Turning solid waste ash into fertilized soil proves win-win NEORSD

Dealing with human waste is an issue as old as time, and forever, it seemed the industry standard for wastewater treatment facilities that incinerated their biosolids was to store the leftover ash from the process in lagoons at the Southerly Wastewater Treatment plant. The sandy slurry eventually becomes a solid that looks like red clay and would be dug out and shipped to a landfill. There was no other option.

Back In 2018, we told you about the thought that came to the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's Robin Halperin one day.

"Potentially, how do we save money? This stuff doesn't need to go into a landfill," Halperin told News 5 in 2018. "Let's save landfill space for things that really need to go into the landfill. This stuff has value; it has nutrients that help things grow."

They knew mixing the phosphorous-rich ash with topsoil could cause things to grow without fertilizer. Still, since no one had ever done this with the waste ash before, they had to convince the Ohio EPA, which took about a decade of testing and permitting.

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"We had lots of hurdles, and a big part of it was proving that this wasn't causing a risk to human health or the environment by reusing it, that it was safe, and we also had to demonstrate that it had some positive things to contribute," Halperin recalled.

So, after getting the green light and partnering with a local landscaping supplier all these years, has this experiment worked?

"It's worked fantastic; seven years later, we have reused 100% of our ash, and we have not landfilled anything. We've also saved an estimated $6.5 million by not landfilling it, and we reduced our carbon emissions by 96%," she said.

Instead of being trucked to a landfill 40 miles away, it's taken nearby to Kurtz Brothers Landscape Supply, which owns distribution centers throughout Northeast Ohio. Jason Ziss of Kurtz Brothers said the partnership has been a win-win for them, their customers who use the soil and, in a roundabout way, Lake Erie.

"Instead of people needing to add in additional synthetics to their soils, which really contributes to algal bloom issues and issues in Lake Erie, you then already have the material in your soil, so you don't need to add in additional synthetics," Ziss said.

Because of the success of this program, the sewer district is now looking at finding a use for the grit that's removed at the beginning of the wastewater treatment process. It's the heavy gravel, rock and sand that could damage the pipes and pumps. All of that grit currently ends up in a landfill.

"That material just needs to be cleaned, and it's perfectly reusable sand and gravel," said Halperin. "So we're going to be going out later this year looking for interested parties who'd be willing to work with us on a program to reuse the grit."

Something she said that could have an even more significant impact than the ash because while not all wastewater plants incinerate and have ash to dispose of, all of them must deal with removing the grit.