Trace Organics and lnorganics in Distribution and Marketing Municipal Sludges

This project was undertaken to complement a s t u d y of t h e occurrence of p a t h o g e n s i n distributed and marketed (D 81 M) municipal sludge products. The purpose was to provide a data base of priority pollutant metals and organics from sludges produced at facilities in 26 cities across the U.S. In addition, efforts were made to characterize the major organic components in sample extracts from each city using GCIMS. For two of the cities, where large c o m p o s t i n g and m a r k e t i n g / distribution operations were in place, composites of weekly samples from eight different sites were prepared. Five to six composites from each of these sites were prepared from eight weekly samples collected at each site. For the other 24 cities, 15 of which had ongoing D 8I M operations, less intensive analyses were carried out for the survey: four monthly samples from each site were composited, and t h e s e 2 4 composites were analyzed with the composite samples from the two weekly-sampled cities. Analytical methods were selected prior to initiation of the project; they followed standardized preparation, cleanup, and analytical procedures. Modifications were required in some instances in order to deal with the complicated sample matrix presented by composted sludge. The modifications for arsenic, selenium, and thallium were successful in dealing with the matrix. For extract-able organics, additional cleanup methods are still required to achieve suitable detection limits for some components. Of the 15 trace metals analyzed, all but Be and TI were detected 100% of the time in all 67 samples analyzed: Be was a t low but detectable concentrations i n 97% of the samples, but TI was never detected. The relative standard deviation of individual metal concentrations for each site where multiple composites were analyzed was less than 30%. In contrast, t h e range of metal concentrations from site to site varied up to two orders of magnitude for some metals. Comparison of these results with literature reports of m u n i c i p a l sewage s l u d g e evaluations suggested that none of the sludge products tested would be classified as hazardous waste under RCRA criteria. Comparison of the analytical data to EPA proposed criteria for D …