Fort Worth’s use of ‘sewage sludge’ on farmland is still causing a stink in rural areas
Before she ever heard the word “biosolids,” Katherine Smith knew that the smell wafting across her 160-acre property in Bosque County was abnormal. Starting in early March, she tracked the days where she could barely peek her head outside without feeling nauseous. Out of 49 days, she marked 28 as “STINK.”
“It’s impossible to say just how much it stinks,” Smith said in late April. “I got home from the store on Thursday, opened my car door and started gagging because it smells so bad. I barely could get my car unloaded and my groceries inside without throwing up.”
By mid-March, Smith learned where the odors were coming from: the 4,000-acre Houston ranch, which lies just across the Brazos River from her family’s property at Brazos Point, near Kopperl, about 60 miles south of Fort Worth.
On Feb. 25, ranch owner Ryan Houston began accepting biosolids fertilizer, also known as sewage sludge, from the city of Fort Worth, unknowingly opening a new chapter of controversy over how the byproduct of wastewater treatment affects rural communities. Houston did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Mary Gugliuzza, a spokesperson for Fort Worth’s water department, said Synagro, the city’s contractor, finished applying biosolids on April 23 and did not receive a complaint about odor until March 22. Smith said her neighbors were confused and did not know where the smell came from, which could have caused the delay.
The organic fertilizer is in high demand from rural farmers, but has also generated years of complaints from nearby residents who say the product is not properly dried, leading to foul odors that can last for weeks or even months after it’s applied.
“We don’t really have a choice with biosolids,” Gugliuzza said. “Unless most people are going to stop going to the restroom, we’re not going to stop producing biosolids. It’s just one of those byproducts of the wastewater treatment process, but it is a beneficial byproduct of the process.”
Over the past eight weeks, Smith has led a relentless campaign to educate others in her community about biosolids and her concerns that the fertilizer is not only a nuisance to families but a potential health hazard.
She points to cases in Maine and Vermont where legislators have pushed for waste companies to test for “forever chemicals” associated with higher cancer risk and childhood development issues. In Florida, one county issued a moratorium on biosolids due to concerns that the fertilizer is polluting a lake and causing harmful algae blooms.
Smith and her brother-in-law Boyd Hamilton, who lives in a house on the same property, have spoken at commissioners court meetings and circulated a petition to more than 170 residents calling for a moratorium on biosolids in Bosque County. An inspector from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality also visited the Houston ranch and did not find any issues, Smith said.
“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions,” Smith said with tears in her eyes. “I knew from the beginning that we didn’t have much of a chance … Every time I see that another county has been fighting it for 10 years, I’m just really discouraged.”
Commissioners are sympathetic to what families are going through, Hamilton said, but they don’t feel like they have the legal standing or funds to challenge state rules on biosolids application. He compared the smell to “hanging a dead chicken around your neck.”
“It’s a shame that Fort Worth can’t take care of their own problems and instead are dumping them down here on their neighboring counties knowing that we don’t have the funds to fight them and keep them out of here,” said Billy Hall, a Bosque County commissioner who visited Smith’s property and developed a headache after experiencing the odors.
Fort Worth plans new facility, improvements
For decades, cities across the United States have championed biosolids programs as a key method of recycling waste after it is processed and rid of disease-causing bacteria. In Fort Worth, all sewage sludge is treated at the Village Creek Water Reclamation Facility before being given to Synagro, which applies it to thousands of acres of farmland in areas like Johnson, Hill and Hood counties.
The vast majority of Fort Worth’s biosolid sites are located in Hill County, where Synagro applies fertilizer to 43 properties. Synagro is permitted to apply biosolids at two sites each in Bosque, Denton and Kaufman counties, along with three sites each in Hood and Johnson, according to Gugliuzza.
“We try to permit biosolids in areas that are as rural as we can get around the city of Fort Worth and Dallas, which covers a large territory with the growth there,” said Chuck Simmons, Synagro’s technical service director in the southern region.
Fort Worth and Synagro must follow regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which grants permits for applying biosolids to land for “beneficial use.” The entire biosolids treatment process can take several weeks before a cake-like material is produced and tested for pathogens or metals that would make the fertilizer less safe for crops.
From there, Synagro hauls the fertilizer to properties where they can oversee the application process, including setting up “buffer zones” to prevent biosolids from entering waterways or adjacent properties, according to Simmons. Synagro also monitors odor every day through a measurement tool that tests for odor in the air, he said.
“There are fields all around North Texas where farmers and ranchers want the biosolids because of its nutrient value,” said Steven Nutter, Fort Worth’s environmental program manager. “They sign up to the program to receive this material. We don’t just send trucks out willy-nilly and throw this stuff around.”
In response to numerous complaints from residents across the Metroplex, especially in Johnson County, Fort Worth switched its contractor from Renda Environmental to Synagro in April. The city also announced plans last year to build a thermal dryer facility to produce pellts and significantly reduce the amount of biosolids applied each day by more than 70%, according to Bala Vairavan, a senior project engineer for Synagro.
“Larger municipalities tend to go that route, and it’s one of the most effective ways of managing biosolids,” Vairavan said. “The other benefit is that it has energy value in it and in certain localities where cement kilns are available, it can be used as an alternative fuel.”
The $58 million project is scheduled for completion by July 2022, with an additional $7 million spent on a 5 million gallon storage tank to hold sludge during wet weather, when Fort Worth is forbidden by law to apply biosolids. Even now, the odor performance of Fort Worth’s biosolids is “pretty good,” Nutter said, as long as the fertilizer is not stockpiled for more than 72 hours or so.
February’s winter storm may have had a role to play in the foul odors coming from the Houston ranch. A series of storms led to a stockpiling of biosolids over the course of a few weeks before biosolids application resumed in late February, Nutter said.
“Typically the odor performance is not as good as we’d like and can contribute to some of the issues we have when we apply the material,” he said. “This new material is far easier to store … and when you do store it, there’s no deterioration or odors. That’s because of the greatly reduced water content.”
‘Absolutely nothing’ can be done to stop biosolids
For Luanne Langley, the arrival of biosolids in Bosque County — home to just over 18,000 people — mirrors her experiences in Johnson County over the past decade. Langley, who lives in Grandview, said Nutter and Fort Worth staff were always responsive to her complaints, and added chemicals to the product so it no longer smelled like “a dead animal.”
“I would call them, and they would say that they’ll move for a few days and let it dissipate and go apply somewhere else,” Langley said. “They’re not applying as much out here anymore because there’s been so many housing developments out here in Grandview, and they’re having to go out farther.”
As recently as last summer, Johnson County commissioners passed a resolution asking Fort Worth to stop distributing biosolids until the city could confirm the product could not transmit COVID-19. After speaking with officials in Johnson County and consulting with attorneys, Hall is not optimistic that he and other commissioners can do much to prevent biosolids from coming into their community.
“What we’ve learned is … that as long as they have approval through the TCEQ and their permits, there is absolutely nothing that the county commissioners and the county court can do to stop them,” Hall said. “We know that we don’t have $500,000 to fight this.”
Smith and Hamilton have heard about Fort Worth’s plans to build new facilities for biosolid production, but fear that they will have to suffer through more months of headache-inducing odors until the dryer opens. They have reached out to Houston directly about the issue, but say he was not receptive to stopping the use of biosolids because it comes at no financial cost to him.
Their appeals to other government agencies have also caused frustration. When reached by the Star-Telegram, a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokesperson did not offer more details on the inspection of the Houston ranch. A Brazos River Authority spokeswoman said the agency did not have any authority over the biosolids permit and therefore could not comment.
Langley said the city has been talking about facility improvements for years, which makes her skeptical that Fort Worth will follow through this time.
“I’ve been out here 10 years and it’s been three years that they’ve been saying they’re gonna do that and they’re not,” Langley said. “I completely understand it’s very expensive, but you know what, it’s worth it instead of having people fight you so much that you can’t even use it.”
The city is on a fast track to build the thermal dryer, Nutter said, with construction already starting last July. If residents experience odor issues, they can file a complaint by emailing biosolids@fortworthtexas.gov or calling 817-392-4965.
Smith and the other 14 members of her family who live on her Bosque County property are not sure where to turn to next, but they are desperate to return to the outdoors and host family gatherings again.
“We understand the problem, that the city of Fort Worth has to get rid of their sewer sludge,” Smith said, adding: “They’re hauling it out here to the country and I don’t know what the solution is ... I just don’t feel like we should have to suffer because they can’t find a better solution.”
