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o �OO WILUDS <br />Today, Florida's central sewer wastewater <br />treatment facilities produce approximately <br />340,000 tons of biosolids which are the human <br />waste effluents from central sewer wastewater <br />treatment facilities. Approximately 100,000 <br />dry tons of biosolids are designated as Class <br />B biosolids which are treated sewage sludge <br />that meets U.S. Environmental Protection <br />Agency guidelines for land application as <br />fertilizer and are allowed to have detectable <br />levels of pathogens. Another 100,000 dry tons <br />of biosolids are deposited in various landfills <br />throughout the state. The final 140,000 dry tons <br />of biosolids are further processed, dried, and <br />composted with material from the landscape <br />industry to produce approximately 200,000 <br />tons of Class AA biosolids. These biosolids can <br />then be distributed and marketed as fertilizer. <br />This class of biosolids is unregulated and land <br />applied mainly on pasture lands, and to a lesser <br />extent on citrus. <br />Both Class B biosolids and Class AA biosolid <br />fertilizers contain approximately 5.5% Total <br />Nitrogen (TN) and 2.2% Total Phosphorus (TP). <br />Therefore, the 300,000 dry tons of land applied <br />Class AA and Class B biosolids contribute over <br />33 million pounds of TN and 13.2 million pounds <br />of TP to agricultural lands each year. While <br />the practice of land -applying Class B biosolids <br />was recently banned in the Lake Okeechobee, <br />Caloosahatchee, St. Lucie River and Everglades <br />watersheds, the St. Johns River Upper Basin <br />in 2016 received nearly 74,000 tons of Class B <br />biosolids in its watershed. <br />One of the by-products or residuals of the <br />wastewater treatment process is called <br />biosolids, or the wet sludge that is left behind <br />after the initial processing. In Florida, biosolids <br />are either land applied as a soil amendment to <br />improve agricultural productivity or disposed of <br />in landfills. Either way it is an important source <br />of water, energy, nitrogen, and phosphorus <br />resources that some suggest could be <br />recovered and used more efficiently. There is <br />also a concern statewide that excess nutrients <br />from land application of human waste biosolids <br />could reach surface waters because of rainfall <br />runoff and continue to increase the occurrence <br />of chronic harmful algal blooms. <br />Support the efforts of the state and local <br />governments to prioritize the reduction and <br />eventual elimination of the land application, <br />and most importantly the composting of Class <br />B and AA biosolids. <br />This includes efforts to immediately <br />establish standard protocols and funding <br />for the identification, quarterly tracking and <br />monitoring of non-residential biosolid and class <br />AA application and explore new wastewater <br />treatment technologies to improve biosolids <br />resource, recovery and management options. <br />and other weather impacts on the Counties. <br />Support continued funding for research and <br />mitigation for harmful algal blooms (HABs), <br />including blue green algae, and red tide. <br />175 <br />