SEATTLE -- Heavy metals, toxic chemicals and radioactive wastes are being recycled in fertilizer and spread over farmers' fields nationwide -- and there is no federal law requiring that they be listed as ingredients.
The issue came to light in the central Washington town of Quincy, population about 4,000, when Mayor Patty Martin led an investigation by local farmers concerned about poor yields and sickly cattle.
Then they learned that some manufacturers legally dispose of hazardous wastes by turning them into fertilizer.
"It's really unbelievable what's happening, but it's true," Martin told The Seattle Times in a copyright story Thursday about the practice.
"They just call dangerous waste a product, and it's no longer a dangerous waste. It's a fertilizer."
As a result of concerns raised in Quincy and other Columbia Basin towns, the state is testing a cross-section of fertilizer products to see if they pose a threat to crops, livestock or people, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Friday.
"The key question is what toxics are, as it were, along for the ride in fertilizers," Tom Fitzsimmons, Department of Ecology director, told the P-I Wednesday.
Until now, the state Department of Agriculture sampled fertilizer only to see if it contained advertised levels of beneficial substances. State agencies have never tested fertilizers for toxic materials.
"In the future our tests will not only include nitrogen, but we're going to look at heavy metals -- arsenic, lead, chromium, etcetera," Fitzsimmons said.
Use of industrial waste as a fertilizer ingredient is a growing national phenomenon, The Times reported:
"When it comes out of the silo, it's no longer regulated. The exact same material," Camp said.
"Don't ask me why. That's the wisdom of the EPA," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Federal and state governments encourage the recycling which saves money for industry and conserves space in hazardous-waste landfills. Mixed and handled correctly, the industrial wastes can help crops grow.
The problem is that "beneficial materials" such as nitrogen and magnesium often are accompanied by dangerous heavy metals such as cadmium and lead.
"Nowhere in the country has a law that says if certain levels of heavy metals are exceeded, it can't be a fertilizer," said Ali Kashani, who directs fertilizer regulation in Washington state.
Regulators rely on fertilizer producers to ensure the products are safe.
The Times also found: