GeekDrew
Diamond Member
A local farmer contracted with a company to dump a truckload of Class B Sewage Sludge in a field, directly across from the house where I live.
For those of you that are not quite up on what "Class B Sewage Sludge" is, read that as "Human Waste". It *stinks*. Horribly. My mother has been getting sick to her stomach because of the smell, since they dumped it a couple of days ago. A couple of other neighbors are furious about it. Even the mail man commented that he almost gags, just delivering the mail in the area.
The same farmer previously dumped chicken waste on the same field (less than a few months ago), and that stunk very, very badly, but was *nothing* compared to this. (I later found out that you're not supposed to dump human waste on a field that was previously treated with chicken waste, but that's another topic altogether).
Which side of the debate are you on? Are you "for" the farmer, who has been trying (short of buying actual fertilizer) to improve the field? Or are you "for" all of the neighbors, several of which are sick to their stomachs because of the smell?
My family owns and operates three farms, and I've smelled just about every farm smell there is - waste from cattle, hogs, chickens, goats, etc. Toxic chemicals, sprays, poisons, etc. Just about everything in between. I would not hesitate to put that on *any* field, because they are generally accepted as being a "routine farm smell", and do not *usually* negatively affect anyone in the area, except in that it's a slight annoyance for a few days -- certainly not enough to make anyone want to leave. You get used to those smells, and nobody says anything, because they know it's normal for a farm. BUT, should the farmer have pursued alternate methods of fertilization before dumping sludge on the field, causing many people to want to evacuate the area?
I thought that the answer to this was obvious, but I guess I'm wrong.
Oh, and I'm only talking about what you think is "morally right", or however you want to say it. Let's leave legal stuff out of this, for now. 😉
For those of you that are not quite up on what "Class B Sewage Sludge" is, read that as "Human Waste". It *stinks*. Horribly. My mother has been getting sick to her stomach because of the smell, since they dumped it a couple of days ago. A couple of other neighbors are furious about it. Even the mail man commented that he almost gags, just delivering the mail in the area.
The same farmer previously dumped chicken waste on the same field (less than a few months ago), and that stunk very, very badly, but was *nothing* compared to this. (I later found out that you're not supposed to dump human waste on a field that was previously treated with chicken waste, but that's another topic altogether).
Which side of the debate are you on? Are you "for" the farmer, who has been trying (short of buying actual fertilizer) to improve the field? Or are you "for" all of the neighbors, several of which are sick to their stomachs because of the smell?
My family owns and operates three farms, and I've smelled just about every farm smell there is - waste from cattle, hogs, chickens, goats, etc. Toxic chemicals, sprays, poisons, etc. Just about everything in between. I would not hesitate to put that on *any* field, because they are generally accepted as being a "routine farm smell", and do not *usually* negatively affect anyone in the area, except in that it's a slight annoyance for a few days -- certainly not enough to make anyone want to leave. You get used to those smells, and nobody says anything, because they know it's normal for a farm. BUT, should the farmer have pursued alternate methods of fertilization before dumping sludge on the field, causing many people to want to evacuate the area?
I thought that the answer to this was obvious, but I guess I'm wrong.
Oh, and I'm only talking about what you think is "morally right", or however you want to say it. Let's leave legal stuff out of this, for now. 😉
