Issuu

Vol. XII No. 5

Sept /Oct 2018

Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost & Wood Pellet Producers www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com

NEWS

Attention Readers !

Are you looking for Products, Equipment or Services for your business? If so, please check out these leading companies advertised inside: Bagging /Palletizing Equipment Amadas Industries – pg 7 Hamer-Fischbein – pg 27 Mollers North America – pg 24 Nova Packaging – pg 12 Premier Tech Chronos – pg 5

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Compost Equipment/spreaders HCL Machine Works – pg 3

dust & odor control Buffalo Turbine – pg 20

Grinders, Chippers & Screening Systems Amadas Industries – pg 7 Apollo Equipment – pg 23 Bandit - pg 17 CBI – pg 14 Diamond Z – pg 21 HogZilla – pg 15 Peterson – pg 9 Precision Husky – pg 6 Premier Tech Chronos – pg 5 Rotochopper Inc – pg 22 Vermeer – pg 13 West Salem Machinery – pg 11

California’s Fires:

Public Policy Failure Hidden Behind the Guise of Climate Change By Kathleen Marquardt

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California is in the middle of yet another recordbreaking fire season with 820,000 acres across the state already burned — more than twice the area that burned by this point last year. NY Times

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The Mendocino Complex Fire burned more than 290,600 acres (nearly 454 square miles) as of Tuesday morning. It is the largest wildfire in the recorded history of California, beating out the Carr Fire still raging in Shasta, which is now the sixth most destructive fire in state history. Brock Keeling, SF Curbed

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alifornia is on fire this summer. What else is new? Yes, California burns in the summer. Why? Because it doesn’t rain in California in the summer, and much of the rural land is forested or covered by grasses that have turned into dried brush by late June. On top of these factors, due to the lengthy drought

and infestation from bark beetles, California has more than 100 million dead trees that are a formula for the perfect firestorm. But, the long drought is only one of the factors behind the fact that four of the five largest wildfires in state history have occurred since 2012. What are the other factors? Much of mainstream media (MSM) attributes global warming/climate change as the leading factor. How does global warming cause wildfires, other than maybe by exacerbating drought conditions? The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) says, “Wildfires in the western United States have been increasing in frequency and duration since the mid-1980s. Between 1986 and 2003, wildfires occurred nearly four times as often, burned more than six times the land area, and lasted almost five times as long when compared to the period between 1970 and 1986.” (Understand that UCS Continued on page 3

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Soil & Mulch Producer News September / October 2018

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California’s Fires: Public Policy Failure Hidden Behind the Guise of Climate Change Continued from page 1

requires one only to pay a $25 contribution to become a ‘concerned scientist’.) On the other hand, according to Jon Keeley, a fire ecologist investigating historical fire patterns and their relationship to climate and urban development at UCLA, “ . . . after peaking in 1980, there have been progressively fewer wildfires in California.”(ital. mine) Which of the above you going to believe, the instant-scientists or the UCLA research ecologist? In his book, Cracking Big Green, Ron Arnold informs us, “In the real world, forest fires have always been with us, but wildfires since 1950 have decreased globally by 15%, the National Academy of Sciences reports. Most of that is due to forestry practices such as thinning to prevent small fires from spreading,

and vigorous firefighting programs, even though environmentalist lobbying has made both illegal in many places, causing trees to crowd ‘naturally’ into matchstick-like incendiary bombs that explode with the next lightning storm or errant campfire.”1 A New York Times article notes, “The cost of suppressing fires has reached all-time highs, and the burden of that expense combined with the increased threat of wildfire is motivating changes in fire policy at multiple levels of government.” The interesting thing about this statement is that due to the 1988 Yellowstone fire, the policy that is now being promoted in California was the policy that was reverted to in Yellowstone after the ’88 disastrous fire. I say, ‘reverted to’ because in 1972 the Yellowstone Park Service embraced the ‘let it burn’ policy after 100 years of fighting fires in the park that had kept the park in a healthy condition.

Sixteen years later, in 1988, they discovered the error of their ways and began, once again, to fight fires as they occurred and to do prescribed burns as much as possible throughout the park. Between shutting down logging (thus stopping the thinning of trees, which builds up more fuel), and stopping people from clearing brush around their homes, we are seeing truly destructive fires and we will be seeing far worse ones -- even if the proper policies are put in place today. It will take a long time and many fires before the fires can be mitigated through proper forest management. Chuck DeVore of Texas Public Policy states, “Some two decades ago, California produced so much wood waste from its timber operations, including brush and small trees from thinning efforts, that the resulting Continued on page 4

EQUIPMENT PRODUCT SHOWCASE www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com

PUBLICATION STAFF Publisher / Editor Rick Downing Contributing Editors / Writers Joe Barnett • Kathleen Marquardt Sandy Woodthorpe Production & Layout Barb Fontanelle • Christine Mantush

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Advertising Sales Rick Downing Subscription / Circulation Donna Downing Editorial, Circulation & Advertising Office 6075 Hopkins Road, Mentor, OH 44060 Ph: 440-257-6453 • Fax: 440-257-6459 Email: downassoc2@oh.rr.com

Subscription information, call 440-257-6453. Soil & Mulch Producer News is published bimonthly by Downing & Associates. Reproductions or transmission in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher, is prohibited. Annual subscription rate U.S. is $19.95. Outside of the U.S. add $10.00 ($29.95). Contact our main office, or mail-in the subscription form with payment. © Copyright 2018 by Downing & Associates Printed on Post-Consumer Recycled Paper

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September / October 2018 Soil & Mulch Producer News

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California’s Fires: Public Policy Failure Hidden Behind the Guise of Climate Change Continued from page 3

renewable biomass powered electric generating plants across the length of the state. But cheap, subsidized solar power, combined with air quality concerns (wood doesn’t burn as cleanly as a natural gas) and a lack of fuel due to cutbacks in logging, led to the closure of many biomass generators. What used to be burned safely in power generators is now burned in catastrophic fires. Including the growing capture and use of landfill methane as fuel, California’s biomass energy generation last year was 22% lower than it was 25 years before.

about the depletion of our natural resources and the damage to our environment, was a wake-up call for us to ascertain that industry practices were not deleterious. In working to correct environmental degradation, governmental regulations went way overboard and, instead of rectifying the situation, they had the effect of stopping all human activity – the good along with the bad. Many of the new environmental laws do not protect nature at all as they were (supposedly) intended, but, instead, they harm people and industries.

“The issue was summarized by the Western Governors’ Association in their 2006 Biomass Task Force Report which noted:

The Sacramento Bee editorial board blamed the Carr Fire on a man-caused buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In an editorial headlined, “The Carr Fire is a terrifying glimpse into California’s future,” they wrote, “This is climate change, for real and in real time. We were warned that the atmospheric buildup of man-made greenhouse gas would eventually be an existential threat.” Yet, scientists and history tell us that these fires are not from a buildup of man-made greenhouse gas, but from a buildup of government ordered “matchstick-like incendiary bombs”.

…over time the fire-prone forests that were not thinned, burn in uncharacteristically destructive wildfires, and the resulting loss of forest carbon is much greater than would occur if the forest had been thinned before fire moved through. …failing to thin leads to a greater greenhouse gas burden than the thinning created in the first place, and that doesn’t even account for the avoided fossil fuel greenhouse gas emissions due to the production of energy from the forest thinnings. In the long term, leaving forests overgrown and prone to unnaturally destructive wildfires means there will be significantly less biomass on the ground, and more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” Forests are not only the habitat for millions of flora and fauna species, but they are renewable resources that, under proper forest management, will be eternally available. Decades ago, concerned

Again, Chuck Devore says it best, “California’s forest management professionals have warned of the mounting fire threat from the growing forest fuel load issue since the mid-1990s. But, politicians and policymaking bureaucrats, some of them in California with the rest ensconced 3,000 miles away in Washington, D.C., had other ideas: leave the forests alone to grow thick with underbrush and small trees Continued on page 7

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California’s Fires: Public Policy Failure Hidden Behind the Guise of Climate Change

Continued from page 4

while quickly trying to suppress any fires that do break out. “The resulting intense fires were predictable as was the blame shifting by the policymakers at fault for pushing policies that kill people, burn homes and destroy hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable timber while releasing massive amounts of the very carbon dioxide they say they care about. In press conference, after tweet, after article, they claim that climate change caused the devastating fires, not their own policies that have virtually halted the active forest management practices needed to head off large wildfires.” Will California’s legislators and policy officials be able to return fire suppression policy back to proven, workable fire-fighting regulations? Or will the persuasive powers of the politically correct/scientifically ignorant prevail? Only time will tell. But time is not on the side of California vis a vis forest fires. For one thing, California Governor, Jerry Brown is telling reporters, “The more serious predictions of warming and fires to occur later in the century, 2040 or 2050, they’re now occurring in real time. “Though the state has the resources now to combat the large wildfires, fighting them and keeping people safe will become harder.

Things will get much tighter in the next five years as the business cycle turns negative and the fires continue.”2 In another interview with the LA Times, Brown said that Global Warming was “the culprit in the fires. The wilderness fire was ‘a real wake-up call’ to reduce the carbon pollution ‘that is in many respects driving all of this.’” “It’s a new normal,” he said in August. “California is burning.” “But scientists who study climate change and fire behavior say their work does not show a link between this year’s wildfires and global warming, or support Brown’s assertion that fires are now unpredictable and unprecedented. There is not enough evidence, they say.”3 With Governor Brown putting his money down on Global Warming, you can expect public policy to follow suit. And that means more devastating fires will be burning in California over the next years. When public policy is based on emotions rather than science, the people and the ecology lose. Arnold, Ron and Paul Driessen, Cracking Big Green, CFACT pub. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-fires-20180801-story.html 3 http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-ca-brown-wildfires-20151019-story.html 1 2

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Major British Columbia Composter Shuts Down

ichmond, BC – Following thousands of complaints, the Harvest Power composting facility in Richmond will be closing rather than spending millions on upgrades reports BC.CTVNews.ca. In a statement, the company explained it had previously worked hard to address the complaints through operational upgrades. Navigating regulations was another reason cited for the shutdown. Harvest Power had been working on the air quality permitting process with Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Fraser Port Authority which had approved a long term lease for the Richmond facility. Data from Metro Vancouver indicates there were 2,694 air quality complaints attributed to the east Richmond facility in 2016. That number went down to 1,396 in 2017. In 2018 there have been 506 odor complaints with Harvest Power as the main suspect. Leading public opposition has been a grassroots citizen group, Stop the Stink in Richmond. The company will stop collecting the organic waste sometime early next year. When the facility closes, the waste will be diverted to other facilities in Delta and Surrey. The short-term plan is to sell compost at the site after new material is no longer accepted. Data from Metro Vancouver indicates that the organic waste being processed by Harvest Power jumped from 150,000 tonnes in 2010 to 400,000 tonnes in 2016. In 2016, the company shut down its commercial-scale high solids anaerobic digester (HSAD) facility – the first of that type in Canada – after it was operational for just four years. The digester operation was capable of producing enough electricity to power more than 900 lower mainland homes.

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Montreal Plans to Build Three Compost Plants for $332 Million

ontreal, Canada – MontrealGazette.com reports the city has plans to build three massive composting plants for a total cost of nearly $332 million. Plans for two other plants are in the works, as well. The three facilities include two composting centers in the boroughs of St-Laurent and Rivière-des-Prairies—Pointeaux-Trembles and a biomethanation plant in the suburb of Montreal-East. Biomethanation is a process that turns organic waste into biogas. The cost estimates for the plants are practically double the originally projected costs when the city first considered the idea in 2013. At the time, Montreal had passed a loan bylaw to borrow $170 million to cover the cost of four of five composting centers. The total estimated price at the time was $237.5 million, which included the cost of acquiring land and decontamination. La compagnie de recyclage de papiers MD is the sole bidder on the composting plant in Rivière-des-Prairies—Pointe-auxTrembles. SUEZ Canada Waste Services is the sole bidder on the biomethanation plant in Montreal-East. The two companies are the only competitors for the contract in St-Laurent. Each contract includes the cost of operating and maintaining the facility for five years.

Mulch Producer NEWS

Wisconsin Manure-to-Biogas Plant Set to Break Ground

turgeon Bay, WI – A Wisconsin dairy farm, a utility company and a liquid natural gas company are partnering to process cow manure into natural gas vehicle fuel for California truck and bus fleets, according to DoorCountyDailyNews.com. The project, a joint effort between Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy, Pennsylvaniabased Rev LNG, LLC, and DTE Energy, is the first of six Wisconsin manureto-gas facilities in the state. Construction on the project begins this year with the facility expected to be fully operational in early 2019. The state-of-the-art natural gas processing plant will be built at the Pagel Farm in Kewaunee. The cow manure will be collected and piped into an underground anaerobic digester to produce the methane. The methane will be then refined to meet pipeline quality standards, trucked to a central location and injected into a natural gas transmission line. DTE Biomass Energy has been approaching dairy farms about the technology in recent years after perfecting the process at landfills. A liquid natural gas solutions company, Rev LNG was the winning bidder at an auction of the Rosendale Biodigester owned by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Foundation. The sale price of $8.25 million offer is approximately $1.5 million above the $6.75 million the foundation owed on its ill-fated digester project. The transaction went through in August, once Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Richard Nuss approved the Foundation’s plan to sell the biodigester. Rev LNG was among four bidders vying to own and operate the digester, which is located on the same property as the 8,600-cow Rosendale Dairy. The digester currently converts the methane to electricity to power 1,200 homes.

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Soil

Mulch Producer NEWS

Black Soldier Fly Seen as Lower-Cost Solution to Recycling Food Waste

new study shows that black soldier fly larvae can transform food waste into two useful products: plant fertilizer and animal feed, reports TheNational.ae. Researchers at National University of Singapore (NUS) have found that the larvae, Hermetia illucens, can consume four times their body weight or, put another way, 100kg of larvae can process hundreds of kilograms of food waste, every 24 hours. Once the black soldier fly hatches, it gets harvested into animal feed that is rich in proteins, fats and chitin, the material that their shells are made from. The species is particularly suited for this purpose because it likes a wide variety of foods. Other advantages are that the species does not spread disease and it is commonly found in most regions of the world. Black soldier flies are being used for recycling organic waste in different countries, and researchers at NUS are trying to create black soldier flies that grow faster, lay more eggs and can deal with even larger quantities of surplus food. The black soldier fly grows faster and reproduces year-round in warmer climates, such as the UAE, which aims to recycle 75 percent of food waste by 2021.

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Mass Timber Building Product Could Spur Forestry Grown in Minnesota

uluth, MN – If mills around the state can prove they have lumber production capacity and a softwood lumber supply chain is in place, Minnesota could play a key role growing a thriving mass timber industry in the U.S., reports DuluthNewsTribune. com. Mass timber is a new building product that serves as an alternative to steel. The material is fire resistant and, according to an official with APEX, the local business and economic development organization, mass timber has an aesthetic that attracts young talent. The material has been used in construction of four- to sixstory buildings around the U.S., but the greatest use has been seen in the Pacific Northwest. The T3 office building, a seven-story high-rise in Minneapolis used mass timber. Milwaukee and Des Moines have announced plans to build their own wooden high-rises. A survey is being sent to 11 Minnesota sawmills that will help gauge if the state can sustain a mass timber industry. APEX is sending out the survey to learn the grade and board footage that mills have produced for trees such as red pine, jack pine, spruce and balsam — all considered viable materials for mass timber. Mass timber business could diversify the sawmill industry and add secondary manufacturing. In addition to APEX’s survey effort, the State Department of Natural Resources is conducting a feasibility study to see if the Midwest has potential to support the new industry. The study also would look at economic and financial impact and jobs. Maine conducted a similar study in the summer of 2017 to combat their own declining paper market. After seeing positive results, state officials announced plans to build a facility in the state. Two primary mass timber producers are located in Oregon and Montana that manufacture mass timber materials. In a recent article originally reported by the Willamette Week of Portland, Ore., plans for a proposed 12-story wooden high-rise fell through due the heavy $29 million price tag.

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Soil

Million-Dollar Composting Program Signs Up 25,000 Households

ambridge, MA – Cambridge has launched the state’s largest curbside composting program with a citywide million-dollar pilot program. The program reaches 25,000 households that were provided kitchen food waste kits. Already, large institutions throughout the state, such as universities, hospitals, and hotels that produce more than a ton of organic waste a week, are required to participate in food recycling. Under state rules, they can compost the food waste, donate edibles to food pantries, or send the waste to biofuel plants. In 2012, the state’s landfills had about 2.1 million tons of capacity. State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials expect to have less than 700,000 tons of capacity by 2022. In 2014 Massachusetts state legislature passed zero waste legislation aimed at reducing the state’s total trash stream to 4.5 million tons a year by 2020. The first-year composting programs helped divert 450,000 of the state’s 1.4 million tons of organic waste from landfills. But two years later, Massachusetts had diverted only 260,000 tons, according to the most recent state figures from DEP. The state produced 5.6 million tons of waste in 2016 — about 200,000 tons more than it disposed of in 2010. Since 2008, DEP officials noted, Massachusetts has eliminated nearly a million tons of waste, a 14 percent decline. A contributing factor, they say, is the robust economy, which has grown by 14 percent. The officials expect to achieve their goals of diverting 450,000 tons of food waste by the end of the decade. The agency plans to reach that amount by adding closer monitoring of curbside waste and employing dedicated inspectors to monitor landfills.

Mulch Producer NEWS

Illinois Law Requires Compost in State-Funded Landscaping Projects

hicago, IL – The Illinois Department of Transportation (DOT) will begin requesting proposals for compost suppliers as part of a move to increase food and yard waste recycling in the state, WTTW.com reports. Under a new law, state agencies must request a bid for compost supply as part of any state-funded landscaping project that uses off-site soil. If the cost of using compost-amended soil is equal to or less than the cost of using other new or offsite soil, the agency will incorporate compost-amended soil into a landscaping project. Specifically, the law, HB4790, provides that “any State agency that undertakes a landscaping project that requires the use of new or offsite soil for landscape-related use and that is located within 10 miles of any Illinois Environmental Protection Agency-permitted compost facility shall request a base bid with an alternative for compost-amended soil for that project.” DOT also will run two pilot projects using compost in 2019. At the end of the pilot period, the agency will make a report to the General Assembly on project costs, long-term operational cost savings, and advantages and disadvantages of using compostamended soil. According to the Illinois Environmental Council, the composting industry in Illinois handles more than 500,000 tons of leaves, grass and brush each year, a result of legislation enacted in 1990 banning such material from landfills.

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Soil

Mulch Producer NEWS

Carbon Coating Gives Biochar Its Garden-Greening Power

n international team of researchers, with key contributions by Colorado State University experts, has illuminated unprecedented detail and mechanistic understanding of biochar’s seemingly miraculous properties. The Nature Communications study, led by Germany’s University of Tuebingen, demonstrated how composting of biochar creates a very thin organic coating that significantly improves the biochar’s fertilizing capabilities. A combination of advanced analytical techniques confirmed that the coating strengthens the biochar’s interactions with water and its ability to store soil nitrates and other nutrients. This improved understanding of biochar’s properties could trigger more widespread commercialization of biochar fertilizers. Such a change could reduce global dependence on inorganic nitrogen fertilizers that have served as modern food-production workhorses for more than a century. The international collaboration included CSU’s Thomas Borch, professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences with joint appointments in chemistry and civil and environmental engineering, and research scientist Robert Young. The CSU team contributed highresolution mass spectrometry performed at Florida State University’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. Their data helped to confirm the composition of the biochar’s nanoscale carbon coating. “To characterize a super-thin carbon coating on a carbon substrate

is nearly impossible,” Borch said. “Our international team used many different advanced techniques to perform the analyses. Robert Young led our group’s contribution of ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry to investigate the coating and probe its elemental makeup.” The study was led by Andreas Kappler, of the Center for Applied Geoscience at the University of Tuebingen, and geo-ecologist Nikola Hagemann. The authors set out to investigate biochar before and after composting with mixed manure. Using a combination of microscopic and spectroscopic analyses, the researchers found that dissolved organic substances played a key role in the composting of biochar and created the thin organic coating. “This organic coating makes the difference between fresh and composted biochar,” Kappler said. “The coating improves the biochar’s properties of storing nutrients and forming further organic soil substances.” Hagemann added that the coating also developed when untreated biochar was introduced into the soil -- only much more slowly. Composting experiments were carried out on a small commercial scale using infrastructure and expertise of the Ithaka Institute in Switzerland. “In agricultural crop production, higher yields usually only occur when biochar is applied together with nutrients from non-charred biomass such as liquid manure,” Hagemann said. “Using biochar without adding nutrients or with pure mineral nutrients has proved to be far less successful in many experiments.”

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Soil

Mulch Producer NEWS

Study Shows Energy Grasses Can Help Remediate Contaminated Soils

nder the EU-funded Phyto2Energy initiative, plant researchers are investigating how certain species of grasses can improve soil quality and function, according to a Cordia.Europa.eu article The study focuses on two methods, both of which involve planting crops on sites contaminated by heavy metals. With phytoremediation, certain species of grasses are planted to remove heavy metals from contaminated soil. With phytostabilization, planting certain species is done to halt further spread of these pollutants to soil, air and water. Phytoremediation is a long-term process, but it allows the restoration of contaminated arable soil to even normal agricultural use, including food and feed crops. Phytostabilization, meanwhile, reduces the mobility of substances in the environment and focuses on the long-term stabilization and containment of the pollutant. This method is applied where heavily contaminated marginal land would never be used for agricultural purposes. A team of researchers from Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas (IETU) in Katowice, Poland planted Miscanthus x giganteus, Sida hermaphrodita, Spartina pectinata and Panicum virgatum at two field sites. The first field comprised arable land contaminated with heavy metals, while the second was a former sewage sludge dewatering area. The team discovered that some of the plants tend to accumulate

heavy metals in their above-ground parts, while others are able to grow on contaminated soils without absorbing heavy metals. Organic matter content determined the bioavailability level of heavy metals and therefore the level of heavy metal uptake by energy species. For each site, the lowest metal uptake and the highest biomass production were found in Spartina pectinate, making it a safe candidate species for safe biomass production, even at heavily contaminated sites with high heavy metal bioavailability level. The highest lead uptake was determined to be for Miscanthus x giganteus, while Sida hermaphrodita had the highest cadmium and zinc uptake. These species also produced a satisfactory biomass yield, making them suitable candidates for phytoremediation-driven energy crop production. In addition, a team of scientists from Silesian University of Technology investigated the safe conversion of biomass into energy using the gasification process. Another study of soil microbes identified three P. putida bacterial strains which may be used as inoculants to stimulate the growth of plants. The researchers say that the Phyto2Energy study results may benefit engineers working on large-scale phytoremediation projects, as well as projects related to land management.

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Soil

Mulch Producer NEWS

Sonoma County Selects Compost Contractor

marisa@e-milagro.com

onoma, CA – After evaluating nine proposals, Sonoma County Waste Management Agency (SCWMA ) has selected Sonoma Compost to recycle the county’s organic waste, reports, SonomaNews.com. Sonoma Compost operated a compost facility for SCWMA until three years ago when citizen complaints about water runoff forced it to shut down. Since then, the area’s green waste has been collected and sent to surrounding counties for recycling. Bids were solicited last May for the annual $5 million composting contract. The SCWMA evaluation team, R3 Consulting Group (R3), ranked nine proposals for a long-term compost solution on a 100-point scale. In a June 20 report to SCWMA, R3 noted that none of the bidders alone could meet all the long-term requirements. The team recommended a three-year contract agreements with Waste Management/Redwood Landfill and Cold Creek Compost “to secure organics processing capacity through June 30, 2021, with up to five – one year extension options should additional time be needed to secure the long term processing capacity.” Meanwhile, the Board entered into negotiations with Renewable Sonoma to build a new, $50 million composting facility to be situated near the Santa Rosa Laguna Wastewater Treatment Plant. The planned operation would take up 13 acres of property leased for 20 years from the city of Santa Rosa and use covered aerated static pile composting or anaerobic digestion. The biogas produced by the facility would be used by the water treatment plant, which already uses biogas derived from human waste. According to a Petaluma360.com article, “The true costs of the Renewable Sonoma proposal, however, have yet to be nailed down. While it is the most expensive option in some scenarios, if the facility grows to accept 100,000 tons of material, the numbers improve, according to agency staff. Ratepayers could pay between 43 cents and $1.70 more per month under Renewable Sonoma’s plan.”

Hawaii Composting Facility Clears Environmental Impact Assessment

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20 Soil & Mulch Producer News September / October 2018

ilo, HI — The path is cleared for Hawaii County’s first island-wide municipal composting operation, according to a WestHawaiiToday.com article. The planned $10.3 million composting facility, to be built on a threeacre parcel next to the Hilo landfill in the Kea’au, Puna District of the state’s Big Island, will have minimal impacts on the community, say County Department of Environmental Management administrators. The facility is being built to process designated organic materials from the South Hilo Sanitary Landfill and the West Hawai’i Sanitary Landfill. Composting volumes at the new plant are estimated to start at 28,000 tons per year and increase to 35,000 tons. The South Hilo Sanitary Landfill is expected to reach its permitted maximum capacity within the next two years, and the County has initiated final closure procedures in compliance with State and Federal regulatory requirements on landfill closures. The county’s Environmental Management director said mulch will still be free and the contractor will have to provide a minimum amount to residents. The facility’s contractor, Hawaiian Earth Recycling, plans to sell mulch and compost.

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Soil

California Jury Awards $289 Million in Pesticide Lawsuit By Joe Barnett

Mulch Producer NEWS

WHO SAYS GRINDING WOOD IS HARD WORK?

n the first civil trial over claims the popular herbicide Roundup causes cancer, a California superior court jury awarded Dewayne Lee Johnson more than $289 million in compensatory and punitive damages from Monsanto Corporation. Johnson, a former groundskeeper for the Benicia Unified School District, sued Monsanto, claiming exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the company’s Roundup, caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), a type of cancer. The verdict in state court came just a month after a federal judge in San Francisco denied a request from Monsanto for a summary judgment to end another case against the company, in which Monsanto argued scientific evidence does not show the popular weed-killer Roundup causes cancer. There are about 4,000 claims against Monsanto pending in federal and state courts across the United States.

Will Appeal Verdict

he California jury ordered Monsanto to pay $39.2 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages for failing to warn consumers that exposure to Roundup causes cancer. Monsanto says Roundup is safe, having received approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its equivalent agency in the EU. Monsanto will appeal the jury’s verdict, the company announced. “Today’s decision does not change the fact that more than 800 scientific studies and reviews—and conclusions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and regulatory authorities around the world—support the fact glyphosate does not cause cancer and did not cause Mr. Johnson’s cancer,” Monsanto Vice President Scott Partridge said in a statement. “We will appeal this decision and continue to vigorously defend this product, which has a 40-year history of safe use and continues to be a vital, effective, and safe tool for farmers and others.”

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Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate & Environmental Policy

‘Confounding Factors’

he jury’s decision was unjustified by the scientific facts, says Jay Lehr, science director of The Heartland Institute, which publishes Environment & Climate News. “The award of $249 million to DeWayne Johnson extracted from the Monsanto chemical company is an outrage when one considers the hundreds of well-performed studies demonstrating both the safety and efficacy of the Roundup herbicide” Lehr said. “These studies prove conclusively that it is not a significant carcinogen. “Juries and judges really do not understand confounding factors in human health that impact whether a person developed cancer as a result of chemical exposure, genes, or lifestyle choices,” said Lehr. “Nothing in this trial tells one everything that should be known about Mr. Johnson’s lifestyle that could have contributed to his illness, and although we still know too little concerning the hows and whys of cancer, we know a great deal about the chemicals in Roundup, on which more than $100 million has been spent studying its safety.”

Farmers, Consumers, Environment Pay

ngela Logomasini, a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, says farmers and consumers will pay for the jury’s decision. “There is no good evidence that glyphosate causes cancer,” said Logomasini. “However, trial lawyers are more than willing to bring such cases so they can collect hefty legal fees and set the stage for more cases. Unfortunately, farmers and consumers will pay the price, since glyphosate

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The center is named in honor of, and chaired by, Arthur B. Robinson, Ph.D., a distinguished chemist, cofounder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM), and editor of the influential newsletter Access to Energy.

“The Heartland Institute has published the work of many excellent scientists ... [and] has taken the fight right to the enemy with aggressive and highly effective campaigns aimed at elected officials and civic and business leaders.” Arthur B. Robinson, Ph.D. April 2017

t the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, we are producing the research and conducting the effective advocacy needed to help restore sound science and common sense to efforts to protect the environment. The Center promotes pro-energy, proenvironment, and pro-jobs policies based on sound science and economics, not alarmism or ideology. Through events, publications, social media, and government relations programs we have changed public opinion on climate change and other environmental topics. We have changed public policy not only in the United States but in other countries as well. In 2017 and onward, we are focusing on winning the global warming war and repealing bad legislation and regulations adopted during the height of the global warming scare. With your help, we can win the global warming war. Please contact us at 312/377-4000 or www.think@.heartland.org think@heartland.org, or visit our website at www.heartland.org/Center-Climate-Environment heartland.org/Center-Climate-Environment.

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FREEDOM RISING

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FREEDOM RISING

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September / October 2018FREEDOM SoilRISING & Mulch Producer News 23

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Soil

Mulch Producer NEWS

California Jury Awards $289 Million in Pesticide Lawsuit Continued from page 23

and other herbicides eliminate the labor-intensive task of manually removing weeds or tilling the soil. “Herbicides also have important environmental benefits because they make no-till agriculture possible, which reduces soil erosion and runoff that could otherwise adversely impact nearby waterways,” Logomasini said. “If this decision eventually leads to a ban or voluntary elimination of this product, it will likely make farming more expensive and difficult, raise prices for food, and harm the environment by increasing the need to till the soil for weed control.”

Judge: Evidence ‘Rather Weak’

n the Northern District Court of California in March, Judge Vince Chhabria held a weeklong hearing on the scientific basis for claims linking between glyphosate and cancer. Approximately 400 lawsuits against Monsanto are pending before Chhabria’s court. “The evidence that glyphosate is currently causing NHL in human beings [is] pretty sparse,” Chhabria said during the hearing on “general causation.” In his July 10, 2018 order allowing the lawsuits to go to trial, the judge reiterated his view. “[T]he evidence of a causal link between glyphosate exposure and NHL in the human population seems rather weak,” Chhabria said. In his decision, Chhabria noted there have been numerous studies on the safety of glyphosate, the preponderance of which have found the product is safe.

“Some epidemiological studies suggest that glyphosate exposure is slightly or moderately associated with increased odds of developing NHL,” said Chhabria. “Other studies, including the largest and most recent, suggest there is no link at all. The evidence, viewed in its totality, seems too equivocal to support any firm conclusion that glyphosate causes NHL.”

Skepticism Doesn’t Stop Trial

espite his skepticism, Chhabria found the testimony of three of the experts offered by the plaintiffs was credible enough to warrant a jury trial. In a statement responding to Chhabria’s decision to allow the case to go forward, Monsanto’s Partridge noted the judge’s order barred testimony from two of the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses and “severely limited” testimony from a third. Partridge says Monsanto will continue to defend the safety of Roundup. “Moving forward, we will continue to defend these lawsuits with robust evidence that proves there is absolutely no connection between glyphosate and cancer,” Partridge said. “We have sympathy for anyone suffering from cancer, but the science clearly shows that glyphosate [is] not the cause,” Partridge said. Joe Barnett (joepaulbarnett@att.net) writes from Arlington, Texas. This article was reprinted with permission from heartland.org, a product of The Heartland Institute (https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/ california-jury-awards-289-million-in-pesticide-lawsuit).

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Soil

Mulch Producer NEWS

Food Waste Composting Pilot Launches in Charlotte, North Carolina

harlotte, NC – The city of Charlotte is testing whether composting food waste can significantly reduce the amount of garbage going into county-run landfills, according to a QCityMetro.com article. The pilot will run through December 21, with one hundred households signed up to participate in the program. The city has distributed containers, biodegradable liners and instructions on acceptable food waste. Peelings and table scraps (including meats and dairy) are allowed, along with paper towels, napkins, coffee grounds, tea bags, shredded paper and toilet paper rolls. Charlotte has contracted with Earth Farms Organic in Dallas, N.C. at a rate of $25 per ton to compost the waste. The pilot is funded through a $10,000 grant from the North Carolina Department of Environment Quality. The city will track what is being recycled, how many residents participate and how much food waste is being collected, in addition to how much landfill waste is being reduced. The city’s Solid Waste Services Department aims to reduce the amount of garbage going into landfills by 30 to 50 percent. Charlotte has set a goal of having zero waste by 2050.

Curbside Composting Takes Off in Bloomington, Indiana

loomington, IN – According to a HeraldTimesOnline article, Bloomington has partnered with Green Camino Curbside Composting to divert close to 40 percent of the city’s residential waste from landfill. Residents who sign up for the program receive a lidded 5-gallon bucket, a 1-gallon kitchen pail, instructions and a yard sign. Subscribers pay $10 a week for a four-week subscription and $8 a week for a 12-week plan. Acceptable waste includes table scraps, peelings, (including meat and bones), dairy, and food-contaminated paper and cardboard that cannot be recycled otherwise. Green Camino weighs the bucket at curbside and swaps it for a clean one. The company then delivers the organic waste to a local farm, where it is turned into compost. According to a recent study done for Monroe County, 39 percent of materials residents dispose as trash is food waste or other compostable items. In addition to the residential curbside service, Green Camino has been helping Bloomington City Hall with a composting pilot program that entails employee educational sessions and collecting food waste once a week from City Hall’s two employee kitchens. Green Camino provides a monthly report on how much waste is collected.

We are looking for news releases on new equipment, as well as bagged (soil & mulch) products. Please email to rickdowning@oh.rr.com.

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VOL. XII NO. 5

U.S. Postage

PAID

SEP /OCT 2018

Inside This Issue

California’s Fires: Public Policy Failure Hidden Behind the Guise of Climate Change PAGE 1 Wisconsin Manure-to-Biogas Plant Set to Break Ground PAGE 11 Illinois Law Requires Compost in State-Funded Landscaping Projects PAGE 15 Study Shows Energy Grasses Can Help Remediate Contaminated Soils PAGE 19 California Jury Awards $289 Million in Pesticide Lawsuit PAGE 23 Curbside Composting Takes Off in Bloomington, Indiana PAGE 26

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