics," he warned. |
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More from the Quincy Valley
In a letter written to farm publication Acres, USA, Quincy Valley farmer Tom Witte detailed the plight of seven Central Washington farmers, all of whom believe recycled waste added to fertilizer caused crop losses and health problems on their farms. The following two accounts are based on the information in that letter. Russell Sligar. A Quincy native, Sligar has farmed in the area most of his life, mostly row crops such as peas, beans and potatoes. In 1991, he was farming about 1,000 acres. Until then, he had been a fairly successful farmer. But that year, his crops were terrible. In addition, Russell developed rashes and skin eruptions on his neck, arms and face. His wife, Terry, also worked on the farm and changed the water on the rill ground. She did the irrigating barefooted. She, too, developed sores. That winter, she was diagnosed with cancer. In the fall of 1992, she died at the age of 37. When hair samples were done, Russell's hair had elevated levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. His 13-month-old baby had an extremely high level of mercury in her hair samples. Sligar, once considered a good farmer, now exists doing odd jobs. The Girauds. Paul Giraud, his son Duke and daughter-in-law Jaycie own Quincy Produce, whose primary business is packing and wholesaling potatoes and onions. Paul and Duke also grow potatoes and onions. The family managed to survive in this high-dollar, high-risk enterprise for 40 years. In the summer of 1992, Duke applied a product known as "N Quick" to his growing crop of onions. This product was supposed to kill weeds, but it killed the onions instead and made the weeds grow. In 1994, Quincy Produce put in 400 acres of potatoes and ended up with a total crop failure - a million dollar loss. In the late summer, they applied a combination of Sencor and Prowl to control late weeds on 200 acres of potatoes. Even though the herbicide combination is not supposed to hurt potatoes, it killed the potato vines. The remaining 200 acres of potatoes were not hit as hard, but the yield, size and solids were poor. After the potatoes were harvested and put into storage, they melted and turned to mush. Duke tested the potatoes and the soil at the storage site and found levels of lead and cyanide. In addition, his onion crops have been below normal for the past four years. The crop he grew last year had problems from the start, so Duke had the liquid fertilizer he was using tested. The 32 percent nitrogen solution turned out to contain only 18 percent nitrogen, and there were levels of magnesium, potassium and arsenic in the solution. The Girauds have spent $50,000 on lawyers unsuccessfully suing fertilizer and chemical companies. And family members have also developed health problems. Quincy Produce as a business has for all practical purposes ceased to exist. The Girards expect to lose everything they own. On the other side of the fence, many farmers in the Quincy area say they are doing well, thanks to help and advice they receive from fertilizer companies. And Ali Kashania of the state's Agriculture Department points out that when the department collected potatoes from packing sheds and food processors in the area and sent 44 samples to a federal lab, the results revealed that the levels of lead and cadmium found in them were considered "naturally occurring and safe" by the national health authorities. Craig Smth, vice president for environmental affairs at the Northwest Food Processors Association says this sort of testing shows that if there is industrial waste in fertilizer, it's not being picked up in the potatoes. |