Ideas for our news blogs come from different sources.  Some from our volunteers, e-mails from readers of the Blotter, newspapers, and occassionally from our social media Facebook site.  Some of the responses to our topics on Facebook go well beyond the initial content of the story itself.

    The idea for this blog's topic came to us from Keith A. Archibek who is convinced that this publication is "not informing people of facts".   With all that is known about the toxicity of urban sewage sludge compost, we're not going to belittle our readers by regurgitating what we have already posted about the gross contents of sewage sludge.

    What we will cover is Keith's earlier Facebook comments that "All the hay tested negative for any contaminants.  People shouldn't jump to conclusions based on false accusations." (August 11); and "The field where the hay came from has had non of that bio/compost applied-ever." (August 12)   Update

    First, Keith is in error.  The hay has not tested negative for all contaminants.  It probably hasn't been tested for much over 1% of the possible contaminants.  This is because in urban/industrial sewage sludge, there are far too many varibles to test for.  As we published August 17, 2014, "the U.S. National Research Council released a study (2011) that concluded that the health risks contained in sewer sludge are so numerous that most are simply unassessed and unknown."

    Second, Keith states that the field that the possible tainted hay came from, in Newberry Springs, never had any bio/compost (toxic sewage sludge) applied to it.  This is an acknowledgement that Keith knows what specific field the hay was grown upon and intimate knowledge about the history of that field.  This leads to a logical conclusion that the suspect horse feed was grown on an Archibek controlled field.  With the years of Eric Archibek's promotion of Nursery Products processed sewage sludge being used as a safe and cheap fertilizer, it would seem strange that an Archibek field wouldn't contain the sludge compost.

    In taking Keith Archibek's statement as true, that the field did not have any truckloads of the sewage sludge spread upon it, as the field may have been a leased or a worked field, that still doesn't clear the suspected tainted feed as not having been contaminated by Nursery Products' sewage sludge compost.

    A recent government study done in the Mid-West found that a field that had never had 'bio/compost' applied contained traces of dangerous pathogens that had blown over from a nearby field.

    This is a Power Point slide from a presentation given on a research study on sewage sludge compost and airborne pathogens.  It is placed here because it summarizes findings that people downwind of the study site were found to suffer from ailments believed to have been caused by wind driven pathogens from fields where sludge compost had been spread.  Note the symptoms of respiratory, skin disorders, burning eyes, nose bleeds, and fatigue.  This sounds like all the symptoms that the ill horses have.

    So the mere introduction of urban/industrial sewage sludge into a farming area can negatively impact farmland other than that where the sludge compost is applied, especially if the area has high winds.  Once airborne, hazardous pathogens can travel great distances.

    The suspected tainted alfalfa was in Newberry Springs during a period of some very high winds prior to its shipment.

    It is important to note that the above does not prove a connection between sewage sludge compost and sick horses.  It only helps to establish a series of dots that when connected logically concludes a possibility.
 
 

Newberry farmers' dirty secret.